How to restart gdm in ubuntu without being logged out

Question

How can I restart gdm or the xserver without logging out? Sometimes, there is a freeze and I just need to redraw. It rarely happens but when it does. My only options are

1. /etc/init.d/gdm restart
2. ctrl+alt+backspace
3. switch to tty and restart

all those options force my session to end.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can start at 3rd runlevel (or whichever is the multiuser without X one on Ubuntu) (set it in /etc/inittab) and then manually use startx, then when your xserver freezes, you only have to kill it, use startx again, but you don't have to log in, because you're already logged.

It still kills the session, but you don't have to log in again.

Answer 2

sudo pkill -9 ^gnome-shell and sudo killall -3 gnome-shell

These are ones I use (not simultaneously though), hope they can be of help.