[ubuntu-uk] Init Level.

[Andrew Jenkins]

Tony Arnold wrote:
> Andrew,
>
> Andrew Jenkins wrote:
>   
>> Is there a way to change the init level of Ubuntu?
>> I used to use Mandriva and changed the init level in
>> /etc/inittab to '3' instead of '5'.  This made the
>> machine boot up into a bash terminal with no GUI
>> invoked.  If you then wanted a GUI you simply ran it
>> with the command 'startx'.  Often when I switch my
>> laptop on I just want a terminal but have to go through
>> all the logon and GUI to get there.
>>     
>
> Ubuntu has the default init level set to 2. 1 is used for single user
> mode which you get to if you select recovery mode from the grub menu.
> That logs you in as root at the console. Hitting Ctrl-D will cause the
> system to continue bootting fully.
>
> I think setting the default init level to something other than 2 (it's
> set in /etc/inittab) will require you to check which levels all the init
> scripts are configured to start up. Could be messy.
>
>   
Umm, there is no inittab file in my Ubuntu (7.10), that's what I 
originally went looking
for.  That was how Mandriva did it.

> Alternatively, you could just remove gdm (or kdm) from the starting up
> by using the update-rc.d command. Check the man page for details.
>
>   
I'm going to investigate this 'gdm' further as two of you have now 
mentioned it.

> More simply you could just hit Control-Alt-F1 after you've booted to
> switch to a virtual console.
>
>   
Yes I know that but it still has to go through all the GUI startup first 
and I was hoping
to avoid that.  Thanks for the replies both, I'll have a play later and 
let you know how I
get on.

Regards,
Andy.