LUA, commun point for VLC, Awesome, SciTE ...

It is amazing to see that most of the software I like and use embed LUA, the "powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language" :

• VLC Multimedia player can uses LUA playlist.
• Awesome Window Manager can be extended with LUA:
• SciTE source code editor can be extended with LUA.
• Rockbox firmware for mp3 players can be configured with LUA too, even if I cannot find a good official link.
• Grub 2 the boot manager has integrated lua as an alternative script engine.

It is good to know that you can invest into it.

Getting rid of the DisplayManager, Choose your run level

The Display Manager (generally: GDM, KDM, or XDM, Slim ...) is there for historical reason, but it isn't useful unless you need special features.
Now the problem is that Ubuntu restricted the uses of Run Levels ! So you have to tweak the system a little bit if you want to start in text mode.
So lets read:
Add a text-only runlevel to Ubuntu Gutsy and
Boot time RunLevel
Then modify your /etc/event.d/rc-default:

#
# This task guesses what the "default runlevel" should be and starts the
# appropriate script.

start on stopped rcS

script
      runlevel --reboot || true

      if grep -q -w -- "-s\|single\|S" /proc/cmdline; then
          telinit S
      elif RL="$(grep -o "[[:blank:]][2345]$" /proc/cmdline || true)"; then
          if [ -n "$RL" ]; then
              telinit $RL
          else
              telinit 2
          fi
      elif [ -r /etc/inittab ]; then
          RL="$(sed -n -e "/^id:[0-9]*:initdefault:/{s/^id://;s/:.*//;p}" /etc/inittab || true)"
          if [ -n "$RL" ]; then
              telinit $RL
          else
              telinit 2
          fi
      else
          telinit 2
      fi
end script

Then knowing that I use Grub 2, the following file has to be modified /etc/grub.d/10_linux (no more menu.lst). Just add the bold part:

...
 cat << EOF
menuentry "${OS}, linux ${version}" {
       linux   ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX} ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT}
EOF
 if test -n "${initrd}" ; then
   cat << EOF
       initrd  ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}
EOF
 fi
 cat << EOF
}
EOF

 cat << EOF
menuentry "${OS}, linux ${version} (text mode)" {
       linux   ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro 3 ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX}
EOF
 if test -n "${initrd}" ; then
   cat << EOF
       initrd  ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}
EOF
 fi
 cat << EOF
}
EOF

 cat << EOF
menuentry "${OS}, linux ${version} (single-user mode)" {
       linux   ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro single ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX}
EOF
 if test -n "${initrd}" ; then
   cat << EOF
       initrd  ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}
EOF
 fi
 cat << EOF
}
EOF

...

That worked for me, but be careful as it can screw your system !
Now just log in and type: $ startx awesome