Non-desktop Q4OS?

Nick_ · 2022-01-17 01:37

Hi, is there a non-desktop version of Q4OS?

I want to use Q4OS only as a console on an old pc.

What is your suggestion?

magenta-cuda · 2022-01-17 02:13

In my opinion if you want a console only OS you should try a different distro that is designed to work as a console only.

Seaken64 · 2022-01-17 03:43

Do you want console control centre? Console apt package manager? Or are you only interested in the console and will do everything from entering your own commands? Straight Debian is a good choice for console only. antiX has a nice console system with control centre, package manager, etc.

Seaken64

Nick_ · 2022-01-17 08:30

I'm actually running a console application. I've always had to deal with different problems in other distributions. Q4OS works exactly as I want, but the desktop application is very slow.

magenta-cuda · 2022-01-17 08:55

If you logout from the desktop by using "End Current Session" option you will return to a console.

Also, I think if you remove S01tdm from /etc/rc5.d the desktop will not start at bootup. Full Disclosure: I have not tried this but based on my understanding how Linux starts up it should work.

Also, you can start the desktop from the console by typing "startx".

Booting into "Recovery Mode" will give you a console with the lightest environment and root access.

Last edited by magenta-cuda (2022-01-17 09:54)

Nick_ · 2022-01-17 13:52

magenta-cuda wrote:

If you logout from the desktop by using "End Current Session" option you will return to a console.

Thanks

magenta-cuda wrote:

Also, I think if you remove S01tdm from /etc/rc5.d the desktop will not start at bootup. Full Disclosure: I have not tried this but based on my understanding how Linux starts up it should work.

The file is empty

magenta-cuda wrote:

Booting into "Recovery Mode" will give you a console with the lightest environment and root access.

I couldn't understand this process. Can you explain?

magenta-cuda · 2022-01-17 14:24

/etc/rc5.d/S01tdm is a symbolic link:

ls -l /etc/rc5.d/S01tdm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Dec 31 11:04 /etc/rc5.d/S01tdm -> ../init.d/tdm

Something is funny here since if this file is empty I don't think the desktop will launch. Please pardon me if I am wrong but I surmise from your response that you are not yet very knowledgeable about Linux. I don't think it is wise for you to change /etc/rc?.d/* files. Logging out using "End Current Session" is very safe but unfortunately you will have to wait for the desktop to startup after every boot.

"Recovery Mode" is a boot time option maybe a sub-menu item of "Advanced Options". Using this mode the kernel does minimal initialization. It will not start the desktop. It may not even setup the network. This mode is really for someone who knows how to drive Linux from the command line. It runs commands as root so you will need to be very careful.

Last edited by magenta-cuda (2022-01-17 15:39)

Nick_ · 2022-01-17 15:55

Thank you for your help. I removed the s01tdm file but the desktop reopened.

After removing /opt/trinity/bin/tdm and restarting it, the console screen came up.

Is there any way to uninstall Desktop?

Seaken64 · 2022-01-17 17:05

Q4OS is not really designed for console only. You are better off with Debian.

Seaken64

magenta-cuda · 2022-01-17 17:31

I don't understand why removing s01tdm didn't work. Did you actually remove it or just renamed it? Renaming probably doesn't work as the kernel just executes all scripts in the directory and it will still execute the renamed script.

I think it will be very difficult to just remove the Desktop from the installation. This is why Seaken64 and I are recommending a different distro. The difference is huge! The Q4OS iso is 600MB+ and the installation is several GB. A distro for console only is 25 - 150MB with a corresponding small installation. Further, a distro that supports a desktop also starts services such as dbus which you don't need and will consume memory and CPU cycles. (A reason I suggested "Recovery Mode" is that these unnecessary services are not started.) If you will only use the console I think you will be much better off with a distro designed to work only as a console.

Last edited by magenta-cuda (2022-01-17 17:55)

Midas · 2022-01-17 19:53

FYI and coming from a complete Linux layman, I've heard repeatedly that Alpine Linux (https://www.alpinelinux.org/) does very well in that kind of scenario...

magenta-cuda · 2022-01-17 21:13

I wrote:

I don't understand why removing s01tdm didn't work. Did you actually remove it or just renamed it? Renaming probably doesn't work as the kernel just executes all scripts in the directory and it will still execute the renamed script.

I investigated this further and found S01tdm lives in 4 rc?.d directories: rc2.d, rc3.d, rc4.d and rc5.d. So I removed them all and was surprised to find that TDE still starts. Now, I really don't understand how TDE is starting. The only thing I can think of is there must be some fallback script maybe starting the X server which will then start TDE.

q4osteam · 2022-01-18 10:02

@Nick_
Of course, you can use Q4OS without desktop environment. As Q4OS is Debian actually, we can recommend that. You only need to disable starting display manager service, run in terminal:
$ sudo systemctl mask tdm.service
and reboot.

magenta-cuda · 2022-01-18 12:23

Q4OS Team wrote:

Of course, you can use Q4OS without desktop environment. As Q4OS is Debian actually, we can recommend that. You only need to disable starting display manager service, run in terminal:
$ sudo systemctl mask tdm.service
and reboot.

Thank-you very much for this. I have been trying to understand how tdm starts. I come from MX Linux which uses SysVinit. I notice that Q4OS has both the SysVinit files - /etc/init.d/* and /etc/rc?d/* and the systemd files - /lib/systemd/system/* and /etc/systemd/system/*. Are the SysVinit files actually used? I tried to disable tdm by removing S01tdm from the /etc/rc?d directories but this had no effect. Since, systemctl is a systemd command am I correct in inferring that tdm is started only by systemd. If this is so why do the SysVinit files exists in the /etc directory?

One further question, does disabling tdm also disable ancilliary desktop services such as dbus?

q4osteam · 2022-01-20 15:27

magenta-cuda wrote:

Since, systemctl is a systemd command am I correct in inferring that tdm is started only by systemd. If this is so why do the SysVinit files exists in the /etc directory?

Systemd can emulate SysVinit some way, so it's able to run SysVinit only services in an emulation mode.

magenta-cuda wrote:

One further question, does disabling tdm also disable ancilliary desktop services such as dbus?

Yes, dbus is started under desktop environment.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2022-01-17 01:37

Non-desktop Q4OS?

#2 2022-01-17 02:13

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#3 2022-01-17 03:43

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#4 2022-01-17 08:30

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#5 2022-01-17 08:55

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#6 2022-01-17 13:52

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#7 2022-01-17 14:24

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#8 2022-01-17 15:55

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#9 2022-01-17 17:05

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#10 2022-01-17 17:31

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#11 2022-01-17 19:53

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#12 2022-01-17 21:13

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#13 2022-01-18 10:02

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#14 2022-01-18 12:23

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

#15 2022-01-20 15:27

Re: Non-desktop Q4OS?

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