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    Booting into non-graphical mode

    Posts: 4
    in LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued

    In Lab 3.1 I have a problem booting to non-graphical mode from GRUB in Ubuntu 16.04.

    I hit "e" on the GRUB interface and change "quiet splash" to "text" in the linux line, then boot (F10) but it still boots to the desktop GUI.

    Is there a different way to do this?

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    Comments

    • Posts: 777

      Yes there is another way. I am not very skilled at entering commands on the kernel line but I know how to change runlevels from /etc. Apparently, 16.04 is using systemd to start and stop services and to the boot behavior. 

      Have a look at this link. Becuase Ubuntu 16.04 is using systemd as the service startup manager, to make any service changes, you will have to use systemd's utility "systemctl". 

      Have a look at this site.

      http://askubuntu.com/questions/788323/change-runlevel-on-16-04

    • Posts: 27
      edited July 2016
      Hi,

      If your system is using a systemd based init process, you can switch between graphical/non-graphical runlevel at boot, editing grub (e) and adding to the linux kernel line

      systemd.unit=NAME_OF_DESIRED_RUNLEVEL

      The runlevel names may be:

      multi-user.target (for runlevel 3)
      graphical.taget (for runlevel 5)
    • Posts: 4
      edited July 2016 

      1. sudo systemctl isolate muti-user.target

      - Should kill X and get me a login prompt, right? But similar to my reply below, it just hangs on a black screen.

    • Posts: 4

      I am running systemd and your suggestion makes sense but I'm not getting a command prompt. the GUI is not loading as expected but I end up with a blank screen similar to this:


      1. /dev/sd8: recovering journal
      2. /dev/sda8: clean, 346887/1818624 files, 1865910/7268864 blocks
      3. _

      It just hangs there with a blinking prompt.

    • Posts: 27
      Sometimes when I start into multi-user, the system not shows me the login propmt, but is there. Only for test, can you try to enter in this blinking prompt your user name and press enter?
    • Posts: 4
      edited August 2016

      I get nothing - it doesn't recognize input from the keyboard at all. 

    • Posts: 2
      edited January 2017

      This problem still has me flummoxed.  I've learned much about Linux over the years from youtube videos.  'Twould be *awesome* if someone who had solved this puzzle would post a demo. 

       

    • Posts: 916

      In ubuntu16.04 appending "text" does not work; instead append "3" (like you would with other distros) to the end of the linux kernel line in grub.  It will then boot into a terminal.  To get it to go do full graphic mode after that you can do sudo systemctl start lightdm

    • Posts: 5
      edited January 2017

      Hi,

      try number 3 after quiet:  quiet 3 splash

    • Posts: 1
      edited August 2017

      That did the trick, thank you!!

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