I recently installed Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) LTS, and I was wondering how could I start the GUI manually upon booting the system.
For example, I'd like the system to start at a black tty screen, ask for my credentials and password, and then I can start the GUI manually.
Run the following command in terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
This opens the GRUB boot loader configuration file with a text editor.
Comment the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash", by adding # at the beginning, which will disable the Ubuntu purple screen.
Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="text". This makes Ubuntu boot directly into text mode.
Uncomment this line #GRUB_TERMINAL=console, by removing the # at the beginning. This makes GRUB menu into real black & white text mode (without a background image).
After saving the changes, update GRUB via the command:
sudo update-grub
Restart your computer and see the result.
To get the GUI, run sudo lightdm.
