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I am new to xubuntu, somtimes my xfce desktop crashes, and I can only use tty1 from command line.

I want to know how can I restart my xfce in tty7 from tty1?

I've googled it, but didn't found the solution. Thanks.

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
24

For me startxfce4 didn't work, but pkill did.

You could try the following command:

xfwm4 --replace

It restarts the windows manager.

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    Yeah. This is, first try to reload window manager, if don't work try restarting login service, and in the worst of cases, kill your user then start again your work :)
    – m3nda
    Oct 23, 2015 at 4:20
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    Exactly. Don't forget to append a &: xfwm4 --replace &
    – fatal_error
    Jan 27, 2017 at 2:02
17

pkill worked but seemed a little extreme to me. If I had other stuff going on in other tty sessions, it would kill those too.

Another solution is: 

sudo systemctl restart lightdm

A great strength of Linux is that there are always multiple ways to achieve the same task.

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5
  • --replace does try to save things :)
    – m3nda
    Oct 23, 2015 at 4:20
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    Ubuntu16 use sudo service lightdm restart.
    – jc__
    Aug 9, 2018 at 17:54
  • I didn't try pkill. When I tried xfwm4 --replace (from other answers), it threw a GTK3 error from the command line. I tried this, and it worked great. Thanks Alan.
    – Mike
    Apr 5, 2020 at 23:28
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    it somehow exited my running apps
    – 16851556
    Oct 21, 2020 at 14:44
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    Beware: systemctl restart lightdm kills the session and logs you out.
    – dvo
    Feb 10 at 10:34
14

Try killing user by

pkill -KILL -u yourusername

This will bring you back to login screen though.

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1
  • Sometimes lose current windows is not a choice :X, u can do same restarting ldm service ( or the login manager you have ). Killing every process of a user it's the last option, because you may be working on tty1 and you will kill it too. Login manager (wich is x based) would not close other sessions.
    – m3nda
    Oct 23, 2015 at 4:20
9

You can try startxfce4.

As this site says:

Restart XFCE4 : from the command line, you would better use "startxfce4" to bypass stupid distribution X startup scripts that can drive you crazy, really.

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  • 3
    That's the start XFCE4, not to to restart it. When I ran startxfce4 I got these messages: /usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0.0 xfce4-session: Another session manager is already running
    – Enkouyami
    Jul 4, 2015 at 21:43
  • I get "xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused"
    – kurdtpage
    May 20, 2018 at 10:47
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    good luck fixing login loop afterwards: askubuntu.com/a/223634/308869
    – Ufos
    Apr 4, 2019 at 13:15
  • @Enkouyami well, when something crashes Restart = Start. You got the message already running because your xfce4 was not crashed ;)—this is a linguistic issue. Anyway, this answer fits the question. :)
    – loved.by.Jesus
    Aug 27, 2019 at 10:23

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