Re: Crashed X - Hard re-boot

[Florian Kulzer <florian.kulzer@icfo.es>]

On Sat, Mar 31, 2007 at 19:59:35 -0400, Douglas Allan Tutty wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 01, 2007 at 12:40:54AM +0200, Florian Kulzer wrote:
> > On Sat, Mar 31, 2007 at 17:29:13 -0400, Jose Luis Rivas Contreras wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > That raises the question, though, about what happined to terminal 1.
> > > > Why won't it respond, and why does it appear to be comatose???
> > > > 
> > > If you don't want this to happen then you should use gdm or xdm or kdm,
> > > then you just start gdm and terminal 1 is free ;-)
> > 
> > I think another advantage of using [xkg]dm is avoiding the CTRL-ALT-F1,
> > CTRL-Z attack against the X screen lock (if you leave your computer
> > unattended and somebody else could walk along and use the keyboard). 
> 
> So switch to vt2, log in, and run vlock -a

This works but it is somewhat cumbersome. I always thought that the
point of the X screen lock was to enable you to lock your workstation
without fuss, even if you have to leave it quickly. Pressing CTRL-ALT-L
is a reflex for me whenever I get up from my computer; I doubt that I
could bring myself to always run through your procedure. Of course you
can automate it, but how many normal users will bother to do so?

> After all, what happens if X dies when you're using *dm?

I think in this case you are returned to tty1 (or to whichever tty was
active before *dm started) and you will just see the blinking login
prompt. At least, that is what happens if I log in via ssh and kill an
active (logged-in) kdm session.

-- 
Regards,
          Florian