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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!metro!news
From: dawes@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Dawes)
Subject: Re: X dropping characters when usin xdm
Message-ID: <1993Jul8.074843.27693@ucc.su.OZ.AU>
Sender: news@ucc.su.OZ.AU
Nntp-Posting-Host: physics.su.oz.au
Organization: School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia
References: <21cn6h$aa3@hrd769.brooks.af.mil> <1993Jul7.121717.24764@news.arc.nasa.gov> <21fg5f$hmp@hrd769.brooks.af.mil>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 07:48:43 GMT
Lines: 46
In article <21fg5f$hmp@hrd769.brooks.af.mil> burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil (Dave Burgess) writes:
>In article <1993Jul7.121717.24764@news.arc.nasa.gov> root@wanderer.nsi.nasa.gov (Michael C. Newell) writes:
>>Why not the X section of the 386BSD FAQ? It's asked an AWFUL
>>lot; the text could be
>>
>> x.x.x When I run xdm from the console, it keeps losing keystrokes
>> and the shift keys don't always work. Why?
>>
>> You need to run xdm with the -nodaemon flag. The reason is
>>
>>That's not that much text. In fact, if you wanted to be minimalist
>>all you need is the first sentence :{). The reason I would argue
>>for its inclusion in the FAQ is simply that it comes up at least
>>once or twice a week in CO3Q, which I think meets the definition
>>of "Frequently Asked"...
>>
>
>OK, just this once...
>
>It isn't the amount of text so much, BTW. It is the fact that there are
>SO many questions that are asked in CO3Q that, while being frequently
>asked, have absolutely nothing to do with 386BSD/NetBSD. This is
>probably the most frequently asked of the bunch, I'll grant, but where
>are we going to draw the line. In fact, if it were a function of "The
>way that the console is handled in 386bsd", it would be a good one.
>This, however, sounds like a problem with all unixen where the keyboard
>is detached from the xdm process. To me, that would stuff it squarely
>into the 'X' FAQ.
It *IS* a function of the way the (pccons) console driver is handled in
386bsd. This problem does not occur when using codrv (for example),
or on any of the other major OSs that XFree86 supports.
It is also not only related to xdm. If you were to start the server
remotely or in the background (ie while there is still another process
actively reading the console device), you'd have the same problem.
Codrv gets around this by having a separate /dev/kbd which can only be
open by one process, and when open, reads from the other device are blocked.
David
--
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David Dawes <dawes@physics.su.oz.au> DoD#210 | Phone: +61 2 692 2639
School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia | Fax: +61 2 660 2903
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