Re: [patch] Re: Magic Alt-SysRq change in 2.6.18-rc1

Fredrik Roubert
2006-07-12T07:26:57Z

On Wed 12 Jul 02:16 CEST 2006, Roman Zippel wrote:

> > Nack your nack! The patch in 2.6.18-rc1 makes sysrq work on machines on
> > which it *did not work at all*. If that makes it harder to type but still
> > possible to type on other machines, well, we win.
>
> Why can't we even _try_ to preserve compatibility? :-(

First, please note that the documented behaviour (You press the key
combo 'ALT-SysRq-<command key>'.) still works.

The problem at hand is that not all keyboards can handle this many keys
pressed at once, and that there also are keyboards broken in other ways.

The work-around suggested in the documentation ([Y]ou might have better
luck with "press Alt", "press SysRq", "release Alt", "press <command
key>", release everything.) does not work with keyboards that sends the
make and break codes for SysRq immediately after another, and this was
the reason for changing the behaviour (for broken keyboards) in
2.6.18-rc1. The new behaviour works with every keyboard the people
involved in this discussion has heard of.

That the documentation wasn't updated with the new work-around key
combination for broken keyboards was a mistake.

Cheers // Fredrik Roubert

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