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In 12.04 How do you kill the X server from the command line and from the GUI interface and how do you start it from the virtual terminal?

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3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

Also, you can use the shortcut keys: Right Alt + Print Screen + K.

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1  
What a strange combination!. Print??. It has no logic; and what would "(Right alt) + (Print Screen) + K" be in an Apple keyboard? I have right command and no print – Robert May 3 '12 at 22:30
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key has more info on it if you want to understand the logic behind it. printscreen is the same key as sysrq(System Request). – semi Jul 11 '12 at 23:43
@semi: "printscreen is the same key as sysrq" - not on my keyboard. sysreq is the same key as delete. – Nathan Osman May 4 at 23:28
What happens if you hit right alt + sysrq + k on your key layout? Does it still work? I just know internally they always call it the magic sysrq key, so it seems odd that it would become the magic printscreen key just because of another layout being used. – semi May 6 at 23:13
up vote 5 down vote

One way to restart the X server is to run (from the commandline)

sudo service lightdm restart
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lightdm? I thought gdm was for GNOME, kdm for KDE, xdm for XFCE and lightdm for LXDE! and to stp it from the gUI? – Robert May 3 '12 at 22:26
1  
lightdm is the default for 12.04, I'm not sure when it was made the default perhaps in 11.10? – labarna May 3 '12 at 23:50
restarting lightdm doesn't kill Xorg. Only an instance of it. – Jack Mayerz May 5 at 0:23
lightdm starts only one instance of Xorg, so restarting lightdm should close the only open Xorg instance, unless you're doing something much more complicated. – labarna May 6 at 13:05
up vote 0 down vote

Kill : xkill -a. -a means it will kill all display instances. For more information run man xkill.

Run : xinit. Also startx but this command is to start an instance and not the server itself. For more information run man xint and man startx.

I don't believe it's possible to kill Xserver from GUI, and even if it were, it would not be the right way to do it.

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