11

I am trying to boot Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as live system from the official ISO image without GUI. In previous versions, the text or textonly boot parameter could be added to the boot options. However, this possibility seems not working for the 16.04 release anymore.

Is there another option of booting without a GUI?

DigNative
  • 343
  • I know why it behaves like this (yes, unfortunately systemd is to blame for that, you would need to also change the default target - see the answers to https://askubuntu.com/q/16371/367990), but no idea how to change it from the live CD boot menu. – Byte Commander Aug 06 '17 at 22:50
  • 1
    Possible duplicate of Booting into text mode in 16.04 – krlmlr Apr 18 '19 at 14:03
  • 1
    @krlmlr This question is different from the question referenced by you. This question is about booting from a Live CD/USB, while there is no option to manipulate the permanent OS configuration. The solutions shown in the referenced questions won't work for the Live CD/USB case. – DigNative Apr 19 '19 at 07:40

1 Answers1

14

The problem why simply adding the text kernel parameter in GRUB to the live Ubuntu's boot options no longer works since 15.04 is actually our good old friend and enemy systemd once again. It ignores this option and just normally boots to its default target, which is graphical.target for a desktop GUI. For text mode, you would need multi-user.target though.

After a bit of research, I found out that it is indeed possible to specify the systemd target to load as kernel parameter at boot time in GRUB, it is:

systemd.unit=multi-user.target

Append that to the kernel boot options instead of text as you used to do in older releases and you should be fine.

Sources: Arch Wiki: systemd and "Non-graphical boot with systemd" on Unix&Linux

Byte Commander
  • 107,489
  • 2
    Thank you for your answer! I can confirm that this did the trick. I would rather prefer to have the `text' option again since this can be remembered more easily. But I am happy that there is at least another option of booting non-graphically. Thank you once again! – DigNative Aug 13 '17 at 12:55