Linux kernel magic keys saved my day

When you are updating your system on a daily basis and using a bleeding edge package collection as Debian Sid, sometimes you get unpleasant surprises when upgrading software while using it.

Yesterday, I was editing using OpenOffice during a dist-upgrade when the whole system got stuck and completely unresponsive. No mouse pointer moving on the frozen screen. No feedback to any key pressing. No Ctrl-Alt-Fn, no Ctrl-Backspace. No ping, no ssh. I know OpenOffice is too heavy, but this was tooooooo much

That was the first time in three years running Sid on my laptop that such thing happened, but my system looked really hanged.

I was ready to press the button to reboot, but Dani enlightened me with Linux kernel magic keys:

* Press Alt-SysRq-s to sync mounted hard disk drive
* Press Alt-SysRq-u to remount all drives RO
* Press Alt-SysRq-b to reboot

It took a while, but suddenly… the system rebooted!

I remember reading about these keys some time ago, but I think I will never forget now that Raising Skinny Elephants Is Utterly Boring.