Why does systemctl isolate multi-user.target succeed only once?

Question

I was just taught here that systemctl isolate multi-user.target is the modern way to unload the graphic shell, which was done by init 3 previously.

I see that init 3 still works in my system but it succeeds only once, likewise systemctl. When you run them once, then, it is fine -- the Gnome/KDE is unloaded and you can startx again. But, once you did that, initializing to level 3 does not work anymore. I am left at level 5, in KDE, at least in my Fedora-24. systemctl just hangs until I kill it with Ctrl+C. Why is that? Do you notice the same behaviour?

Yes, I run the go to multi-user command from the GUI terminal.

When run the command the second time, did you boot back into the graphical shell before running it again? — Mark Stosberg, Jun 30 '16 at 14:05

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 04 '16 at 02:14

5

You are in runlevel 5 or to be precise in graphical.target. You do runlevel 3 or systemctl isolate multiuser.target.

If you type startx you are still in runlevel 3 or multiuser.target, even if X is running, so systemctl isolate or runlevel 3 will not work.

answered Jul 04 '16 at 02:14

Uwe Burger

187
1

According to http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/297835/9689 there is no multi-user.target , is it? Otherwise, could someone, please correct example with better target? – Grzegorz Wierzowiecki Jul 31 '16 at 15:46
1

@GrzegorzWierzowiecki check systemctl list-units and you will see if you have a multi-user target. – morxa Aug 06 '16 at 10:09

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 11 '19 at 22:06

2

From documentation, you can use set-default instead of isolate:

$ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

Then reboot.

edited Jun 11 '19 at 22:06

Sparhawk

19,941

answered Aug 04 '16 at 16:54

smd

21

Why does systemctl isolate multi-user.target succeed only once?

2 Answers2