[Mr Downtown]

I've only had my Mini9 a few weeks, but I'm surprised at how often it freezes up. Tonight I started it up and was just trying to type a few notes in gedit, no other apps running, when it seized up tight. It's also happened while using OpenOffice or using the Web Browser.

Is this common with Ubuntu? Is there a secret command to recover, or do you just have to power it down?

[reflex]

I didn't use the Dell installed Ubuntu 8.04 for long, so I can't comment on it. But my Mini 9 runs Ubuntu 9.04 pretty reliably. I haven't rebooted in over 9 days. (Knock on wood )

Usually system lockups are caused by lousy drivers, try updating your system ... if possible.

Also, the next time it happens, try pressing "Ctrl+Alt+Backspace" to restart the GUI (this will kill all your programs, too ).

That command might be disabled by default, you could also try "Ctrl+Alt+F1" to change to a simple text terminal instead of the GUI. Then login and execute the command "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart && exit" to restart the GUI.

"sudo" runs a command with superuser privileges, "/etc/init.d/gdm restart" is the command to restart the GUI, and "&& exit" just automatically logs out of the terminal when the GUI is successfully restarted.

If neither "Ctrl+Alt" command works, you'll have to take more forceful action, like holding down the power button.