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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 | MAGIC SYSRQ KEY DOCUMENTATION v1.32 ------------------------------------ [Sat Apr 8 22:15:03 CEST 2000] * What is the magic SysRQ key? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is a 'magical' key combo you can hit which kernel will respond to regardless of whatever else it is doing, unless it is completely locked up. * How do I enable the magic SysRQ key? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You need to say "yes" to 'Magic SysRq key (CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ)' when configuring the kernel. This option is only available in 2.1.x or later kernels. Once you boot the new kernel, you need to enable it manually using following command: echo "1" > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq * How do I use the magic SysRQ key? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On x86 - You press the key combo 'ALT-SysRQ-<command key>'. Note - Some (older?) may not have a key labeled 'SysRQ'. The 'SysRQ' key is also known as the 'Print Screen' key. On SPARC - You press 'ALT-STOP-<command key>', I believe. On the serial console (PC style standard serial ports only) - You send a BREAK, then within 5 seconds a command key. Sending BREAK twice is interpreted as a normal BREAK. On PowerPC - Press 'ALT - Print Screen (or F13) - <command key>, Print Screen (or F13) - <command key> may suffice. On other - If you know of the key combos for other architectures, please let me know so I can add them to this section. * What are the 'command' keys? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'r' - Turns off keyboard raw mode and sets it to XLATE. 'k' - Secure Access Key (SAK) Kills all programs on the current virtual console. NOTE: See important comments below in SAK section. 'b' - Will immediately reboot the system without syncing or unmounting your disks. 'o' - Will shut your system off (if configured and supported). 's' - Will attempt to sync all mounted filesystems. 'u' - Will attempt to remount all mounted filesystems read-only. 'p' - Will dump the current registers and flags to your console. 't' - Will dump a list of current tasks and their information to your console. 'm' - Will dump current memory info to your console. '0'-'9' - Sets the console log level, controlling which kernel messages will be printed to your console. ('0', for example would make it so that only emergency messages like PANICs or OOPSes would make it to your console.) 'e' - Send a SIGTERM to all processes, except for init. 'i' - Send a SIGKILL to all processes, except for init. 'l' - Send a SIGKILL to all processes, INCLUDING init. (Your system will be non-functional after this.) 'h' - Will display help ( actually any other key than those listed above will display help. but 'h' is easy to remember :-) * Okay, so what can I use them for? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, un'R'aw is very handy when your X server or a svgalib program crashes. sa'K' (Secure Access Key) is useful when you want to be sure there are no trojan program is running at console and which could grab your password when you would try to login. It will kill all programs on given console and thus letting you make sure that the login prompt you see is actually the one from init, not some trojan program. IMPORTANT:In its true form it is not a true SAK like the one in :IMPORTANT IMPORTATN:c2 compliant systems, and it should be mistook as such. :IMPORTANT It seems other find it useful as (System Attention Key) which is useful when you want to exit a program that will not let you switch consoles. (For example, X or a svgalib program.) re'B'oot is good when you're unable to shut down. But you should also 'S'ync and 'U'mount first. 'S'ync is great when your system is locked up, it allows you to sync your disks and will certainly lessen the chance of data loss and fscking. Note that the sync hasn't taken place until you see the "OK" and "Done" appear on the screen. (If the kernel is really in strife, you may not ever get the OK or Done message...) 'U'mount is basically useful in the same ways as 'S'ync. I generally 'S'ync, 'U'mount, then re'B'oot when my system locks. It's saved me many a fsck. Again, the unmount (remount read-only) hasn't taken place until you see the "OK" and "Done" message appear on the screen. The loglevel'0'-'9' is useful when your console is being flooded with kernel messages you do not want to see. Setting '0' will prevent all but the most urgent kernel messages from reaching your console. (They will still be logged if syslogd/klogd are alive, though.) t'E'rm and k'I'll are useful if you have some sort of runaway process you are unable to kill any other way, especially if it's spawning other processes. * Sometimes SysRQ seems to get 'stuck' after using it, what can I do? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That happens to me, also. I've found that tapping shift, alt, and control on both sides of the keyboard, and hitting an invalid sysrq sequence again will fix the problem. (ie, something like alt-sysrq-z). Switching to another virtual console (ALT+Fn) and then back again should also help. * I hit SysRQ, but nothing seems to happen, what's wrong? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are some keyboards that send different scancodes for SysRQ than the pre-defined 0x54. So if SysRQ doesn't work out of the box for a certain keyboard, run 'showkey -s' to find out the proper scancode sequence. Then use 'setkeycodes <sequence> 84' to define this sequence to the usual SysRQ code (84 is decimal for 0x54). It's probably best to put this command in a boot script. Oh, and by the way, you exit 'showkey' by not typing anything for ten seconds. * I have more questions, who can I ask? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may feel free to send email to myrdraal@deathsdoor.com, and I will respond as soon as possible. -Myrdraal * Credits ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written by Mydraal <myrdraal@deathsdoor.com> Updated by Adam Sulmicki <adam@cfar.umd.edu> |