Hi

If your on the linux workstation you must surely have Installed gnome or kde just use the following key to switch to that GUI terminal you can login from there use the following key combination

Ctrl + Alt + F7 (Function Key)

You can use Ctrl + Alt + F1 to swith back to Character user interface that will be F1 Terminal.If you are going to Install Oracle 8.1.x on Linux platform you can do it from the F7 terminal like that you have allmost 6 virtual character user Interface terminal F1 to F6 and One Graphical user Interface that is F7

Hope this helped

Regards