Killing unresponsive programs in Debian

Unresponsive process management is a common problem for windows users switching to linux, as here there is nothing like ctrl+alt+delete..

But, there are other cool things you can do in linux, which is otherwise not possible in windows. Analogous to windows’ “end process”, in linux, we have “kill process”..

To Kill a process, u can simply open console, and type

kill <pid>

where pid is the process ID.. to get the process ID list of all processes, type

ps ax

in the console..

This command gives u the list of all the processes, which may be very long, and fill up the whole screen.. but, if u wish to know the pid of a specific process, use a filter called grep to filter the output from “ps ax”

code: ps ax | grep skype

where skype is the process of which u want to know the procees id (pid) ..

once u get the pid, type

kill 84001

where 84001 is the process id of the process.. u can check by doing “ps ax | grep skype” again to check if the process is killed.. in some cases, if the program is unresponsive, and doesn’t get killed.. in such a case, u can use a parameter called -9 to terminate the program..

code: kill -9 84001

still, there can be a situation, when the entire o/s gets unresponsive, and u don’t get an option to even open the console.. in that case, switch to the text only console mode by pressing:

ctrl + alt +F2

There kill the unresponsive programs using kill <pid> or kill -9 <pid> and then switch back to the desktop environment by pressing:

ctrl + alt + F7

there can be one more situation, in which, u don’t know which process has got unresponsive, and the whole o/s gets unstable.. in that case, save ur work and force logout by pressing:

ctrl + alt + backspace

note that, in case of forcing logout, u may loose ur work.. so, save all ur important data and sessions..

Thats All!!!

*This procedure is tested on debian based ubuntu hardy, gutsy and intrepid…