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I used to rlogin/telnet a server and use xterm& to create several xterm sessions. But from time to time, the xterm may hang there and not responding at all(window can't be closed), leaving just a blank window.

I know the pid of all opened xterms from the 'mother xterm'. Is there any way to find out which is hanging one? I'd like to kill it immediately.

My environment is followed. I choose CDE as my desktop environment. Thanks!

Linux 2.6.9-67.ELsmp x86_64
OS: RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.0 U6
xterm: X.Org 6.8.2(192)

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Also, this doesn't belong on StackOverflow. –  Filip Ekberg Jan 26 '11 at 7:49
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 27 '11 at 8:43

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Try pressing Control+Alt+Esc, you should get an X instead of your curser and it should kill whatever you click on. If the shortcut dosen't work run xkill from another terminal and the rest is the same.

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@UserZer0, xkill rocks! Thanks! –  sandyleo Jan 26 '11 at 8:09
Seems like it ought to be easy at first, but CTRL+ALT+ESC is a pretty tough one to do one-handed. –  druciferre Sep 12 at 1:51
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You can use the kill command with -9 like this: kill -9 pid

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is there any quick way to know the pid of hung xterm? –  sandyleo Jan 26 '11 at 8:12
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Run xkill, click on the blank window. Right click to cancel.

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