[ale] strange keyboard problem

[James Sumners]

Read your link for exactly why testing can be more broken than
unstable. I actually tried to find that link when I responded to
Preston's inquiry as to why I have my opinion. Basically, if (and it
does) testing breaks, then it will be broken for too long.

On Jan 11, 2008 2:50 PM, Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg at fifthhorseman.net> wrote:
> > Ugh, testing. That translates to "constantly broken" in my mind.
>
> Really?  That doesn't match my experience with debian at all.  the
> unstable-to-testing transition process [0] is actually pretty
> rigorous.  I've been running debian testing on my primary machine for
> years.  Problems do come in, but the trouble-to-performance ratio is
> way better than i've seen for friends on other distros who i help
> troubleshoot.  then again, i'm only usually seeing their problems, so
> there's a sampling bias there.
>
> Back on topic: Preston, has your friend tried creating a different
> user and logging in as that user?  It sounds like it might be a
> configuration problem for her specific user account (i.e. something
> amiss in her config files, as James suggests).
>
> I don't think that reconfiguring gdm will help, because if she's able
> to log in, gdm sounds like it's working fine.
>
> If she wants to create a new user from the command line (without X),
> she can press Ctrl-Alt-F1 for the first Virtual Terminal and log in
> there.  If she can get superuser privileges (log in as root, or su to
> root, or use sudo), making a new user is just:
>
>   adduser
>
> then switch back to the graphical console (on etch, it defaults to the
> 7th VT, so Ctrl+Alt+F7) and try to log in as the new user.  does the
> keyboard work for that user?
>
>          --dkg
>
> PS If your friend is interested in Linux, you should invite her to
>    this list.  If she can tolerate the unfortunate regressions to
>    boyzone that ALE seems to go through intermittently, there's a lot
>    of good advice and ideas here.  I'd be happy to see the boyzone
>    bullshit disappear entirely, myself.
>
> [0] http://www.debian.org/devel/testing


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

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