Gnome freezes- how can I escape?

aquaboot · 06-07-2008, 01:17 PM

Hi All,

I'm running debian lenny and have a problem. When the screensaver comes on, it will eventually freeze. No key stroke or mouse wobble will activate the desktop. So i went to look at my screensavers settings. When I open the screensavers preferences window, it freezes my entire gnome session. Any clues as to what's going on? Also, in the short run, how can I escape from a frozen gnome session (EVERYTHING is frozen, including gnome-terminal) without a hard reboot?

Many Thanks,

ab

oskar · 06-07-2008, 03:55 PM

ctrl-alt-backspace should kill the x-server.

I don't know about the screensaver problem. Maybe you can remove it altogether. Search for screensaver in synaptic... that's the best I got

aquaboot · 06-08-2008, 09:59 PM

Thanks for the reply Oskar. ctrl-alt-backspace is exactly what I needed to know.

-ab

lurko · 06-09-2008, 08:21 PM

In some cases where ctrl-alt-backspace has no effect, the Magic SysRq key and a mnemonic device almost always does.