Remove 12.04 GUI on Desktop install to create server

[rgl2020]

Hi, hopefully someone can help me out. I have a computer I was using as a HTPC with Ubuntu Desktop on it. I have been sticking to the LTS versions and have gone through several updates. I no longer use it as a htpc and instead am using it as a file and media server as well as a few other things. I want to get rid of the gui and all the extra bloat included in the desktop version. I thought about doing a clean install, but thought that it would be more trouble than it's worth. So now that you know my situation, I have several questions.

1. Is there an easy way to remove the gui and bloat that comes with it?
2. Will it even make a performance difference removing the gui?
3. I read somewhere on this forum that there isn't any real difference anymore between the server and desktop versions except the gui. Is that actually true?
4. Should I just disable the gui instead?

[chadk5utc]

I believe the command that your looking for in

sudo apt-get —purge remove gnome*
I personally would back up as needed and do a clean install.

[ibjsb4]

If you not so sure about a server install, why not set up a 10 gig partition, install it and play with it for a while.

[newbie-user]

apt-cache show ubuntu-desktop

That shows all the dependencies and recommends for the ubuntu-desktop. Just copy all those package names and apt-get remove them.

+1 to chadk5utc's comment about a clean install.

[Wim Sturkenboom]

If the space that is occupied by the bloatware is not an issue, you can easily change your system to boot to console instead of GUI.

Edit /etc/default/grub, find the line that contains 'quiet splash' and add (or replace 'quiet splash' by) 'text'. From another post that I made, it should be this line


GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Next run


sudo update-grub

[rgl2020]

Thanks for the input. I decided to just do a clean install.

[ibjsb4]

Happy New Year :)

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