Booting to text mode

[Kevin J. Cummings]

On 02/05/2011 06:27 AM, Steve Hayes wrote:
> On 4 Feb 2011 at 23:45, Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
> 
>>> - Side question: There must be a way to boot into text mode (other
>>> runlevel). How can I achieve that? -
>>
>> Yes, there is.  At the Grub screen (before it times out and autoboots),
>> select the kernel you want to boot from the list, and hit the "e" key to
>> edit the configuration.  From the list of directives, find the kernel line
>> with the arrow keys, and select "e" again to edit that line.  Go to the end,
>> and add a " 3" (thats a space and a 3) to the end of the line.
>>  I think you might have to hit the enter key when you are done editing,
>> then select "b" to boot the changed entry.  When it does, you should boot into
>> text mode.  You should then be able to login through the command line prompt
>> and edit what you need to.
> 
> Is it possible to set up the Grub screen to allow a choice to boot into 
> either text or graphics mode?

Appending a 3 to the kernel line in the grub configuration should force
a text boot.  Changing 3 to 5 should force a graphical boot.

> And then, having booted into text mode, to load the GUI later?

Regardless of which mode you are in, you can always start the X11 server
(or another copy of it!) with the "startx" command.  Look carefully at
the documentation.  I've had 2 or 3 X11 servers running at the same time
in the past.  You can switch between them because each exists in its own
Virtual Console (just the the 6 text login screens).

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at verizon.net
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)