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How can I restart X Window Server from the command line?

I'd really like to be able to restart my GUI without having to do a full system reboot.

7 Answers 7

351

NOTE: This will forcefully quit all graphical programs, you'll lose any unsaved work, and you'll be logged out. Non-graphical programs will not be affected.

TL;DR: on systems with systemd (Ubuntu 15.04 and newer)

sudo systemctl restart display-manager

This will restart the appropriate display manager service (lightdm till 17.04, gdm3 after, sddm in Kubuntu, etc.). You can replace display-manager with lightdm, gdm3, sddm, etc. if needed, but this should be enough.


For other Ubuntu versions, first find which display manager your ubuntu is having with following command:

cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager

Than depending on what display manager, you can use one of the following commands:

  • Default Ubuntu (with LightDM)

    sudo systemctl restart lightdm  
    
  • Gnome (with GDM)

    sudo systemctl restart gdm
    
  • KDE (with KDM)

    sudo systemctl restart kdm
    

    Note: From 12.10 to 15.04, Kubuntu also uses LightDM.

  • For MDM (e.g. for Mint Cinnamon)

    sudo systemctl restart mdm
    
16
  • 4
    This probably changed for Unity. My system cannot find gdm. Sep 16, 2012 at 12:25
  • 1
    AFAIK Unity uses lightdm
    – txwikinger
    Mar 25, 2014 at 23:51
  • 2
    It seem to close all the applications and documents immediately without saving (unlike regular restart), what's the difference between this and sudo reboot?
    – Amir Uval
    Feb 1, 2015 at 16:23
  • 2
    @uval, sudo reboot reboots all your system, that is the computer, while this restarts only the Xorg server, so that other programs, which do not require a graphical interface, for instance a web server, can continue to work. As well as all mounter file systems (like encrypted ones), all connections to remote hosts etc. do persists in the case of this instead of the reboot command
    – d.k
    Jun 16, 2016 at 6:43
  • 2
    I get restart: Unable to connect to Upstart: Failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/upstart: Connection refused.
    – William
    Oct 10, 2016 at 18:16
41

For 11.04 and earlier:

sudo service gdm restart

For 11.10 and later:

sudo service lightdm restart

1
  • +1 Works nicely on the Raspberry Pi as well (in case anyone is curious, that's what got me here :)
    – Levon
    Aug 6, 2014 at 18:03
22

Found out that you can do sudo pkill X

and it seems to work for me!

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  • 4
    Works perfectly for me (I have no *dm service, Xorg is started directly upon user autologin).
    – zgoda
    Feb 24, 2017 at 11:14
  • Works for me, Arch Linux with bspwm (No display-manager). Mar 4, 2020 at 5:34
12

You can try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart X.

3
  • 8
    This is deactivated by default in 10.04 and will therefore normally not work. Aug 5, 2010 at 18:28
  • 6
    It can be reactivated though, by going to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard, clicking the 'Options...' button in the 'Layouts' tab and enabling 'Key sequence to kill the x server'.
    – dv3500ea
    Aug 5, 2010 at 18:33
  • 8
    The correct shortcut is "Alt+SysRq+k", however he asked for command line.
    – Li Lo
    Aug 5, 2010 at 20:44
10

Newest version of Ubuntu as of 24 Oct, 2012.

  1. Open Dash Home
  2. Search for keyboard layout
  3. Click Options
  4. Expand tab labelled "Key sequence to kill the X server"
  5. Enable it and Close.

Command Line:

sudo restart lightdm
9

Since ubuntu 9.04 Ctrl+Alt+Backspace is disabled, however you can now type Alt gr + Print Screen + K.

http://www.sudo-juice.com/ubuntu-11-10-restart-x-shortcut/

2
  • Alt+PrtScr/SysReq+k logged me out pdq and my programs were killed or terminated. Is this the desired behaviour expected when restarting X-server? I have 11.10 and sudo restart lightdm took me into text mode and seemed to stay there shutting down a bunch of daemons then stopping. I had to reboot manually fortunately the off button does it gracefully (sometimes).
    – Asher
    Dec 22, 2011 at 15:49
  • 6
    SysRq+k kills all running processes and child-processes on the current terminal (i.e. the one running your X-server). Using it may cause the system to lose data! See: askubuntu.com/questions/14155/… Dec 22, 2011 at 17:50
1

For KDE:

sudo systemctl restart sddm.service

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