restarting X server

[Glen Barber]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 9:49 PM, Jonathan Byrne <jonathan at yamame.org> wrote:
> On 3/18/2009, "Glen Barber" <glen.j.barber at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>What about a prompt for the user?  This way, if X is hung, a timer
>>(say 15 seconds or so) will automatically restart X.
>
> Just so long as the prompt doesn't depend on X working. If X is really
> hung, you may never see the prompt :)
>
>

That's why I specified "after a timer, automatically restart X."

>>This whole thing is poor practice, IMHO.  Now, "regular users" are
>>going to find out how to re-enable the "feature" by editing xorg.conf.
>
> These young whippersnappers :) Back in my day, editing the X config by
> hand was part of being a "regular user." I know one guy who turned his
> nose up at any automatic configuration tool, preferring to write his own
> mode lines. And they worked, I guess. At least, I never saw him with a
> burned up monitor :) I never went so far as trying my own mode lines,
> but I did edit my own X config. And yes, sometimes I broke it, but I
> also figured out how to fix it. That was part of the fun, and part of
> why Linux remains my primary OS today, with a little Mac around the
> edges.
>

That's one of the same reasons I became involved in UNIX-like operating systems.

> But, I'll grant that the Linux landscape has changed. People who either
> want to much around in their X config or are competent to do so are
> probably now a (small?) minority of Linux users, so I have to agree with
> you that we don't really want people digging around in their if they
> don't have to. And for those adventurous souls who dig around in there
> anyway even when they don't have to and break stuff, well, we'll help
> :) That's what Linux is about, for me.
>

It's that concern that brought me to replying to this thread.  This
appears to be a lose-lose situation to me (and a few on the
ubuntuforums thread).

> Unlike other decisions that proved unpopular - early adoption of KDE 4,
> for example, I don't think this will work out well in the end for
> Kubuntu. There's no upside, and a pretty clear potential downside. KDE
> 4 worked out well by getting better. With the release of 4.2 I've
> finally gone over to it completely myself, and I now have most of what I
> had with 3.5.10 and the rest will come. However, disabling ctrl-alt-bksp
> is not something that will get better with time.
>

I agree.

-- 
Glen Barber