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I'm trying to get Debian Jessie to boot to CLI, to allow me to start KDE manually.

I've tried:

sudo update-rc.d kdm disable

...but this results in: 

insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (empty) of script `kdm' overrides LSB defaults (2 3 4 5). insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (0 1 2 3 4 5 6) of script `kdm' overrides LSB defaults (0 1 6).

Secondly, how do I start KDE manually.

I also reversed with the same first command (but enable) and then tried the following:

update-rc.d -f kdm remove update-rc.d kdm stop 20 2 3 4 5 .

....which resulted in:

update-rc.d: warning: start and stop actions are no longer supported; falling back to defaults update-rc.d: warning: start runlevel arguments (none) do not match kdm Default-Start values (2 3 4 5) update-rc.d: warning: stop runlevel arguments (2 3 4 5) do not match kdm Default-Stop values (0 1 6)

But the system still boots into KDE login prompt.

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  • Does Debian still have /etc/inittab? Commented Oct 15, 2014 at 11:11

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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First, the "insserv: warning" ... is just that, warnings. The command has still succeeded and would have disabled kdm from starting automatically.

However, in order to disable the display manager, you could instead edit /etc/X11/default-display-manager and make sure the file exists but is empty.

Reboot and you should get to the console.

If you need to re-enable a display manager, you should use:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-window-manager

Your second question, "how do i start kde manually?":

the command is startkde

you may also reconfigure X11 to start kde by default, and then "startx" would bring up kde for you.

Here is a related question: How to boot Debian into text mode without using GUI?

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  • Thanks, I've had bits of similar assistance on G+,. but the whole story. This seems far more coherent, will check out later and Tick when (and if) it works, which I'm sure it will. Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 7:30
  • I get [$DISPLAY is not set or cannot connect to the X server.] Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 21:55
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After asking this question on a number of forums, it seems that there may be a number of ways to A: Force booting to console and B: start KDE once at the console. I've however found, that only the following works, for me.

update-rc.d kdm disable reboot

My system now boots to CLI. I login and 

service kdm start

The KDE login screen (KDM) starts, allowing me to login to KDE.

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