f_10.2_i386 "ctrl_alt_bksp" kills all video , not just x .

[Polytropon]

On Tue, 22 Dec 2015 00:21:21 +0000, spellberg_robert wrote:
>        it has packages , --only-- , installed ,
>        such as x , firefox , thunderbird and , of course ,
>        a menagerie of dependencies

A nice way to say "bloat"... :-)



> the problem is this :
>    on 10.2 , <ctrl_alt_bksp> is not recognized , as a command .
> "xterm" says that i typed "\0377" [ or "/0377" , i forget which ] .
> hmmm ... , what to do ?

For further reference:

There are two ways to deal with the problem: The first (and
probably better) idea is to add the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(even if this file does just exist partially):

	[...]
	Section "InputDevice"
		[...]
		Option	"XkbOptions"	"terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
	EndSection
	[...]

The other idea is to be applied when X is installed with HAL and
DBUS and therefore won't work properly. You'd have to edit the
XML file /usr/local/etc/hal/fdi/policy/x11-input.fdi:

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
	<deviceinfo version="0.2">
	  <device>
	    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keyboard">
	      <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbOptions" type="string">terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp</merge>
	    </match>
	  </device>
	</deviceinfo>

On modern X, this should not be needed anymore, but you said
something about FreeBSD 9, so maybe this still applies there.

A third--- three! three ways to do it! ... way to make the
default work again is to add

	setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

to the user's X initialization file, ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession,
depending on the use of a display manager (such as xdm). You've
mentioned that this method worked for you.



> initially , after "ps" gave me some "pid"s ,
>    methodically , i "kill"ed x_related processes , until x died .
> surprise , surprise .
> apparently , now , this disables the video output , because
>    the monitor reports , "monitor is going to sleep" , which it does .
> further ,
>    none of the <alt_fn> keys take me to a different virtual terminal ,
>    as they do before i invoke "startx" .
> notwithstanding the video loss , though ,
>    the 10.2 box is still "up" , because
>    i can "ssh" over to it , from the 9.3 box .

The system is probably still working normal, but you don't see
anything. Make sure you got the "sc vs. vt thing" right:

	https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons

Check if

	kern.vty=vt

is set in /boot/loader.conf. See "man 4 vt" for details.

NB. This is a "well known" problem. :-)



> eureka !
> 
> x recognized "ctrl_alt_bksp" as a command .
> you guessed it .
> promptly , the video was disabled and
>    the monitor went to sleep [ snicker ; sigh ] .
> i believe that this is the same response as
>    that which was generated by killing processes .
> well , the recognition is --some-- kind of progress .



> i should point out that
>    recognizing ctrl_alt_bksp is not critical ,
>    if i can kill x by using "kill -9 pid" ;
>    however , it --is-- convenient .
> i want to restore the several virtual terminals that existed
>    before i invoked "startx" .

This is the _normal_ behaviour.



> has anyone any thoughts ?

It looks to me that you're not having an X problem per se, but
the known one with the console driver (re-entering text mode)...



> p . s . ---
> 
> it is late in my day and
>    i just had a really goofy thought or , perhaps ,
>    it is an absolutely brilliant idea .
> as i said , i can ssh over from another box
>    [ in fact , one of my xterms is doing just that , at this moment ] .
> is there some new command [ i --am-- "su"ed as "root" ] that will
>    turn on the video system and drive the attached monitor ?

It would probably restore the signal when X is started again.



> the logical place for this [ to my mind ] is vidcontrol(1) .

Correct - vidcontrol is the configuration interface program to
the console driver.



> i just checked the man_page , but , nothing like that exists .
> on_the_other_hand ,
>    reading that page --did-- give me another bright_idea .
> perhaps ,
>    some kind of screensaver/blanking system has been enabled ,
>    without my knowledge

Probably not. This is not the default.





-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...