Perhaps I am way off base here but why are you expecting runlevel 3 to not
run X?  Yes, that was the SysVinit definition, but has not been used in
debian or ubuntu in a long time:

  http://www.debianadmin.com/debian-and-ubuntu-linux-run-levels.html

I think I read that Fedora, RedHat had started using upstart but I don't
know whether they kept the runlevel definintions they used previously like
in RH9:


http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/ref-guide/s1-boot-init-shutdown-sysv.html

The confusion in usage of runlevels by different systems is made much
clearer in this wikiperia article:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runlevel

So again, I may be off base here, but it seems to me there is no way in
ubuntu 9.04 to do what you want without editing some of the services out of
some runlevel (2-5) before tryiing to enter it and expecting X not to run.
IOW, runlevel 2-5 are all the same un debian/ubuntu UNLESS you change their
definition first.

Hmmm, I just realized that for their server edition, they probably have done
so already.  I don't have ne installed to look at.

-- 
Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry