Sure, Ubuntu can be used in freedom, it's just not like that by default.
Everything in the Main and Universe repositories is supposed to be
free/libre, but keep in mind that proprietary firmware and proprietary fonts
exist in the Main repository (because of how Canonical defines "software" and
"free"), so you will need to replace Linux with Linux-libre and make sure you
don't have any of the non-libre fonts installed, to have a completely
free/libre system.
But I don't think Ubuntu is going to help, unless your only problem is not
being able to do a text-based install. It uses Linux 3.13, an older version
than the version of Linux-libre than what is available at the Linux-libre
PPA, which works on Trisquel.
If it is just that you have trouble with text mode, you might want to try
GdNewHat, which would include Linux-libre 3.11 by default, if I'm not
mistaken (it hasn't been approved as a free software distribution by the GNU
Project yet, but I think it's going to end up being approved, having checked
it myself):
http://gdnewhat.org/
