[techhelpbb]

My ability to edit my previous post has timed out.
So....

If you wanted to boot in text mode using Lubuntu here's how:

You can either:

Edit grub in /etc/default/
Then add (this should look similar to a line I suggested commenting out above):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"

Then do a: sudo update-grub

or

Create a text file called lightdm.override in /etc/init/
In that text file just type:

manual

Either has the exact same result: lightdm will not start so the GUI will not start
I prefer the first choice because it more closely resembles how this trick works
when you use gdm in other versions of Ubuntu. You should not do a: startx
If you execute the 'startx' command the screen will likely go blank.
If you do that you'll likely need to CTRL-ALT-F1 back to the session that contained the command.
It'll be hung at: "Loading extension GLX"
There will be nothing suspicious in your Xorg.0.log in: /var/log/
This is because 'startx' is waiting for lightdm and you did not start lightdm
lightdm is providing things like the GUI login prompt which ends up with PAM etc.
Just press CTRL-C it'll drop you back to the command prompt.

Note: If you *really* want to get LXDE to start with: startx
When you have Internet access do a: sudo apt-get install lxde-common
Edit: ~/.xinitrc
And put in:

exec startlxde

However, be warned now...this trick is a bad idea at 640x480 you'll have a hard time with the logout window.
Also, you'll immediately notice that you get LXDE generic not what you expect from Lubuntu.

So now...

When you boot you'll get a command line version of the login.
So what if you do this and then want to get the GUI?

Well you have the following choices:

To start the GUI: sudo service lightdm start
To stop the GUI: sudo service lightdm stop

Remember CTRL-ALT-F2 from the last post?
Well CTRL-ALT-F7 is usually where the GUI is.
CTRL-ALT-F1 is where you will start if you boot into text mode.
You can easily switch back and forth.

Does that command to start and stop lightdm seem like a lot to remember?

No problem:

Text edit the file environment in /etc/
To the PATH string and inside the quotes add the following: :/usr/share

Now create a shell script called 'gui' in /usr/share.
Copy and paste this into it:

#!/bin/bash

guicmdline=$(echo $1 | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")

echo ""
case "$guicmdline" in
  start)
    echo "Starting lightdm GUI..."
    sudo service lightdm start
    ;;
  stop)
    echo "Stopping lightdm GUI..."
    sudo service lightdm stop
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Correct command usage:"
    echo ""
    echo "  gui start"
    echo "  gui stop"
    ;;
esac
echo ""

When you are done save that shell script.
Execute a: chmod 775 /usr/share/gui

Now....
If you type: gui
You will get something like this:

user@lubuntu13:/$ gui

Correct command usage:

gui start
gui stop

So at any prompt regardless of sudo you can start the GUI like this:
gui start

Why would you want to boot to a command prompt?
Well you wouldn't need a GUI on a small computer running Lubuntu on a robot.
However, you might occasionally want the GUI when it's in the pit.
It's not like you might be able to run this on something with like a BeagleBoard.
No never....Shhh....512MB of physical RAM and 4GB of storage.....where have I seen that specification before....