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Booting Ubuntu into the Command Line?

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http://askubuntu.com – How do I boot Ubuntu by default into the CLI using a multiuser runlevel? I wish to still maintain my graphical desktop manager (GDM or whatever replaced it) since I do use that to switch between Unity and Awesome WM. I do however wish to boot by default into a CLI login shell. I could then startx to start my GUI if I need it. I am aware that Ctrl-Alt-(F1-6) will open a separate tty instance with a login shell but it seems wasteful to have a GUI running even if asleep if I am working purely from the command line. (HowTos)

funckax's picture
Submitted by funckax on 12/05/2012

Stories similar to Booting Ubuntu into the Command Line?

A while back I decided to try the Gnome Shell desktop environment as I've always been a fan of the foundation and the desktop environment. I decided that I'd become used to Unity and that I wouldn't really log into a GNOME session often, so I uninstalled it via the command line... which, frankly, was stupid.

I've got a new F18 install that's booting into runlevel 5 to run KDE. I'd like to have the system boot to runlevel 3 by default, so that all users have to perform console logons, and then issue the startx command to enter the gui.

How do I do this in F18?

Hi all! I'd like to remove unity, gnome and all that, and just keep xfce4 (already installed). Even better, it'd be wonderful to have my computer boot into a login shell and let me run startx if and when I want a graphical session.

Now I tried with some things along the lines of "apt-get remove unity ubuntu-desktop gnome-session" but it turns out it's too naive a method.

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On my home desktop I want to use Ubuntu Unity sometimes and just the bash shell (without any GUI) other times.

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A while back I decided to try the GNOME3 desktop environment as I've always been a fan of the foundation and the desktop environment. I decided that I'd become used to Unity and that I wouldn't really log into a GNOME session often, so I uninstalled it via the command line... which, frankly, was stupid.

Hi I want to boot Ubuntu quantal to a command prompt always and then use startx to launch x-windows if required. I have used the following methods but none work correctly.

update-rc.d -f lightdm remove ---- does not work in quantal, works in debian sid. I used the boot paramter 'text' on the grub command line.

I have disabled the automatic boot into Unity and am booting into a CLI tty with a login shell. While running the CLI login shell the screen resolution is fairly low and only utilizes a tiny portion of my widescreen. I do want to maximise the screen resolution but keep the fonts small.

This simple tutorial will show you how to boot your Ubuntu directly into text mode and log-in automatically without entering username/password by manual. First make Ubuntu boot into text mode: Hit Ctrl+Alt+T to launch a terminal window.