[Discuss] Kernel interpretation of pressing the reset button?

[Alan W. Irwin]

I think I have likely misidentified where to press the reset button on
this new computer, and this might be the source of the intermittent
resets I have been getting.

You can see what the power/reset button looks like in detail at
<http://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-carbide-100r-silent-edition-chassis-review_163158/2>.
It is a fairly long piece of plastic in the upper front right corner
of the case with what wikipedia identifies as an icon associated with
either power or reset on the right of the plastic and an icon I cannot
identify (a mirror image of a "C" tilted to the left by 45 degrees) on
the left.  Previously I had assumed the icon on the left was the
reset, but as I said pressing there only worked intermittently for me
with no discernible movement of the plastic.  But I think what was
happening is the right-hand side (which is easily depressed) made
contact sometimes (causing a an intermittent reset) when I pressed
hard on the left icon.  Or in other words, the left icon is not
designed to be pushed.  Can somebody here identify that left-hand icon
to help firm up that conclusion?

Here is a paragraph from
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reset_button> which is relevant to this
topic:

<quote>
Many newer computers have no separate button for resetting the
computer; it is integrated with the power button. On most newer
operating systems, the user can customize what happens when they press
the power button. For example, they may set it to 'Do nothing',
'restart', 'shutdown', or 'stand by'. This is only for pressing the
button once; on most computers the power button can remove power
immediately if held down for a few seconds. When the OS hangs, the
reset button is no longer "integrated with the power button".
</quote>

I want to comment on 3 parts of this paragraph in order, and I
encourage others to comment as well if my assumptions/interpretations
are leading me astray.

I. I now presume an integrated power/reset button is what I access
when I push on the area of the right-hand icon.  Therefore, I should
be getting a reliable reset with a quick push and release of that
right area.  Anyhow, I will try that experiment the next time I have a
chance.  In any case, I know from experience that pushing down on the
right-hand icon for several seconds powers off the computer consistent
with what wikipedia says above.

II. Does anyone know here whether Linux has the customized reset
capability, and if so how users can configure it?  I am asking here
because google searches for such answers are grossly obfuscated by the
large number of irrelevant meanings of "reset".

III. The last sentence of the above quote could imply no reset
capability when the OS is locked up, but on second thought I assume it
means that a locked up OS does not intercept the reset to customize
what happens so you should get the normal dirty shutdown in that case.

The other left-over topic in this thread is what is the significance
of the inode removal that typically occurs for the boot after a dirty
shutdown?  Does such removal destroy whole files or just the parts of
them (e.g., additional lines in log files) that have been updated
without being written out to disk at the time of the reset?

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
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