ctrl-alt-backspace aka don't zap via GUI, was: ...

[Lars Wirzenius]

su, 2009-02-01 kello 19:19 +0000, Paul Sladen kirjoitti:
> On Fri, 30 Jan 2009, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > In that discusion it was declared that alt-sysreq-k was "better" because
> > it's harder to hit
> 
> On some laptops [and non-i386 stuff], it's _extremely_ hard to hit a Sysreq
> combination.  On special keyboards it may, or may not require
> Shift-and-Alt-and-Fn and may, or may not be on the same key as PrntScrn.
> 
> I'd replace my earlier support of a five-second hold period, with instead
> the consecutive double-hit used by SuSE as that patch (a) already exists,
> (b) activates if somebody thinks "that didn't work, I'll try it again".

I disable control-alt-backspace on my X servers, because I find myself
typing it by mistake way too often. On the other hand, X crashes on my
very rarely.

The situation where I type the fatal keystroke by mistake is this: some
programs (GUI) want control-backspace to delete the word before the
cursor. Other programs (terminal emulators) want alt-backspace. When I'm
a mode where I switch between an editor (GUI) and a terminal window
window (test, fix, test loop), my finger often type control-backspace in
the terminal window, then realize their error and quickly type
alt-backspace. However, since my fingers are slow and clumsy, my pinky
won't lift itself from the control key before I type alt-backspace.

I've even given my pinky doping to make it faster, but it's no good.
It's a very slow finger.

Since my fingers tend to type without my brain being involved, they
often do things by reflex. Thus, they will easily type
control-alt-backspace multiple times, in desperation, in the vain hope
that repeating the keystroke will make things work. Also, sometimes my
fingers want to delete multiple words.

Thus, I don't think requiring repeating control-alt-backspace to zap the
X server is going to be of much use to me to prevent accidental
slaughter. A completely different keystroke is going to be needed,
something that never gets hit otherwise.

Perhaps control-alt-esc followed by control-alt-backspace followed by
control-alt-esc again? Or something like that.