Does headless X require runlevel 5?

[Brett Serkez]

<snip>
> Runlevel 5 is broken. I'm presuming I need to get it working--but do I
> need to focus on the local video hardware even though I'm not supporting
> a local display? It would seem to me that the local video hw would not
> be relevant to remote gui access--but I don't understand X particularly,

Correct.  X is client-server, so remote users are running their own
X-server.  When connected via ssh -X, any gui programs will use the
remote user's display.  There is no need to run an X-server on a
system unless you plan on using the GUI on the console.

> so I'm confused on what fix to pursue and how.

You can run any UNIX/Linux system 'headless", without a GUI on the console.

Modify /etc/inittab, change the 5 to 3:

id:5:initdefault:

id:3:initdefault:

This will change the default boot run-level for future boots.

As root, you can use the command:

# init 3

to force an immediate switch to run-level three which will bring down
the GUI on the console.

Brett