Is it possible to run Ubuntu (12.10+) in text mode?

Question

linux

There is a rather old laptop (Dell Inspiron 1501) from which I want to make a small home "polygon" for various ideas. The problem is that when Ubuntu boots up, after a certain point of loading, the screen is covered with a gray stripe and the laptop stops responding to external stimuli. In the “purely textual” recovery mode, there is no such problem, the laptop loads successfully and works, respectively, I sin on the video (antediluvian map, problems in firewood or hardware). But, because I don’t need it at all in my current tasks, in fact, the question arises: is it possible to use the same settings for the main Ubuntu boot mode as for recovery (only text and, importantly, text login, no graphic consoles or splash screens) and, the most important thing is where to dig?

What I tried:
- all combinations from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT - do not work: the system still goes into a "gray screen".
- nail gdm and lightdm installed in the system - neither one nor the other is in the system.
— to put separately Desktop and the server version of system

What I will not try:
— to beat completely iksy. I'm afraid to rake up dependencies.
- use a different distribution: personal duckling syndrome and the need for a "similar configuration" with another machine.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Answer 1

What was wrong with Ubuntu Server?
There, after installation, there is a bare console and no X.

Answer 2

I'm not very familiar with Ubuntu, but is it really impossible to set mode 3 instead of 5 in /etc/inittab as in all other Linuxes?
like this:
# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
# 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 1 - Single user mode
# 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
# 3 - Full multiuser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:3:initdefault: