RHEL: How to Switch Users in Multiuser Runlevels

Switching User

To switch to a different user, e.g. student, run

$ su - student

To switch to root

$ su -

Runlevels

Most Linux distribution can be ran in 5 different runlevels. Runlevel 0 and 6 are special, which you can see below.

• 0 - Shutdown
• 1 - Single user mode, without network
• 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
• 3 - Full multiuser mode, with network.
• 4 - Unused
• 5 - X11, graphical mode with network
• 6 - Reboot

To see the current runlevel, type:

$ runlevel

The default runlevel is set in /etc/inittab.

How to Switch Runlevels

You can switch the runlevel with init, e.g. init 3. But from the graphical mode, there is also a keyboard shortcut.

ctrl + alt + F1 - for init 1, ctrl + alt + F2 - for init 2, etc.