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I want to configure my Ubuntu installation to boot into a command-line prompt instead of the Gnome Desktop Environment. I ran the below command to effect this:

sudo update-rc.d -f gdm remove

It worked as intended and dropped me onto a shell prompt on reboot, BUT a lot of services (e.g network access) weren't running at that point.

They started up when I manually started GDM from the shell prompt.

How do I get Ubuntu to boot into the command shell without GDM, but without disabling other services, or having to manually enable them ?

By removing gdm using update-rc.d, have I changed the runlevel Ubuntu boots into ? I've looked at the Boot-Up Manager GUI in Advanced mode, but couldn't gather much from the Services tab.

Edit: The problem wasn't what I thought it was. I've described the modified issue and the solution in my answer below.

PS: As it stands, the question is misleading though the underlying problem is valid.

Community
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3 Answers3

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It turns out I was barking up the wrong tree. The services were getting called, but my network wasn't being configured till I logged into GDM. This had a cascading effect on anything that expected a configured network.

I filed a bug-report on Ubuntu Launchpad, and looking at some other bug reports helped me understand what was happening with my system. The solution was:

I've figured out why the network was configured on my other Ubuntu system, and am consequently able to do the same on this system: "Available to all users" option was selected on the default connection in the Network Manager applet. This enabled the system to configure the network even though I'm not logged in through GDM. I've verified that the network gets configured on this system too when the option is turned on.

On a side note, it would be nice if available networks could be detected and configured via console in a similar manner to how the Network Manager applet behaves. I guess that now my network is auto-configured so I can turn off GDM during boot and still remotely connect to the system.

I was basically expecting the pre-configured wi-fi connection to work on console mode, but it turned out that wasn't a valid expectation. Networks configured through the Network Manager applet from within GNOME take effect only when the same user logs into GDM, or if "Available to all users" is selected on the connection. It's kinda non-intuitive but that's the way it is.

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Try going into a run level that does not use the GDM. That is the easiest way to do this.

Axxmasterr
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On the console, there's cnetworkmanager, a CLI frontend to NM.

Get it here: http://vidner.net/martin/software/cnetworkmanager/

Ryan C. Thompson
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