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> When I kill -9 in Linux, the application is dead, gone... doesn't hang, doesn't sit there frozen Desktop Linux user here -- while there are lots of advantage
by sevensor 9y ago
> When I kill -9 in Linux, the application is dead, gone... doesn't hang, doesn't sit there frozen
Desktop Linux user here -- while there are lots of advantages to Linux, this is not among them. At least, not without qualification. If something goes wrong with the graphics system and X hangs, SIGKILL bounces right off your window manager. But at least under Linux you can still ssh into the box and reboot it.
- semi-extrinsic 9y agoWhy ssh? You have several virtual terminals available at Ctrl+Alt+F1/F2/etc. right?
- zdkl 9y agoI've had systems where those would not respond, but ssh did. I still don't understand why and it bothers me.
- sevensor 9y agoThat works sometimes, and when it works I can usually get X unstuck without a reboot. But sometimes X gets stuck in a way that makes me unable to switch to another virtual console. Then ssh becomes my only recourse, and the only way to kill X is to reboot. This has only happened to me on systems with nvidia graphics, although it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm using nouveau or proprietary drivers.
- pritambaral 9y ago> But sometimes X gets stuck in a way that makes me unable to switch to another virtual console This is the situation where I recommend the Magic-SysRq[0] keys. Alt+SysRq+r (on a system where /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq is configured) transfers keyboard control back to the kernel. There are other Magic-SysRq keys. My personal favourite is the one that invokes the OOMKiller; and there's one for remounting all filesystems read-only, and one for unconditionally rebooting the system. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key
- sevensor 9y agoHow have I been using Linux all these years without knowing this? Thank you!