I have an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server running GNOME shell,that I occassionly have to remotely access to perform some maintenance. I usually vpnc into the network and then simply use vncviewer to access the Gnome GUI desktop for testing,given that the account is logged in. The other day I had to reboot the server remotely and had forgotten that the system was not set to automatically login. Having issues trying to get the automatic login to work correctly, I had to call someone at the site to log me into the desktop. Is there a way that I can login in the GUI account from the cli remotely so I can continue with my testing using the gui for that account? My display Manager is GDM not LightDM.

Hi there,
You can try the command startx or init 5
also look in /etc/grub.conf

This is mine notice that I have the number 3 in the end boot option, in your case change it to 5

[root@home ~]# cat /etc/inittab
# inittab is no longer used when using systemd.
#
# ADDING CONFIGURATION HERE WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON YOUR SYSTEM.
#
# Ctrl-Alt-Delete is handled by /etc/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target
#
# systemd uses 'targets' instead of runlevels. By default, there are two main targets:
#
# multi-user.target: analogous to runlevel 3
# graphical.target: analogous to runlevel 5
#
# To set a default target, run:
#
# ln -s /lib/systemd/system/<target name>.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target
#
[root@home ~]# cat /etc/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_home-lv_root
# initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.43.8-1.fc15.x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.43.8-1.fc15.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_home-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_home/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_home/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us selinux=0 rhgb quiet 3
initrd /initramfs-2.6.43.8-1.fc15.x86_64.img

That won't log him in I'm afraid, it's good advice how to make X load at bootup but as I read the question X is started but OP needs to be logged in to the GUI on server.

metallica1973 why do you need to be logged in?
Do you know that you can run GUI-apps from server on your PC using ssh with X-forwarding?
In case you don't know, here's how:
In servers /etc/ssh/sshd_config, set
"X11Forwarding yes"
Then on client, log in with ssh:
"ssh -Y <me>@<server>"
you'll get a standard terminal, start your apps with for instance "kate &", the app will run on server but is displayed on your desktop.

If that is not enough & you want to log in to your desktop on server remotely, there are several "RemoteDesktop"-applications around. Haven't used any in Linux myself, but checkout this page: http://www.mynitor.com/2010/02/07/15...ons-for-linux/

If this is no help to you, please return with info about why you have to be logged in on server.

'init 5' does not work in Ubuntu as runlevels are (partially?) obsolete

Thanks for all the replies. The reason that I need to remotely login and do my work from the customer point of view is because this system is a security system running "Zoneminder". The system is configured to display all the cameras comsuming the whole screen. Over the weekend I remembered in the past using x2vnc which allowed me to remotely view the GDM display manager and login to any account. This system is using "Vino-Server" and I havnt figured out how to change the configuration to allow me to do that yet.