single user mode? (or how to shut down X?)

[Kam Leo]

On Apr 7, 2005 1:20 PM, Matt Morgan <minxmertzmomo at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 7, 2005 4:06 PM, kevin.kempter at dataintellect.com
> <kevin.kempter at dataintellect.com> wrote:
> > How do I shut down the X-server and go to command line mode (single user) ?
> 
> You can do the latter without doing the former, by hitting
> Ctrl-Alt-F1, or Ctrl-Alt-F2, etc. through Ctrl-Alt-F6. These are your
> text-based virtual consoles. Hit Ctrl-Alt-F7 to get back to the X
> session.
> 
> To really boot into single-user mode, the easiest way is to edit your
> grub kernel command and add
> 
> single
> 
> to the end of the command. This is the line that starts something like
> 
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.770_FC3 ...
> 
> You can do that interactively during grub boot, or you can edit
> /boot/grub/grub.conf and reboot. Doing it interactively makes it
> easier to recover from typos.
> 

You do not need to reboot to change runlevels.  Look at

# man init

If you type "init 3" from a console you will be dropped to runlevel 3
(multi-user, no X). Use a "2" if you want runlevel 2 (single, no X). 
To return to multiuser and X use "init 5".