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I'm currently logged in (locally) to a machine and was running in a TTY session without having started an X server. I accidentally Ctrl-Alt-F7'ed bringing me to where the graphical shell would be if it was running. The trouble is, I can't get back. I assume going to another TTY is forbidden using the standard Ctrl-Alt-F* to protect students who have logged in to KDE or whatever, locked the screen, but don't realize that anyone could come along and Ctrl-Alt-F1 into their TTY session. The trouble is that there IS no X server running, and so I can't exit from it, and am stuck in the Ctrl-Alt-F7 TTY which just has a cursor blinking at the top left of the screen.

Is there another way to switch currently-viewed TTY? How can I get out of this?

Things that do not work:

  • ctrl-alt-backspace
  • alt-shift-sysrq-REISUB
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2 Answers

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If the machine is remotely accessible (via ssh or otherwise), run chvt 1 as root.

Still, you can't switch to a VT that hasn't been allocated, so perhaps X was running and got wedged? It might not be possible to escape from that.

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X was not running, the VT I'm trying to switch to has indeed been allocated. I should add that I do not have root. This is a lab machine at my university – Mala Dec 3 '10 at 18:27
@Mala: Then something (if not X) is running on that VT, because you can definitely switch out of allocated-but-unused VTs easily. If you don't have root and Alt-SysRq nor the normal VT switch shortcuts don't work I think it's hopeless. – ephemient Dec 3 '10 at 18:45
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What about Alt+Left and Alt+Right?

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