Fixing an unresponsive Linux Desktop

If you’re running a Linux Desktop, chances are that your system has frozen on you before.

Now what do you do? Reboot the whole system? Kill your Gnome session? That’s what I used to do. Try these tips first:

If your keyboard is still working:

1. Open up a terminal window (ALT + F2, gnome-terminal).
2. Try to kill the program that you suspect froze on you by running “killall PROGRAMNAME”.
3. Were you browsing a folder or using the file manager? Run “nautilus -q”.
4. In case that still didn’t fix it, run “top” and kill any processes using suspiciously high CPU.

If your keyboard is unresponsive:

1. Press CTRL + ALT + F1 and login with your username and password.
2. Try to kill the program that you suspect froze on you by running “killall PROGRAMNAME”.
3. Were you browsing a folder or using the file manager? Run “nautilus -q”.
4. In case that still didn’t fix it, run “top” and kill any processes using suspiciously high CPU.
5. Press CTRL + ALT + F7 to go back into your gnome session.

That’s all, you can now keep working in your gnome session.