Damn Small Linux (DSL) Forums

When I mess up my XF86Config it is a nightmare to have X start up when I log in.  It would be great to disable that or bypass it to get right to the prompt. 

If you installed with the DSL HDD-Install script and GRUB, then you should have the option on startup to boot in "runlevel 2" which doesn't start X. If you set up the bootloader yourself, just create another listing of DSL with "2" at the end of the "kernel" line. Note that you won't be able to run X properly in runlevel 2 using the "startx" command.

There is more info about boot cheatcodes on the Wiki (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/cheat_codes.html).

I chose lilo during the hdd-install.  I can edit the lilo.conf and add in those additional options.  I do want to run X, just not immediately.  Some of those cheat-codes look interesting.

Actually....I'm not sure how to safely create additional boot options with cheat codes or how to enter additional options at startup with Lilo.

When booting up and I'm at the Lilo menu I'm not sure if I can enter extra options.

In my lilo.conf, at the top of the file is vga=791.  I'm fearful to change that cause what if it doesn't boot anymore.

I haven't used LILO, so I don't know much about it. However couldn't you simply boot to a DSL CD and change the settings back with that?

Anyhow, perhaps you can comment out the line in "/home/dsl/.xserverrc" to stop X loading on startup. That might break the "startx" command though, so you might need to specify all the options to start X on the comand line (or make your own script), look at the startx man page (http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/startx.1.html). I don't know if that will work, but there are probably more elegant ways if you look into the scripts of DSL.