#1) You will need to change your default runlevel; there are six runlevels, with 0 and 6 for reboot/shutdown and 1 for single-user mode, and 2-5 for multiuser modes. Usually at least one of these is a "graphical" runlevel, and the rest "console mode" runlevels. You'll need to change this, usually from 5 (graphical) to 3 (console) but it might wary. The runlevels are described in the same file where you can change the default one, so you can see there which one(s) is/are the graphical one(s) and thus change the default accordingly. On many distributions this file is
/etc/inittab, but check out it for your version of Ubuntu. In that file (inittab) there's a line which describes
initdefault n, n is a number, and you'll need to change that number. If you just like to jump from graphical to console but not want it to be done every time you boot, you could use simply a command like
where 3 would be the desired runlevel. Remember, 0, 1 and 6 are
not normal runlevels.
#2) What's the problem exactly -- is it that the screen is just "too small" for your desktop (you could change this using your monitor's buttons, for example) or is it that the virtual desktop is bigger than the physical one, i.e. if you move your mouse to the edge where the desktop "goes over" and move it to the edge, the screen "scrolls" in that direction (in this case you'll need to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to set the resolutions and virtual desktop settings correctly)?
You may change your X settings from
/etc/X11/xorg.conf using any text editor (as root), just remember to back it up first in case you happen to devastate it
