Boot into CLI?

[j.harrison]

When Mandrake 8 is booting up, just before I get the line by line program startup (XFONT SERVER OK, CUPS OK, etc.) for a few seconds I see a CLI login screen. If I quickly try to use it to login at this point, will it let me? If not, will I screw up my boot process? If so, will it always default to CLI from that point on? And if so, will I then boot into nothing but CLI?

I'd like to see what it's like to live from CLI, but I don't want to break anything, especially since Drake runs so great, and the whole family uses it.

:cool: Mandrake :cool:

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Ooh ooh! I know this one! :)

What you want to do is edit your /etc/inittab file.

Fairly close to the beginning, you should see a line that says this:

id:5:initdefault

What this means is, Linux will boot into runlevel 5 by default. Runlevel 5 is X-windows (graphical interface).

What you want to do is change that to read this:

id:3:initdefault

That will make you boot into runlevel 3 by default, which is the CLI.

WARNING - you may be curious, or adventurous, but whatever you do, do not ever ever ever set it to 0 or 6. There should be explanations of the different numbers in the file.

If your family wants X, or you don't like the CLI, you can set it back to 5.

And if you want to get into X while in the CLI, type startx.

[evulish]

hehe... default init level 0 and 6 are fun :)
Actually, its kinda a pain. I did that on the 3rd day of my redhat install 2 years back. Oh god how I was lost :)

[andrzej]

Originally posted by j.harrison:
<STRONG>
I'd like to see what it's like to live from CLI, but I don't want to break anything, especially since Drake runs so great, and the whole family uses it.
</STRONG>

While in X press Ctrl-Alt-F1 (F2, F3...). Enjoy your CLI. Switch between virtual terminals with Alt-Fx. You can always come back to X by pressing Alt-F7.

[j.harrison]

Thanks for the responses! Good info, and now I'm easily moving between CLI & GUI! Thanks again!