How to exit the virtual terminal?

Question

After I press ctrl + alt + f4 the virtual terminal appears but I can't exit anymore because it is always back to "input username" and "password". Any idea how to go back to my desktop?

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 08 '15 at 06:23

@Kerth G. if you press these buttons: Ctrl+Alt+(F1 to F6), you will get TTY, to exit from that you have two ways:

Press Ctrl+Alt+F7, if you have function keys enabled press Ctrl+Alt+Fn+F7.
Log into TTY with your user credentials, then in TTY type command: init 5, press Enter, now you will get Graphical User Interface.

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 12 '22 at 23:43

7

To log out of a virtual console, you need to type exit.

Your Desktop Environment will be started in one of the virtual terminals. On Ubuntu, it is on tty7. So to get to it, press Ctrl + Alt + F7 (F2 since 17.10).

edited Jul 12 '22 at 23:43

Pablo Bianchi

17,371

answered Aug 08 '15 at 04:56

daltonfury42

5,559

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 12 '22 at 23:45

5

Usually one virtual terminal (1 and 2, or 7) are reserved for the graphical environment, so to come out of a virtual terminal either try CTRL + ALT + F2 (F1 for login screen) or CTRL + ALT + F7.

edited Jul 12 '22 at 23:45

Pablo Bianchi

17,371

answered Nov 18 '18 at 14:42

Rakesh Sharma

151

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 28 '17 at 09:03

4

I tried all the other answers here, and none worked for me (Ubuntu VM)

To fix it, I logged in with my credentials and typed init 6 and chose to load the Ubuntu OS.

edited Feb 28 '17 at 09:03

Zanna

72,312

answered Feb 28 '17 at 08:39

KingPanda

41

How to exit the virtual terminal?

4 Answers4