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I need to use Ubuntu Desktop on my server for certain reasons because I can't use Ubuntu Server, but to make it more efficient I would like to remove the desktop environment and boot straight to the shell, all the other questions I saw the answer were for older versions of Ubuntu and the commands they posted did not work, mostly because it said those packages were not found.

All in all I just need the desktop environment gone and boot to the shell.

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2 Answers 2

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If it is already installed, you can remove the Ubuntu Desktop metapackage and install the server softwares you need:

sudo apt-get install openssh

Configure SSH according to your needs. Then:

sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get autoremove
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sudo apt-get purge unity gnome-shell lightdm

sudo apt-get clean

sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get -f install
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  • This will allow me to boot to the shell still right?
    – Wargog
    Jul 16, 2014 at 16:34
  • yeah, and if it doesn't boot directly into the shell then you can just press ctrl+alt+f1 and that will bring you to a shell and the ubuntu/unity desktop won't be running
    – sbergeron
    Jul 16, 2014 at 17:21
  • how can I reinstall all this. I accidentally did the above and cant recover it back
    – Nabeel K
    May 21, 2016 at 8:34
  • @beardedbeast Are you able to get to a tty? If so then just do an apt-get install lightdm [desktop environment of your choice]
    – sbergeron
    May 23, 2016 at 1:51

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