[GTALUG] Xrandr problem

Peter King peter.king at utoronto.ca
Tue Oct 7 15:08:33 UTC 2014


It was a combination of four separate problems, which is why it took some
while to run it down.

First, it turned out that my kernel configuration was not building in the
backlighting module for laptops (thanks for the suggestion Hugh!).  Once I
recompiled the kernel with backlighting, the console reappeared.

Second, the Lenovo 3000 n100 0768, for reasons unknown to me, must have a
strange hardware keymap, because the (left) Windows key, the (right) menu
key, and the PrtScr and Pause keys are all completely dead, according to
showkey.  This, despite enabling "windows keys" in the keymap.  Since the
tiling window managers I was using used the left Windows key and the main
modifier, and exited X using the Pause key, no wonder it all seemed dead.

Third, I had somehow forgotten basic X facts, and in my .xinitrc had set
an xterm to run but without putting it in the background -- which meant
that startx never got to the line running the window manager, and so I 
had X up with no wm, no surprise this didn't work out too well.

Fourth, I needed to run mkfontdir on several files in /usr/share/fonts,
so X would have something with which to draw into an xterm.


No cure for the dead keys, as far as I know, but I can set the wm to use
different modifier keys and work around them.  Now, if I can only figure 
out how to turn off the LCD screen and leave the external monitor on...


Thanks to one and all for the suggestions!

-- 
Peter King			 	peter.king at utoronto.ca
Department of Philosophy
170 St. George Street #521
The University of Toronto		    (416)-978-4951 ofc
Toronto, ON  M5R 2M8
       CANADA

http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/

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