'Is there a way to prompt a bash terminal before display manager?

I want to access a bash terminal before display manager starts and show me a login screen. I am on arch linux and my display manager is lightdm. I need a terminal to resolve a problem with my tiling window manager (qtile).

linuxarchlinuxarch


Solution 1:[1]

By default, LightDM (or most Display Managers for that matter) start in tty1.

To switch to tty2 after booting into LightDM, use ctrl + alt + f2. After pressing this key sequence you will be dropped to a terminal. Log in and perform your changes from there.

Sidenote, I agree with Barmar, this question is better suited to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange though.

Solution 2:[2]

Another way to do that is to change the boot option from runlevel 5 to runlevel 3:

  • From the boot options, enter e .
  • This is how the line beginning with "linux" looks like for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (it doesn't have to be identical for you, it's just so you get an idea):

linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-15-generic root=UUID=1438eb20-da3d-4880-bb3a-414e+++0a929 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff

  • Add 3: and this is how the line beginning with "linux" looks after adding the 3 at the end:

linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-15-generic root=UUID=1438eb20-da3d-4880-bb3a-414e+++0a929 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff 3

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 dennis
Solution 2

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