I have a Macbook currently running Mac OS X Lion 1.5.7, and I primarily use the terminal for most of my work. While it is nice to have the terminal on top of the Aqua GUI, I would like to be able to boot right into the terminal, bypassing Aqua altogether. Note: by terminal, I do not mean Single-User mode, as that lacks much of the functionality that I would like.
My first attempt was to login as >console
. While this was, in effect, the result I wanted, my Mac still had to start up the GUI beforehand.
From Googling this, I found many people suggesting that I perform some minor edits to /etc/ttys, however, these posts were all from around 2002. I tried making those changes, however, this seemed to have no effect, and it still boots as usual. As I understand it, I basically want the computer to boot normally, but simply stop before starting WindowServer.
Is there any way that I can set up my Mac to boot directly into the terminal, bypassing Aqua and the GUI altogether?
Below is the contents of my /etc/ttys:
# # @(#)ttys 5.2 (Berkeley) 6/10/93 # # name getty type status comments # # To secure single-user mode, enable Firmware password protection. # http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482 # console "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600" vt100 on secure # console "/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow" vt100 on secure onoption="/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" #tahoe's only #remote "/usr/libexec/getty std.1200" pt on # diagnostics # The tty.serial entry initializes the serial port (if any) for use as a # terminal (enabling logons over serial). If marked secure, the serial # port will allow root logons. # To make the serial port available for outbound # communications, the tty.serial entry should be turned off # (set the 4th field to off). tty.serial "/usr/libexec/getty serial.57600" vt100 off secure # Fax reception is off by default, use the # System Preferences panel to enable it. fax "/usr/bin/fax answer" unknown off # Hardwired lines are marked off, by default, so getty(8) # is quiet when they don't exist. tty[00-07] "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure # pseudo-ttys ttyp[0x0-0xf] none network slot=36 ttyq[0x0-0xf] none network ttyr[0x0-0xf] none network ttys[0x0-0xf] none network ttyt[0x0-0xf] none network ttyu[0x0-0xf] none network ttyv[0x0-0xf] none network ttyw[0x0-0xf] none network # cloning ptys ttys[000-999] none network
/etc/inittab
file, that might be a productive place to look.