minimal boot, no gui?

[pabrown]

Is there a way to boot into a minimal configuration? For example, into a terminal instead of to a gui (Gnome), and without extra things like sound and internet?
I'd like my laptop to have the option to quickly boot into just a text mode for using vi and such, and extend battery life.
Should I just partition and install another distro like DSL or Puppy? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks,
PaB

[stevea]

Yeah - edit the file /etc/inittab and change the line ...

id:5:initdefault:

changing the 5 to a 3. Then reboot.

Init state 3 goes not start up X11, and only a subset of services.
Edit the services you want (vs don't want) ar tun state 3.


init stat 1 starts almost nothing, except it logs in a root shell at
virtual console 1.

nitistate 2 is simialr to 3, but does not start nfs.

[pabrown]

Thanks, but is there a way to make it an option when booting, as opposed to doing it everytime?

[Seve]

Hello:
You could edit your /boot/grub/grub.conf and add an entry for each mode if you like, or if you follow stevea's instructions the boot will default to text mode.
From there, if you want to proceed to the gui, type startx

Seve