Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

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