Poll: Should Xorg change from using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to something harder for users to press by accident?

Jason Spiro jasonspiro4 at gmail.com
Mon Sep 22 19:41:16 PDT 2008


Problem:  Many[1] users have killed X by accident.[2]

Solution idea: Make it harder to kill X by accident.  E.g. you could
change the key sequence users must press.
   * Maybe require Control+Alt+Backspace then Control-Alt-Y.[3]
   * Or require Control+K+X pressed simultaneously.

What do you think?  Should Xorg change this key sequence?  Please vote
"yes" or "no".  You can add comments too.  If you reply only to me by
private mail, I will eventually summarize your reply to the list.

Regards,
-Jason

^ [1].  See http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510 then
scroll down to the "== Example evidence ==" section.  Or see
http://www.google.com/search?q=accidentally+hit+%7C+press+%7C+hitting+%7C+pressing+control+%7C+ctrl+alt+backspace+x%7Cxorg

^ [2].  I filed a bug about this last year but it's still untriaged.
So now I'm asking here.  It's bug 10510 (Xorg should use a more
unlikely key combination than Control-Alt-Backspace as the server zap
key): http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510

^ [3].  After Control+Alt+Backspace, the PC speaker would beep once,
the keyboard LEDs would blink a few times, and X
would attempt to show a warning dialog.  Thanks to Elisée Maurer at
http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510#c1 for the
warning-dialog idea.




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