How to “Ctrl+Alt+Del” on Linux

Here are some steps you can take to regain access to a frozen Linux box. Re-starting the OS is not always the best choice as any un-synched drive cache will not be written and will result in data loss.

1- Try to find out what application is frozen. If it started happening after you opened a specific app, you can bet that application is the cause of the problem. Go to another tty (Ctrl+Alt+F1 to F6), logon and use tools like “ps” and “top” to detect the bad application, and use kill to end it.

2- If that doesn't help or you can not change ttys, try restarting X (some unsaved data will be lost) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.

3- Next option would be to do a reboot by pressing Ctrl+alt+del. You can force a reboot by pressing the same combination twice

4- Last resource, press “Ctrl+Alt+Prnt Scrn” and type “reisub”. This will unmount the filesystem and shut it down


Note: This steps where taken from another blog. I don't remember the name, but will post her if I come across again