Switching Between Console and GUI in Ubuntu

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When in GUI mode, is there a CLI commands that kills the GUI and drops me into the console?

When in CLI mode, is there a CLI command that drops me into the GUI?

I found startx, but this drop me into the GUI without the unity interface, how do I launch anything?

I found service lightdm start which drops me into the GUI with the unity interface.

I found service lightdm stop which drops me into a blank black screen with no CLI input capability.

I found the Ctl + Alt + F* sends me back between console and GUI, but it does not kill the GUI. I want to kill the GUI if I don't want to use it anymore.

Best Answer

To go in tty1 and stop the GUI, run from terminal:

sudo xdotool key Ctrl+Alt+F1 && sudo service lightdm stop

You can test now in the tty1 the fact that the GUI is stopped using:

sudo service lightdm status

Note: xdotool is not installed by default in Ubuntu, so you must to install it first using sudo apt-get install xdotool command.

To start the GUI again from tty1, you can run (as you said):

sudo service lightdm start

If you want also to close (exit) tty1 session, you can use:

sudo service lightdm start && logout

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Ubuntu GUI – How to Revert to GUI from CLI as Default Interface

Found the solution! So I'm posting it here myself...

To revert back to a graphical login and session (X session), GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text" in the /etc/default/grub file should be replaced by GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash reboot=bios" (or GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash reboot=api" for some Dell laptops). After having done this editing, save the file and run the update-grub command, and then reboot to see if the graphical login greeter appears. If it does, that's it... you can then log-in...

But if you still remain stuck with the problem (like I was..), you can try using gdm as your display-manager (DM) or you could also try reinstalling lightgdm. I uninstalled lightgdm and set gdm as the new manager with the command that follows:

sudo stop lightdm
sudo start gdm
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

and choose the DM you want so that it is set as the default option.

If your choice of DM was gdm, now you may uninstall lightdm, sudo apt-get remove lightdm, and sudo reboot. And there you are with our old gdm graphical display-manager.

But if you choose lightdm which if which crashed earlier like mine did, you'd like to do a reinstall of lightdm instead like described below:

Log-in to a new tty (press Ctrl + Alt + F1) and enter the commands;

sudo stop lightdm
sudo apt-get purge lightdm
sudo apt-get install lightdm

and then set lightdm as the default manager and reboot to see it in effect.

Ubuntu – How to set up Ubuntu Server 16.04 to load a GUI on demand

Run systemctl start lightdm to start lightdm, and by extension, the rest of the gui, when you desire. systemctl stop lightdm will shut it down.

Best Answer

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