# How to Interrupt a Virtual Machine (VM) Boot Process

Source: https://docs.quake.ai/docs/operate/troubleshooting/interrupt-vm-boot
Markdown: https://docs.quake.ai/docs/operate/troubleshooting/interrupt-vm-boot.md

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# How to interrupt a virtual machine (VM) boot process

## Issue

You may need to interrupt a Virtual Machine (VM) boot process for technical or administrative reasons. For example, there may be configuration errors, required testing, security concerns, or critical maintenance and updates that require a boot interrupt. Once interrupted, you can access the operating system in recovery mode to act.

Interrupting the boot process will typically allow you to access the operating system recovery process. Depending on your VM's operating system, recovery may be presented in the command line as a simple menu, such as the Ubuntu operating system recovery menu.

## Solution

This example shows how to interrupt the boot process on a VM running the Ubuntu 22.04 operating system.

1. Login to your Quake AI project.
2. Go to **Compute** > **Instances** to view the VM dashboard.
3. Find the target VM for the boot interrupt. In the **Action** column, click the console icon and select **Open Console** from the dropdown menu. 
4. Click the **Send CtrlAltDel** button to restart the machine.
5. Click into the console window and press and hold the **Esc** key. The process may take a few seconds to interrupt.
6. Once interrupted, the VM console window typically displays an operating system menu that allows you to act on the VM. For Ubuntu operating systems, select **Advanced options for Ubuntu**.
7. Select the appropriate image version and kernel version with the recovery mode.
8. After the system reboots, the system displays a recovery menu.
9. Select `root` to access the VM as root user.

These instructions for interacting with operating system menus and options may vary depending on the operating system installed on your VM.