Baslinux mailing list

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

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
> > Does BL3 have xinit and .xinitrc?
>
> Yes.
>
> > Are you saying with Xvesa mouse, you cannot cut and
> > paste in  text-only Links (0.90 or 2) without pressing
> > SHIFT along with left mouse button?
>
> Yes.  If you don't press SHIFT, the left mouse button
> follows links (instead of highlighting).

I never knew this since I don't normally use text-only links in X or with 
a mouse, but will try it soon.  I just discovered the PS/2 trackball from 
the dead NEC laptop does not work in linux.  No surprise since the last 
laptop trackball would not work with BL either.  James said he got it 
working in a larger linux.  The 3-button Logitech optical mouse DOES work 
with gpm - I am just not used to it and had the timing wrong somehow.

Do you mean the left button can be clicked instead of using the arrow keys 
to go between links, or that you click on a link with the mouse to go to 
that link as in graphical browsers?

> > So far we have only tried copying things at the prompt
> > (commands or output) into pico.
>
> I often run links (execute d in an xterm) to display
> config files or documentation and then use SHIFT to
> paste bits into these email messages (in sylpheed).

SHIFT-left button to cut, just SHIFT to paste?

Could you also cut from text-only links with gpm (in CLI) using left them 
right buttons, or does links require SHIFT for gpm too?

(I don't have gpm on this computer yet either).

> > Can gpm copy between vts?
>
> I pretty sure that it can.

It can copy between terminals if they are all physically on one computer. 
I set up plip between the desktop with BL2 (192.168.1.1) and the laptop 
with BL3 (192.168.1.2), ran in.telnetd -debug on the desktop, telnet 
192.168.1.1, and was able to log in as user.  I also typed 'chown -R user 
/home/user' on the desktop since otherwise user cannot write files.
(On my other computer I had modified something so that root could log in 
during telnet.)

I typed gpm -t ps2 on both computers as root, which let me use the gpm 
mouse even as user, on all terminals of the computer where I loaded gpm. 
So I was logged into desktop (ttyp0) on what used to be tty0, and could 
access user-accessible programs on desktop and cut strings from them and 
paste onto the laptop (vt1) and can probably then cut from vt1 (laptop 
telnetted to desktop BL2) to vt2 (laptop bl3 root) using the BL3 gpm 
mouse.

If I were to export X somehow to the laptop (I had it working earlier) I 
could also cut and paste from X programs on the desktop, which is 
net-connected via modem, to the laptop with BL3, and I presume also run 
two copies of links2 graphical (assuming I can get Xvesa to display more 
than 4 colors on hd BL3) at the same time on one modem connection, if I 
can run X on both computers at the same time.

First I need to learn to boot BL3 HD with lilo so as to get more than 4 
colors in Xvesa on the laptop.

Last time I telnetted with nullmodem cable, but today we already had the 
parallel file transfer cable set up and plip going (and I was using the 
serial cable with llpro to restore DOS files since I already had that set 
up to test telnet and dumb terminal on a while ago) so I tried telnet via 
plip.  The laptop has no ethernet, which I also had working earlier 
between two desktop computers.

We have been offered a couple of adaptors that plug into parallel port and 
let you use network cable to connect them instead of parallel cable but I 
doubt they work any faster.  And they need special software.

Xvesa works in more than 4 colors if I boot from 2-floppy BL3 (lilo) but 
then when I mount the hd version and chroot to it I still get 'impossible 
pallette format' - why?  I did not use loadlin at all in the process or 
any DOS files.

Please remind me how to make a lilo boot disk as I can't find mine, so I 
can try booting to hard drive from lilo boot floppy (with lilo and kernel 
on it, I presume).  My partner does not want lilo in the hd mbr for some 
reason.  BL3 is on /dev/hda3, kernel is zimage.486 (I compiled one for 
this laptop which has no PCI bus or ethernet capabilities, but it is still 
about the same size as your 486 BL3 kernel).


Can disk 1 of the 2-floppy BL3 somehow be used to boot to the HD BL3 with 
lilo?  I don't see lilo on there, but there is boot.b and map - what do 
they do?


 >
> Cheers,
> Steven

Not related, but I had a partition table go bad on hda4 (DOS) and I 
deleted the partition and fdisk DOS 7.10 would not remake a fourth 
partition.  I repartitioned it somehow or other last week (FreeDOS? 
PQMAGIC?) but 7.10 format said it was unknown media type. I made it over 
with PQMAGIC as FAT and then DOS fdisk said it was unknown type and format 
still said unknown media type.  But linux fdisk (BL2) was able to make a 
FAT16 that MS DOS 7.10 fdisk recognized as FAT16.  I restored my files to 
it (I had been able to copy them elsehwere after the partition started 
reporting itself as twice the actual size).

So BL2 is even useful in DOS.