Non-graphical login without gdm and starting IceWM

When booting Ubuntu (currently 9.10 Desktop Edition) on my Eee PC, my requirements are

1. Do not start X Window System automatically (i.e. suppress gdm),
2. Start IceWM session from console using startx command manually.

The reason for the first requirement is that I want to eliminate the initial overhead and extra memory for the nice-looking (but unnecessary for me) gdm (Gnome Display Manager) session. Also, I prefer text-based login that is simple and cool. The reason for the second requirement is that I like to start X Window System using the conventional startx command with .xinitrc file executed together (,where IceWM window manager is launched thereby). As a result, you can get an IceWM session with total memory usage of about 80 MB (as opposed to the default Gnome desktop consuming hundreds of memory for applets and daemons).

First, following this forum, disable gdm with

$ sudo update-rc.d -f gdm remove

Since now, you will see a bare text-based login prompt after boot-up.

Next, to start IceWM with startx command, edit .xinitrc file in home directory to append the following line:

icewm

(Without this step, Ubuntu's default Gnome session is launched, which is not what I want.)

Finally, after rebooting and log in to your system, start X Window System with

$ startx

That's all. Enjoy IceWM!

Appendix 1

I write down my own custom commands for X and application daemons in .xinitrc file under my home directory. Here is my simplified .xinitrc file.

.xinitrc

xmodmap ~/.xmodmap      # Key mapping customization
xset -b                 # Turn off beep sound
xsetroot -solid black   # Black out the screen background

xscreensaver &          # Launch a screen saver daemon
ibus-daemon &           # Launch ibus input daemon for Japanese language input
tilda &                 # Launch a drop-down terminal
sleep 16 && torsmo &    # Launch a system monitoring program for X.

icewm                   # Launch IceWM

It's nice to manually launch only what you really use in X. Note that you may launch window managers other than IceWM by simply modifying the last line.

Appendix 2

What if you wish to temporarily work in the Gnome desktop environment? All you have to do is to rename the .xinitrc file to something else, say .xinitrc-

$ mv .xinitrc .xinitrc-

With the absence of .xinitrc, startx will launch the default Gnome desktop session.

When you want to restore your IceWM setup, just rename it back again:

$ mv .xinitrc- .xinitrc