Need to disable gdm

[linuxuser9999]

About minaev's suggestion on messing with the init scripts, I actually opened up /etc/init/gdm.conf and just commented out the line that reads exec gdm-binary $CONFIG_FILE just before the end script line. Now I can boot up straight to the command line without having to load the Gnome Desktop. But don't take my word for it, I don't know if that's the proper way of disabling a program from starting up during boot. All I know is that it worked for me.

[rockney]

I don't know if that's the proper way of disabling a program from starting up during boot. All I know is that it worked for me.

That'll work but "initctl" is the prescribed tool to change things.

My complaint is the "Upstart" thing has convoluted the start-up even further - and that some fool made the decision that if XWindows is installed it will always be run. There may be other changes - that's all the further I've gotten.

During the 9.04-to-9.10 upgrade the /etc/init.d gdm script (and others) were deleted and replaced with symbolic links to /etc/init pseudo-scripts with yet another different syntax that are NOT the same as what was in /etc/init.d. In 9.10 I do not know if it is even possible to change how gdm and other things are started.

If any of those scripts are edited then it becomes a maintenance issue. The whole runlevel mechanism has been perverted and thoroughly messed-up. And Upstart is touchy and fragile making it entirely inapproriate for a server environment.

Besides - as far as I can tell all this Upstart stuff is aimed at something like a laptop where things are plugged-in and out dynamcially. People running production servers DO NOT do that kind of stuff.

Frankly - my guess is the Ubuntu organization has too much focus on making it "more convenient and simpler" for end-users like it's some kind of iToy thing while BREAKING it for serious production and engineering users. If this trend of turning their backs on admins continues we WILL rip it out and change distros on many servers and even more workstations and stop wasting our time.

Their assumptions about usage are wrong, and QA seems to be non-existent - especially for the upgrade specifications.

[iruel]

you could use "boot-up manager" on karmic by default you couldn't found it,because you need to download first just like usually

sudo apt-get install bum

and on jaunty it's integrated,on System > Preferences > Services

[z0mb13e]

I've been going round in circles with this...

Recently upgraded (a low powered VIA system that I mainly use as a NAS and print server) to 9.10 - figured I would see what the new desktop features look like (albeit slowly) and then dump the GUI but the init scripts for GDM were missing.

(Not to mention that 'sudo stop gdm' didn't actually appear to stop the GUI - at least remotely. I killed a few apps and it looks like it has finally gone away).

Seems the upgrade deleted the init scripts for GDM from the various run levels as part of the move to upstart.

So now trying to get my head round Upstart and the config file to stop GDM from starting on the default run level, rather than it starting and then being told to stop.


====================

start on (filesystem
and started hal
and tty-device-added KERNEL=tty7
and (graphics-device-added or stopped udevtrigger))
stop on runlevel [0126]


====================

I will reserve judgement on Upstart until I have learnt more about it, but it will make me wary of installing the next LTS release in a production env.

[sisco311]

I've been going round in circles with this...

Once again:

start on (runlevel [3]
          and filesystem
          and started hal
          and tty-device-added KERNEL=tty7
          and (graphics-device-added or stopped udevtrigger))
stop on runlevel [0126]

You can strat/stop it:

sudo service gdm start/stop

or

sudo initctl start/stop gdm

http://upstart.ubuntu.com/getting-started.html

[z0mb13e]

Once again:

start on (runlevel [3]
          and filesystem
          and started hal
          and tty-device-added KERNEL=tty7
          and (graphics-device-added or stopped udevtrigger))
stop on runlevel [0126]

Thanks - needed to see that again as it was out of context (for me at least) the first time round. Now that I have a better understanding of whats going on with the startup it makes sense.

As for shutting down the GUI, the commands didn't work until I killed a few apps. I tried earlier (remotely via ssh) and nothing happened. When I got a look at the GUI there was no indication of a pending closure. I tried again and still nothing. After killing firefox and gnome panel processes it seems to have closed. Not sure if it closed cleanly - will have to check later.

I can see what Upstart is about, I figure the change is inevitable, shame the documentation is so sketchy right now.

[EDIT]

Looks like something weird was going on with GDM.

It seems to start and stop as expected now - trying a reboot to see if it boots up without a GUI.

Yup - works a treat. Off to see if I can't find some more documentation on Upstart

[/EDIT]

[Argyled]

I tried to use "bum" to deactivate gdm, but the "boot up manager", while it seems to be able to disable services that are running, does not seem to be able to actually effect the boot process, and my changes are ignored. Am I doing something wrong? Is this a bug?

[gamaral]

You can disable by running "echo > /etc/X11/default-display-manager" as root to remove the forced dm on boot.

I would also remove gdm from all rc*.d just to be safe: "update-rc.d -f gdm remove" as root, but not sure it might be needed. The init on *ubuntu is messed up for n00b protection.

Hope it helps

[sisco311]

I tried to use "bum" to deactivate gdm, but the "boot up manager", while it seems to be able to disable services that are running, does not seem to be able to actually effect the boot process, and my changes are ignored. Am I doing something wrong? Is this a bug?

It's not a BUG.

Upstart was first included in Ubuntu in the 6.10 (Edgy Eft) release in late 2006, replacing sysvinit. For compatibility reasons most of the services were managed using the old sysvinit scripts. Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) introduced native Upstart bootup.

bum is a GUI to manage sysvinit style init scripts. In Ubuntu 9.10 most of the sysvinit style init scripts are replaced with Upstart jobs.

Jobs are defined in files placed in /etc/init, the name of the job is the filename under this directory without the .conf extension. They are plain text files and should not be executable.

http://upstart.ubuntu.com/getting-started.html

To disable gdm, you have to edit the /etc/init/gdm.conf file. For details see my post above.

[sisco311]

I would also remove gdm from all rc*.d just to be safe: "update-rc.d -f gdm remove" as root, but not sure it might be needed.

Nope, since there are no symlinks to gdm in /etc/rc*.d.

The init on *ubuntu is messed up for n00b protection.

That's incorrect. Most sysvinit scripts are replaced by Upstart jobs.