I've been using ctwm for a long time (starting in the 1990s), on various
versions of sun+solaris and fedor.
Until now I've always set linux to start up in mode 3 (non-graphical) in
case I need to do any management work. Then after starting ctwm I simply
suspend and resume instead of shutting down and re-booting, until there's a
real need to reboot.
I've been doing both on desktop PCs and a succession of laptops (most
recently a Stonebook mini (a re-badged Clevo W515LU), described in
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/laptop/stone-mini.html
Recent changes in Fedora (since a kernel update in F29, though I am now
using F31) have made it impossible for me to boot into level 3 (the boot
fails, and I then can't use grub commands to do anything useful, apart from
rebooting).
There have been other problems, including no longer being able to boot into
windows 10 (not needed often, fortunately). I'm not in a hurry to fix that.
After my standard normal login configuration stopped working (causing at
best a log in to linux rescue mode, from which I could not produce a
rescue), I switched to Fedora 31 hoping the problems would have been fixed.
Although grub.cfg now has a completely new format and I have managed to
boot Fedora (XFCE version, which has worked well for me for several years)
I cannot get it to boot to level 3, so I am forced to boot in graphical
mode (level 5).
Using an ancient hint from this group I've managed to make ctwm an option
in the graphical login window using this file:
/usr/share/xsessions/ctwm.desktop
containing:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Ctwm
Comment=Log in using the ctwm window manager (without a session manager)
Exec=$HOME/.xinitrc
Icon=
Type=Application
That enables me to do what I previously used to do, including getting sound
and wifi working, with my standard ctwm interface.
Then instead of logging out and logging in I always hibernate and resume,
which preserves the environment (until some system changes require a full
reboot).
My question:
Has anyone else encountered the enforced graphical login (level 5) and
found a way to turn it off? (I used to do that by removing 'quiet' and
inserting a '3' in the relevant line of grub.cfg (lines with /vlinuz....)
but the structure of grub.cfg has changed and my attempts to make this work
end up making the machine unbootable -- requiring use of a live usb linux
to undo the changes, and putting up with mode 5 (graphical) logins after
booting.
So I now wonder if there's a way to get back to my previously preferred
option (booting to mode 3), so that I don't always have to go through the
graphical login menu when logging in after a full reboot.
I don't know whether any other versions of linux are follwing this
(windows or apple - like) route, forcing graphical logins, and whether
anyone knows how to set things up so that I don't have to go via the
xfce (or gnome, etc.) login mode first, and instead go straight to ctwm
after a password prompt.
It seems too many defaults are changed in linux which should be left to
user preferences.
If anyone has encountered this problem and found a good way to go more
directly to ctwm with the option of a non-graphical login, I'll be grateful
for tips.
Thanks.
Aaron
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs
