Boot without X: another quick reversible way

[Peter Garrett]

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 08:02:56 +0300
"ZIYAD A. M. AL-BATLY" <zamb at saudi.net.sa> wrote:

> On Sat, 2005-07-30 at 17:59 -0700, Bob Nielsen wrote:
> > In Debian/Ubuntu, the default runlevels 2-5 are identical (runlevel 2 is 
> > the default).  This allows one to create customized levels if desired.  
> > For example, removing the S13gdm symbolic link from /etc/rc2.d will 
> > allow the system to boot into a virtual console instead of X.  As long 
> > as a symbolic link exists in one of the /etc/rc{2|3|4|5}.d directories, 
> > the links will not be changed during an upgrade.  
> > 
> > I haven't tried it, but from looking at 'man telinit' it appears to be 
> > possible to select the run level with a boot flag (in 
> > /boot/grub/menu.lst) so one could have separate menu entries for booting 
> > with and without X in the same way that recovery mode is chosen.
> > 
> > Bob
> > 
> > 
> First of all, thanks for sharing.
> 
> Second, I used Debian 3.0 and swear that GDM doesn't start at run-level
> "2".  Of course, I was wrong (I just checked Debian's packages).
> 
> So, sorry for the List for my mistake; and for the original poster, if
> you don't want GDM to start at run-level "2", just delete the link
> "/etc/rc2.d/S??gdm".  Apparently, this is the easiest solution.
> 
> Ziyad.

echo "false" | sudo tee /etc/X11/default-display-manager

Now gdm won't start and you'll get a login prompt on tty1 when booting.

To restore gdm startup, put  " /usr/bin/gdm "  (or kdm) back into the same file (with the same one-liner syntax, of course...)

I picked this up from the "dpkg" bot on #debian (Freenode) a couple of years ago - (not sure who should be credited with it). The "sudo tee" part is just a way to do it using sudo.

I find this a quick and easy way to change the default behaviour.

Peter