How do I boot in text mode

[frank56]

I lost my keyboard and mouse in X after emerge portage --update --deep world. I would like to boot in text mode now to troubleshoot the problem. How do I do that?

[scathefire]

You mean boot into run level 3?

Couple of ways:

1) edit /etc/inittab and reboot

# Default runlevel.
id:3:initdefault:

2) in grub, pass the kernel option:

init=3

[frank56]

You mean boot into run level 3?

Couple of ways:

1) edit /etc/inittab and reboot

# Default runlevel.
id:3:initdefault:

2) in grub, pass the kernel option:

init=3

Thanks I will give that try as soon as an update is done

[frank56]

i tried that but it boots into X. And I don't have a keyboard or mouse in X.

[atreyu]

You can specify the runlevel without modifying the bootloader config file, too. Try appending just a ' 1' to the kernel options (that is a number one, not a lower case L). That will boot in runlevel 1 (single-user "fix it" mode), versus 3 (multi-user network mode). You could also pass 3. See here for other details.

[frank56]

You can specify the runlevel without modifying the bootloader config file, too. Try appending just a ' 1' to the kernel options (that is a number one, not a lower case L). That will boot in runlevel 1 (single-user "fix it" mode), versus 3 (multi-user network mode). You could also pass 3. See here for other details.

Thanks that worked great. Problem solved

[MikeTbob]

For what it's worth, I had a similar problem when running Gentoo. Instead of booting into single mode I "Chrooted" into Gentoo from a LiveCD and fixed things from there. This way you have Internet access to help you solve the problem.
Chroot from a livecd - Gentoo Linux Wiki