How to access console mode in macOS Big Sur [duplicate]

First: I'm obviously not talking about logging in and then automatically launching Terminal.app.

In older versions of Mac OS X, you used to be able to type >console in the username field on the login screen and go directly into a command line terminal session.

I haven't done it in years until the other day. However, now, when I try it, my computer just locks up. I can't cancel, and it never sends me to a terminal session.

Is it even possible to do this anymore? If not, does anybody know when it was removed? It seems odd that typing >console would cause the machine to lock up if it wasn't recognizing it in some way.

If you find >console not working, newer OS have disabled it by default.

A quick command line modification of the preference will re-enable it:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist "DisableConsoleAccess" NO

>console works on OS X 10.7.5 , 10.8 and 10.9

I have just tested >console and was able to log into the console without issues running the above OS X's.

I would say there is something else wrong with your system if you cannot get to the basic console.

I would also check your console logs and activity monitor as specified here.

Another thing you might want to check is if you can boot in single user mode. Single user mode is triggered by holding cmd-s at startup:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1492

The single-user mode environment is quite a bit different than the standard terminal, because you login as root and a lot of system services are turned off, so it is not equivalent to the >console approach.

I'm having the same issue and can add the following:

sshed into the machine prior to entering >console at the login window.

Entered >console and hit return at the login window.

On the machine that was connected via ssh I ran sudo tail /var/log/system.log which showed evidence of a SecurityAgent crash.

killed (kill -HUP ) the WindowServer process (via ssh) and immediately got a white block in the top left corner of the screen. I hit Return and was at the login: prompt and was able to authenticate and work in console mode.

Subsequent tests have all been the same so in order to access >console it looks as if you need a second machine and ssh access.