On Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM David Wright <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On Wed 23 Apr 2025 at 14:25:38 (-0400), Eben King wrote:
> > I have a computer called "alexandria". Usually I log in via SSH. I
> > only log in at the console when it's broken so that networking doesn't
> > work, and even then I almost always use a text console. So I very
> > rarely need X, but still want it there to use if I need it. However
> > it would be nice if the login screen weren't using up resources. I'd
> > be completely fine with logging in by startx.
> >
> > To that end, I used aptitude to install the meta-package "xfce", and
> > during installation it asked me whether I wanted to use lightdm or
> > gdm3, and I picked lightdm.
> >
> > What do I need to uninstall to make gnome gone? Then, what do I need
> > to do to make X not use lightdm? On this machine I did "chmod 0
> > /usr/sbin/lightdm" which works, but probably isn't the right way.
>
> I would assume that uninstalling the Display Manager would free up
> the most resources, but you can probably prevent the DM from being
> started by stopping, disabling and masking it with systemd. Masking,
> AIUI, just points /etc/systemd/system/<whateverDM>.service at /dev/null.
Using systemd's multi-user target may be a bit easier:
systemctl set-default multi-user.target
When ready, the gui can be (re)enabled with:
systemctl set-default graphical.target
Jeff
