Restarting Xserver from cli

[Bart Silverstrim]

Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-03-18 at 15:06 -0400, Bart Silverstrim wrote:
>> Why in hades would you be reaching for control-alt-del and expect data 
>> intact or no harm to occur, but complain if you miss and hit 
>> control-alt-back?
> 
> Ever used Windows? Other people have.

I've been known to. I never slipped and hit backspace. And when reaching 
for it, it's for killing something in task manager that's already 
fubared, and may have already lost data.

When playing with system things, I generally don't keep my checkbook 
ledger up, or transfer vital data and decide to screw with my video 
resolution or compiz settings mid-transfer.

>> And the reason you're killing the session is because the session is 
>> screwed up to begin with. 
> 
> Not when you accidentally kill it because you did not know about the key
> combo and missed Del.

Why are you reaching for control-alt-del? In windows, you can 
what...change your password, run task manager (right click task bar for 
that),...log off...? Ubuntu 8.10 it's doing nothing on mine. So newbies 
are hitting it without paying attention to do...? Is it really so big an 
epidemic that people are losing gigs of data, days of work, because of this?

>> How the hell does it prompt or warn when my 
>> screen consists of a pointer and lots of wavy, stepped jitters? That's 
>> assuming that the server is still in a state to even respond to a prompt 
>> in the first place!
> 
> Intercept it by the kernel, restart the graphics driver. You know, the
> thing even Windows does.

Good thing X is totally integrated with the Linux kernel the way Windows 
is. As I recall the more integrated Microsoft made it, the more flak 
they got for making it easier for drivers to ruin their security model.

>> All this bitching over an obscure key combination when far more of my 
>> users kick the damn power cable out "accidentally" or rest their foot on 
>> the switch on the power bar. Why not complain about removing that hazard 
>> for awhile on the list?
> 
> The complaints come from those who whine because they have to run a
> command (or, in the future, check a box) to enable the old behavior.

Never had to. It's always worked that way. If this is in a future 
release, it's because someone wants to change something that works fine 
the way it is, and now wants to add a new "feature" that will make it 
just a little more of a bitch when moving between distros.

> As far as the power cable goes: you know, if a user new to Ubuntu trips
> over his power cable and shuts down the machine, do you think they will
> blame Ubuntu? 

Why not? Their fudged fingers means they blame Ubuntu instead of their 
own klutz behavior at the keyboard, apparently...

> Now, what if they press some key combo by accident (probably without
> even knowing - happens to me all the time when I write fast) that takes
> down their session? Who do you think they will blame?

Blame yourself if you do that. I blame myself when I hit the wrong key, 
close the wrong window, click the wrong button...I did it, I don't do it 
again!

If the C-A-B is killing users, set an option to disable it, not vice-versa.