Re: Commands not working

[Maarten Bergvelt <bergv@math.uiuc.edu>]

In article <1138372679.888754.11040@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, 
mudgen@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello, I'm brand new to emacs. I just installed a linux slackware 10.2
> onto my computer.
> 
> I have GNU Emacs 21.4.2.
> 
> The commands don't seem to be working for me. For instance, I start up
> Emacs. Then I try to exit so I type: C-x C-c and my screen just blinks
> and nothing happens. I do it again and my screen just blinks and
> nothing happens, I do it again and same thing, I do it again and I get
> this new screen that starts off saying " This buffer is for notes you
> don't want to save, and for Lisp evaluation.", I do it again and my
> screen just blinks.  I do it again and then Emacs exits. That's an
> awful lot of work just to exit!
> 
> Well, mostly none of the commands seem to be working.
> 
> I know that C-x C-c means to hold down Control and type x, and then to
> hold down control and type c.

It seems that C-x C-c has been renamed from the usual meaning. To
check this check the keybinding like this
M-x help
k
C-x C-c
When I do this I get 

C-x C-c runs the command save-buffers-kill-emacs
   which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `files'.
(save-buffers-kill-emacs &optional ARG)

Offer to save each buffer, then kill this Emacs process.
With prefix arg, silently save all file-visiting buffers, then kill.


> When I type C-h to get some help, it just seems to work as it is the
> delete key, deleting text.
> 
> Looking for help on the internet, I found this in an Emacs FAQ: "Your
> system administrator may have changed `C-h' to act like <DEL> to deal
> with local keyboards." From here:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-faq.text
> 
> Well, C-h is acting like the delete key for me. I'm thinking that my
> keyboard may not be set up correctly and so is interfering with Emacs
> commands. If this is true I have no idea what to do about it or how to
> fix it. Does anybody have any suggestions?

You can access help also by typing 
M-x help, as above. To get help with help type
M-x help-for-help. Hints about changing keybindings should be in the
FAQ,
M-x view-emacs-FAQ

Hope this helps, good luck.

-- 
Maarten Bergvelt