If you are trying to start up at runlevel 3. The another way to do it is pass it through grub. 1. at grub boot screen press "e" 2. select the line which reads "kernel...."etc & press "e" again 3. scroll to the end of the line and enter "linux 3" without the "" 4. press enter 5. press "b" to boot this should take you into runlevel 3.