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Is there a way to kill the current X server using a keyboard combination?

Is it possible to do so without having sudo permissions?

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  • 1
    Ctrl + Alt + Backspace – Raphael Nov 16 '15 at 13:43
  • That's it? I don't have to set it? – TellMeWhy Nov 16 '15 at 13:44
  • Sorry! that key combination is to restart X Server – Raphael Nov 16 '15 at 13:46
  • You have first to set that combination, indeed. Otherwise you can always switch to tty1 with [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F1] and then kill it with killall X. – dadexix86 Nov 16 '15 at 14:01
  • Or just issue it from an x-term. :) – Hennes Nov 16 '15 at 14:24
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Yes, it is possible. In the past the key combinationCtrl Alt backspace was used to kill the X-server.

However:

  1. This no longer seems to be the default on many modern installations. You might have to re-enable this by editing a config file.
  2. Many modern systems also enable X out of the box and restart it once it terminates. In that case you would kill the x server (and possibly many running programs you started), but a fresh one would start up again.

This post has answers on how to enable the key combination.

Especially the answer "13.10+, type the following on the terminal: dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" seems relevant.

(That should trigger this screen:) enter image description here

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