Boot into terminal

[linusnorton]

Hi Guys,

I have been googling my *** off trying to find a way of getting Ubuntu 10.10 desktop edition to boot into the terminal (or runlevel 3?)

Suggestions have all been from around 2007 and no longer seem to work (creating /etc/inittab, rcconf, sysv-rc-conf all didn't work)

So how can I do it?

I don't want to have to install the server edition.

I'm not sure what I want is even possible but I'm building an arcade game cabinet and I would like the machine to boot into the shell, auto login and run a python script I have made.

[wojox]

Try this Thread

[DarthScape]

You could try starting the computer holding shift, should bring you to the grub menu, select recovery.

You could try booting like normal, in terminal type shutdown now, you might get a prompt to drop to shell.

For a more permanent solution, try Arch...

[linusnorton]

Try this Thread

Sorry, no dice. I tried adding

if [[ -z "$DISPLAY" ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
  . startx
  logout
fi

to ~/.bash_profile with no luck.

@DarthScape: I would like an automated method

[oldos2er]

If you're using grub2, edit /etc/default/grub, change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet" to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"

Run sudo update-grub, reboot.

[sisco311]

Welcome to the forums!

To disable GDM edit the file /etc/default/grub and replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash text", then generate a new Grub2 config file:

sudo update-grub

NOTE: You can delete the quiet option to make the boot process verbose and delete splash to disable the splash screen.

You can use mgetty to auto login to a virtual console. Install it (it's in the universe repo):

sudo apt-get install mingetty

Then edit /etc/init/tty1.conf to something like:

# tty1 - getty
#
# This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the point the system is
# started until it is shut down again.

start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

respawn
exec /sbin/mingetty --autologin USERNAME tty1 linux

Of course, you have to replace USERNAME with your login name.

And finally, to auto start your application when you are logging in to vc1 (tty1) add something like:

if [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
  command
fi

to your ~/.bash_profile file.

Replace command with the command you want to run.

[linusnorton]

If you're using grub2, edit /etc/default/grub, change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet" to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"

Run sudo update-grub, reboot.

You win. Thank you, I did not see this suggested anywhere else.