Change default runlevel in Fedora 19

As you may have noticed, Fedora is progressively switching to systemd (yes, that’s also why you couldn’t find init scripts like /etc/init.d/sshd or /etc/init.d/iptables), so now there is no more /etc/inittab to edit in order to select the desired runlevel of your system.

Here’s the actual runlevel-to-systemd command table for you:

RUNLEVEL 5: Graphical, Multiuser (this is the default runlevel - desktop users)

 ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

RUNLEVEL 3: NO GUI, Multiuser (this is the “server” choice)

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

Just as reference, here’s the complete systemd runlevel list. For your mental sanity, please do not set runlevel other than the two I just described above :)

 /lib/systemd/system/runlevel0.target -> poweroff.target/lib/systemd/system/runlevel1.target -> rescue.target /lib/systemd/system/runlevel2.target -> multi-user.target/lib/systemd/system/runlevel3.target -> multi-user.target/lib/systemd/system/runlevel4.target -> multi-user.target/lib/systemd/system/runlevel5.target -> graphical.target/lib/systemd/system/runlevel6.target -> reboot.target