Bugzilla – Bug 388189
Can't kill X with ctrl-alt-backspace
Last modified: 2008-05-16 15:46:45 UTC
Recently I tried to kill my X server and only received a loud beep. Due to the nature of beeps, this didn't give me any hint at all, I thought my keyboard was broken at first. I actually had to ask some X developers to find out that this is the intended behavior. Apparently this is supposed to be a "security feature" so you don't kill the X server by pressing ctrl-alt-backspace easily, but only on the second time you press it. Unfortunatly I as a user don't get any information about what's going on. There are several ways to do this properly, please don't do a quick hack that makes things worse. For example you could go the windows ctrl-alt-del way - just show a logoff window when ctrl-alt-bs was hit the first time, stating that if you press it again the X server gets killed. If no logout window can be displayed (no WM running or so) kill it right away (this makes testing of new configurations easier).
Possibly a duplicate of bug #59038 ?
# rpm --changelog -q xorg-x11-server [...] Thu Mar 20 14:51:20 CET 2008 - sndirsch@suse.de - zap_warning_xserver.diff * implements FATE #302988: ZapWarning (Luc Verhaegen) Uses PCSpeaker for beep. Press once, beep. Press again within 2s (which is ample), terminate. Documented in xorg.conf manpage. ==> INVALID
Exactly, and the bug is that this is completely dumb and contra-productive default behavior.
Sure it's contra-productive for us developers. If you read the feature request and the duplicate bug you'll notice that nobody from us developers besides the project manager wanted this feature. BTW, showing a logoff window instead is a rather shortsighted approach. It won't help, when your Xserver is already broken and therefore doesn't show this window. Which is the main reason for anybody to press Ctrl-Alt-BS ... Reassigning to the project manager.
let's add a note to the release notes that it beeps now
*** Bug 306265 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
taken from bug 306265; now I must adjust it. <sect3 id="c-a-b" status="2007-08-30"> <title>Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on X Disabled by Default</title> <para> Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on GNOME, KDE, or any other graphical desktop does not kill the X server any longer.</para> <para>In the past it could happen that you terminated on X session accidentially by pressing this key combination. If you want to continue using this feature nevertheless, remove to the following line from the <literal>ServerFlags</literal> section of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:</para> <screen >Option "DontZap" "yes"</screen> </sect3>
The beep is not mentioned here yet.
Yes, thanks for the reminder. This is the update: <sect3 id="c-a-b" status="2007-08-30"> <title>Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on X Disabled by Default</title> <para> Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on GNOME, KDE, or any other graphical desktop does not terminate the X server any longer, but just beeps. If you press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace within 2 seconds again, it terminates the X server.</para> <para>In the past it could happen that you terminated on X session accidentially by pressing this key combination. If you want to continue using this feature nevertheless, remove to the following line from the <literal>ServerFlags</literal> section of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:</para> <screen >Option "DontZap" "yes"</screen> <para>For more information, see the xorg.conf manpage. </sect3>
DontZap for those that do not want this at all - which should be very few by now. Option "ZapWarning" "True" -> "False" for those that want it to be killed.
There seems to be a few typos and other problems with the above paragraph. Perhaps something like the following instead? <para>In the past it was possible to accidentally terminate an X session using this key combination. Nevertheless, if you want to continue to use this feature, remove the following line from the <literal>ServerFlags</literal> section of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:</para>
I don't think there is any need to mention option "DontZap". Instead it should be enough to tell the user that removing the line Option "ZapWarning" "true" will change back to the previous behaviour. # man xorg.conf [...] Option "ZapWarning" "boolean" This warns the user loudly when the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace sequence is pressed for the first time but still terminates the Xorg server when this key-sequence is pressed again shortly after. default: off.
Yes, I think the same. mid-air collision... Thanks Benji. We do not have to mention DontZap at all. New version: <sect3 id="c-a-b" status="2008-05-13"> <title>Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on X Disabled by Default</title> <para> Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on GNOME, KDE, or any other graphical desktop does not terminate the X server any longer, but just beeps. If you press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace within 2 seconds again, it terminates the X server.</para> <para>In the past it was possible to accidentally terminate an X session using this key combination. Nevertheless, if you want to continue to use this feature, remove the following line from the <literal>ServerFlags</literal> section of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:</para> <screen >Option "ZapWarning" "on"</screen> <para>For more information, see the xorg.conf manpage. </sect3>
The version in comment #14 looks fine to me.
(In reply to comment #14 from Karl Eichwalder) > <title>Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on X Disabled by Default</title> The text is OK, but the title doesn't really match it. What about <title>Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on X needs to be pressed twice to kill X</title> This title would at least be better, however I don't think it's perfect. Feel free to change it, but please don't use the word "disabled" in it as it is wrong (at least when pressing the keys the second time ;-)
thanks. I think I'll go for: Press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace Twice to Terminate the X Server
*** Bug 390859 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Thanks for the added complexity. I cannot see much support for this new feature, neither in nor outside of suse. Dont we want to educate all debian and redhat users about our new incompatibility? Either revert this or advertise it broadly *and* adjust all packages that instruct the user how to kill the X-Server. E.g. sax2 has this message box: |Final Steps |--------------- |The last step is saving your new |configuration. It is recommended to test the |new configuration before saving it. If the test |server shows a corrupted desktop, press [ |Ctrl+Alt+Backspace ] to kill the server. | |[Test] [Save] [Cancel] Would not be nice, if a user burns his brand new monitor to death, although he tried to follow the instructions.
If you cannot see much support for this new feature, make a cstomer survery. This "incompatibility" is a very minor nuisance, but please, discuss this feature elsewhere. Concerning sax2, I created bug 391134 ("copy to new").
(In reply to comment #19 from Juergen Weigert) > Thanks for the added complexity. I cannot see much support for this new > feature, neither in nor outside of suse. To give you an example: I had completely disabled Ctrl-Alt-backspace before because I accidently killed my X server several times. This happened usually while locking the session with Ctrl-Alt-ins - on my laptop keyboard insert and backspace are neightbors...)
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 391134 ***
*** Bug 391349 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Don't close my bugs ;) Thus far I did not submit the release-notes package containing this very snippet.
-> /work