Re: [tlug] Weird issue with gnome and scim.

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Darren Cook writes:

 > I was interested in one of the comments how they go to a tty and then "
 > I kill compiz, which magically restores my keyboard and mouse input." I
 > might try that next time it happens. ...hhmmm, except I don't have
 > anything called "compiz" running. At least, not at the moment.

compiz is a window manager.  ls -l /etc/alternatives/x-window-manager
on Debian, maybe other distros, to find out which one you're using.
(Yes, there's some dedicated script to manage alternatives.  You end
up have to learn more that's far less useful than "ls -l" and "ln -s",
though.)  If that works, after killing it, just "x-window-manager" at
the command prompt should restart it.  If that doesn't work, maybe
somebody else can help you find out what you're using and how to
restart it.

Some window managers support restarting themselves from a menu.  Check
in yours.

The theory is that an X window manager is just a client that
intercepts window geometry requests.  If the window manager stops
running, the screen configuration basically gets frozen (this isn't
quite true but it's *very* inconvenient -- think "frozen" and all your
surprises will be pleasant).  Restart the window manager, it will
slurp up all the windows, redecorate them, and everything is cool
again.

Try *that*, Windows luvvers! :-)