[plug] strange happenings - advice needed

[Matt Kemner]

On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Peter Wright wrote:

> I can use it to do a "top" and see that X is taking 99.9% of the CPU (dual
> CPU machine, if it matters). Killing the X process (with kill -9) will
> still not rescue the display on chef though - it won't respond to any
> keyboard input. I have to reboot.

Recompile your kernel with "Magic SysRQ key support" and you will be able
to use Alt-SysRQ-R (unRaw) to force the keyboard back to a sane mode (once
you've killed X) and you should be able to type stuff at the console.
The display is most likely to be garbled though, so you won't be able to
see what you're typing, but you may be able to use it to rescue the
machine by running one of:

startx - in case X is able to rescue the display
svgatextmode - ditto
SuperProbe - which resets the display, and I have found on some machines
is able to put it back in a sane state.

You can also run the latter two from your remote telnet session, but if
you don't have a telnet session open, running the unRaw key combo followed
by control-alt-f1 (rinse/repeat if necessary) often does the trick.

 - Matt