Ubuntu – Access terminal from login screen on Ubuntu 18.04

18.04shortcut-keysvirtual-console

I would like to open the terminal from the login screen. In previous Ubuntu releases I just used Ctrl+Alt+F1. However, when I press Ctrl+Alt+F1 in 18.04, nothing happens, the login screen just stays as it is. All other combinations with F-keys (F2 to F12) also have no effect whatsoever.

What key shortcut do I have to press to open the terminal from the login screen?

Best Answer

chvt [n]

Source: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/chvt.1.html

And while in a tty, shift + {left,right} arrow key to change screens.

This can also be an issue with your login manager preventing the process. For example, some Ubuntu based distributions use SDDM as the default manager and there is a bug that can prevent changing ttys. A solution would be to disable your login manager and either starting Xorg with startx (with the appropriate commands in ~/.xinitrc) or systemctl start your-login-manager.

# systemctl disable sddm
# shutdown -hr now
...
login:
password:
$ startx
    or
$ sudo systemctl start sddm
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