restarting X server

[Jonathan Byrne]

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 :)


>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.

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.

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.

Best,

Jonathan