Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

After editing resolv.conf and eznet.conf, and modifying the links config 
file to number all links, I deleted all the network card modules and then 
went poking around to see what else I could delete.  I found rdev, which 
might be usable for changing video mode, but there did not seem to be any 
way to do Hercules mono emulation with it (as in 'mode mono' for DOS).
I then remembered that I could use mdacon.o for this.  I copied mdacon.o 
to the modules/2.2.16/misc directory and put the following line in
etc/rc  (second from the end):

insmod mdacon mda_first_vc=1 mda_last_vc=2

This means that terminals 1 and 2 will display on my TTL monitor, and 3 
and 4 on the VGA monitor.  Since I use DOS on TTL most of the time and 
leave the VGA monitor turned off, it will save me having to turn it on to 
use RAMdisk linux (and get rid of all those annoying colors too).  The 
default is to use tty 13 and 14 (I think) for mono, but to access those 
you need Alt-right-F2, which I don't have on my XT keyboard.
I could also just type chvt 14 to access terminal 14 but why bother?

To have these changes take place without rebooting, I then typed init q, 
or I could just have typed the above line at the prompt.  

One advantage of this setup is that I can view two full screens at the 
same time.  If I load 'screen' I can also copy between them.  I think I 
can even load X (mono server) on the TTL (mono) terminal if I want.
(Maybe not, I only tried this with mono VGA so far.)

I don't know any way to use two monitors at once with DOS.  It is supposed 
to be possible to use two VGA monitors (AGP and PCI, or two PCI) with 
linux or Win98 or later.  

Without mdacon, on my two-monitor system, I get a scrambled mess on the 
TTL monitor if I forget to turn on the VGA monitor before booting, and I 
have to reboot.  

Is there some way to set a single-monitor (VGA only) computer to boot into 
Hercules emulation monochrome, or to change to it (like mode mono in DOS)?

Thanks again for the instructions how to modify baslinux.gz to make this 
possible.

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004, Ian Scott wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Just a quick note to tell y'all of a way to save changes you make to your
> ramdisk.
> 
> What you do is:
> 
> Boot BL
> Make changes
> Mount your dos drive.
> CD to wherever you installed BL.
> 
> Copy the contents of your ramdisk to a file:
> cat /dev/ram0>ramdisk
> and zip it up
> gzip ramdisk
> 
> (Both of these may take a while, depending on the power of your computer)
> 
Ian