problem with xset

[JD]

On 05/17/2010 07:30 PM, Alan Coopersmith wrote:
> Mike Oliver wrote:
>    
>> On 05/17/10 15:09, JD wrote:
>>      
>>> Hi Mike.
>>> I tried it, and it fails.
>>> What's with the Xlib extension error?
>>>
>>>
>>> $ xset r rate 2 500
>>> Xlib: extension "XFree86-Misc" missing on display ":0.0".
>>> xset: unknown option 500
>>>        
>> The 'r' argument section of the 'xset' man page I have here says:
>>
>>    If the server supports the XFree86-Misc extension, or the XKB extension,
>>    then a  parameter of 'rate' is accepted and should be followed by zero,
>>    one or two numeric values.  The first  specifies the delay before
>>    autorepeat starts and the second specifies the repeat rate.   In the
>>    case that  the  server  supports the XKB extension, the delay is the
>>    number of milliseconds before autorepeat starts, and the rate is the
>>    number of repeats per second.
>>
>> Based on the error message, presumably your X server doesn't provide the
>> required extensions, so the 'xset r rate ...' command will fail when run
>> against this server.  (I'm not certain, but I think xset's willingness
>> to use the XKB extension is a recent addition.  If your 'xset' is old
>> then it might not know how to work with XKB and might depend entirely
>> on XFree86-Misc.)
>>      
> Recent versions of Xorg have dropped XFree86-Misc.
>
> Unfortunately, xset versions before last year's 1.1 release had a bug in which
> they checked for it incorrectly and reported the missing extension, even when it
> wasn't present or going to be used (since XKB is preferred if available - and
> since recent versions of Xorg are impossible to compile without XKB, it should
> always be available).
>
> If it actually fails to work, it should print instead:
> 	server does not have extension for "r rate" option
>
> If you don't get that, then either XKB or XFree86-Misc should have accepted the
> change.
>
> As for the "unknown option 500", it appears that xset requires the second
> argument to be<= 255, and if it's not ignores it, letting the rest of the
> option parser choke on it.   (Sorry, the xset option design is absolutely
> horrid, and some day we need to create a new command with a standard CLI to
> replace it.)
>
>    

Well, the xfree86 option to KB section did nothing.

xset r rate 2 255
belches out the error that Xlib does not have XFree86-Misc
for display 0:0
and my autorepeat gets set to 0 delay and probably maximum
repeat rate, so that I am not even able to type any command.
For example, doing an ls becomes:
$ lllllllllllllllllllllllllssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss