Hi, I'm a complete and clueless.
I have been searching for a way to boot my RedHat in text mode all day.

My problem is, I changed my display setting to something my video card can't handle, so whenever I go to the login screen, it shows complete garbage. Since I set it to boot in graphic mode, I cannot login at all. So I can't edit the config file to fix this problem.

Is there any way to boot in text mode?
I searched for "Booting-commands" but I couldn't find anything.
I hope there's a way to get in text mode by entering booting-command or keyboard shortcut.

Thanks in advance!

If you have a lilo-prompt try to pass "init 3" or "init 1"
as a parameter to the kernel you're booting...

Cheers,
Tink

If it boots up with LILO, when it says "boot:", type in "linux single", or single after whatever your normal title is.

If it boots up with GRUB, select the linux entry, and type "e" to edit. Select the line that starts with "kernel", and type "e", again. At the end of the line, add a space and "single". Hit [enter] to get back to the main GRUB menu, and type "b" to boot.

This will boot you into single-user mode. It's a runlevel for root to do system maintenance. You can then edit your config files. Or, better yet, edit /etc/inittab to change the default runlevel from 5 to 3. This will set your computer to boot to text mode. You can then get to X with startx.

If you use GRUB, you might have to re-edit as above to remove the "single" to boot to your normal runlevel.

Wow thank you very much for quick replies!!
Yes, it boots up with GRUB (this is RedHat's default bootloader, right?)
I'm going to try it from now on and see if I can fix it.

Adding "single" or "init 3" after "Kernel" line worked!!
Thank you for your help, guys!!

Hi dear,

Solution to ur prob:

Just go in /etc/inittab file and there u will find one line something like this
id:5:initdefault:
just make 3 instead of 5, these r the runlevels in which linux runs on bootup

id:3:initdefault:

3=test only with multiple users
5=graphical

for more details refer 'man inittab'

or if any doubt mail me

ok happy linux journey

Tux buddy
Vishal Soni