[NBLUG/talk] Ubuntu without booting into X

Dave Sisley dsisley at sonic.net
Fri May 1 11:54:45 PDT 2009


Bob:

Can't you edit the default runlevel in /etc/inittab?

I don't have access to an Ubuntu/Debian box, but I am assuming it's not 
a fedora/redhat thing.  I would change this line:

id:5:initdefault:

(change that 5 to a 3)

...then your machine will boot into the console.  If you want X, just 
type 'startx' on the command line, and you should get your desktop.

Does that help?

-dave.

Bob Blick wrote:
> I just put Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop, and I'm trying to figure out the
> best way to stop it from booting straight to X.
>
> First I thought I'd use Synaptic to remove gdm, but it threatened to
> remove the package "ubuntu-desktop" and that seemed a little extreme.
> But it's been years since I used Gnome so I don't know if that's new
> behavior.
>
> Then I turned off gdm in "Services". That worked, but when I'd start X
> with "startx" I would not be able to do anything that required superuser
> creds, including "Services".
>
> If I started X with "sudo gdm" I pretty much got a normal X experience,
> but some things are missing like the user-switching thing that displays
> your name at the upper right. I also felt uneasy having to use sudo to
> start gdm.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>   



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