Ubuntu Server - How to Remove Desktop

Question

I installed Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS as a VM. Then I installed Unity desktop with --no-install-recommends as in below command:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-unity-desktop

Now I want to remove desktop and return my good old terminal screen. I tried removing desktop with following command and reboot but nothing was changed after reboot.

sudo apt remove --purge ubuntu-unity-desktop

Is there a way to remove desktop totally?

Yes it works Thomas, thank you very much, appreciated. – NK_ Dec 12 '19 at 19:32 — NK_, Dec 12 '19 at 19:32
You're welcome. I've converted my comment to an answer. – Thomas Ward Dec 12 '19 at 19:36 — Thomas Ward, Dec 12 '19 at 19:36

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 12 '19 at 19:36

ubuntu-unity-desktop is a metapackage that has dependencies on other packages. Simply removing the metapackage doesn't remove the dependencies.

Run sudo apt autoremove --purge after you remove the metapackage, because the other dependencies weren't manually defined for installation but were instead included because ubuntu-unity-desktop needed them, you need to autoremove the 'now not needed' dependencies pulled in.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '22 at 10:03

3

For the record - with Ubuntu 18.04 slowly losing importance:

On Ubuntu 22.04 i had to remove the package "ubuntu-desktop-minimal" followed by "apt-get autoremove" to remove 158 desktop related packages.

answered Jun 27 '22 at 10:03

neuhaus

133

Ubuntu Server - How to Remove Desktop

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