poorly written xorg.conf leads to frozen computer

[anonymous]

I wanted to change the screen resolution used during the gdm and map some
buttons on my mouse. I normally accomplish this using an xorg.conf file, but
I noticed that Fedora (and every other distro) no longer uses this as it's
not even present. I read on the Fedora Forums that one could still create
it, place it in /etc/X11,  and Xorg would use it. I tried that, but it
didn't use it. After some searching, it appears that Xorg uses HAL for
everything now and that I must use HAL's fdi configuration files. I saw
examples to configure the mouse, but none to configure the resolutions. I
then read on a forum that you can cause xorg.conf to be read by including
the Option "AutoAddDevices" False in the ServerFlags section. So I tried
that and now I'm locked out.
Is there any good documentation on what I'm trying to accomplish?
I noticed everything on HAL, and Xorg in general, is very dated, at around
2005-6.
How can I just prevent X from starting up, so I can delete that file?
Currently I have the plymouth boot going so I'm not sure how to stop the
process.


Also, on a side note, does anyone know how to change the number of
workspaces in Gnome?
I couldn't find an option so I ended up installed gconf.
I thought I found the option in apps->metacity->number of workspaces, but
changing that does nothing.

thanks

[Tim]

On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 23:20 -0500, anonymous wrote:
>  I wanted to change the screen resolution used during the gdm and map
>  some buttons on my mouse. I normally accomplish this using an
>  xorg.conf file, but I noticed that Fedora (and every other distro) no
>  longer uses this as it's not even present. 
GDM doesn't use the same Xorg server, it used to be possible to
configure its display by giving it an xorg.conf file in its
own /etc/gdm/ directory.  See if that's still the case.

>  Also, on a side note, does anyone know how to change the number of
>  workspaces in Gnome? 
In Fedora 9, and prior releases, you can right click on the workspace
switcher, and set preferences.  I don't know if that's changed in newer
releases.

-- 
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
read messages from the public lists.

[Suvayu Ali]

2009/4/19 Tim <ignored_mailbox(a)yahoo.com.au&gt;:
>  On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 23:20 -0500, anonymous wrote:
> > Also, on a side note, does anyone know how to change the number of
> > workspaces in Gnome?
>
>  In Fedora 9, and prior releases, you can right click on the workspace
>  switcher, and set preferences.  I don't know if that's changed in newer
>  releases.
>  
I thought that too until I tried that after reading this post. Did
something change in an update?

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

[Mikkel]

suvayu ali wrote:
>  2009/4/19 Tim <ignored_mailbox(a)yahoo.com.au&gt;:
> > On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 23:20 -0500, anonymous wrote:
> >> Also, on a side note, does anyone know how to change the number of
> >> workspaces in Gnome?
> > In Fedora 9, and prior releases, you can right click on the workspace
> > switcher, and set preferences.  I don't know if that's changed in newer
> > releases.
> >
>  
>  I thought that too until I tried that after reading this post. Did
>  something change in an update?
>   
It still works on my Fedora 10 system.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

[Suvayu Ali]

2009/4/20 Mikkel L. Ellertson <mikkel(a)infinity-ltd.com&gt;:
>  suvayu ali wrote:
> > 2009/4/19 Tim <ignored_mailbox(a)yahoo.com.au&gt;:
> >> On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 23:20 -0500, anonymous wrote:
> >>> Also, on a side note, does anyone know how to change the number of
> >>> workspaces in Gnome?
> >> In Fedora 9, and prior releases, you can right click on the workspace
> >> switcher, and set preferences.  I don't know if that's changed in newer
> >> releases.
> >>
> >
> > I thought that too until I tried that after reading this post. Did
> > something change in an update?
> >
>  It still works on my Fedora 10 system.
>  
When I right click on the workspace switcher and click preferences, I
get a window with radio buttons for

Show only the current workspace, and
Shaw all workspaces in: _____ rows

I'm on F10 x86_64, Gnome. I however did find a key in gconf,

/desktop/gnome/applications/window_manager/number_of_workspaces

However the description said its deprecated; "The number of workspaces
the window manager should use This key has been deprecated since GNOME
2.12."

Is something wrong here?

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

[Frode Petersen]

suvayu ali skrev:
>  2009/4/19 Tim <ignored_mailbox(a)yahoo.com.au&gt;:
> > On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 23:20 -0500, anonymous wrote:
> >> Also, on a side note, does anyone know how to change the number of
> >> workspaces in Gnome?
> > In Fedora 9, and prior releases, you can right click on the workspace
> > switcher, and set preferences.  I don't know if that's changed in newer
> > releases.
> >
>  
>  I thought that too until I tried that after reading this post. Did
>  something change in an update?
>   
Fwiw, I'm on F10 and the procedure works here.

Frode Petersen

[mike cloaked]

anonymous-91 wrote:
>  
>  
>  How can I just prevent X from starting up, so I can delete that file?
>  Currently I have the plymouth boot going so I'm not sure how to stop the
>  process.
>  
>   
When you boot, interrupt the boot process and edit the kernel line to put
the number "3" at the end.  Then continue the boot into runlevel 3.  Login
and remove the file and then reboot which should revert to what you had
before with a full graphical login in runlevel 5
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[anonymous]

On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 5:35 AM, Mike Cloaked <mike.cloaked(a)gmail.com&gt;wrote:

>  anonymous-91 wrote:
>  >
>  >
>  > How can I just prevent X from starting up, so I can delete that file?
>  > Currently I have the plymouth boot going so I'm not sure how to stop the
>  > process.
>  >
>  >
>
>  When you boot, interrupt the boot process and edit the kernel line to put
>  the number "3" at the end.  Then continue the boot into runlevel 3.  Login
>  and remove the file and then reboot which should revert to what you had
>  before with a full graphical login in runlevel 5
>
>  Thanks, that worked. I wasn't sure how to interrupt the boot process since 
the
grub menus was hidden. I read the manual and I just needed to press
escape.

When I right click on the workspace switcher and click preferences, I
>  get a window with radio buttons for
>
>  Show only the current workspace, and
>  Shaw all workspaces in: _____ rows
>
>  I'm on F10 x86_64, Gnome. I however did find a key in gconf,
>
>  /desktop/gnome/applications/window_manager/number_of_workspaces
>
>  However the description said its deprecated; "The number of workspaces
>  the window manager should use This key has been deprecated since GNOME
>  2.12."
>
>  Is something wrong here?
>  
I'm not using x86_64 but that's exactly how mine works. The preferences no
longer include the option to change the number of workspaces, just the
number of rows.