Ctrl+Alt+F2
Use {F2,F3,F4...F6}
Start x display
with a simple command in Ubuntu
xinit -- :1 vt8
Use {vt8,vt9,...,vt12}
then log in to far away machine
ssh user@ip_address -X -C
-X for X Forwarding
-C for compression (don't remember the case)
once logged in use command
gnome-session
this is my window manager of choice albeit heavy. You can use others from so many available!