# Gnome Graphical Console will not start at boot

**URL:** <https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401>\
**Category:** SLES Configure-Administer\
**Created:** [December 1, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401 "2020-12-01T17:35:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jamie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aca169/32.png) [@Jamie](https://forums.suse.com/u/Jamie)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401/1 "2020-12-01T17:35:53Z")

</div>

I have the “Use graphical console” option checked under Boot Loader Settings \> Kernel Parameters. However when I boot my SLES15SP2 virtual machine it will not start the graphical console. I can log into the console and start it with “init 3” then “init 5”. Any help appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![malcolmlewis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forums.suse.com/malcolmlewis/32/11375_2.png) [@malcolmlewis](https://forums.suse.com/u/malcolmlewis)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401/2 "2020-12-01T17:43:18Z")

</div>

@Jamie Hi and welcome to the Forum 🙂  
That option is for GRUB graphical, not the desktop, by default SLES will boot to the tty/console (runlevel 3), for graphical (runlevel 5) target, you need to set this option as follows;

```auto
Runlevel 5
systemctl set-default graphical.target
Runlevel 3
systemctl set-default multi-user.target

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jamie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aca169/32.png) [@Jamie](https://forums.suse.com/u/Jamie)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401/3 "2020-12-29T15:26:29Z")

</div>

This did not help unfortunately. Is there a log that would indicate what is happening?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![malcolmlewis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forums.suse.com/malcolmlewis/32/11375_2.png) [@malcolmlewis](https://forums.suse.com/u/malcolmlewis)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401/4 "2020-12-29T18:02:03Z")

</div>

@Jamie Hi, so what does the output show from `systemctl get-default`?  
Logs for Xorg should be down in `/var/log` to see what is what.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jamie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aca169/32.png) [@Jamie](https://forums.suse.com/u/Jamie)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/gnome-graphical-console-will-not-start-at-boot/35401/5 "2020-12-29T20:42:07Z")

</div>

I think I see my error now. I was following your reply “system set-default graphical.target” then “systemctl set-default multi-user.target”. So it works if I use the graphical.target parameter only. Thanks for the help.