@RetroPi

The disable didn't work because the Debian /etc/X11/default-display-manager logic is winding up overriding it.

In order to make text boot the default under systemd (regardless of which distro, really):

systemctl set-default multi-user.target

To change back to booting to the GUI,

systemctl set-default graphical.target

I confirmed those work on my Jessie VM and Slashback confirmed it on Stretch, too.

PS: You don't actually need the X server on your machine to run X clients over ssh. The X server is only needed where the display (monitor) is.

Re: disable GUI (XFCE)
Quote Originally Posted by cazz View Post
I just like to disable the XFCE so if I need to have it on I can enable but when I dont want to have it going to be disable.
When you boot normally, does it get in to XFCE successfully?

You can disable XFCE at bootup by opening a terminal and running:
Code:
sudo update-rc.d -f gdm remove
Then when you boot it will boot into a terminal, and then you can type:
Code:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
to start XFCE, and
Code:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
to stop it.

If you ever wanted to make it start at boot as before, just run:
Code:
sudo update-rc.d gdm defaults 30 01
The problem showing the messages you got is a slightly different one, but let me know whether it boots to XFCE successfully normally, or if this solution works first.