Force Boot to Command Line

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 placing a hash # symbol in front of it.

# GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

This will disable the initial splash screen, and enable verbose mode (i.e., showing the detailed boot procedure).
Then change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“” to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="text"

Next, uncomment the line that says “#GRUB_TERMINAL=console”.

GRUB_TERMINAL=console"

The updated GRUB defult configuration looks like the following: