Poll: Should Xorg change from using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to something harder for users to press by accident?

dan dan at entropy.homelinux.org
Tue Sep 23 18:56:34 PDT 2008


On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:33:49 +0530, CyberOrg <cyberorg at opensuse.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 10:34 AM, Russell Whitaker <russ at ashlandhome.net>
> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 23 Sep 2008, Jason Spiro wrote:
>>
>>
>> Problem:  Many[1] users have killed X by accident.[2]
>>
>> Solution idea: Make it harder to kill X by accident.

Alternative solution: Allow users to learn by experience that
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace kills X ... the more disasterous this is for them, the
quicker they'll learn. The only time I've ever killed X by accident was
when running XGL, and I don't remember the details of why this was
happening, but anyway, the 'DontZap' option fixed things. Surely this is
enough?

> Since openSUSE 11.0 users have to hit ctrl+alt+backspace twice quickly
> to kill X.

The problem with this is that when I want to kill X, it's usually because
it's crashed, and I have enough trouble getting it to respond to *any*
keypresses. Considering the CPU is 100% busy with X, is it going to
register my multiple 'quick' Ctrl-Alt-Backspace keypresses?

Seriously, we need a way to kill X, and no matter what way that is, some
user will manage to 'accidentally' trigger it ( a million-monkeys-type
situation ). We've currently got a way to kill X, and I can't see how much
more obscure and difficult we can make it without requiring > 2 hands. I
don't see a case for changing things.

Dan



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