How to restart Gnome Shell from the console

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clem

Score: 7
votes: 15
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How to restart Gnome Shell from the console

Ever since I started developing Gnome Shell Extensions, I've been feeling the need to restart the shell from the console. Not only does it give the opportunity to see the output of Gnome Shell, but it also guarantees I can get out of situations where my changes introduce a breakage and when Gnome Shell itself doesn't start at all.

Switch to the console using CTRL+ALT+F1 (to switch back to the DISPLAY use CTRL+ALT+F7).

Then, find out which display you're using by using the "w" command:

clem@mint:/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui$ w
15:23:19 up 23:42, 5 users, load average: 0.03, 0.11, 0.38
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
clem     tty1                      11:32    8:03 16.14s 0.01s /usr/lib/gnome-shell/gnome-shell-calendar-server
clem     pts/0    :1               11:13    4:07m 3.17s 9.61s gnome-terminal
clem     pts/1    :1               11:26    3:52m 2:17   0.27s bash
root     pts/2    :1               12:03   21:53   0.36s 0.36s /bin/bash -i
clem     pts/3    :1               14:56    0.00s 0.39s 0.00s w

In the FROM column you'll see your display. Most of the time it's ":0". In our example above it's ":1".

Export that display from the console using the following command:

export DISPLAY=:1.0

(replace 1 with the value of your display of course).

And then restart Gnome Shell from there:

gnome-shell --replace

Switch back to the DISPLAY using CTRL+ALT+F7 and voila...

Tags: console display export launch command gnome shell
Created: 1 year ago.
Last edited: 1 year ago.
Reviewed: 1 year ago.
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Comments
1 year ago	Huginn	gnome-shell was taking up 98% of CPU and I was in the middle of a project I did not want to crash, found this info and bingo restarted gnome-shell and still had all the programs running, just awesome thumbsup*
1 year ago	danhimes	Doesn't Alt-F2 r do this? (and rt for reload?)
1 year ago	jindal_bharat	i installed unity desktop on linuxmint 12 just for a change but after restarting my laptop it's not booting to gnome shell instead booting to console and i hav tried everything to boot to gnome but couldnt do so help me
1 year ago	jindal_bharat	i installed unity desktop on linuxmint 12 just for a change but after restarting my laptop it's not booting to gnome shell instead booting to console and i hav tried everything to boot to gnome but couldnt do so help me
1 year ago	clem	@blueXrider: yes
1 year ago	trollboy	It will be interesting to see what you can do with it.
1 year ago	blueXrider	@Clem Does this apply to ALL Mint releases and will it also work with the upcoming release of "LISA"

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How to restart Gnome Shell from the console

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