Disabling the Gnome Desktop

**fguy64** · 10-24-2009

Greetings

I am used to using sysvconfig to disable unneeded services on Debian Lenny, but I don't see gdm showing up there. Why would that be?

Anyways, I suppose i can stop the desktop easy enough by typing /etc/init.d/gdm stop, but that would just be for the current session I imagine. I am wondering if there is an easy way to just disable it without manually editing or renaming scripts.

It would be nice to use sysvconfig, but like I say gdm doesn't show up there.

**tpl** · 10-24-2009

if as root you rename gdm to something else (g_old_dm)
that should stop it

**reed9** · 10-25-2009

As root

Code:

update-rc.d -f gdm remove

to restore

Code:

update-rc.d -f gdm defaults

**pakistanboy** · 10-26-2009

Hi,
How are you, its good

**fguy64** · 10-26-2009

noted. reed9 & tpl, Thanks for the tips

**fguy64** · 03-12-2010

Originally Posted by reed9

As root

Code:

update-rc.d -f gdm remove

to restore

Code:

update-rc.d -f gdm defaults

Hey, I finally got around to using this, and it is just what I wanted. I did a little before and after comparison of running services using ps -ef, and it looks like GDM is the key that pulls all the other services used by the desktop with it, such as nautilus, mixer_applet2, etc.

As far as I can see, disable GDM like this and as far as ps -ef can tell, it the same situation as before gnome was even installed.

**GNU-Fan** · 03-12-2010

GDM (re)starts the XServer when a user logs in. And gnome-panel etc. ultimately are X11 applications that connect to the display server.

When you kill gdm, it terminates the XServer and all graphical applications lose their connection.

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