Baslinux mailing list

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

On Fri, 5 Nov 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> James Miller wrote:
> > > libc.so.5 -> libc.so.5.4.44 (BL3 library)
> > > libc.so.6 -> libc-2.2.5.so (SW81 library)
> >
> > This is really interesting, Sindi.  "BL3-enhanced"?
> > Please let us know how things work for you.  I'm
> > guessing you might run into Xvesa problems like Steven
> > was having (certain apps just seem to not want to run
> > under it).
>
> If you're going to upgrade to more powerful libraries,
> you might as well upgrade to a more powerful Xserver.
> That will avoid all those Xvesa incompatibility issues.
> Xvesa is really just a mini-Xserver with the ability
> to run on a wide range of video cards.  You will get
> a better X display (and far fewer incompatibilities)
> by using the Xserver designed specifically for your
> video card.

Apart from the loadlin/memory problems (which FreeDOS does not actually 
seem to cause) Xvesa is quite usable now, if you don't mind having to use 
more than 8-bit color for some programs (links2, Abiword), and it is a 
whole lot easier to set up (thanks to Steven) than any X server.  I don't 
use X often enough to care about frequencies being optimized for my card 
and monitor.

> > It could really enhance BL3 if newer versions of Opera
> > would run under it.

There is one advantage to Opera 6 - it will run at any color depth 
including even mono (but without graphics in mono).  But 7 crashes a lot 
less often than 6.

I will try WP8 on BL3 - I think that is all it requires and it might not 
even run on BL2 without adding the older library.


> I'm more interested in Firebird.  I've got an old version
> of Firebird running on BL2 (using the same library upgrade
> that Sindi used on BL3).  It would be great to see Firebird
> running on BL3.

Please try it and let us know.  Do the newer versions of Firebird (or its 
latest incarnation by some other name) need an even newer library?

> > Also interesting how compiling will work.
>
> The glibc2 compiling libraries are about ten times larger
> than the libc5 ones, so I would recommend using libc5 for
> personal compiling.  However, if you intend downloading

Yes, that is why I am so interested in this possibility.

> sourcecode and compiling it, you will find that some of
> it (particularly the fancier stuff) expects capabilities
> not available in libc5.  To compile such sourcecode, you
> will need the full glibc2 libraries (and a bigger HD :-)

Which programs that you know of can only be compiled on the later library?

I plan to keep both BL3 and BL2 on my hard drive and use BL3 for normal 
use in a smaller partition, and reserve BL2 for storing data that I don't 
need too often, and compiling with the later library.  BL loads 
significantly faster in a smaller partition.  On a laptop BL3 ought to 
be enough, without any compiling packages at all.  Delilinux links2 for 
computers with less than 15-bit video (SVGAlib).  The later pppd for 
external modems.

I think you said it was possible to compile with BL3 using source code on 
a BL2 partition but please remind me how to do this.  I would like to 
store the source code out of the way.

I have about 40MB of files (including the whole 2.2.5 solibs with 
documentation) in BL3 now - two versions of lynx, links-0.90 and links2, 
abiword (a biggie), sc, mc, sound, mutt, icewm, kermit, antiword. (No 
games added, or sqlite until I learn to use it).  This is not including 
compiler files (another 15MB?).  This will fit really comfortably on a 
laptop with a 115MB hard drive, along with some useful DOS files (even a 
wordprocessor).

I have not yet added telnetd or ftp or http daemons but can't think of 
much else that I would want to add, other than Opera and ghostscript 
(hopefully with only one font if I can figure out how) and xpdf.  Another 
20MB at most.

A few years ago we put together 10 250MB computers for someone to use to 
teach kids wordprocessing.  I wish they had been able to wait.

> Cheers,
> Steven
>
> ____________________________
> http://www.basiclinux.com.ru
> _______________________________________________
> BasLinux mailing list
> BasLinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/baslinux

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