Booting into the Terminal in Ubuntu

Peronthious · 05-02-2007, 09:41 PM

Apologies, this seems like such an obvious thing that it's probably been asked before, but I've searched only to find nothing.

How do I boot straight into the terminal with Ubuntu? Other distros I've used have had an option at the login screen, but the only terminal option Ubuntu has is still in the X Server.

slakmagik · 05-02-2007, 10:29 PM

In most distros, you'd edit /etc/inittab and change it to a runlevel that doesn't start a display manager.

binary_y2k2 · 05-03-2007, 07:56 AM

In the GRUB menu there is a "Recovery Mode" that will boot in to single user mode (terminal only)

nilleso · 05-11-2007, 09:09 PM

disable gdm, kdm, or xdm in you window manager of choice depending on your window manager of choice

then you when you boot up (or logout) you will be at the command line. Then to start your window manager (depending on which one) usually you can just type startx..

cheers

syg00 · 05-11-2007, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digiot

In most distros, you'd edit /etc/inittab and change it to a runlevel that doesn't start a display manager.

Indeed - however the Ubuntu (Feisty) devs, in their collective wisdom, decided no-one would want to do this.

No, I'm not joking.

It is possible to build your own inittab, and it will be recognised as normal.
Why you should have to is a question for the afore-mentioned devs.

binary_y2k2 · 05-12-2007, 07:40 PM

because upstart doesn't need an inittab, it's only read if it exists for compatibility. It's easy to temporarily boot in to a terminal with the recovery mode option at boot, or by running

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/?dm stop

(where ?dm is either kdm, gdm or xdm)

syg00 · 05-12-2007, 08:11 PM

Yes I know about upstart - I don't like the direction.
And info about it obviously hasn't been well disseminated into the wider community; this question gets asked too often.

user_X · 11-17-2007, 12:20 AM

While in the GUI (Gnome), I went to System>Administration>Services and un-checked "Graphical Login Manager." I'm sorry if the wording is not exact, but, with that, I re-booted and was greeted with a terminal screen. I loaded the X-server, by typing "startx." Hope that helps.

hamster · 11-17-2007, 04:40 AM

When you turned off the gdm and rebooted - you were left with 640x480 text? Did you have any luck in increasing res to 1280x1024 (or other) using the vga=795 (or the approx number for your res). ?