Getting a GUI Console

You have two main options if your system comes up in a text terminal mode on the VGA console and you want to get the GUI:

• Manual Method: You can start the X terminal GUI application each time you need it by running the startx command at the VGA console. Remember that when you log out you will get the regular text-based console again:

       [root@bigboy tmp]# startx
  

  
  

• Automatic Method: You can have Linux automatically start the X terminal GUI console for every login attempt until your next reboot by using the init command. You will need to edit your initdefault variable in your /etc/inittab file, as mentioned in the preceding section, to keep this functionality even after you reboot.

       [root@bigboy tmp]# init 5
  

  
  

When the CPU capacity or available memory on your server is low or you want to maximize all system resources, you might want to operate in text mode runlevel 3 most of the time, using the GUI only as necessary with the startx command.

Servers that double as personal workstations, or servers that might have to be operated for an extended period of time by relatively nontechnical staff, may need to be run at runlevel 5 all the time through the init 5 command. Remember you can make runlevel 5 permanent even after a reboot by editing the /etc/inittab file.