When you start the Linux operating system, the system that controls the startup processes that occur respectively is called “init system”. Some Linux distributions use SysV launcher, and some distributions use systemd. If you’re using a desktop computer, you’ll want to access the graphical interface once the startup process is complete. If you don’t need a desktop on the server computer, you want to access the command line, not the graphical interface. In this article, we will see how we can switch between graphics and console and set the default boot target in a Linux distribution that uses the systemd management system.
First, let’s see the target states that are installed and active in our system. You can use the “systemctl list-units --type=target
” command for this.
linux@rpi4:~ $ systemctl list-units --type=target
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION
basic.target loaded active active Basic System
cryptsetup.target loaded active active Local Encrypted Volumes
getty.target loaded active active Login Prompts
graphical.target loaded active active Graphical Interface
integritysetup.target loaded active active Local Integrity Protected Volumes
local-fs-pre.target loaded active active Preparation for Local File Systems
local-fs.target loaded active active Local File Systems
machines.target loaded active active Containers
multi-user.target loaded active active Multi-User System
network-online.target loaded active active Network is Online
network.target loaded active active Network
nfs-client.target loaded active active NFS client services
nss-user-lookup.target loaded active active User and Group Name Lookups
paths.target loaded active active Path Units
remote-fs-pre.target loaded active active Preparation for Remote File Systems
remote-fs.target loaded active active Remote File Systems
rpc_pipefs.target loaded active active rpc_pipefs.target
slices.target loaded active active Slice Units
sockets.target loaded active active Socket Units
swap.target loaded active active Swaps
sysinit.target loaded active active System Initialization
time-set.target loaded active active System Time Set
timers.target loaded active active Timer Units
veritysetup.target loaded active active Local Verity Protected Volumes
LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.
24 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.
Many of the situations listed above are actually a requirement of the ultimate goal (graphical interface, console interface, etc.). Since the cases we are currently interested in are “graphical.target” and “multi-user.target”, we do not take the others into consideration.
First, let’s see the boot target set by default in our system. For this we use the “systemctl get-default
” command.
$ systemctl get-default
graphical.target
You can see that the default opening target set in our system is the graphical interface “graphical.target”. The conclusion we can draw from here is that when our system starts, all services will be run respectively and you will access the desktop manager with the graphical interface.
Well, if you don’t need the desktop or no longer need it, you may want to stop it and reduce system resource usage. In this case, how do we stop the graphical interface and go to the screen we call console, also called the command line, which we will express as “multi-user.target” in our commands.
from graphical.target to multiuser-target
Our system is currently running in the graphical interface we call graphical.target. What is done here is not to open a Terminal window on the desktop screen. It is to stop the desktop manager completely. You should pay attention. Thanks to the command below, programs using the desktop manager and graphical interface are now completely stopped. You are at the command line.
sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target
from multiuser-target to graphical.target
If you want to restart the graphical interface, you can use the command below. As a result of this command, the graphical interface and desktop manager will be restarted.
sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
First boot default target setup
The transition commands we gave above are used for initialization, termination and transition operations after the system is turned on. Now, let’s set which state we want your system to target when it first turns on. For this we will use the “systemctl set-default ” command.
sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
Thanks to these commands, you can reduce resource usage by stopping the graphical interface at any time and switch between them when you need.
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