Current ati-drivers ebuild requires the user to set MAGIC_SYSRQ in kernel config. This option is not required at all, and it seems to be some kind of legacy from previously not working versions. MAGIC_SYSRQ could be needed only in case of severe X crashes, and even in that cases, is not a 'normal user' issue, since it requires some background knowledge (hint: magic). It's my opinion that it should be checked/requested only if someone is interested in debugging the driver and/or the kernel (which - I insist - is not the case of a 'normal' desktop user. By the way, I'm using that version since it appeared in the ebuild _without_ MAGIC_SYSRQ enabled, and so far it works fine. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: N/A Actual Results: a bigger kernel, with an unwanted feature Portage 2.2.0_alpha26 (default/linux/amd64/10.0, gcc-4.5.2, glibc-2.13-r1, 2.6.37.2 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.37.2-x86_64-AMD_Phenom-tm-_II_X6_1055T_Processor-with-gentoo-2.0.1 Timestamp of tree: Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:45:01 +0000 app-shells/bash: 4.1_p10 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3 dev-lang/python: 2.7.1-r1, 3.1.3-r1 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.4 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.1-r1 sys-apps/openrc: 0.7.0 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.5 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.68 sys-devel/automake: 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.21 sys-devel/gcc: 4.5.2 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4-r1 sys-devel/make: 3.82 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.36.1 (sys-kernel/linux-headers) Repositories: gentoo science enlightenment kernelpanic Installed sets: ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA AdobeFlash-10.1 PUEL skype-eula" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/eselect/postgresql /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/var/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs candy collision-protect distlocks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms split-elog split-log strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync" FFLAGS="" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" LANG="it_IT.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="it en fr" MAKEOPTS="-j7" PKGDIR="/var/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/layman/science /var/lib/layman/enlightenment /usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow 3dnowext SECURITY_HAZARD X a52 aac aalib acl acpi alltargets alsa amd64 amr ao apache2 archive artworkextra assistant atlas audiofile bazaar berkdb bidi binfilter bittorrent blas branding bs2b bzip2 cairo caps cblas-external cdda cddb chm cjk cli clucene compat compressed-lumas consolekit context contrast contrib cracklib crypt cscope ctypes-python cups curl cvs cxx dbi dbus declarative detex device-mapper dga dia dirac djbfft djvu dts dv dvb dvd dvi2tty dvipdfm ebook emf encode excel exif extensions extra extras extratools faac facedetect fat fdt ffmpeg fftw fits flac fontconfig fontforge fortran fpx frei0r ftp fts3 fuse games gcj gconf gd gdbm gdu geoip gif gimp git glade gmp gnome gnuplot gnutls gphoto2 gpm graphics graphite graphviz gs gsm gstreamer gtk guile h323 hdri heterogeneous hfs highlight hpn humanities i18n iconv icu id3 id3tag idn imagemagick imaging imlib inkjar iphone ipod ipv6 ipython ithreads jadetex java jbig jpeg jpeg2k kde kdrive kpathsea kqemu ladspa lame lapack lasi latex latex3 lcms libcaca libnl libnotify libproxy libsamplerate lirc llvm llvm-gcc logrotate lpsol lqr lua luatex lynxkeymap lzma lzo mad matroska melt mem-scramble mercurial metalink metis metric midi mjpeg mmap mmx mmxext mng modules mp3 mp3rtp mp4 mpeg mpg123 mpi mpi-threads mplayer mudflap multicall multilib multimedia multitarget musepack music musicbrainz mysql natspec nautilus ncurses netpbm network network-cron networking nls normalize nptl nptlonly nsplugin ntfs nut nuv objc objc++ objc-gc odk ods offensive ogg ogm openal openexr opengl openmp optimized-qmake origin pam pango pcap pch pcre pdf perl phonon php plotutils plugins png pnm policykit postgres postproc pppd private-headers pstricks publishers pvr python python3 q16 q32 q8 qemu-ifup qt3support qt4 quicktime rar raw readline reiserfs relp replaygain rle romio rtmp ruby samba scale0tilt scanner schroedinger science sdl secure-delete session sip slang slp smp sndfile soundex soundtouch sox speex spell sqlite sqlite3 srt sse sse2 sse3 ssl startup-notification subversion svg swig sysfs system-sqlite t1lib taglib tcl templates tex4ht tftp tga theora thin-splines threads tiff timezone tk tools tordns traits truetype type3 udev umfpack unicode unlock-notify unsupported urandom usb utils v4l v4l2 vaapi vala vcd vde video vim vim-syntax vorbis vpx wav wavpack webkit wifi wmf wxwidgets x264 xanim xcap xcb xcomposite xetex xft xine xls xml xmlpatterns xmlrpc xmp xorg xpm xscreensaver xulrunner xv xvid yv12 zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="it en fr" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx v4l virtualbox" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
You are right saying MAGIC_SYSRQ are not needed to make the driver working propely. On the other hand fglrx is known to freeze the system rarely (happens to me too let's say once in 2 months, periodically). That's why we force MAGIC_SYSRQ. The normal user then will enable it in the kernel and he will read the help about it i hope, so he knows how to reboot the machine in a more sane way then reset.
fglrx also freezes my system sometimes. But when it does, it never lets me use the Magic SysRq to reboot cleanly. Sometimes SysRq+B works during a hang, but I've never managed to sync and unmount the disks. (Magic SysRq works perfectly fine when my system is not hanged by fglrx.) Because of this I'm also of the opinion that MAGIC_SYSRQ should not be forced for ati-drivers :-)
OK, maybe I'm becoming somehow annoying... ;) from the kernel config option, CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ description ... Don't say Y unless you really know what this hack does. my tuppence worth: desktop user shouldn't enable configs in kernel hacking section.
desktop user shouldn't use fglrx either as well given how it is fragile. I'm sorry MAGIC_SYSRQ will not be removed (by me at least) from ati-drivers. They don't hurt being enabled, and every binary distro out there has them enabled, the user just don't know what they are.
