Linux Disable X Window System

by Vivek Gite · 0 comments

Q. How do I disable X Window system on boot? I just need text based interface and there is no need to waste resources on X window system. How do I disable X Window under CentOS / RHEL / Red Hat / Fedora Linux?

A. The X Window System (also known as X11 or X) is a windowing system that implements the X display protocol and provides windowing on bitmap displays. It provides the standard toolkit and protocol with which to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on most Unix-like operating systems.

Disable X Windows System Under Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora Linux

Open /etc/inittab file, enter:
# vi /etc/inittab
Find the line that read as follows:
id:5:initdefault:
Change it as follows:
id:3:initdefault:
Save and close the file. Reboot system to test new changes:
# reboot
Run level 5 is used to boot into X Windows (Gnome or KDE GUI managers). Run level 3 is for text (console) based login.

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