hey:
i'm wondering if there's some easy, quick way to restart x. i've been just logging out of my WM (currently fluxbox), where i go to my graphical login, then pressing cntrl-alt-backspace (i think... yeah, that sounds right). that seems to reload the changes i make in /etc/X11/XF86Config. it would make sense to me that i can't restart x without quitting my window manager: is that correct, though? is there a quicker way to do what i'm doing?

let me back up a little, so that some even easier solutions might pop up:
what i'm really trying to do is play dvds. it's hard. xine (i'm using the gxine gui) crashes whenever i select "DVD" from the "Media" toolbar. I tried a few other programs and got stuck with weird dependency issues, and evenutally found OGLE. Ogle works, kinda... using `ogle -u cli /dev/cdrom` crashed initially, until i read somewhere that i probably didn't have enough memory. the solution: add & change some lines in XF86Config (one says something like 'Option "XaaNoPixmapCache"' and one says something like 'Modes "640x480"' -- both in the "Screen" section) to minimize memory usage. it works, believe it or not - it just sucks cause i have to modify this file and restart x before i can watch a movie. so i'm thinkin it would be cool to write a script that would do it for me... hence the initial question: how do i restart X, or at lest reload the XF86Config file?
oh and: ogle kinda sucks, too. whenever a movie is in widescreen format it comes out in black and white with weird lines across the screen. i've been bearing with it for now, cause it's cool that i got it working as well as i did, but does anyone have any suggestions? i.e., how can i get xine to work better, or are there any better dvd utilities (command line is fine, even preferred) that might be better on the memory (assuming that is my problem...)?

thanks, kids. love ya.
spencer

You could try vlc (videolan) instead to watch dvds. See if that works better for you. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

If I ever have, for some strange reason, the X server crash, I just hit CTRL+ALT+F2, type "killall X" and then type startx..

You might be able to make a script that makes it easier though :/

CTRL+ALT+BKSPC?

the quickest way i've seen to restart X.

i assume that you guys mean that cntrl-alt-bkspace works even when the wm is running. can't try it right now, but i will. unfortunately, that doesn't help me with my script (not that i couldn't abandon it...). does anyone know what actual command cntrl-alt-backspace executes?
CBlue: i'll check out vlc - although i think i already did and got hung up on some dependencies. which, i guess, means i gave up too soon. i'll try again.
thanks for the input, all.
spencer

snwright, there are other alternative programs to run dvds in Linux, vlc is one. Try different ones till you find one that doesn't crash or give headaches. That's the easiest way, I believe. If you want to conquer this problem with xine and x, go for it. Some people like to work on something till they get it to work but sometimes...a program (xine for instance) may not be worth the trouble. Not when there are always alternatives.

what's this mean??

[snwright@localhost snwright]$ vlc --dvd /dev/cdrom --fullscreen
VideoLAN Client 0.7.0 Bond
[00000162] main input: playlist item `dvd:///dev/cdrom'
[00000164] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `mpgv'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
[00000165] a52 decoder: A/52 channels:6 samplerate:48000 bitrate:448000
[00000166] main audio output error: couldn't find a filter for the first part of the conversion
[00000166] main audio output error: couldn't set an input pipeline

thanks
spencer

Have you got vlc installed? If you do, are you using commandline for launching it?

Nevermind! You got it installed but there is no decoder found for your dvd.

Did you install all the dvd packages needed to run dvds in programs? For instance:
libdvdcss2 libdvdplay0

I used to use Fedora and I know there are repositories where you can get all the multimedia related libs and other software needed to run dvds and other types of cds.

if you wanna give Xine another try, make sure you're dvd directory is correct
(most likely /dev/cdrom)

CBlue: pretty sure i have them all installed correctly... i'll do it again, though, and get back to 'ya.

BlandoCal: i got it right. check out this log:

[snwright@localhost snwright]$ gxine
server: trying to connect to already running instance of gxine (/home/snwright/.gxine/socket)...
connect: Connection refused
server: socket '/home/snwright/.gxine/socket' created
playlist: show, is_visible=0
preferences: entry cb for key input.dvd_device
preferences: updating entry
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 1-rc3c from http://xine.sf.net
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.8 for DVD access
libdvdnav: DVD Title: DVD_VIDEO
libdvdnav: DVD Serial Number: 23728683
libdvdnav: DVD Title (Alternative):
libdvdnav: Unable to find map file '/home/snwright/.dvdnav/DVD_VIDEO.map'
libdvdnav: DVD disk reports itself with Region mask 0x00fe0000. Regions: 1

libdvdread: Attempting to retrieve all CSS keys
libdvdread: This can take a _long_ time, please be patient

libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.VOB at 0x00000160
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.VOB at 0x00011be0
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB at 0x00012a80
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Found 1 VTS's
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
The program 'gxine' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)'.
(Details: serial 170 error_code 11 request_code 141 minor_code 19)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
[snwright@localhost snwright]$

you'll see above that i go into the xine preferences to change dvd input to /dev/cdrom.

so: am i just doomed to have insufficient memory? is this my fate?
well, blast if it is. that new motherboard and athlon CPU is sounding quite tasty right now...

no but really does anyone know of any ways to remedy this?

thanks kids
spencer