Linux Run Levels for booting into command line

Find the current run level

who -r

Change the run level

init "level"

• Runlevel 0 is halt
• Runlevel 1 is single-user
• Runlevels 2-5 are multi-user (some distro uses RUN level 5 to start X [KDE/Gnome])
• Runlevel 6 is for rebooting system

On most Linux server system default run level is 3 and on most Linux Desktop system default run level is 5. The default run level is defined by the initdefault line at the top of /etc/inittab file under CentOS / Fedora / Redhat / RHEL / Debian Linux. To change the default run level, edit /etc/inittab file, and edit entry initdefault:

id:5:initdefault: