How to Enter CLI-Only mode for MacOS Sequoia (GUI totally off)?

studyhard3 wrote:

Wellp, thanks. Guess I'll just ask if this will ever be patched in then LOL.

You can ask Apple about that:

Product Feedback - Apple

Or you can load Linux (Fedora Asahi remix) on that Mac, and get more control that way.

I don't actually know if this works in Sequoia - but I can't see why Apple would have taken it out of macOS...

In System Settings, change the login settings to display Name and Password instead of List of Users on the login screen. Then, when you reboot, login as >console (exactly ">console" with no space between ">" and "console") and your admin password.

That should take you to a CLI console interface. I have no idea if logging in that way will cause your normal shell environment to load, etc, etc. Or why you would want to use the computer that way, honestly...but it ought to work.

No such option in Sequoia.

dialabrain wrote:

Just thinking about this a bit more, the reason I started using Macs in the first place was because of the GUI. Just using a CLI would seem to me be the equivalent of programming in machine language.

CLIs are at a far higher level than is assembler too, even a comparatively very nice assembler like that of VAX, or with a simpler assembler like 6502.

More generally, CLIs are reasonable choices for automating various functions that might be tedious or error-prone when performed in the GUI.

But if you’re stripping down to what approaches an embedded system or a dedicated app design as the OP here is approaching, that’s much closer to Fedora Asahi remix on Apple silicon, or to all sorts of more dedicated stuff like the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, any of the PINE64 gear, or SiFive HiFive1 if you want to be closer to the bleeding edge with the RISC-V world, or any of many other fine choices. Macs just aren’t all that cost-effective in that realm.

Single-user on Mac T2 Intel: Boot modes of an Intel-based Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip - Apple Support

Now back to the original question, the following might get an Apple silicon Mac into single-user mode, though it involves a fair amount of work to get there, and disabling all boot-time security:

Root single mode on m1 mac - Apple Community

dialabrain wrote:

Just thinking about this a bit more, the reason I started using Macs in the first place was because of the GUI. Just using a CLI would seem to me be the equivalent of programming in machine language.

I've written machine language programs toggling in the instructions bits from the front console on DEC PDP-8's, UNIVAC 9300's, UNIVAC 418-III's, Xerox Sigma III's (I got rather good on the Sigma III, and the UNIVAC 9300 😁 )

Trust me when I say, that a command line CLI is NOTHING like programming in machine language 😁

Having said that, either follow MrHoffman's advice and install Asahi Linux.

Or get a computer that will install any version of Linux with as much RAM as the motherboard will allow. You can most likely get something for a lot less money and a lot more RAM than from Apple. That includes ARM64 based systems, RISC-V systems, intel systems.

Or buy a Mac with more RAM.

Without the macOS GUI, there is very little special about the Mac vs other computer hardware when you are working in Single User Mode (and I've been there, done that enough times as well over the years).

BobHarris wrote:

Trust me when I say, that a command line CLI is NOTHING like programming in machine language 😁

🤣 I did say, "would seem to me". I have done a little machine language coding in the past.

Oh, also...while I have seen this method referenced in a number of places, it was never entirely clear what else needed to be turned off to make it work.

e.g., Filevault changes the entire boot process and inserts a password requirement for a registered user to unlock the disk. It also prevents the username/password fields from appearing (you only have the List of Users available). So for this method does work it might require Filevault to be disabled. Etc, etc, for other advanced security features.

Again, even if techncially possible, I don't know why anyone would want to use an macOS without the GUI. Aqua/Metal is not X-Server and the various Linux windowing environments.

No idea.

Just thinking about this a bit more, the reason I started using Macs in the first place was because of the GUI. Just using a CLI would seem to me be the equivalent of programming in machine language.

Perhaps I should have just said I prefer a GUI, or said nothing at all.

Assembler is super-painful, but there is a certain logic and beauty to it (painful, harsh beauty to be sure).

RTOS programming in micro-C with assembler hooks is just super-painful.