Does Your PC Really Need a SysRq Button Anymore? 806
An anonymous reader writes "Ever wondered what the SysRq key on your keyboard does? Lenovo has decided it's so rarely used that it has started removing the key from some new Thinkpad Edge laptops. We already know that Lenovo are something of the fastidious scientists when it comes to keyboard design. Last time they fiddled with the age-old key layout, it was after painstaking research to count exactly how many times users press the Delete and Escape keys. Now it seems another relic of computer keyboards is starting to disappear."
I don't recall ever using it... (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't recall ever using that key although I have coded my own "terminate and stay resident" (TSR) programs back then in order to achieve some level of multitasking in DOS.
With TSR programs, you could intercept the timer interrupt and do some amount of computation in the background before returning to the running program. You could also intercept the keyboard interrupt in order to switch from one application to another on the fly but I have never actually intercepted the Sysrq key. I used some other hot key combination definition. Maybe back then I though that it wasn't a good idea to fool around with that key but this page says other TSR programmers were using it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_request [wikipedia.org]
Re:I don't recall ever using it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I don't recall ever using it... (Score:5, Informative)
SysRq is the print screen button, and I use it all of the time too. It is cut and paste for me, alt-printscreen (or control-printscreen) then shift-printscreen. Fastest screen paste in the west....
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hold Alt, navigate through the menus with the keyboard, then press PrtSc.
Agree Sys Admins Answer (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:NOOOoooooo! My Magic-SYSRQ KEY! (Score:3, Informative)
Used it a lot on my desktop when I hacked some scanner drivers to support my parallel port scanner. It is amazing the light show that a "simple" null pointer deference in your kernel driver can make. : )
Also use it a lot to force buffers to flush to the disk and then remount the root filesystem as readonly. This was very useful to prevent disk corruption while I was debugging my ACPI suspend function on the laptop. For some reason (Microsoft ASL compiler) when the laptop was resuming from suspend state, the
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Linux kernel developers also use that button.
Debug key (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever wondered what the SysRq key on your keyboard does?
Introduced by IBM with the PC/AT, it was intended to be available as a special key to directly invoke low-level operating system functions with no possibility of conflicting with any existing software.
In Linux, the kernel can be configured to provide functions for system debugging and crash recovery.[4] This use is known as the "Magic SysRq key".
Microsoft has used SysRq for various OS- and application-level debuggers. In the CodeView debugger, it was sometimes used to break into the debugging during program execution.[5] For the Windows NT remote kernel debugger, it can be used to force the system into the debugger.[6]
So it's a handy debugger key for those who need one, functioning in the same key as print screen, but you need to hold alt key. What's the harm having it there, since it already is? It's not like it's an extra button on your keyboard.
They're remapping something else (Score:2)
So it's a handy debugger key for those who need one, functioning in the same key as print screen, but you need to hold alt key. What's the harm having it there, since it already is?
Because they're probably remapping print screen too. Notice how "print screen" doesn't cause ink to get committed to paper in either Windows or GNOME.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But it doesn't need it's own special key. Any combination of keys could be programmed to send the PRTSCR keycode, without needing a dedicated key.
Also true for every other key. In fact, you could just have one key and if you keep hitting it it cycles through all of the keycodes until you get to the one you want. Then you pause and go on to the next one. Seems very elegant to me. Put the most-used characters at the front of the list: etaoin...
Re:They're remapping something else (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Debug key (Score:4, Interesting)
In Linux, the kernel can be configured to provide functions for system debugging and crash recovery.[4] This use is known as the "Magic SysRq key".
I guess there will be no more Raising Skinny Elephants on a Lenovo anymore. And while I have only used it a few times in the last year, I have used it.
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Informative)
Ubuntu's recent decision to disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace by default is a separate issue.
On older versions of Ubuntu, you will find that either key combo will kill X.
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It wasn't Ubuntu's decision, it was Xorg's. I had to explicitly map Ctrl+Alt+Backspace again under Gentoo after a recent Xorg update.
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...too easy to hit by mistake? I have never, ever even come close to hitting ctrl+alt+bksp by mistake. I mean... how would you actually go about doing that?
Re:Debug key (Score:4, Informative)
I think you're confused. Alt+SysRq+K is one of the Linux "Magic Keys" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key [wikipedia.org] it kills all processes on the current VT, not just X. Most modern X implementations will still work with Ctrl+Alt+BkSp but you now need to do it twice and the first time it makes a rather ominous "beeeeeeeeeep" at you to warn you that you maybe about to make a bad decision....
So this is hardly an "Ubuntu decision" (like most distros they just package up what's already there, mix it up with a few good and a few bad ideas of their own and paint it nicely).
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Funny)
You'd be surprised, I pressed it twice just while typing this comment.
Re:Debug key (Score:4, Informative)
This has the advantage that it will always kill X, even if X has hung (and will always give you your display back unless the graphics driver has left the adaptor in a weird state), and can also kill whatever (graphical) program had made the system unresponsive, even if it's malfunctioned badly enough to continue eating resources after losing it's connection to the X server.
Re:Debug key (Score:4, Informative)
Oh heck, I use the SysRq key on an almost daily basis whenever I screw up a kernel compile (and that's often). At least on my keyboards, it's on the same key as PrntScrn. Looking at my keyboard, there's nothing that I don't use on a fairly regular basis:Num Lk - *almost* always on when using a laptop. Almost always off when using a regular keyboard. Pause/Break I've mapped to bring up my task manager. I've also noticed that the paint is actually wearing off the hjkl keys on one keyboard (too much nethack...er vi).
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Funny)
I use the SysRq key on an almost daily basis whenever I screw up a kernel compile
Hey, how is Gentoo nowadays?
.
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Debug key (Score:5, Funny)
Haha, who's laughing now. I did it in six hours!!! And you mocked my -funroll-loops and -O16. Who's laughing now???
Re:Debug key (Score:4, Funny)
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It's just like every other key on your keyboard -- what it does is up to the programmer. Why do OSes use alt-tab to switch between applications, when SysReq is a logical choice? Why did they add that stuupid "windows key" when, again, SysReq would serve perfectly adequately?
I'd posit that Scroll Lock has been the useless key ever since they started putting the numeric keypad separate from the navigation keys. I always fond it maddening that Bios manufacturers and Microsoft had the numeric keypad set to "cur
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
just do like HP did with the notebook i use at work
Fn key + scroll lock = num lock
Fn key + pause = break
Fn key + insert = prt scr
Fn key + delete = sys rq
or are you gonna tell me lenovos dont have the "fn" key ?
heck, even 5 yr old iBooks have Fn keys...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, outside of slashdot user-base ( the users of slashdot are primarily composed of higher educated, much more computer skilled users, whom, can do more with there computers in a day than most people in a week ) the SysRq key is a key of use. as for the rest of 99.44% of people it's a non-issue
Anyway, most of the users of slashdot would know to custom build there own developmental workstation platform and would order that specific type of keyboard.
it's wonderful to see that the users here battle it out fo
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Yeah, try that in Solaris and watch all processes die...
killall is used by shutdown(1M) to kill all active processes not directly related to the shutdown procedure.
Use pkill(1).
Print Screen (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
If you look at the pictures in TFA, you'll note that they've moved Print Screen to share space with the Insert key. To invoke Print Screen instead of Insert, you have to hold down the Fn key.
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Re:Print Screen (Score:5, Funny)
You can use ALT-F4 instead - try it now.
Terminals? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm pretty sure SysRq is a left over from the terminal days, though I don't recall which terminal (the VT100 doesn't have it). It was basically the equivalent of CTRL-ALT-DEL.
Ahh, Wiki to the rescue; it was from the IBM 3270.
How about the even more useless keys? (Score:2, Interesting)
Caps Lock
Num Lock
Both of these keys should die a firey death before you get rid of the SysRq key, which is very useful for Linux users.
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Save WinKey, kill Insert (Score:4, Interesting)
Winkey is very useful.
I have a ton of tiny shell scripts invoked by Win + $key (via xbindkeys [nongnu.org]):
"Grey+" / "Grey -" -- volume control
G -- google current selection (see xclip (1))
W -- search Wikipedia (or Russian wikipedia with shift)
A -- open terminal
K -- invoke xkill [wikipedia.org] (1)
L -- lock screen
and some more
On the other hand, the invenror of the Insert key deserves a mousetrap being put right under the light switch in their room.
Get rid of unnecessary one and zero keys (Score:5, Funny)
When I learned to type we didn't have these extra "one" and "zero" keys. We used lower case "ell" and upper case "Oh" and we were happy, dang it!
Re: (Score:3)
Funny? Who modded this funny? Young'uns don't remember, I know, but you have NO idea how many programs barfed in the early days because you got people who couldn't tell the difference between a 0 and an O. So programmers came up with the bright idea to mark the 0 with a dash through it.
In came the Danes and promptly managed to confuse it with an Ø. We just couldn't win.
Re: (Score:3)
The tradition of putting a slash through a zero to distinguish it from O is much older than computers... it was standard operating procedure for Morse telegraphists when writing by hand.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Haha! That's silly! Why would they confuse the O with a zero when they write morse code, do they spell out the "DØT"?
-dZ.
Re:Get rid of unnecessary one and zero keys (Score:5, Funny)
Pah. One and zero are the only keys that *are* essential.
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And '!' was typed as period-backspace-apostrophe (or the reverse). I wonder if I have that thing any more. It was good at making regular marks on paper during a power failure, but it had this extremely bad habit of inserting the character I typed rather than the one I wanted.
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Re:Get rid of unnecessary one and zero keys (Score:4, Informative)
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So does it go up to 11?
As it is just about never used... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is Lenovo leaving any "useless" keys? Some of us actually NEED keys that are otherwise never used and the OSes recognize by default.
Re:As it is just about never used... (Score:4, Interesting)
IMO, the perfect keyboard was the Mac Classic one, before they made it all PC-compatible.
My favorite feature was that "Enter" and "Return" were two different keys, so you didn't have to do that retarded "use control-Enter to actually do return" crap that we do all the time now. ("Return" added a new line and "Enter" entered information.)
"Home" and "End" worked in a reasonable fashion. And "Caps Lock" actually did what the key SAID it did, instead of caps reverse, which is what PCs have always done.
If I ran the world, I'd get rid of every key that causes more tech support calls than it saves time. This includes "Scroll Lock" and "Pause", which basically work as a "my Excel is broken!" key. And ditto "Insert", except that one's more of a "my Word is broken!" key. Oh, and "Num Lock"... why would anybody ever want the keypad to *not* be a keypad? Definitely scrap that one too.
And while we're at it, we need Microsoft to make up its mind whether the "Windows" key is a key or a modifier... right now it does both, which is insane.
Re:As it is just about never used... (Score:4, Interesting)
Troll? Seriously?
I don't mind being down-modded, if the mod makes sense. Could someone please explain to me how anything in that post is considered "trolling."
Has to be said a bit differently this time ... (Score:5, Funny)
"You can have my SysRq key when you pry it from my cold dead ThinkPad!"
Linux, Specifically Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
I use the "busier" backwards or "reisub" combination with the sysrq key in order to gently shutdown Ubuntu when it locks up. So yes, I use it, but that has only been in the last couple of years or so. Not sure what else it is used for...
Randomly I noticed that key today... (Score:3, Informative)
randomly I noticed that key earlier today, because some people have been given new usb keyboards instead of PS2 and they dont have that key (hp keyboards).... and now it appears here...
Weird.
From having read TFA... (Score:2)
I also notice the Scroll Lock and Pause/Break keys are missing. I know you can use the Scroll Lock key in conjunction with Excel, but I'm not sure anyone else ever does. Although I have actually used it on the command line to, shock and awe, lock the screen from scrolling while it was booting up so I could see error messages before they disappeared into the dust.
Also, switching the F keys with the functionality usually relegated to Fn-F*, as mentioned in TFA, is nothing new. Apple has been doing that on the
I've used it (Score:5, Informative)
If linux freezes, then Alt-SysRq-S+U+B will do an emergency sync of the disks, unmount them and reboot the system.
Re:I've used it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I've used it (Score:5, Funny)
If linux freezes, then Alt-SysRq-S+U+B will do an emergency sync of the disks, unmount them and reboot the system.
Bah! That almost looks like an emacs keycombo. M-x-Ctrl-v-p-o-k-l-m-z-w and then press your spacebar with your nose, and it'll do the same thing by the way. It's really handy to have such a shortcut, but the odds of your cat walking over the keyboard and hitting that particular combo are pretty high.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Hold down both shift keys, both alt keys, and F1, pop the disk out of the drive and put it back in.
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Re:I've used it (Score:5, Informative)
I actually use Alt - SysRq - R + E + I + S + U + B [kember.net]:
* R: Switch the keyboard from raw mode to XLATE mode
* E: Send the SIGTERM signal to all processes except init
* I: Send the SIGKILL signal to all processes except init
* S: Sync all mounted filesystems
* U: Remount all mounted filesystems in read-only mode
* B: Immediately reboot the system, without unmounting partitions or syncing
You don't need to hold the REISUB keys, so you can use your left hand to hold Alt, your right one to hold SysRq and use the free fingers to type REISUB.
Re:I've used it (Score:5, Funny)
Careful. I accidently typed Alt - SysRq - R + E + I + S + E + R and my wife disappeared.
Re:I've used it (Score:5, Informative)
You don't. You hold down alt and sysrq, but the other keys are pressed in sequence (and rather slowly). (Some laptop keyboards with sysrq requiring fn require you to let go of sysrq while you press the other keys, in which case you hold down alt but alternate between sysrq and the other characters.)
Incidentally, for the grandparent: you probably want to write the whole sequence of 6 commands, R E I S U B, rather than just S U B. The R sets the keyboard to raw mode, sometimes allowing you to control-alt-f1 into a terminal and fix the crash without rebooting. E tells all the processes which are still running properly to terminate (many of them will save crash recovery or autosave data if you do that, so you can more easily get back to where you were); I kills all the processes that didn't shut down when you pressed E. This means that when you use S to synchronise the disks, it actually saves what you want to save, and nothing tries to queue up more data to save afterwards. Then U remounts filesystems readonly (or unmounts them; it comes to much the same thing), and B reboots the system instantly (the REISU do the rest of the shutdown process between them).
A good mnemonic for this is that REISUB is "busier" spelt backwards. (Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring is another common mnemonic.)
Sometimes I end up doing REISUO instead; unlike REISUB which is a manual reboot, RESIUO is a manual shutdown. It all rather depends on whether you want the system to stay down or come back up.
Re:I've used it (Score:5, Insightful)
I always liked Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken, since that's kinda what REISUB does. But hey, any mnemonic that helps you remember is a good mnemonic, right?
Print Screen (Score:5, Insightful)
That is the Print Screen key. Don't ever remove that key from the keyboard! I don't care that the word "SysRq" is written below "Print Screen" on that key. Feel free to remove that "SysRq" word from there, but do NOT remove the handy print screen key! Thanks.
Re:Print Screen (Score:5, Funny)
That is the Print Screen key. Don't ever remove that key from the keyboard! I don't care that the word "SysRq" is written below "Print Screen" on that key. Feel free to remove that "SysRq" word from there, but do NOT remove the handy print screen key! Thanks.
But if we drop the sysrq key we'll finally have room for the any key.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
But how will a psychiatrist diagnose their patient then?
They just need to ask the user to press any key...
space bar - penile size complex.
ctrl - control freak
esc - escapism
alt - schizophrenia
shift - split personality
enter - vaginal fixation
F1 - overgrown ambition.
num enter - anal fixation
num zero - low self esteem
menu key - bulimic
tab - drunkard
backslash - paranoia
caps lock - Tourette's
delete - destructive
arrow up - mania
arrow down - depression
windows key - suicidal tendencies
reset - hopeless idiot.
Re:Print Screen (Score:4, Informative)
Ditto. Alt+PrtScn is your current-dialog-capturing-friend!
Although, it still amazes me the amount of people who still install 'freeware' utilities to take screengrabs of dialogs, when Windows has had that functionality built in for many versions... ... and I kid you not, I did once have this conversation:
User: I need Photoshop CS2 installed, here's my Cost-Code.
Me: Why?
User: I write documentation that needs screenshots.
Me: You know you can screengrab via windows and paste directly into Word?
User: I don't care, Bob has Photoshop, and I want a copy as well.
Me: *sigh* Ok, I'll buy a copy and charge your dept...
-Jar
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I managed to get that part of OneNote working on Ubuntu as well, although through the tray icon instead of the hotkey. Unfortunately most everything else that I need in OneNote remains broken under the version of CrossOver I have.
Delete/Escape? (Score:2)
Home/End/Scroll lock/Insert (annoying)/ Page break (only for dos type screens)/ num lock I either don't use or rarely use.
Say what? (Score:3, Funny)
No - since I own a Mac....you insensitive bork........
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Then you have the Programmer's Key [wikipedia.org], though it was removed from Mac designs around 1995, replaced with the Command-Power combination, or on later Macs with USB keyboards, Command-Eject.
First they came for my Gold key... (Score:3, Insightful)
I keep seeing these, and I wonder how long it will be until we have nothing but a blackberry style keyboard.
I guess I can't complain since I still use my Model M and LK463 keyboards, but laptops are getting to the point that the function keys are all remapped to random tasks (brightness, volume, etc) and we keep seeing random multi-media keys... yet stuff like num lock, scroll lock, print screen, break is getting pulled.
Maybe most suits don't spend anytime dealing with text? Powerpoint doesn't recognize break?
Lenovo not the first it seems (Score:3, Interesting)
Reading through the discussion I looked down to remind myself where on my keyboard it was, only to find that my Logitech keyboard I've been using at work for the last 2 years doesn't even have a Syr rq key.
My work laptop does though as an alternative on the delete key.
Still, I didn't even realised it'd gone from my main keyboard!!
Goodbye to the ThinkPad brand. (Score:5, Insightful)
If this change is indicative of what'll happen to the "serious business" series (T, X, R), then the ThinkPad has, after some 18 years or so, finally jumped the shark.
One of the main selling points of a ThinkPad was the keyboard. When all the other brands went completely nuts and placed the PrtSc/ScrLk/Pause/Insert/Delete/Home/End/PgUp and PgDn keys at a whim, on a ThinkPad you could blindly hit the spot where the key was supposed to be and actually hit it. They were quite [lenovoblogs.com] proud [lenovoblogs.com] of that, and nobody minded.
Now, you get a chiclet keyboard with the F-keys disabled by default and six rows. Well, congrats Lenovo, you've just went from top-of-the-line in 2010 to consumer-grade-sony-vaio in 1999 or so.
Another thing were the displays. Great, high-resolution, matte 4:3 screens one could work with. I own a 12" X61 with 1050 horizontal lines. Nowadays, it's WXGA with less than 800 lines in everything up to 14.1", and half of the models come in glare-type finish. Thanks to the shiny finish you can't see the screen contents anyways, so that slightly mitigates the lack of resolution.
What's next, Lenovo? Get rid of the high-quality finish of the Notebooks and switch to cheap plastic? Fuck up the support infrastructure IBM built? Oh wait, already happened. I guess it's down to the nipple mouse as the last true hallmark of a ThinkPad. And that, I won't give up 'til you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Re:Goodbye to the ThinkPad brand. (Score:5, Informative)
The laptops that are getting this change are the Thinkpad Edge models. They are the low-end consumer level Lenovo laptops, Thinkpads in name only. They are not the regular Thinkpad T or X or R series models. The R series is discontinued now anyway. The regular T and X series are staying as they were (with minor modifications). You can read more details here: http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=349
I look forward to the Thinkpad T series being the solid black square tanks that they have always been.
It's there to tell the OS (Score:5, Funny)
that the user is pressing the SysRq key.
In fact, to *urgently* tell the OS that the SysRq. It's not supposed to be buffered or anything, it supposed to grab the OS by the collar and scream "THE USER JUST PRESSED THE DAMMNED SYSRQ KEY!!!!" at it.
But what is that supposed to mean?
It doesn't mean anything.
That's the whole point.
When they were designing the keyboard, they thought of all the things that you might want a keyboard to say ("STOP SCROLLING", "Show me that last page", "Get me the hell out of this input mode"). And after they'd mandated keys for everything anybody could think of, they had a stroke of genius. They mandated a key that did nothing anybody wanted to do.
Why is that a stroke of genius?
It is something rare in engineering, which thrives on bravado and feverishly inflated self-confidence. It is an admission of the limitation of human foresight, an acknowledgement that there are more things under Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies; a semiotic *memento mori*.
This key is mandated to mean nothing, therefore it can mean anything, or indeed, everything.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In fact, to *urgently* tell the OS that the SysRq.
My first computer, an OSI Superboard 2 had a key for that: "Break". I think it was wired to the reset pin of the 6502.
That got its attention :-)
PrintScreen (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't care about SysRq but I don't mind it sharing space with PrintScreen. And don't you dare taking my PrintScreen.
Re:PrintScreen (Score:5, Funny)
Print screen is tool for terrorists and pirates! You could copy all 15 hours of the extended edition of lord of the rings by using print screen on each frame of film and saving it all to uncompressed bitmaps.[/humor]
This is not your father's Thinkpad Lenevo! (Score:3, Interesting)
As a Linux developer this move screams to me: "HEY! WE'RE LENEVO, AND NOW THAT WE HAVE BOUGHT THE RIGHTS TO THE THINKPAD NAME FROM IBM, WE ARE SHOUTING HOW CLUELESS WE ARE BECOMING FROM THE VIRTUAL ROOFTOPS".
This is NOT their father's Thinkpad.
What key again? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm looking down at my vanilla Logitech keyboard and I don't see any key with "SysRq" on it.
So I guess I don't need one.
Too many keys!!! (Score:4, Funny)
What about CTRL and Fc (Score:4, Insightful)
One major ilk I have about laptop keyboard is the positioning of the CTRL and Fn keys.
I was in a shop recently that sold laptops of many different brands. All of them, except Lenovo, had the CTRL key as the first key in the row, with the Fn key to the right of it. This, IMHO, is the correct position for it - it's where my little finger automatically goes for CTRL, and where it is located on a 'normal' keyboard.
Lenovo had the Fn key first, with the CTRL key to the right, meaning that when you go to hit CTRL-, I hit Fn instead. This, for me, is a major factor is choosing what laptop to buy - if the CTRL key is in the wrong place, it's marked off the list immediately.
funny story:
Several years ago, for work, I got a Compaq Evo N620c (which I still use for work). While the Fn and CTRL keys are in the wrong place, at least they have the forethought to allow you to swap them in the BIOS, which I naturally did.
Now, the laptop was to be reburned, so the Service Desk took it in. When I went to pick it up the next day, they had a normal keyboard plugged into the PS/2 socket. I asked them why, and they told me that the CTRL key was broken and they couldn't use CTRL-ALT-DEL (yes, it's Windows. *sigh*)
So firstly I explained to them that the CTRL and Fn keys were swapped in the BIOS, and then asked the question "Why didn't you just use the CTRL key on the other side of the keyboard?" (which, when tried, worked perfectly).
*sigh*
T.
Chiclets (Score:3, Informative)
The real problem? This laptop has one of those horrible chiclet keyboards.
Lenovo argues the new design gives the laptop a more "clean and inviting look"
I don't want to use any keyboard where the look of the thing was given anything more than secondary consideration. I've used chiclet-keys on Powerbooks, and I hate them. And the stupid key layout. I understand that compromises have to be made on a laptop keyboard because of space, but the Powerbook keyboard seems to have been solely designed to "think different" from the standard layout. Thou Shalt Not Move The Slash Keys. Whenever I know I have to support one now, I take my USB keyboard with me, a nice Cherry G80-3000 with a boring, normal, sensible layout, and clicky key switches.
Not very Linux friendly... (Score:3, Informative)
SysRQ can be extremely useful in figuring out why a machine has locked up or become unresponsive...
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sysrq.txt [kernel.org]
I don't care much about the SysRq key but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously. CTRL-key combo's are much easier to press, while touch typing, when the CTRL key is just to the left of the A key.
Cheers,
RM
Lenovo keyboards (Score:3, Interesting)
I love the keyboard on my 2.5 year old thinkpad. Especially the dedicated "back" and "forward" buttons, which I've remapped to more useful functions. In fact, I think the keyboard is almost a "killer feature" that none of their competitors can match. If they start removing buttons I use, I may be able to make my next laptop a system76 or clevo.
Never used it, but the function keys.... (Score:3, Insightful)
And why stop there? Lenovo has also asked itself how often users press the F Function keys. On the new laptops, the F Function buttons are reduced to secondary controls, in place of laptop controls like screen brightness. Now, you'll need to hold the Fn button to use keys like F11 (while screen brightness can be pressed without holding Fn).
Now that is a dumb decision. I use function keys all the time, and having to hold some other key for them to work would definitely be a dealbreaker. My Microsoft keyboard has an "F Lock" key which is like the Fn key but toggleable (think Caps Lock instead of Shift). That's a much better design.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I use the Caps Lock for entering software serial numbers where you get a long string of capital letters and numbers.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Laptops (Score:2)
Anyone who needs a Caps Lock Key for legitimate technical reasons can buy a specialized keyboard for that purpose.
And install it into the laptop's chassis how?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Rebind it to CTRL and learn to love the CAPS key
http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/disable_caps_lock/ [johnhaller.com]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's the eject key.
Re:Um, I use a Macbook Pro... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Since Lenovo is remapping the PrintScreen function to be an alternate of the Insert key, you'll still have print screen.
There's a picture of the keyboard in the article, and it does seem relatively well laid-out. Page-up and page-down look a tad clumsy, but are logically placed in relation to the arrow keys at least.
I think my biggest objection would be the reintroduction of the chiclet keys, but then again I suppose those are easier to seal and clean, so I guess there's a good argument for them. I just h
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, I've been using a lot of 3270 emulators on various operating systems since Windows 3.11, and I have yet to see a single one that actually uses the physical SysRq key to mean SysRq. The old DOS ones did, but anything in Windows really can't, because SysRq causes a local interrupt that's harder to intercept. It's easier for emulator programmers to capture a less invasive keypress and simulate SysRq over the 3270 stream.
My current 3270 emulator uses CTRL-ESC to emulate SysRq. I've seen a few other