How do I kill the x-server?

Question

Every time I try to kill the x-server,

sudo service lightdm stop

so that I can install the latest Nvidia drivers, I get an error message.

stop: Unknown instance:

What am I doing wrong?

score 60 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 02 '23 at 11:37

60

Use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to TTY.
Log in.
Run:
```
sudo service lightdm stop
```
LightDM and Xserver should be stopped now (check with Ctrl+Alt+F7, which is your current Xorg session, it should not show any desktop now).
Do your things.
Run the following command to start lightdm and xorg again:
```
sudo service lightdm start
```

Good Luck!

edited Oct 02 '23 at 11:37

BeastOfCaerbannog

16,703

answered Jul 16 '13 at 13:57

mondjunge

3,336

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

15

I did a little more digging around and found that I could just use pgrep to find its PID and then kill it.

pgrep dm -l

sudo kill (insert PID here)

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Jul 16 '13 at 14:24

Mysteriousness

795

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 18 '14 at 05:20

8

You will need the help of htop or top. Write down the PID number of the process you want to kill (in this case, Xorg). Once you have the PID, run the below command in a root shell (sudo -s):

kill -9 <PID>

For example:

kill -9 1234

You should then be able to install the NVidia drivers.

edited Oct 18 '14 at 05:20

Kaz Wolfe

34,680

answered Jul 16 '13 at 14:21

dschinn1001

3,863

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 04 '14 at 08:31

7

Try running sudo service gdm stop.

The reason your command may be resulting in that output is because lightdm isn't your Display Manager.

In addition to gdm, also try xdm and kdm.

edited Oct 04 '14 at 08:31

Kaz Wolfe

34,680

answered Oct 04 '14 at 06:57

Habib Ouadhour

71

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 16 '13 at 13:50

3

/etc/init.d/lightdm stop maybe? And why you can't install nvidia drivers from software center?

answered Jul 16 '13 at 13:50

pondohva

551
4
4

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 05 '15 at 01:18

Ok had the GTX 970 installation Problem under Ubuntu 14.04 too. Sometime i was able to start Ubuntu with the standart drivers and sometime not.

However, this should hopefully fix the Problem: After switching from IGP (I7 4770 with HD4600) to GTX970 in Biosi got an error with some Xorg Gui.

However you can not install the Nvidia-Driver while X is running: -> sudo killall Xorg solves the problem

Then -> sudo ./NVIDIA-x68xxx.run

After the first Driver Install (orig. Nvidia 352.xx) i had a blank screen. Then i run the Nvidia Driver Installer again -> sudo ./NVIDIA-x68xxx.run This second install told me some kind of noveu driver is running and should be disabled. The driver asked me if it should disable noveu -> Yes disable noveu

After restart: Et Voila lighdm is running again :)

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 07 '25 at 05:55

A noob here. Here's my walkthrough: Log-out then log-in using other desktop environment as seen on the first part of this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbcOQJyxN3E

If there is no "other choice" Create one by editing a file to enable "wayland" as instructed here: (Remember to reboot, then Log-in to "Non-X server" desktop environment.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-enable-disable-wayland-on-ubuntu-22-04-desktop

How do I kill the x-server?

7 Answers7

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