quote:
Originally posted by The Webmaster:
OK, let me clarify all this, since I'm on an OS X box right now.
Holding down command-V while you start up is "verbose mode," meaning you see text instead of the GUI -- but this is just during the bootup process. When you get to the point of login, it snaps right back into the GUI again.
However, at the login prompt, you can enter ">console" (without the quotes) as the username and hit enter, and poof -- the GUI's killed and you're in text mode, with a login prompt (from which you log in normally), and there you go. You're in text mode until you log out.
OS X isn't meant to be a server OS, although it can be used as one pretty effectively. OS X Server is meant for that. And on a fast enough box, the GUI isn't going to eat many cycles, especially while the console sits unattended (as is the case with the typical server machine).
Thanks for the tip on accessing the command-line under OS X. I was going to play around dual-booting Darwin on my iMac when I get it, but now I don't need to.
I did notice a bit of trivia with that, though; from what I've seen, Darwin (along with Terminal.app) use black text on a white background by default, but the console mode of OS X uses white text on black (which I much prefer), although I suppose it may have imported my Terminal.app preferences where I've changed it to what I like . . .
