X11 server crashes -- a partial fix

[utu]

@Krishna

I was reading up on Virtual Box and ran across this material
concerning some magic key combos that are disallowed in
some virtualization situations.

I thought this might suggest one reason some combos are
not available on some of the later distros.
I miss control-alt-backspace and control-alt-dele when they
aren't available.

See for example,

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html#idp7681328

Cheers

[krishna.murphy]

Hmmm - I get it, but I was hoping for something like a kernel parameter to change. Maybe someone else has a suggestion?

Cheers!
Krishna

[kl522]

Hmmm - I get it, but I was hoping for something like a kernel parameter to change. Maybe someone else has a suggestion?

My guess is this is probably related to X11 display driver. Maybe you can check if all the "problematic" machines are using the same X11 display drivers. Or you could try using different display drivers to see if they make any difference to this behaviour.

[Forester]

I thought this might suggest one reason some combos are
not available on some of the later distros.
I miss control-alt-backspace and control-alt-dele when they
aren't available.

Ah, I know what ctrl-alt-bksp does not work on some of the later distros ...

... it is no longer the default ... you have to tell X you want this functionality.

Apparently, the story goes, Ubuntu users are so crass they keep typing ctrl-alt-bksp by mistake. (How ? The whole point of it being ctrl-alt-bksp is you can't press three keys like that by mistake). Ubuntu users complained that this was not 'user-friendly' so MS (no not the MS as in Bill Gates, MS as in Ubuntu) persuaded the Xorg foundation to change the Xserver so the ctrl-alt-bksp does nothing by default.

KK rightly restored the old behaviour (he's so sentimental its untrue).

You can do so too when taking other distros out for a spin. Edit the file /etc/default/keyboard and make sure the line that starts XKBOPTIONS includes the option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp.

Now its your turn: find out how to restore the old behaviour of ctrl+alt+del.

Did you know you can now even get X to give you "shift with numeric keypad keys works as in MS Windows" ? There soon won't be any point in using Linux as it will be just a Windows clone. Damn Ubuntu.

[kl522]

This is inside my /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc :-

setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp -option compose:ralt
xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace BackSpace BackSpace BackSpace"

By having these the ctrl-alt-del is disabled.

And to reenable ctrl-alt-del, I just do this :-

# xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace Terminate_Server BackSpace Terminate_Server"

In fact I wrote a little script which allows me to do it from the LXDE perference menu.

[krishna.murphy]

Ah, I know what ctrl-alt-bksp does not work on some of the later distros ...

... it is no longer the default ... you have to tell X you want this functionality.

That sounds like a BIG clue. I wonder if there's an "intercept and do nothing" type function for ctrl-Alt-Fx in X. But why would it be so consistent for both of us, in opposite ways?

Apparently, the story goes, Ubuntu users are so crass they keep typing ctrl-alt-bksp by mistake. (How ? The whole point of it being ctrl-alt-bksp is you can't press three keys like that by mistake).

The mistake is at the source - confusion about another famous "three-finger salute", I bet.

You can do so too when taking other distros out for a spin. Edit the file /etc/default/keyboard and make sure the line that starts XKBOPTIONS includes the option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp.

But this is another one that doesn't work for me with Knoppix! I'll definitely poke around, as suggested.

Now its your turn: find out how to restore the old behaviour of ctrl+alt+del.

Did you know you can now even get X to give you "shift with numeric keypad keys works as in MS Windows" ? There soon won't be any point in using Linux as it will be just a Windows clone. Damn Ubuntu.

Cheers!
Krishna