install minimal desktop environment.txt

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-core xinit icewm


sudo mkdir -pv /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/autologin.conf

#edit the autologin.conf as follows

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin username --noclear %I 38400 linux

### the username part is importtant. you must Change "username" with your username

sudo systemctl enable [email protected] 


nano ~/.bash_profile

# edit the .bash_profile as follows

[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && exec startx

Along the way of reducing Ubuntu size. I broke the display output. 
the only way to get display output is to use vnc

sudo apt install tightvncserver tigervnc-standalone-server icewm

vncpasswd

vncserver -localhost no