Headless vs Graphical Linux¶
When running your robot in hardware demonstrations and data gathering sessions, it is advantageous to run your companion computer in a headless (or text-based) mode with no Desktop Environment. This will save on resources like CPU and RAM, giving your algorithms slightly more computational power.
To do this, we will use systemctl commands. For a brief overview of systemctl, read the Startup Scripts with systemd article.
Making Headless the Default Configuration¶
We will make the non-graphical boot the default configuration so that there is very little to do in the field. To change the default run the following commands
$ sudo systemctl set-default -f multi-user.target
Double-check by running
$ sudo systemctl get-default
You can change into the ''multi-user'' target by rebooting or running the following command
$ sudo systemctl enable multi-user.target
Note that on a reboot, if you have your computer connected to a monitor it will show the output of a form of dmesg. To get to a login screen you must change tty by using Ctrl+Alt+F1.
Starting the Graphical Environment from Headless¶
To get back into a graphical desktop environment, run the following command
$ sudo systemctl enable graphical.target
You can always switch back to having graphical boot being the default with
$ sudo systemctl set-default -f graphical.target