Bug 390671

Summary: Add "Kill X Server" including Keyboard shortcut to Tools menu
Product: [Unmaintained] ksysguard Reporter: Gregor Mi <codestruct>
Component: libksysguardAssignee: Plasma Development Mailing List <plasma-devel>
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED    
Severity: wishlist CC: kde
Priority: NOR    
Version: 5.12.1   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Gregor Mi 2018-02-18 10:23:07 UTC
As a new Linux desktop user, it was hard for me to remember keyboard shortcuts which are useful in case of emergencies. Reading this blog post https://pointieststick.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/plasma-5-perfection-call-for-development/ I thought the "Ctrl+Alt+Backspace" function (http://www.ocsmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/plasma-desktop-restart.png) could be added to the System Monitor's tool menu (https://phabricator.kde.org/D10297). This would increase the discoverability of the feature.
Comment 1 David Edmundson 2018-02-18 14:52:42 UTC
I'm not convinced. It's a feature that has less and less relevance, and used to be hit accidentally all the time.
 
As for system monitor if you can read system monitor and open a tools menu, your X is working fine.

I think Nate's response is the same as mine.

>This is an advanced feature that shouldn’t be required for normal users during normal use; why would we want to make it more prominent?
Comment 2 Martin Flöser 2018-02-18 16:26:15 UTC
I'm also against this. The feature was rightfully removed from most distributions and is only implemented in KWin/Wayland on special request by sebas.
Comment 3 Gregor Mi 2018-02-18 16:43:41 UTC
> As for system monitor if you can read system monitor and
> open a tools menu, your X is working fine.
True. On the other hand, I recently was in a situation where only Ctrl+Esc -> System Monitor was working (panel was gone and KRunner was not working; I could see no way how to enter a command or logout; reason was a messed up Tumbleweed upgrade).

About Nate's blog post: I thought the cited review was about _configuring_ the shortcut ("It is difficult to find the option to configure/enable the desktop session restart (X kill), normally activated by the Ctrl + Alt + Backspace combo."). Not about invoking it. This bug report/wish is only about making the existence of the shortcut more transparent.

I speak from my perspective as a normal who sometimes happens to be in abnormal situations. I would feel better if our users are equipped with all available tools to help themselves. I consider the System Monitor -> Tools menu not that prominent to have a negative impact on a user doing daily work.

> It's a feature that has less and less relevance,
As long as X is used, I think it is relevant. Ok, when the time for implementation comes and X is no longer used, then it makes less sense to go through with it :-). I would be interested how things are handled in Wayland. Will there be no kill shortcut or so?

> and used to be hit accidentally all the time.
The solution to this would be to disable the shortcut, wouldn't it? But it is enabled by default and if we would have more transparence about it, I could imagine the following situation: The user accidently triggers the feature and somewhen later he discovers the shortcut in the Tools menu: then he has an additional chance to realize what happend in the past and prevent it in the future. :-)
Comment 4 Martin Flöser 2018-02-18 20:02:59 UTC
(In reply to Gregor Mi from comment #3)
> 
> > and used to be hit accidentally all the time.
> The solution to this would be to disable the shortcut, wouldn't it? But it
> is enabled by default

Any sane distribution has it disabled by default.
Comment 5 Christoph Cullmann 2024-09-23 21:01:21 UTC
ksysguard is no longer maintained, in Plasma 6 there is the Plasma system monitor for this task.

If your wish is still valid for the Plasma 6 replacement, please re-open and we can move this bug to the new product, thanks!