How to access GUI from TTY mode?

I am using Ubuntu 13.10 32-bit. I am using terminal mode to test a Window Manager.

I know I can use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to go to terminal mode from the GUI mode. But there is still graphical desktop running in background.

Is there a command to move from CLI to GUI mode so that I can access that GUI?

Solution 1:

You can either:

press ctrl+alt+F7 *

Or

run the command startx

* From the 17.10 Release Notes:

• GDM has replaced LightDM as the default display manager. The login screen now uses virtual terminal 1 instead of virtual terminal 7.

Also see Why is my GDM at a different TTY than my desktop environment? for more about the origin of this change.

Solution 2:

To check your default display manager (DM):

cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager

To check if the display manager is running:

ps cax | grep display_manager

e.g.: if it's lightdm:

ps cax | grep lightdm

(you can then follow up with echo $? command, an output 0(zero) indicate its running or otherwise.)

To start a DM:

sudo start display_manager

e.g.:

sudo start lightdm

To stop a DM:

sudo stop display_manager

e.g.:

sudo stop lightdm

To restart a DM:

sudo restart display_manager

e.g.:

sudo restart lightdm

Solution 3:

Try this command on virtual console,

sudo service $(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager | awk '{print substr($1,11)}' ) restart