OStatic

By Randy Clark on Oct. 04, 2009

@Neda - there are several ways in which you can do this.

I am not sure where you are seeing the options you mention. What you need to do is when GRUB loads, you hit "Enter" to enter the boot menu.

Then you have to edit the kernel command. You do this by pressing "a".

Once there, you can append your run level to that command. Assuming you want 3, to go into the CLI, you do the following:

grub append> ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet 3

As you notice, you have the run level 3 at the end of this command and it will drop you into the shell at boot time.

You can also change this at boot. Let me know if you need help in how to do this once you have logged in.

Hope this helps!

By Sang Lei on Oct. 08, 2009

I) Editing /etc/inittab to change your default runlevel

1. Open /etc/inittab in your favorite editor (I use nano).

su -c 'nano -w /etc/inittab'

2. On about line 18 you will see a line like the one shown below.

id:5:initdefault:

3. You simply change the "5" in this case to the runlevel you desire. Save the file and exit.

II) Changing your current run level

1. You can change runlevels using the telinit or init commands as in the example below.

su -c 'telinit 3'

III) Changing your runlevel at boot time. (aka Grub Method)

1. Reboot then "Press any key" to enter the grub menu.

2. Choose your desired kernel and press "a" to modify the kernel arguments.

3. Simply add a 3 to the line for runlevel 3 or 1 for single user mode and Press "enter". After pressing enter press "b" to boot with the changes you have made. (NOTE: If you are having booting issues you might want to remove "quiet" and "rhgb.")

4. Log in and do the damage you desire. If you are booting to single user you do not need to login you will simply be presented with a prompt.

5. Logout, change runlevels or reboot as needed.