mfillpot wrote:

It sounds like the xscreensaver settings are overwriting what you set in the control panel, try opening xscreensaver from a run dialog or terminal and adjusting the settings in the resulting gui menu.

rj98942 wrote:
[quote]wow guys. ok. i'm sorry. can you dumb that down a bit?
...
4. take half a bottle of asprin with a handle of irish whiskey.
/quote]
Ok, for about the price of a bottle of asprin and bottle of good irish whiskey you could buy another HD and a couple disk-drawers and install linux on the fresh HD without comingling enemy operating systems...

saqman2060 wrote:

By this do you mean the console, executes another program prior to the program you "Esc" out of? If so, are you holding down the "Esc" key while the new program is buffered?

mfillpot wrote:

In that case it sound like xmodmap has your arrow key mapped to the ESC keyslot, you can check the mapping by using "xmodmap -pke" and also use the program to key the correct key.

keycode 9 = Escape
...
keycode 98 = Up

so its unlikely what's going on, because the program uses ncurses getch() for key input where KEY_UP is used to move something in the Y direction, KEY_RIGHT in the X direction, and so forth until a key not defined such as Esc is hit, then it exits the loop. (I know, I know, don't use the Esc key. But that habit is ingrained in my muscle-memory from other programs). What is interesting is if I hit the Esc key hard-and-fast there is no problem. Its only when I hit it in a normal fashion, say a quarter-second or longer, that the 2516 possibilities arise. I wonder if perhaps there some way to purge the key buffer since there doesn't seem to be a keycode for ESC available for the getch() function?

That old a machine will not easily boot off USB. There is no need to mount the HD. Just cram it in the box where it won't bump against anything critical. If it doesn't fit, just hang the molex and ribbon cables outside. If they're too short, then get longer ones for a couple bucks...

mfillpot wrote:

I have not seen history act like that on any system I run, generally when I use the up arrow it just scrolls through past commands.

I recommend checking out your /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile configurations to see if something is causing that functionality. Checkout http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Shells/Configuring_the_Bash_Shell.html to learn how to configure your bash session and history options.

Just hold down the Esc key for more than 2 seconds and it will happen. The same thing also happens in Fedora, Mandriva, Mint, Susu, and Ubuntu. I would think that someone in this forum could tell me how to disable it? For this sort of problem googling appears useless.

I have a Samsung SyncMaster 940BW display with a sceensaver that keeps interrupting my work. Their manual says its totally controlled by the operating system and cannot be changed in Samsung's display menu. In PCLinuxOS2009 it shows that its disabled in Control Panels, Peripherals, Display, Power Control. The other screensaver is also disabled int Control Panels, Appearance & Themes, Screen Saver. But the PowerSaver just keeps kicking in every 15 minutes or so. Any suggestions?

When at the Konsole I often run programs that accept the Esc key to exit, but then it often buffers an extra one, then when I go use the up arrow to select previous commands, it gives me the message: "Display all 2516 possibilities? (y or n)" This is an difficult thing search for google. Nobody has been able tell me how to disable it for years and its getting to be one of those very irritating things about the linux. I think I'm starting to wear down the n key and I now am begging, can anyone to tell me how to disable it???