Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> Has anyone tried version 4.02 and where do we find it for SW71?
> Would this require reinstalling all the packages related to X?

ftp.xfree86.org/pub has binaries for linux for xfree86 versions 2, 3 and
4.0-4.4.0.  Starting with 4.0.2 they have a VESA Xserver, and there is now
also an automatic configuration program said to work with 'some' hardware.  

Apart from the VESA Xserver and bugfixes I did not see anything
particularly relevant to older hardware, but I may have missed something.  
There is a patch for 3.3.6. The patch might be helpful.  It comes with
instructions for use.

Apparently you need to replace all the packages, except the fonts packages
(which have also grown larger, but X ought to work with fewer fonts).
Their installation program won't work unless you have the 3M of man and 
doc packages.

xvesa from delilinux was under 400K package, including fonts.  

The files are 2-3 times as big for 4.40 as for 3.3.6.  It does not seem
worth a three-hour download to have another chance to get mousekeys
working.  Most of the changes seem to be support for newer video.

The author of the program for setting mousekeys and other accessibility
features via console or gui (xkbset) ran out of ideas on how to get it
working with 3.3.6 (which he says is buggy with respect to mouse
acceleration, which is not usable due to jerkiness).  He suggested trying
version 4 instead.  4.4.0 seems to have an interface for accessx already
built in.  I got sticky keys working - type Shift, release it, type a and
it comes out capitalized.

En route to this I found over 100 pages of a discussion on linux and 
accessibility, with contributions from blind, deaf, and otherwise 
handicapped programmers.  Colorblindness has become a problem now that 
some programs won't work without color.  Some games require either sound 
or subtitles to be understood.