Usually, the switching between GUI and command line interface becomes essential for example, there can be a situation where a server might be having resource problems with its existing specifications. To enhance performance, one might shun the GUI. This can be done by simply changing the run level of the system. If the system is running in GUI, it will probably be in run level 5 which you can verify with ‘runlevel’ command. To change it to command line, you can run the following command:
linux:/ # init 3
This will change the run level of the system to 3 which does not initiate the X-Windows. Hence, you’ll be working in a command line interface. Please read further about run levels here.
