http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/
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If on the other hand you mean the console at startup, and you call that the console while you call xterm, etc. shells then the answer is different. It's just a matter of configuration if you automatically start X or not. A lot people use gdm or kdm to get a graphical login screen after bootup, others just type "startx" in the console when they want to start X.
You can switch to the console with Ctrl+Alt+Fn where n is a number between 1 and 6. You can switch between consoles with Alt+Fn, X is on the last console, so to go back to X do Alt+F7.
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