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Thread: What do the Break, Pause, SysRq and other weird keys do?

  1. #11
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    Re: What do the Break, Pause, SysRq and other weird keys do?

    Ctrl-Break is used with programmes like putty that can operate a serial console connection to a Cisco router. Ctrl-Break interrupts the normal boot process to get into the Cisco rommon

  2. #12
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    Re: What do the Break, Pause, SysRq and other weird keys do?

    Thanks everyone for the information.

    I had no idea people still used serial cables. So pause & break don't really do anything on modern machines/software, does it? I tried to use it in bash to "pause" or "break" execution, but it did nothing. I also tried in ssh, nothing.

    Double checked xev to make sure both buttons register correctly, and they do. Weird that they still make these two buttons on keyboards. And out of the two, only break is useful to probably no more than 0.001% of the computer population which still uses serial cables

    I still don't get the point of Scroll Lock and why it's on any modern keyboard.

    SysRq (system request) is insane! From what I understand, it does nothing by itself, but is used in combinations to send siganls straight to the kernel. In fact, there are like 50 key combinations! The Magic SysRq key is crazy powerful.

    So if I bind pause, break and scroll lock to some desktop / window shortcuts, similar to what kurt18947 suggested, I won't see any adverse effects, will I?
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  3. #13
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    Re: What do the Break, Pause, SysRq and other weird keys do?

    Quote Originally Posted by AgenT View Post
    ...
    So if I bind pause, break and scroll lock to some desktop / window shortcuts, similar to what kurt18947 suggested, I won't see any adverse effects, will I?
    I don't use break at all. I have KVM switches in order to use one desktop set of hardware (monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers) for several computers, and one of those KVMs actually uses 'doubleclick scroll lock' as a hotkey, but otherwise I have never used it.

    So go ahead and bind those keys

  4. #14
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    Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Re: What do the Break, Pause, SysRq and other weird keys do?

    Quote Originally Posted by AgenT View Post
    Thanks everyone for the information.

    I had no idea people still used serial cables. So pause & break don't really do anything on modern machines/software, does it? I tried to use it in bash to "pause" or "break" execution, but it did nothing. I also tried in ssh, nothing.

    Double checked xev to make sure both buttons register correctly, and they do. Weird that they still make these two buttons on keyboards. And out of the two, only break is useful to probably no more than 0.001% of the computer population which still uses serial cables

    I still don't get the point of Scroll Lock and why it's on any modern keyboard.

    SysRq (system request) is insane! From what I understand, it does nothing by itself, but is used in combinations to send siganls straight to the kernel. In fact, there are like 50 key combinations! The Magic SysRq key is crazy powerful.

    So if I bind pause, break and scroll lock to some desktop / window shortcuts, similar to what kurt18947 suggested, I won't see any adverse effects, will I?
    All these keys are still used by various programs, even though they might not have any universal purpose any more.

    And also keep in mind that in many industry (and other) fields, it's not uncommon to still run over 15 years old applications, in which case all keys and functions like this are still needed. Computers are not only for desktop and office applications...

    edit: you can actually use scroll lock to pause command output in Linux terminal, at least if you use it in a TTY instead of a terminal emulator running on your desktop. If you want to try it, hit Ctrl_Alt-F1 to get into TTY1, log in, run something like "ls -Rl" that results in loads of putput, and hit Scroll Lock...
    Last edited by mcduck; February 27th, 2012 at 11:11 PM.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
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    Re: What do the Break, Pause, SysRq and other weird keys do?

    I have a special keyboard, that none of you have. It has an "[any]" key, useful for when software asks you to "Press any key to continue".

    If you want it, it's a collector's item, and £45,000

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