Tag Archives: gdm

Enable/Disable GDM in Ubuntu

Posted by on July 2, 2008 No comments | This post has 1,622 views.

By default Ubuntu Loads Gnome GUI.
If you need to disable X.org / Gnome under Linux, so you can get text only login, this is the right guide to follow.

Using command line (CLI):
Ubuntu comes with rcconf and update-rc.d command.
rcconf allows you to control which services are started when the system boots up or reboots. It displays a menu of all the services which could be started at boot.
The ones that are configured to do so are marked and you can toggle individual services on and off.
Install rcconf:

Now start rcconf:

Now you will be prompted for the administrator password, this is necessary because the changes done with this tool will affect the whole system. After entering the administrator password, the following text based window is displayed on screen:rcconf
Next enable/disable GDM service by pressing space bar (check the checkbox) > Click OK to save the changes.

Using GUI tools:
The Services Administration Tool allows you to specify which services will be started during the system boot process.
You can type the command:

Or just click on System -> Administration -> Services
Again you will be prompted for the administrator password, this is necessary because the changes done with this tool will affect the whole system. After entering the administrator password, the following window is displayed:

ubuntu-linux-services
Make sure you remove GDM (Gnome login manager) by disabling the the checkbox and close the window.

Alternative method (wich seems to be a better approach):

Prevent X.Org from Starting in Ubuntu

Posted by on September 19, 2007 No comments | This post has 514 views.

Prevent X.Org from Starting in Ubuntu

If you’ve got an Ubuntu machine that you initially installed with Ubuntu Desktop, but would like to run as a server, you can just disable the graphical
environment from starting up in order to save resources. This is also useful for doing system maintenance from the command line that needs to be performed
outside of the GUI.

The only reason to do this instead of removing the packages would be because you might want to still sometimes use the box through the GUI.

Disable X.Org

In order to disable the graphical environment, we’ll need to disable GDM, the Gnome Display Manager. In order to do this, you’ll need to run the following
command at the terminal:

sudo update-rc.d -f gdm remove

When you restart your computer, you’ll be presented with a text-mode login prompt instead of the graphical environment.

Run X.Org While Disabled

If you want to run the graphical environment, all you have to do is type the following command from the prompt, making sure to run it as your normal user
account.

startx

The annoying gray screen will go away once Gnome is fully started.

Enable X.Org

If you want to re-enable X11 it’s a simple matter of running this command from the terminal:

sudo update-rc.d -f gdm defaults

When you restart, you’ll be presented with the graphical prompt again.