I have been playing around with Ubuntu installing new themes and and docks. Sometimes during the installation, whole screen just hangs. What is the best way in Ubuntu to Kill a process/application? Anything similar to Ctrl + Alt + Del of windows?
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6You'll want to be careful when killing installation processes. It can leave your machine in an inconsistent state. While this may not be such a big deal when installing customization packages, you'll want to make sure that you're not doing something akin to a kernel upgrade at the same time! (I've fragged an Ubuntu installation doing this)– Nick PascucciNov 16, 2010 at 6:10
10 Answers
Not quite like CtrlAltDel of Windows, but you can also kill with xkill
. Just go to the "run" dialog (Alt+F2), type in xkill
and your mouse pointer will change to an "x". Point on the application that you want to kill and click, and it'll be killed. Can sometimes be much quicker than loading the System Monitor.
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1
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Alt
+F2
does not open therun
dialog for me, but reduces sound volume. Using Ubuntu 18.04.1 on a Dell laptop. Dec 24, 2018 at 12:21 -
1
In System->Admin you have an application called System Monitor, this is the equivalent of the windows task manager.
Edit: for later versions of Ubuntu (writing this on a PC running 13.10
), you will find the system monitor through the dash (top left). Just type system monitor
or parts of it in the dash and look for the System Monitor application..
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4I usually bind it to the CTRL+ESC combo as soon as I finish installing the SO. You can bind it to any combo using System->Preferences->Keyboard Shorcuts. Nov 16, 2010 at 10:40
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Have to install the System Monitor first. It was not installed by default when updating to Ubuntu 18.04.1 from 16.04.1 and switching to a Gnome desktop. Dec 24, 2018 at 12:24
This is my personal list of killing:
kill <pid_number>
example:kill 8888
effect: kill application that has PID 8888.kill -9 <pid_number>
example:kill -9 8888
effect: same with above but more extreme and forceful.killall <application_name>
examplekillall firefox
effect: kill application or application instance that has name firefox. You don't have to know PID number, and this is my most favorite.kill -9 -1
effect: kill all processes including X Server so you can go back to display manager (LightDM, GDM, or KDM). Another name for this command is relogin. And this command is a substution for clicking Log Out button.Alt+Printscreen+REISUB
effect: force restart; same with Ctrl+Alt+Del in Windows. It is very useful to avoid HDD damage.Alt+Printscreen+REISUO
effect: force shutdown, like Ctrl+Alt+Del but do shutdown instead of restart. Only differ 1 last char (O and B).xkill
effect: change your pointer to skull. If you click a GUI Windows with that, the Window will definitely be die.
You can see PID of a process by commands ps aux
, top
, htop, or graphically by GNOME System Monitor.
Firstly you should know the PID of the application you want to kill.
you can use ps
to get this.
ps aux | grep "$appName" | grep -v 'grep'
Then use kill
.(Ensure you have the privilege to kill it.)
kill "$PID"
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If your screen hangs, you can switch to virtual console (Alt-Ctrl-F1), login with your user, type top, detect CPU eating process, and then run skill process_name. If it is system (root) process, use sudo skill process_name
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In that case, press Alt-PrtScr-K (you will lost unsaved docs, as your session will be restarted)– ExtenderNov 16, 2010 at 16:08
You can use tty by pressing Ctrl+ Alt+ F2 and then login and run following command:-
kill -9 -1
From man kill
,
kill -9 -1 Kill all processes you can kill.
This will return to login screen and after login all process works freshly.
You can also restart X.Type Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
In ubuntu 10.04 these keys will be disabled by default.To enable it,
Goto System-->Preferences-->Keyboard
Select the Layouts tab and click on the Options button.
Select Key sequence to kill the X server and enable Control + Alt + Backspace.
Also a quick hot key combination using GUI method works with my Ubuntu 14.04 (xfce) just press Ctrl+Alt+Esc and an xkill cursor
should appear, just click on an application to kill.
Open the terminal and type:
pkill <application_name>
where <application_name>
is replaced by the name of the application in the command which is used to start the application from the terminal. If you don't know the process name of an application you can look it up in the System Monitor.