Comments on: Kill! Kill! Kill! (A Linux tip)

By: Nomen Nescio

Nomen Nescio — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:20:35 +0000

depending on how your X11 is configured, it may listen to ctrl-alt-backspace. that hotkey — unless it’s been disabled, which is rare — kills off the X server (the GUI part of the OS alone), which can lead to either a restart of the GUI dumping you at the log-in screen (the usual result) or a text-mode-only user interface (rarer).

By: Greg Buchholz

Greg Buchholz — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:10:46 +0000

When all else fails you need to “kill -9.”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:07:24 +0000

I supposed it depends on where in shutdown you are. You could hit ctrl-function key (try various ones) to get a terminal and then kill the x server from a distance.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:38:31 +0000

What do you do if the x server hangs on shutdown? Other than pull the power with a menacing spork?

By: Lassi Hippeläinen

Lassi Hippeläinen — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:50:17 +0000

There are ways to kill processes from a GUI. In KDE, use KSysGuard. It has two tabs, one for system load, and the other for process table. Click the process you don’t like and hit the kill button. Gnome must have something similar.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:01:50 +0000

Yes! xkill with no process ID number gives you a cool skull and crossbones cursor. Whatever you touch with it dies.man xkill gives us:” This program is very dangerous, but is useful…”

By: CS

CS — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:21:56 +0000

There is also xkill that lets you select a gui program to kill.I use some non-native programs that do not always respond to the default kill command when they become unresponsive. I have to use “kill -9 ” in that case. It doesn’t do a proper cleanup, but it works as a last resort.