Booting live usb issue persistence - freeze startup

Hi,

The problem comes today when I try to boot with persistence since last time I shutdown the system, because it never starts up. It remains frozen as if it was loading the desktop; mouse pointer can move across the screen but keeps the loading symbol instead of the traditional arrow pointer. Background is dark with nothing else (no icons, etc.).

I don't have this issue when I try to boot into kali without persistence.

Any ideas of what might be the problem? is there a fix (other than formatting and create a new live usb)?

I would like to discard an issue with the GUI. I remember there was a command in Linux to jump directly into terminal before booting. Does anyone remember the key combination?

Cheers!