How to disable (or enable) GUI on boot in Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) (works on all systemd Linux)

Andy · 7 May 2021

The following article will show you how to disable the GUI on boot in Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) Desktop Linux

Areas covered:

The following command will disable GUI on boot, and therefore upon the system reboot, the system will boot into multi-user target (default normal Linux console):
Bash:
```
$ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user
```
Logout from the X-session or simply reboot your system to exit the GUI.
Bash:
```
$ gnome-session-quit
```

To enable back the GUI to start on boot:

Bash:

$ sudo systemctl set-default graphical

To start the GUI manually from the console:

Bash:

$ startx

For GNOME GUI installations using GDM as the default display manager, you can start GUI from a command line by executing the command below:

Bash:

$ sudo systemctl start gdm3

ralfeus · 18 Feb 2022

I have default target multi-user but still it boots to GUI.