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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] BL3.32
  • Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 17:18:02 +0000 (UTC)

I downloaded, unzipped, installed, slightly modified (config files for ppp and mail) and installed to hd. Checked out X without any add-ons and it all seems to work fine.

Added icewm.tgz and it works fine except that ppp-on and ppp-off still both start with p so are not so handy to use via keystrokes (I had to either use arrow keys or hit p twice before Enter for ppp-off).

Installed links2.tgz and was pleased to find that it appeared on the icewm menu (even though links2 was not there when I installed icewm). There is now both a plain and a graphical browser link. THe plain one is links-0.90 rather than links2 non-graphical. Could icewm be set to use links2 instead of 0.90 as a text browser, since it has ssl and javascript support? Could the d alias in profile point to links2 instead of links-0.90 and let us delete 0.90 to save space after installing links2?

I have been able to access my online electric bill with links2 but not with links-0.90 or lynx. (But the emailed notices are getting thrown out by spamassassin due to their high content of html, green font, suspected porn status, large number of images, etc. They farmed this out to some outside company that felt obliged to send out something decorative instead of intelligible to all readers.) There are still some sites that require Opera, and even Opera flubbed my online banking site, which appears as one large empty screen.

Installed Abiword. Found two typos in the font menu - Gothi and Helvetic (last letters missing for some reason). I agree with Christof that the fonts are scrawny. I was in 800x600. Tried again in 1024 and they look a bit better. I changed from Times New Roman to Helvetica=Arial. The fonts used in rxvt are fixed size fonts, I think, and it is probably harder to get good-looking truetype fonts at lower screen resolutions, but Verdana and Lucida tend to look better onscreen than most others.

Steven, why don't you include 1024 on the Xsetup menu? Are there laptop computers which support 800 but not 1024? All of my desktop computers have video cards which do 1024 (and 1280 but the monitors don't), but two of our laptops do 640 only. I have run across a couple of older ISA video cards (15 years old or so) that had 512K RAM and did 800 but not 1024, and I know 800 displays a bit faster in less RAM, but would it hurt to give people a choice? I think a few users have written in about why they can't get 1024 with the menu. It is confusing to many of us having to edit a config file. I did this cli (xinit -- /usr/X11R6/bin/Xvesa -screen 1024x768x16 &icewm). Many websites require 1024 or worse in order to avoid scrolling (which is at least possible with links, unlike lynx).


I am delighted with Abiword, which appears to have absolutely no requirement for a mouse (full keyboard support via menu and sometimes there are shortcuts without the menu). It loads a lot faster than Ted (this computer has twice as much RAM, and is nearly twice the cpu speed but Ted was REALLY slow on the older computer, a P166 with 64MB). It does not crash like flwriter. I have not tried importing a .doc file yet.

I tried it at the default Xvesa resolution and colors (640x480x4, I think) and it would not load. I saw some activity go by in icewm. Tried from an rxvt and was told color depth 4 is not supported and to file a bug report.
I would prefer this to work in 1-bit color.


When I switch from the VGA monitor with Xvesa to the TTL monitor, the top half of the Xvesa screen goes black. It must be using the same RAM as TTL/MDA. I can run programs in a window on the lower half of the VGA monitor, in an rxvt, and still see them while typing on the TTL monitor. I cannot share SVGAlib and TTL - the former goes all black.
(With icewm, I dragged the rxvt to the lower part of the screen).

links2 (without -g) works fine in an rxvt. I could also put the graphical version on the VGA monitor and the text version on the TTL (changing setup/terminal to no color so as to see bold or inverse instead).

I notice the default cache in links is 0K and 0 formatted documents. Is this for cases of very low RAM? If not intentional, something larger would be helpful as a default for new users.


No paid work today, my partner is remodelling the neighbors' basement (they thought they just needed a new water heater but he talked them into a furnace room etc. and is suggesting they change the stove and dryer and furnace) so we won't be housebuilding this week, and I hope to check out mutt next and the other BL3 addons next. I have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks now. Thanks, Steven!


keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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