Boot Ubuntu 16.04 into command line / do not start GUI
You could disable the display manager service with systemctl
. For example if your display manager is lightdm
then run:
sudo systemctl disable lightdm.service
This will prevent the service from starting at boot.
Edit:
I forgot to mention how to start the GUI. It is as simple as starting the systemd service:
sudo systemctl start lightdm.service
Instead of text
use runlevel 3
:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="3"
# To remove all the fancy graphics you need to get rid of `splash`.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet”
# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
GRUB_TERMINAL=console
Then update-grub
and reboot.
But you really only need GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="3"
. For quick test hit ESC during booting to get into the grub boot menu. Then press e and find the line which specifies kernel and add 3
at the end:
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu ro 3
Boot it with CTRL+x
Ideally I also want to be able to start GUI by typig a command.
One of these:
$ sudo telinit 5
$ sudo service lightdm restart
$ sudo systemctl start lightdm
Tested on Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS.
- When in GUI-mode, this will take you to text-mode (runlevel 2,3,4) on reboot. You may get a blank screen (no-gui) which is a reminder that there's no GUI :-), enter ctrlalt(F1,F2,...) to use the runlevels.
systemctl set-default multi-user.target
- This will take you back to GUI boot when you are in text-mode.
systemctl set-default graphical.target