[GLLUG] Re: Booting into text mode

[Reza Beha]

Thanks, everyone, for all the help!

I tried Ctrl-Alt-F1 and it does the trick.  From
there, my current plan is to drop to runlevel 3 to
kill any X processes, then go back into runlevel 5
(using the "telinit" command).  I prefer using X
because it offers a higher-resolution shell window
than what I get in text-only mode, and it looks cool
to boot (no pun intended).

BTW, runlevel 5 is the default for starting X Windows,
and 6 is for a reboot.  I believe you're right about
runlevel 3 letting you log into text mode every time.

Reza

--- Chick Tower <c.tower@express56.com> wrote:
> I just installed Linux for the first time this
> weekend, Reza, so I'm a
> _real_ newbie.  I have Mandrake 8.1 (which is
> reportedly based on Red Hat),
> and it, too, immediately runs the X Window System. 
> I want to change that,
> myself.  My login screen is even a GUI.  Here's
> something I found, but I
> won't be back to that PC to try it for a week or
> two.  If you try it before
> then, please report on its success or failure.  Any
> experienced Linux users
> may feel free to straighten me out if I'm on the
> wrong track.
> 
> One line in the file /etc/inittab specifies the
> default run level.  The book
> I have (A Practical Guide to Linux) says a value of
> 6 starts X Windows, but
> I found some source that says it's 5 for Mandrake,
> which is the value in my
> inittab.  (I don't recall the source; perhaps a doc
> file, a Web site, or
> comments in inittab itself.)  The run level I'm
> going to try is 3, which is
> multiuser with network support.  I expect this will
> let me login to a text
> console every time, and then I can start X Windows
> from the command line if
> I want to use it.  Perhaps the man page for init
> (the program that uses
> inittab) will provide you with some information.
> 
> If what you really want to do is automatically start
> X Windows every time,
> except when you get the garbled login screen, I
> don't think this alone will
> solve your problem.  For that, you could use this
> and then have a script
> that runs after you log on that starts X Windows.  I
> believe the command for
> that is startx.
> 
>                                         Chick


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