did not try startgnome beforebut I guess they are just some scripts. you can view the content of other start* and make one startgnome yourself ba. and for remote-wise, sometimes it cannot work due to security concerns ba. btw, X is X, Gnome is Gnome, they are separate two things. If you want to try remove desktop, try VNC . but still, it works only if the network admin allow data in such ports