Comments on: Kill a Frozen or Crashed UNIX / Linux X Desktop

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:04:23 +0000

I had the similar issue in KDE 3 on fedora 9. Experimentally I found out that keyboard started working again after right-clicking on a windows’ titlebar to bring up context menu with windows actions. Yes, that’s very strange but saved me tens of minutes, which otherwise would be spent on X restarts.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:00:15 +0000

For this to work you need kernel.sysrq = 1 in sysctl.conf. By default this option is set to 0 (at least on centos, fedora).

By: Omar

Omar — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:13:49 +0000

DeBaan, I am getting exactly the same thing you are getting, running Linux version 2.6.9-67.EL

So far nothing definitive came up in my google searches on this problem, though I saw a post about restarting mice which suggested doing Ctrl-Alt-F5 to switch to text mode login, then Ctrl-Alt-F7 to go back to the GUI. This doesn’t kill your windows, it just restarts whatever processes that bring up the graphics. I’m not too optimistic this will fix the problem, but it’s worth a try next time it happens…

By: chika.tambun

chika.tambun — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:15:47 +0000

@mike….

it’s easy … since there is no keyboard virtual like m$ on intrepid CMIIW… go to
ubuntu logos >> System >> Administration >> System monitor(go to processes tab >> choose bash or X process then kill them… LoL)

Whew… cool enough, ^^

br,

chika.tambun

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:19:45 +0000

A problem I’ve been having lately is not so much the GUI locking up, but the keyboard stops responding the mouse is OK. Is there a GUI only methods d for this, almost feel dirty asking for a GUI tip :)

By: georges

georges — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:01:38 +0000

thanks for the tip.
I tried it in Fedora/gnome and it works fine.

What I do is use ctrl/alt/F1
log in as root.
do some analysis or cleaning (top, ps -edf, kill, etc …)
then type ctrl/alt/f7
And I am back in gnome

By: luis

luis — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:09:26 +0000

and if the system is realy crashed and the above solution wont work… hold down Alt + SysRq and with those keys pressed, type reisub
and system will reboot ;)

By: vivek

vivek — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:50:53 +0000

@DeBaan,

Any specific error message in a log file – /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

By: DeBaan

DeBaan — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:45:31 +0000

I use gdm and gnome; periodically, my mouse pointer disappears, and I lose the ability to change focus of windows (alt-tab doesn’t work, but alt-f4 does). Ctrl-alt-f1 works, as does ctrl-alt- backspace, but killing X closes all my open programs.

Xeyes shows that the system is still tracking my mouse, but the pointer is gone, and clicking (right or left) does nothing. I have to ctrl-alt-backspace to kill X and have my pointer come back.

Unplugging my usb mouse and keyboard does not have any effect.

Any ideas?

I originally thought it was a pointer grabbing issue from all my vncviewer and rdesktop windows, but then I saw it happen when my mouse was only on the gnome-panel.

I use xscreensaver with a timeout, and it appears not to register input when I’m in a rdesktop or vncviewer windows, so X starts to go black for screensaver, then comes back. I wondered if that was related.

Out of ideas.

By: mhymn

mhymn — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:08:22 +0000

‘killall -9′ would be a better choice imo, and particularly ‘killall -9 X’ that will reset the DM too.
i’d also recommend ‘Ctrl + Alt + Esc’ to end the not responding program or window.

By: vivek

vivek — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:27:19 +0000

Chika,

I never tried creating slideshow from photoes; so really can’t help you out!

By: chika.tambun

chika.tambun — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:00:58 +0000

whew… after i read this thread… i did it in short time… bummmphhhhhh… login screen with people smiling appear….

fortunately, i’ve done burning dvd-disc… oh god really2 love me.

viva ubuntu,

chika.tambun

nb: vivek wht abt my question abt make dvd slideshow from photoes i have… c’mon i’ve tried mandvd, manslide…. but none of them works well