Eben King wrote:

I have a computer called "alexandria". Usually I log in via SSH. I only
log in at the console when it's broken so that networking doesn't work, and even then I almost always use a text console. So I very rarely need X, but still want it there to use if I need it. However it would be nice if the login screen weren't using up resources. I'd be completely fine with
logging in by startx.

To that end, I used aptitude to install the meta-package "xfce", and during installation it asked me whether I wanted to use lightdm or gdm3, and I picked lightdm.

What do I need to uninstall to make gnome gone? Then, what do I need to do to make X not use lightdm? On this machine I did "chmod 0
/usr/sbin/lightdm" which works, but probably isn't the right way. Thanks.

$ sudo apt remove lightdm

Check that startx works.

If there are any other display manager systems running, remove them as well.

In general, if you know the name of an executable, you can find
out what package it belongs to:

$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/mocp
moc: /usr/bin/mocp

and then you can remove that package.

Note that lots of things may depend on various GNOME packages,
things that you may want to keep -- read the to-remove list
carefully.

-dsr-

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On Wed 23 Apr 2025 at 14:25:38 (-0400), Eben King wrote:

I have a computer called "alexandria". Usually I log in via SSH. I
only log in at the console when it's broken so that networking doesn't
work, and even then I almost always use a text console. So I very
rarely need X, but still want it there to use if I need it. However
it would be nice if the login screen weren't using up resources. I'd
be completely fine with logging in by startx.

To that end, I used aptitude to install the meta-package "xfce", and
during installation it asked me whether I wanted to use lightdm or
gdm3, and I picked lightdm.

What do I need to uninstall to make gnome gone? Then, what do I need
to do to make X not use lightdm? On this machine I did "chmod 0 /usr/sbin/lightdm" which works, but probably isn't the right way.

I would assume that uninstalling the Display Manager would free up
the most resources, but you can probably prevent the DM from being
started by stopping, disabling and masking it with systemd. Masking,
AIUI, just points /etc/systemd/system/<whateverDM>.service at /dev/null.

Cheers,
David.

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On Thu 24 Apr 2025 at 02:14:47 (-0400), Timothy M Butterworth wrote:

On Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 7:27 PM Jeffrey Walton wrote:

On Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM David Wright wrote:

I would assume that uninstalling the Display Manager would free up
the most resources, but you can probably prevent the DM from being started by stopping, disabling and masking it with systemd. Masking, AIUI, just points /etc/systemd/system/<whateverDM>.service at /dev/null.

Using systemd's multi-user target may be a bit easier:

systemctl set-default multi-user.target

When ready, the gui can be (re)enabled with:

systemctl set-default graphical.target

That looks better. As a non-DE user, my graphical target is empty
but for udisks2.service, so I tend to overlook it.

Wouldn't setting runlevel3.target accomplish the same thing?

Perhaps, but it's hardly memorable. And, as a long-time Debian
user, runlevels 3–5 had no separate existence from 2 in my mind.

Cheers,
David.

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