How to switch from GUI to console mode [duplicate]

Is it possible to disable X at boot time? I'm setting up a server so it would be nice if it wouldn't load the graphical interface every time I boot.

Edit /etc/default/grub with your favourite editor, e.g. nano:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Find this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Change it to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"

Update GRUB:

sudo update-grub

For systems that use systemd

^{This is an additional step for systemd releases, e.g. Ubuntu 15.04, the steps above for grub are still necessary.}

You need to tell systemd to not load the graphical login manager:

sudo systemctl enable multi-user.target --force
sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

You will still be able to use X by typing startx after you logged in.

Installing the GUI will probably cause it to start automatically, but it's very easy to boot to text mode in Ubuntu. Just open /etc/default/grub as root and add text to the

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=

line. Then run:

sudo update-grub

Your system will then always boot to text mode.

If you want to boot to the GUI, just press e in the boot menu and remove text from the kernel line.

If you want to start the GUI after boot, just run:

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm start

Hope this helps :)