How to: Boot to the console (text) by default

[xenopeek]

By default Linux Mint 13 boots to a graphical login window (MDM), and then to your graphical desktop (X). For some uses it may be preferable not to boot to a graphical login window and not to automatically start the graphical desktop, but to boot to the console (text). This how to shares what you need to do for that. It has been tested with Linux Mint 13 MATE.

First, remove MDM completely:

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sudo apt-get purge mdm mint-mdm-themes
sudo rm -fr /usr/share/mdm

Next, remove the pieces of Plymouth that can be removed:

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sudo apt-get purge plymouth-label plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text

Finally, configure GRUB:

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sudo nano /etc/default/grub

You'll want to remove both "quiet" and "splash" from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. Optionally you can uncomment GRUB_GFXMODE (remove the # in front of it) and change the video resolution to the one your main display uses, like 1280x1024 for example. This will make your GRUB and console be displayed in the higher resolution. Once you have made the changes you want, save & exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X) and then run:

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sudo update-grub2

That's all there is to it. Upon reboot you will log in on the console with your username and password. If you want to start your graphical desktop, you run the command "startx".

One final trick, if you want to preserve the text output during booting you need to make one change in /etc/init/tty1.conf:

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sudo nano /etc/init/tty1.conf

On the line that says "exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1" insert the parameter "--noclear" so it becomes "exec /sbin/getty --noclear -8 38400 tty1". Now the text output during booting won't be cleared from the screen when you are asked to log in.