Any way to force command line terminal to control a Mac? I'm experimenting a little with Automator at the moment and often get stuck with some pre-recorded automation running very slowly while the whole Mac (an 2010 iMac in my case) doesn't respond to any input - either by keyboard or mouse.

For now I connect via SSH from another machine and issue a killall Automator to get controls back.

Is there any solution available which enables me to halt / freeze a Mac and issue commands using a terminal?
It seems like you want the ability to enter commands using the mouse and keyboard when the mouse and keyboard are unavailable, which is sorta odd.

Anyway, I can think of a few ways to prod your computer into doing something without the mouse and keyboard.


A Griffin PowerMate. Set it to open Terminal or run a script when you press the button.
Do Something When. Set it to run a script when a specific USB flash drive (or similar) is inserted.