Ctrl-alt-backspace

[Avi Greenbury]

Doug wrote:

>   but if you can't get there, then ctrl-alt-bs should work.  If
> Ubuntu has removed that, they have screwed up yet again!

Ubuntu didn't remove it, X11 did upstream. Which sort-of hints at one
of its major problems - it was implemented in X11. When X11 is hung, you
don't want to be reliant upon an X11 feature to restart it. I know,
yes, it's still very useful because the subset of problems in which it
does work are also among the most common.

But, in any case, you can use one the magic sysrq key combinations to
restart X:

ctrl+alt+sysrq+k

Will kill anything on your current TTY which, generally, is X11. And
when X11 is killed like that, it starts itself again.

It's still a pretty rude way to kill X, though.

-- 
Avi