How to Change Systemd Runlevel on Fedora Linux – The Manual Way

Fedora Linux starts to use systemd to manage system service. The /etc/inittab is no longer used by systemd. The old method of editing /etc/inittab to change system runlevel does not work anymore. This post introduces a “manual” way to change the boot levels. For the general method, please check https://www.systutorials.com/change-systemd-boot-target-linux/.

systemd uses ‘targets’ instead of runlevels. By default, there are two main targets:

multi-user.target: analogous to runlevel 3
graphical.target: analogous to runlevel 5

To set a default target, run:

# ln -s /lib/systemd/system/<target name>.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Shortcut scripts:

Change the runlevel to ‘multi-user’ (3):

# rm -f /etc/systemd/system/default.target; 
ln -s /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Change the runlevel to ‘graphical’ (5):

# rm -f /etc/systemd/system/default.target; 
ln -s /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target