How To Disable Linux GUI from boot? Rumi, January 18, 2009March 13, 2019 edit the following line in /etc/inittab id:5:initdefault: and change it to id:3:initdefault: so if you reboot the default running level is 3 which is not GUI For Debian 8-9/Jessie-Stretch use the following command: In order to make text boot the default under systemd (regardless of which distro, really): systemctl set-default multi-user.target To change back to booting to the GUI, systemctl set-default graphical.target Administrations Configurations (Linux)