A systemd machine currently boots into the graphical target. You want every future boot to stop at the multi-user (text) target, and you do not want to change the running system right now. Which command do you use?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 101. System architecture medium
Draft — not checked yet. This question was written from the published exam objectives and cites the clause it comes from, but nobody has yet read it against that clause and signed for it.
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The options
Not correct systemctl default
Wrong. systemctl default isolates whatever the default target already is, right now. It reads the setting instead of changing it.
Not correct systemctl isolate multi-user.target
Wrong here: isolate switches the running system to that target immediately, stopping units not wanted by it. It changes now, and changes nothing about the next boot.
Not correct systemctl enable multi-user.target
Wrong. enable creates the symlinks described by a unit's [Install] section so it starts when something wants it. It does not make a target the boot default.
Correct systemctl set-default multi-user.target
Correct. set-default rewrites the /etc/systemd/system/default.target symlink, which decides what systemd isolates at every subsequent boot. The running system is untouched.
Why
Keep the pair straight: set-default changes what happens at the next boot by moving the default.target symlink (systemctl get-default reads it back), and isolate changes the state of the machine immediately. The old SysVinit equivalents were editing the initdefault line in /etc/inittab for the persistent change and telinit for the immediate one.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- LPI exam objective 101.3
- What it says
- Setting the default boot target and switching targets on a running system.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 101 and space the ones you get wrong.