Ubuntu / Linux Mint x-session/X11 no longer starts up - special key commands to diagnose problems while booting up
After installing some alternate window managers and playing around, Linux Mint 17 would freeze or get stuck during the bootup sequence. It looked scary: Anachron... Starting Samba... Stopping Samba... Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the Linux kernel or anything like that, just that the window manager wasn't able to display. These are some hotkeys that might help you get to the console shell. F1 toggles between the Linux splash / loading icon and the console log Ctrl-Alt-F1 through Ctrl-Alt-F6 bring up the terminals (tty1-tty6) Ctrl-Alt-F7 is specifically for the GUI / X session I found some messages like: "Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds", and the following in .xsession-errors: /etc/mdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup... localuser:user being added to access control list Script for none started at run_im. Script for auto started at run_im. Script for default started at run_im. x-session-manager[2466]: CRITICAL: We failed, but th