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I'm new to Ubuntu..

I'm not sure what just happened, but the screen just went black with the text: Ubuntu 11.10 "my computer name" tty4

and I was asked to log on.

It happened when I closed Chrome (Alt+F4). This is the second time it has happened, and I cant make it go away :) Even if I log on. Only thing that works is to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, which makes my PC restart.

Any idea what is causing this?

Peyman Mahdian
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1kb
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2 Answers2

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Looks like you accidentally switched to the text console, that does no harm at all as long as you know how to return to your desktop. Did you accidentally hit Ctrl+Alt+F4? In that case you can return to your desktop hitting Ctrl+Alt+F7 until Ubuntu 16, or Ctrl+Alt+F1 starting at Ubuntu 18.

There are usually 6 text consoles (F1 - F6) but most users aren't even aware of them. They're extremely useful for troubleshooting, but otherwise barely used these years. I think the main use is in servers with usually no GUI (graphical user interface) available.

YoArgentino
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jippie
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    So helpful! Just want to note that on Linux Mint 14 I had to press Ctrl + Alt + F8 actually. – floer32 Aug 08 '13 at 23:51
  • I had the same problem...I want to clarify that I had to use Ctrl + Fn + Super (? - key with Windows logo) + F7 on my laptop running Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS – Dimitri Markovich Feb 19 '17 at 11:23
  • Super+F4 and Super+F7 do it for me. Lubuntu 16.04.3 LTS. It's rather unfortunate because my Super is next to Alt, which makes it easy to fat-finger Alt+F4, intending to close the foreground window. – AaronD Jan 07 '18 at 00:16
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    If you are on Ubuntu 20.04 this won't work. I followed @Tripatpal Singh's answer to this question: https://askubuntu.com/a/1058896/866008 – Deepam Gupta Jul 17 '21 at 13:55
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The shortcut including the F7 key didn’t work for me in Ubuntu 18.04. Instead, Ctrl+Alt+F1 worked to get back.

Rory O'Kane
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Tripatpal Singh
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