Peter Cornelius wrote: > Who said that Linux doesn't lock-up like Windows! > > I was trying to save a copy of my MBR (mbr.b) by copying to diskette via > Mandrake 8.2 and Konquerer. The mouse pointer disappeared and the machine > locked up. No copying was done to the diskette according to the 'copy window'. > Only a Power-on Reset restarted. Of course it then went through the > recovery from an unsatisfactory close down and I see that the mbr.b file is > now dated February while on diskette is a file with current date and time, > but I suspect that it is actually only the header which was written.
Sometimes it is just X windows that gets its knickers in a knot, not Linux. Usually the following works: Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to a virtual terminal. (You can use F1-F6). If this doesn't work, you are probably hung hard. If you are on a network you can sometimes log in remotely even if Ctrl-Alt-F1 fails. If you get a virtual terminal, log in as root. Type "ps x" at the commandline to list running processes. Look for the process that runs X. "ps x | grep X" might help. Mine looks like: /etc/X11/X :0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth The number in the first column of the output of ps is the pid (process ID). type "kill <pid>" on the command line to kill X. On RH systems, X will automatically restart. Sometimes you might have to "kill -9 <pid>". I'll explain why at the next CLUG meeting. If X didn't restart, then the command line given by the ps command should be entered. To go from a virtual terminal back to X type Alt-F7. Cheers, Carl
