Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Day Brown wrote:
> >
> > But in Linux, if you want the 50 lines, you havta be root.
>
> Why do you keep saying this?  It has nothing to do with root.
> You can specify 50 lines as a loadlin parameter in BOOT.BAT.
>
I guess maybe he's talking about changing the display mode from the
command line (can that be done in DOS? I just don't know - never tried
it).  In any case, Day does need to be aware that, as Steven has said, the
display mode can be changed at boot time by anyone - from the most
seasoned sysadmin to the newest newbie.  All one has to do (and since this
is done in DOS there's also no concern about priviledges) is add the line
vga=ask to the .bat file that calls loadlin to boot BL.  Once you do that,
you are presented with a menu of modes on the next boot - again,
regardless of whether you're a sysadmin with every conceivable priviledge
known to Linux computing, or just someone who knows how to read a menu and
press a key on the keyboard.  I wasn't sure whether 80x50 was one of the
modes in the menu (I only recently added the vga=ask line to my .bat
loader, so I don't recall all the details), but from what Steven is
saying, I'm guessing that it is one of the choices.  Once you select your
choice of mode, all terminals or consoles will appear with that mode.  To
me, this means that starting dosemu within one of those terminals/consoles
is going to give DOS the same screen mode.  Now, would that suffice for
your purposes, Day?  The only potential glitch I see is if Day wants to
run all but the dosemu terminal in some other mode - say 80x25: I don't
see why he would, but it is a possibility.  In that case talking
about changing the screen mode from the command line and possible
permissions problems may be relevant.  Another possible glitch
is running an xterminal: does the mode selected at boot time apply to
xterminals?  The recent post about dosemu's usefulness seemed to be
premised on running dosemu in an xterminal, so the question may be
relevant.  If you do not plan on running X and wanting dosemu running
under it, Day, I think the vga=ask solution is probably the one you're
looking for (assuming you're really intending to try out BL and dosemu and
you're not just trying to use this forum as a venue for expatiating
Linux's [real or perceived] shortcomings).  If you intend on running X and
dosemu in an xterminal under it, I'd suggest you ask for feedback on
whether xterminals inherit their mode from the mode selection at boot
time.  That could turn the discussion in a productive direction.

James