Idea: When users press Ctrl+Alt+Bksp, tell them the new way to kill Xorg

[Peter Hutterer]

On Fri, Dec 04, 2009 at 10:32:33AM -0500, Timothy Normand Miller wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 7:49 AM, Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer at who-t.net> wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 04, 2009 at 10:45:21AM +0000, Jason Spiro wrote:
> >> Now that Ctrl+Alt+Bksp no longer defaults to killing Xorg, some people I've
> >> spoken with don't know how to manually kill Xorg.  An idea:  It would be helpful
> >> if, when you pressed Ctrl+Alt+Bksp, Xorg showed a message onscreen telling
> >> users:  "To terminate Xorg, press Ctrl+Alt+F1, then log in as 'root', then type
> >> the following command:  /usr/bin/killall -v -9 X"
> >>
> >> I don't know how you could show the message.  Maybe you could use xmessage(1).
> >> It might not always work, but when it would work, it would be helpful.
> >>
> >> What do you think of my idea?
> >
> > http://ryanler.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/controlaltbackspace-shortcut-does-not-restart-the-x-server-in-fedora-11/
> >
> 
> How common is it to accidentally hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace?  Seems unlikely to me.

it's common for some, uncommon for others.

depends much on your usage of the desktop, how fast and/or precise your
finger movements are, certain desktop features, etc.
for example, GNOME has shortcuts for virtual desktop switching on ctrl+alt,
they increase the chance that bksp may be hit while cltr+alt is down.

I still manage to accidentally zap my server about once a week or every two
weeks at least but that also depends on how many apps and sometimes even
which apps I have open.

Cheers,
  Peter