Introduction

To restart X, there aren’t 36 solutions, but there is one in particular that I really like.

Solution

It’s a keyboard shortcut:

  Ctrl + Alt + Backspace

This avoids having to type, for example:

  /etc/init.d/gdm restart

That’s it, X restarts :-). Warning, this should only be done while in X, otherwise the PC will reboot :-(.

Problem starting from Ubuntu 9.04

Here’s what you can read:

  Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is now disabled, to reduce issues experienced by users who accidentally trigger the key combo. Users who do want this function can enable it in their xorg.conf, or via the command

How annoying! To reactivate it:

  apt-get install dontzap

Then:

  dontzap --disable
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Last updated 15 Apr 2009, 21:00 CEST. history