I’ll bet this is something very few people probably think about, but I’m wondering if the Pause key on a 103 key layout keyboard does anything in Linux. In Windows 7 or older, it invokes the System “PAUSE” command (as far as I’m aware, this doesn’t work in Windows 8 or newer). But does it do anything in Linux?
I’m not sure what the Windows PAUSE does, but the only thing that comes to mind is SysRq combos on Linux.
It does exactly what you think it does: it pauses system functions until either a condition is met, or the Pause key is pressed a second time. This function was commonly used in the olden days when programmers needed to cease activity until desired input was met by the user.
A great example of this is dialog boxes in old video games (a tangible example being Lords of the Realm 2: Royal Edition). The dialog box would pop up, and pause the game until you read the dialog box, and then clicked the close button at which point the game would continue. If you were to install this game on modern operating systems, the dialog box would appear for just a split second and immediately disappear due to the fact that the System “PAUSE” function has long since been depreciated in the Windows operating system. This is a phenomenon that can be observed in even the GOG version of the game even to this day.
With that being said, I don’t think you clearly answered my original question. Does the Pause key actually perform any functions in Linux, or can I safely rebind that key to do something else?
There are no inherent functions that I’m aware of, apart of being part of SysRq combos. It might be bound by the desktop environment, but I never pressed that button so I wouldn’t know.
1 Like