May 2017

Having installed a netinstall version of Lubuntu (the smallest ISO I could get) on a Sony Vaio netbook, I had no option during the install to not include the bundled shell. So I wanted to force Linux to boot only to the command line, here is what I did:

Open the GRUB config file with a text editor (Make a backup first).

  sudo vi /etc/default/grub 

Look for the line that starts with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT, and comment out that line by prepending # sign. This will disable the initial splash screen, and enable verbose mode (i.e., showing the detailed booting procedure). Then change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“” to: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“text” Next, uncomment the line that says “#GRUB_TERMINAL=console”. The updated GRUB defult configuration looks like the following.