Zapping the Xorg server

Wolfgang Draxinger wdraxinger.maillist at draxit.de
Tue Aug 24 09:08:55 PDT 2010


Hi,

as you might know, Zapping the Xorg server by means of
CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE has been first disabled by default, and later on
the xorg.conf option went away, too.

It is still possible to 

setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bks

somewhere in the startup/init scripts to reenable, but I wonder when
some smartass will vote to get it removed, too. Not to forget, that it
doesn't get along well with xmodmap.

As a substitute the Magic SysRq ALT+SYSRQ+K has been suggested. Now
whoever did suggest this, please stand up, err press ALT+SYSRQ+O, or
ALT+SYSRQ+I now! (at least on my keyboard O and I are adjacent to K).

Well, it is possible to configure SysRq so that those dangerous actions
are not allowed, but some people (like me), want them to be enabled
(for some reason), yet still be able to kill the X server without
endangering the rest of the system, by accidently hitting the wrong
key. And IMHO on some systems it's desireable to disable SysRq, while
still being able to kill the X server.

Also on some keyboards there simply is no (usable) Print/SysRq key (take
my laptop for example, where I need to hold Fn to access SysRq, which
however also turns some of the letter keys into Numpad-Keys, yes yes,
I know: by the right sequence of 'Hold ALT','Hold Fn','Press
SysRq','Release SysRq','Release Fn','Press Command Key' it can be
done, too, but it's just annoying and it might not work for other
people).

CTRL, ALT and BACKSPACE however are present and behave the same on every
keyboard (I know of, which are plenty).

So, could we please bring back the static configuration for zapping
the X server by builtin method. If someone still insists on
enabling and using the SAK SysRq, he still can do so, that's not
mutually exclusive.

Frankly, I don't see any sane reason, why it was removed in the first
place. Disabling it by default, okay I can live with that. But taking
away the option alltogether: Not good.


Wolfgang



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