CentOS 7 / RHEL 7: Change System Runlevel

In CentOS 7 or RHEL 7 operating system, you probably want to change the runlevle of your system, then  How To check the current run levle? How do I change the run level of system ? how to check the current run level of system under CentOS 7 linux system or RHEL 7 linux system? this post will guide you to change or set the system runlevel.

​CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 Check The Current Runlevel 

You still can use “runlevel” command to check the current level, also can use another two commands.

systemctl get-default"

Or

ll /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Output:

[root@osetc Desktop]# systemctl get-default

graphical.target

[root@osetc Desktop]# ll /etc/systemd/system/default.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 36 Nov 27 09:31 /etc/systemd/system/default.target -> /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target

CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 Supported Runlevel

Using the followding command to get out the available runlevel, type:

systemctl list-units --type=target

Output:

[root@osetc Desktop]# systemctl list-units --type=target

UNIT                LOAD   ACTIVE SUB    DESCRIPTION

basic.target        loaded active active Basic System

cryptsetup.target   loaded active active Encrypted Volumes

getty.target        loaded active active Login Prompts

graphical.target    loaded active active Graphical Interface

local-fs-pre.target loaded active active Local File Systems (Pre)

local-fs.target     loaded active active Local File Systems

multi-user.target   loaded active active Multi-User System

network.target      loaded active active Network

nfs.target          loaded active active Network File System Server

paths.target        loaded active active Paths

printer.target      loaded active active Printer

remote-fs.target    loaded active active Remote File Systems

slices.target       loaded active active Slices

sockets.target      loaded active active Sockets

sound.target        loaded active active Sound Card

swap.target         loaded active active Swap

sysinit.target      loaded active active System Initialization

timers.target       loaded active active Timers

LOAD   = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.

ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.

SUB    = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

18 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.

To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.

Or you can use “ll -l /lib/systemd/system/runlevel*.target” to get the runlevel that CentOS 7 system support.

[root@osetc Desktop]# ls -l /lib/systemd/system/runlevel*.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 15 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel0.target -> poweroff.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 13 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel1.target -> rescue.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 17 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel2.target -> multi-user.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 17 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel3.target -> multi-user.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 17 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel4.target -> multi-user.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel5.target -> graphical.target

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 13 Nov 27 09:18 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel6.target -> reboot.target

CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 Set Default Runlevel

you need to edit the “/etc/inittab” file to set the defatult runlevel in Centos 6.x system, but now the inittab file is no longer used in centos 7 system,  and systemd uses “targets” instead of runlevels,  there are two main targets: multi-user.target (runlevel 3) and graphical.target( runlevel 5), to set a defalut target or default runlevel, run the following command:

ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/<target name>.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Example: set default runlevel to multi-user.target,  issue the following command:

ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

This way will create symbolic link of runlevel targets to default target file.

Or you can use a systemctl command to set default runlevel, type:

systemctl set-default multi-user.target

you must reboot the system, type:

reboot

CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 Switch Current Runlevel

If you wanna to switch the current runlevel to another, and also do not want to reboot the system, such as, switching the mult-user.target level to graphical.target level immediately, issue the following command:

systemctl isolate graphical.target

OR

systemctl isolate runlevel5.target

Also switching to multi-user.target level, using following command:

systemctl isolate mult-user.target

OR

systemctl isolate runlevel3.target