Occasionally Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit on my Panasonic CF-51 laptop will freeze up. The mouse cursor can still be moved, but I cannot access anything and no shortcut keys seem to work. Is there any way to access the terminal when this happens?
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1You can ask a separate question and perhaps address the crashing issue.– RichardSep 14, 2013 at 20:11
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I thought I might try and access logs or something and then see what help I can get through a question. This happens infrequently enough that I don't have any real information at this point to provide for a useful question.– PaulSep 14, 2013 at 20:14
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2 Answers
You may be able to access the command line only interface by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1 and then typing your short username (it has no spaces, is all lowercase) and password to login. Then you have a full screen terminal that is not dependent on the GUI.
You may be able to restart the graphical interface by pressing Alt + Sysrq + R and then Alt + Sysrq + K. Be forewarned though that will log out any graphical sessions so you will loose any unsaved work in the GUI, etc.
You can access the terminal with Ctrl + Alt + F1 through F12. This is called a "tty" terminal. "tty" stands for "teletype". The keyboard shortcut will not get you to a terminal, but to a login prompt. Once you log in with your normal user name and password (which will not appear), you will then be taken to a bash prompt.