IBM T42p + Linux + CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE = BAD!

One of the very WORST features in Linux, at least for me and my IBM ThinkPad T42p, is the feature that kills X11 when you press the CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE keys simultaneously. The problem is that CTRL+BACKSPACE is a very common keystroke I use when editing source code and other documents (for those who may not know, this deletes the entire word to the left of your cursor). This particular laptop has the CTRL and ALT keys right next to each other.

Every time I re-install my laptop with an updated Linux distribution I forget or get lazy about disabling this "feature." Sure enough, I end up losing a bunch of work that I hadn't saved. CTRL+BACKSPACE ... KABOOM! HUH? CRAP! CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE!!!!! GRRRR!!!

If not for anyone else, this blog entry is a place where I will ever return to see how to disable this "feature" so I don't have to spend a few minutes in Google looking for it.

Add the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and restart X11 (yeah, you can use CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE for the last time!):

Section "Serverflags"
Option "DontZap" "yes"
EndSection

SimiasServer (iFolder 3 Server-OSS) on OS X

NOTE: It's not quite working yet, but in case anyone who knows mod_mono a bit better wants to give this a shot, I've built packages for OS X.

Steps to install:

1. Install mono-1.1.13.4 available from http://www.mono-project.com/
2. Install mod_mono-1.1.13.pkg. I'm not sure why, but there's not an OS X package avaiable for this. Use at your own risk (and comes with no warranty), but I built a package that includes a debug version of mod_mono that will work witht he Apache 1.x installation that comes on OS X 10.4. You can get it here: http://boyd.timothy.ws/tmp/mod_mono-1.1.13.pkg.zip
3. Install SimiasServer.pkg. We haven't packaged this officially and this is a package I made myself (so again, use at your own risk). You can get it here: http://boyd.timothy.ws/tmp/SimiasServer.pkg.zip

Once you have these installed, restart Apache (from a terminal window):

• sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl stop
• sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl configtest (make sure you don't get errors)
• Just for kicks, run the following to make sure XSP/mod_mono aren't running:
• ps aux |grep mono
• sudo kill <pid of mono process>
• sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl start

When Apache has started, you should be able to hit the following URLs:

• http:///ifolder (End-user access)
• http:///admin (Web administration)

The default administrator credentials are:

• Username: admin
• Password: simias

You should also be able to use a regular iFolder 3.4 Client to connect to your new iFolder server.

Create new users with the scripts in:

• /usr/local/simias-server/bin
  

You can probably find a LOT more information on the iFolder website (http://www.ifolder.com/) about this.

The one thing you'll notice is that when you log in is that there's an ERROR! Anyone have any ideas on this? There's still a lot of bugs to work out, but hey, this is a start!

Here's the bug on this problem: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=162762

To uninstall SimiasServer.pkg do the following:

• sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/SimiasServer.pkg
• sudo rm -rf /usr/local/simias-server
• sudo vi /private/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
• Remove the very last line of the file that includes the *.conf files in /usr/local/simias-server

To uninstall mod_mono-1.1.13.pkg do the following:

• sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mod_mono-1.1.13.pkg
  
• sudo rm /private/etc/httpd/mod_mono.conf
• sudo rm /usr/libexec/httpd/mod_mono.so
• sudo rm /usr/local/man/man8/mod_mono.8