On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 13:58:31 +0200, Roger Price wrote:
> I would like to start a small server in what used to be known as run level 3,
> i.e. with no graphical interface. I tried setting GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="3" in
> /etc/default/grub and running update-grub, but this had no effect.
>
> What is the correct way of booting Debian 12 without a graphical interface?
Your run levels are incorrect. "3" included the graphical Display
Manager and "2" did not.
Setting the "run level" (which gets translated to a systemd target)
via the kernel command line parameters is not recommended as a long-term
solution. It's fine for one-off boots.
For the long-term solution, what you want is
systemctl set-default multi-user.target
