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After installing Linux Mint 19 I wanted to check how vsinc affects fps in Linux, so I typed this command: CLUTTER_SHOW_FPS=1 cinnamon --replace

After some time I accidentally pressed Ctrl+Z and paused that process. Immediately my Bash shell and everything except the mouse cursor froze, so I can't type the fg command.

Is there a way to unpause that process without rebooting and should I use Ctrl+C next time to properly exit that process?

Peter Mortensen
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Tomislav
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    Next time, run it with CLUTTER_SHOW_FPS=1 cinnamon --replace & to start it in the background. Replacing it again with a process with a process started without CLUTTER_SHOW_FPS should do what you want. Or yeah you can control-C it; X11 works with no window manager; your terminal emulator should still be visible for you to start another window manager. – Peter Cordes Aug 14 '18 at 10:06
  • i suggest always having SSH access to a machine you don't want to hard reset, but this should not be your primary fix for this issue – pcnate Aug 14 '18 at 19:47

2 Answers2

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  1. Switch to a new TTY. See How to switch between tty and xorg session? for tips on how to switch TTYs.
  2. Determine the PID of the cinnamon process: ps -e | grep cinnamon
  3. Send this process the SIGCONT signal with kill -SIGCONT [pid]
fra-san
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CameronNemo
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    +1. Clarification on the statement "kill [...] process with the signal" would be good. The naming of the kill utility is unfortunate, given that most of the signals one can send are not used to 'kill' a process in the sense of mortality. kill -SIGCONT 9999 will send the continue signal to the pid 9999. – Eli Heady Aug 14 '18 at 04:42
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    pgrep is useful for finding processes – CameronNemo Aug 14 '18 at 11:28
  • Why does my desktop on tty7 gets distorted - all black and without linux start menu? Is there a way to fix it ? – Tomislav Aug 14 '18 at 12:51
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    @Tomislav can you clarify what you mean by distorted? It sounds a bit like your tty7 just has a regular (GUI-less) shell rendering. – 0xdd Aug 14 '18 at 15:11
  • It looks like normal desktop after booting but without start menu panel (icons on desktop are also visible). – Tomislav Aug 14 '18 at 23:01
  • Perhaps some configuration got corrupted? – CameronNemo Aug 15 '18 at 04:32
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Short, concrete version of CameronNemo's answer:

ctrlaltF1 # Switch to TTY1
user name↲ # Log in on this terminal
password↲
killall -SIGCONT cinnamon↲ # Send the continue signal to the process
ctrld # Log out on TTY1
ctrlaltF7 # Switch back to the graphical environment

F1 and F7 here assume that you have X running on TTY7, as is standard on Ubuntu and, I assume, also on Mint.

leftaroundabout
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