Answer 1 Yes you can. As described here (ubuntuhandbook.org - Boot into text console ubuntu) you need to edit /etc/default/grub to have the next boot end up in text mode. In summary you will set these parameters: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"GRUB_TERMINAL=console After saving changes you need to run: sudo update-grub sudo systemctl enable multi-user.target --force sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
Undoing text-mode To undo sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target simply type sudo systemctl enable graphical.target --force sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target WinEunuuchs2Unix 100k3434 gold badges240240 silver badges401401 bronze badges Comments 1 Is there any way to show login to terminal by default (like init 3 in old times), problem with ctrl+alt+f1 is that GDM keeps retrying to start and I don't get console. – wisemonkey Dec 12, 2016 at 1:24 Did you try the grub method described in the answer? – WinEunuuchs2Unix Dec 12, 2016 at 2:17 2 @wisemonkey I have updated the answer with manual updating of grub from Live DVD/USB. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Dec 12, 2016 at 11:08 8 This does not seem to work on Ubuntu 15.04 and up (I tried 16.04 LTS). A crucial step after you fixed the grub file and run update-grub is to execute: sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target - only then it started booting straight into console for me. Solution from @yury in the comments of the link you gave. – f055 Sep 20, 2017 at 14:41 2 The undo part is not working on Ubuntu 18.04 and I'd also love to know how to revert this change properly so I don't have to type startx on every boot. Thanks in advance! – hullunist Sep 18, 2019 at 13:05
Boot into recovery mode Immediately after the motherboard / computer manufacturer logo splash screen appears when the computer is booting, with BIOS, quickly press and hold the Shift key, which will bring up a GNU GRUB menu screen. With UEFI press (perhaps several times) the Esc key to get to the GNU GRUB menu screen. Sometimes the manufacturer's splash screen is a part of the Windows bootloader, so when you power up the machine it goes straight to the GNU GRUB menu screen, and then pressing Shift is unnecessary. The timing when to press the left Shift key can be tricky, so sometimes if you miss it you need to try it again. If that doesn't work try the answers to I can't get the GRUB menu to show up during boot. You will see a GNU GRUB menu screen that looks like this. Select Advanced options for Ubuntu and press Enter.
enter image description here
A new purple screen will appear showing a list of kernels, which includes
options of booting the kernels normally or in recovery mode.
enter image description here
Press the down arrow key until you select the 2nd entry from the top (the
one with the recovery mode in the description) and then press Enter twice.
Now you should see this recovery menu:
recovery menu
Using the arrow keys scroll down to network (the third entry from the bottom
in the Recovery Menu) and then press Enter.
Using the arrow keys scroll down to root (the second entry from the bottom
in the Recovery Menu) and then press Enter.
You should now see a root prompt and you can run commands from it.
lightdm is called lightdm because it is a lightweight application compared
to GDM which is heavy and takes longer to load. If you still have lightdm
installed you can switch back to using lightdm as the default login display
manager with the command: dpkg-reconfigure gdm3. This will open up a new
window allowing you to select either gdm3 or lightdm as the default login
display manager.
Reboot the computer with the command reboot
After that the keyboard shortcutCtrl+Alt+F3 may start to work properly, and
allow you to start Ubuntu from the console.
Start Ubuntu from a virtual console
- Open a text-only virtual console by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+F3.
- At the login: prompt type your username and press Enter.
- At the Password: prompt type your user password and press Enter.
- Now you are logged in to a text-only console, and you can run terminal commands from the console. To reboot the system run the command: sudo reboot. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+F7 to exit the virtual console. In Ubuntu 17.10 and later press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+F2 to exit from the virtual console.
Answer 04 Press CTRL+ALT+F1 or any other function (F) key up to F7, which takes you back to your "GUI" terminal. These should drop you into a text-mode terminal for each different function key. Otherwise you can boot into recovery mode if you need: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode Basically hold down SHIFT as you boot up to get the Grub menu. Share Improve this answer Follow edited Dec 13, 2016 at 1:22 Fabich's user avatar Fabich 13711 silver badge66 bronze badges answered Dec 11, 2016 at 22:53 Kristopher Ives's user avatar Kristopher Ives 5,42922 gold badges2828 silver badges3636 bronze badges 3 (copying previous comment): Is there any way to show login to terminal by default (like init 3 in old times), problem with ctrl+alt+f1 is that GDM keeps retrying to start and I don't get console. And for recovery mode its same results if I say clean start. I'll read up on other recovery modes and see if they are helpful – wisemonkey Dec 12, 2016 at 1:26 This is what I always used to do, but it doesn't work anymore in Ubuntu 19.10. Ctrl+Alt+F2-6 just take you to a black screen now, and Ctrl+Alt+F1 is now actually the login manager. Any ideas what to do on new versions? – Joseph Garvin Mar 29, 2020 at 19:37
Answer 5 Editing /etc/default/grub gave me the boot menu that I needed to boot in recovery mode. These were my steps:
- Edit /etc/default/grub and set GRUB_TIMEOUT to -1 (the documentation also mentions that you need to comment out any setting of GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT). This will allow the boot menu to pop up and stay there until you take action.
- Run sudo update-grub for changes to take effect.
- Reboot and select the Recovery Mode option in the Grub menu.