[Bug 1006676] Re: showkey fails with "Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console"

[Sondra Kinsey]

I agree that a more helpful error message would be helpful here. I am an
experience Ubuntu terminal user. However, it is not intuitive to me that
showkey should require root privileges. I would not have guessed this as
a solution to resolve this error.

A new error message could take several forms:
  Current user cannot access a file descriptor referring to the console.
  Permission denied.
  You must run as root user.
  Are you root?
I personally prefer the most descriptive and helpful:
  Current user cannot access a file descriptor referring to the console. Perhaps you intended to run this as root?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1006676

Title:
  showkey fails with "Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the
  console"

Status in kbd package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  When invoked in Gnome Terminal 3.0.1 (Ubuntu 11.10), showkey
  uninformatively exits after reporting:

    "Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console"

  For one who doesn't know what this means (such as myself), showkey is
  thus rendered unusable. The man page has no information about this
  behaviour.

  Installed kbd package: 1.15.2-3ubuntu1

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