Ubuntu – How to start GUI from command line

I honestly don't know the difference. I'm not sure I've seen the phrase "passwordless login" where I haven't just assumed they're talking about auto-login.

For machines that use LightDM (11.04 up) you can add a user to the configuration in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf using the autologin-user variable so the file ends up looking something like this:

[SeatDefaults]
autologin-guest=false
autologin-user=oli
autologin-user-timeout=0
autologin-session=lightdm-autologin
greeter-session=
user-session=ubuntu

That gives you a screen where that user (oli in this case) is logged in automatically after a few seconds. If you want to alter that timeout so it happens more quickly , you can play around with the autologin-user-timeout variable in the same file.

So I managed to get GUI back without any command line typing. I did nothing, just hit Enter on Ubuntu option the next boot attempt. Just didn't let GRUB stopwatch to reach 0 and didn't use arrows in GRUB menu, just hit Enter. Very strange.

First of all, I remember when it happened. I turned on the computer and left my room to do other things. Before it I always manually selected in GRUB menu what system to load, either Xubuntu or Windows. I never let GRUB stopwatch to reach 0 and boot itself, I always hit Enter earlier. So when I came back to computer I saw the command line prompt instead of GUI.

I didn't know how to restart Xubuntu safely from the command line, so in this situation I just hit the restart button. The following boot I immediate used arrows in GRUB to go down the menu (up to Windows XP option) and then go up to select Ubuntu again. Just to stop GRUB stopwatch. Then hit Enter. But got command line again. I again reset the computer with the reset button.

This time I switched to Windows, surfed the Internet for answers, wrote this question. Found this 7 pages thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1570540. A user experienced the same problem in 2010. The main solution is on page six http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1570540&page=6&p=9935242#post9935242. So I did the same.

I tried to boot again but this time I didn't use arrows. I just immediately hit Enter on Ubuntu option in GRUB. And I got GUI. Xubuntu is installed but GRUB's option is Ubuntu, not Xubuntu.

Xubuntu also fixed some crash when I entered GUI:

execution path:
   usr/bin/Xorg
package:
   xserver-xorg-core 2:1, 13,3 - Oubuntu6
problem type:
   Crash
title
   Xorg crashed with SIGABRT in raise()

So my conclusion is: if you want Xubuntu, immediately hit Enter in GRUB menu. Don't let stopwatch to get 0 and don't use arrows. I you want Windows, choose a Windows option using arrows and hit Enter. Isn't it ridiculous?