Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan2 AT cyberspace.org>]

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
> > 
> > I changed the virtual screen to 640.  
> 
> Is that the height or the width?
640 480

> 
> > The default seems to have been 800 -
> 
> The default in bl2-x.tgz is 640x480.

I had copied over XF86Config.eg to XF86Config.  The 800 600 virtual
resolution must have been in .eg.  When I ran xf86Config it was not
changed.

> 
> > I see at page bottom a bar and at the right of that 
> > bar a small square.  
> 
> That shows the load on your CPU.  If it reaches the top
> of the square, the CPU is 100% occupied.  A second square
> will appear when you make a PPP connection (it shows the 
> amount of traffic on the connection).

I have managed to plug in the color monitor attached to another computer
and I am walking around the desk to look at it.  With icewm as the only
line in .xinitrc I see  (if I toggle back from VT3 - Hercules/TTL to VT5 -
otherwise I get a completely blank screen, apparently I cannot use both
monitors at once when the VGA is being used for X, unlike the situation
outside of X where I can run two console programs on two monitors and see
them both, so it really does not matter if I can run X programs in mono
since I can't use both monitors at once)

1.  Bright blue screen on the top
2.  Light grey bar at the bottom.
3.  Small black box at the right of the grey bar, in which is a moving
vertical bright green line that progresses to the left and disappears.


> > A right click on the bar (usually) gets me a list of things
> > I can do with my windows.  
> 
> At the far left, you should see a tiny penguin with the word
> Linux.  Then four squares numbered 1 2 3 4.  If you don't see
> them, then they might be off the screen to the left (on your
> virtual screen).

No penguin.  Nothing but the mouse arrow in the blue area.  At the far
left of the light grey bottom bar is a very short - and to the right of
that a very small .  Clicking in that area does nothing.

This is a 17" 1600 res monitor.  I have virtual resolution set to 640 480. 
If I move the mouse arrow to the edge of the screen it gets stuck there,
the bar does not move. 

> 
> > I don't have any windows.  
> 
> That's how icewm starts.  No windows.  You click on the penguin
> to get the menu.
No penguin.  


> 
> > There was, I think, something moving in the little square, 
> > briefly.  Clicking on the square does nothing.
> 
> If you leave your mouse on the square for two seconds (without
> clicking) you get some info.  What about the date?  There should
> be a date field to the right of the square.

If I leave it on the square it tells me the cpu load.  There is no date
field on my screen.  There is another blank area to the right of the
square. If I leave the mouse arrow on that area it tells me 0 mail
messages. 

> 
> > I can put ratpoison in .xinitrc instead and that is usable.  
> 
> Fine.  Use that then.

At the moment nobody has convinced me of the need to have a window manager
at all. I don't anticipate using two X programs at the same time.  I would
not use links 2.1.9 in X when I can use it in console mode (without a
mouse, in mono mode, with another program such as Lynx on the other
monitor, with numbered links so I can find them).  

I am trying to get icewm working because you have included it with BL2,
other people will expect it to work, and if there is a bug I am quite
willing to help find it.  I tried ratpoison to prove that at least some
window manager does work on my system as advertised.  I will try ion and
pwm because JP was kind enough to post them and perhaps they will have
similar problems to icewm.  If I have done something stupid that is
preventing icewm from working properly, at least you will be able to warn
other beginners not to do the same thing.

Please suggest anything else I might try to get icewm to work with my BL2.
I have not modified any files related to icewm (configuration files).
You are welcome to a copy of my XF86Config file - I can include it in my
next email if you want.

> The penguin is inside a rectangle which is part of the bar:
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> LinuxPenguin 1 2 3 4                              CPU date
> ----------------------------------------------------------

No penguin, no numbers 1-4, no date, just the little black box with the
green moving line.  


> There is nothing in the FAQ about changing that line.
> I did not suggest that you change it.  You probably 
> read about it somewhere else.

Yes, I think Kermit gave instructions for using a null-modem cable and I
had already experimented with the RAMdisk BL2 and a real terminal.
Anyway, if you want to tell people somewhere in the FAQ for BL2 how to
connect two computers via ttyS0, you might mention that the # should be
put back afterwards so that the mouse will work.  It would have saved me a
few days of experimentation (and you the bother of answering lots of dumb
questions).

All you had was a simple clash.  First
> you started a getty running on the port and then (while
> the getty was still running) stuck a mouse on the same
> port.  No wonder the mouse didn't work -- it was fighting
> with the getty.

I think maybe the one time it did accidentally work was when S1 was
disabled for five minutes.

I will let you know how flwriter works.