How to start unity after boot into command line with "text"-option?

I want my system to boot terminal only, but be able to launch Unity once logged in. I've edited /etc/default/grub from :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash text"

and my system launches to the terminal fine, but when I try to launch unity I get:

WARNING: no DISPLAY variable set, setting it to : 0
compiz (core) - Fatal: Couldn't open display : 0

Everything goes back to normal when I restore the original GRUB configuration, so it looks to me like nothing is actually broken.

I'm running in a VM, and have now tested this with a clean install of Ubuntu, as well as with the Amahi installation I am trying to test. The same error occurs with the clean install.

So how can I actually start unity after a system start that doens't start it directly?

Solution 1:

The startx command load only the default desktop environment without Unity or other user interface. The startx unity command can do this job, but I do not recommend it. You can test it and you'll see why.

To load with success the X display manager along with Unity from TTY, use next command:

sudo service lightdm start