Ubuntu9.10 boot by 'grub', to change the boot mode to text-mode, we just need to change boot settings in '/boot/grub/grub.cfg'.
a. #vim /boot/grub/grub.cfg, you will find section like:
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 99c002e1-ea23-4eae-8b0e-5489df9e4223
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=99c002e1-ea23-4eae-8b0e-5489df9e4223 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
(*note:this is the default mode with runlevel = 2)
b. up-copy this part, and change it as below illustration:
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-text" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
# set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 99c002e1-ea23-4eae-8b0e-5489df9e4223
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=99c002e1-ea23-4eae-8b0e-5489df9e4223 ro text
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
(*note:since this part comes first in grub.cfg, so it become default boot mode with runlevel = 3)
c. #reboot