'Linux Ignored, Not Immune,' Says Hacker Contest Sponsor

[Greg]

Last time i tried that it took me out of my GUI and i couldnt get back in. I do not know the commands enough to get myself back in from a command prompt. So that method is not for beginners.

It should've restarted, I'm not sure why it didn't. Try hitting Ctrl + Alt + F7 next time (I think that's the right one, if not hit 'em all ). If that fails, you can always try "/etc/init.d/gdm restart" as root. If that fails, you can always try "shutdown now" as root to go into maintenance mode, then hit Ctrl + D to continue rather than typing your root password. If that fails you can always "reboot" as root. If that fails you can always try the following sequence pausing a few seconds between each key combo:

1. Alt + SysRq + R
2. Alt + SysRq + S
3. Alt + SysRq + E
4. Alt + SysRq + I
5. Alt + SysRq + U
6. Alt + SysRq + B

That last sequence is great for restarting if it hard freezes and you can't do anything at all. My computer has only done this to me like twice in like 4 years, though.

Having all the above options, I'm pretty sure I've never had to press the reset button on my computer.