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Does Your PC Really Need a SysRq Button Anymore?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-don't-even-use-vowels dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ever wondered what the SysRq key on your keyboard does? Lenovo has decided it's so rarely used that it has started removing the key from some new Thinkpad Edge laptops. We already know that Lenovo are something of the fastidious scientists when it comes to keyboard design. Last time they fiddled with the age-old key layout, it was after painstaking research to count exactly how many times users press the Delete and Escape keys. Now it seems another relic of computer keyboards is starting to disappear."

8 of 806 comments (clear)

  1. I don't recall ever using it... by ls671 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't recall ever using that key although I have coded my own "terminate and stay resident" (TSR) programs back then in order to achieve some level of multitasking in DOS.

    With TSR programs, you could intercept the timer interrupt and do some amount of computation in the background before returning to the running program. You could also intercept the keyboard interrupt in order to switch from one application to another on the fly but I have never actually intercepted the Sysrq key. I used some other hot key combination definition. Maybe back then I though that it wasn't a good idea to fool around with that key but this page says other TSR programmers were using it:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_request

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:I don't recall ever using it... by Alinabi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have a KVM switch which intercepts SysRq. Without it I could not switch between input sources. So needless to say, I use it all the time.

      --
      "You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
  2. Debug key by sopssa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ever wondered what the SysRq key on your keyboard does?

    Introduced by IBM with the PC/AT, it was intended to be available as a special key to directly invoke low-level operating system functions with no possibility of conflicting with any existing software.

    In Linux, the kernel can be configured to provide functions for system debugging and crash recovery.[4] This use is known as the "Magic SysRq key".

    Microsoft has used SysRq for various OS- and application-level debuggers. In the CodeView debugger, it was sometimes used to break into the debugging during program execution.[5] For the Windows NT remote kernel debugger, it can be used to force the system into the debugger.[6]

    So it's a handy debugger key for those who need one, functioning in the same key as print screen, but you need to hold alt key. What's the harm having it there, since it already is? It's not like it's an extra button on your keyboard.

    1. Re:Debug key by houstonbofh · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In Linux, the kernel can be configured to provide functions for system debugging and crash recovery.[4] This use is known as the "Magic SysRq key".

      I guess there will be no more Raising Skinny Elephants on a Lenovo anymore. And while I have only used it a few times in the last year, I have used it.

  3. Re:As it is just about never used... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    IMO, the perfect keyboard was the Mac Classic one, before they made it all PC-compatible.

    My favorite feature was that "Enter" and "Return" were two different keys, so you didn't have to do that retarded "use control-Enter to actually do return" crap that we do all the time now. ("Return" added a new line and "Enter" entered information.)

    "Home" and "End" worked in a reasonable fashion. And "Caps Lock" actually did what the key SAID it did, instead of caps reverse, which is what PCs have always done.

    If I ran the world, I'd get rid of every key that causes more tech support calls than it saves time. This includes "Scroll Lock" and "Pause", which basically work as a "my Excel is broken!" key. And ditto "Insert", except that one's more of a "my Word is broken!" key. Oh, and "Num Lock"... why would anybody ever want the keypad to *not* be a keypad? Definitely scrap that one too.

    And while we're at it, we need Microsoft to make up its mind whether the "Windows" key is a key or a modifier... right now it does both, which is insane.

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    Comment of the year
  4. Save WinKey, kill Insert by dallaylaen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Winkey is very useful.

    I have a ton of tiny shell scripts invoked by Win + $key (via xbindkeys):

    "Grey+" / "Grey -" -- volume control
    G -- google current selection (see xclip (1))
    W -- search Wikipedia (or Russian wikipedia with shift)
    A -- open terminal
    K -- invoke xkill (1)
    L -- lock screen
    and some more

    On the other hand, the invenror of the Insert key deserves a mousetrap being put right under the light switch in their room.

    --
    WYSIWIG, but what you see might not be what you need
  5. Re:As it is just about never used... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Troll? Seriously?

    I don't mind being down-modded, if the mod makes sense. Could someone please explain to me how anything in that post is considered "trolling."

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    Comment of the year
  6. Agree Sys Admins Answer by WED+Fan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While hooked up to a time share in the mid 70's, I wanted to know what the key did. I kept pounding it. After a few minutes, my display responded with ****STOP RINGING THAT DAMN BELL*****. Seems a large clanging bell in the server room, miles away, was hooked up so the System Admin could respond to requests from the user.

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.