Baslinux mailing list

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

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > Can you telnet from one terminal and run X from another, in both
> > cases accessing the programs and/or modem connection on the server?
>
> How do you want this? There are multiple possibilities. You could, of
> course, have all your X programs on a machine with a large hard drive,
> and have them displayed on a machine with a monitor plugged into it.
> I would do that by running telnetd on the machine with the large drive,
> and then I'd startxt (is that a verb??) and run telnet on the machine
> with a monitor. Then in telnet I'd export DISPLAY and start running
> programs with telnet. Of course, just running rxvt would probably be
> easier.

Steven said NOT to telnet, just export DISPLAY on the server and load X 
with startxt on the client, in order to run programs from server on client 
in X.  I telnet to run CLI programs.  Have not tried doing both at once 
but I was indeed able to run X on both computers.  Opera and links2 won't 
work on the laptop BL3, because it still only does 4 colors with startx 
(startx won't work at all but startxt gets the X from elsewhere and 
displays it in 4 colors).

My question above was could you in vt1 telnet to the server, and in vt2 
startxt, and switch between them thus running CLI and X programs on the 
client, which programs are located in the server.

> > My partner wants to telnet in to our bbs on both terminals at once,
> > with no need to Alt-F1/Alt-F2 to switch, and do a 'talk' with each
> > other.  I already have a two-monitor setup on one computer but only
> > one keyboard.
> > We could do this with two laptop computers and one modem.
>
> How would you switch keyboards in this case? Or could you use two
> rxvts?

No rxvts needed if you telnet.  Telnet from CLI.  Two computers with one 
keyboard each connected via parallel transfer cable.  Set up plip, 
in.telnetd -debug on the server (which is dialed in with a modem to our 
local bbs with 'talk' on it, or I suppose I could install it here), telnet 
192.168.1.1. from client and log in (as user, until I figure out again how 
to let root log in), and one person sits at each keyboard/computer.  We 
could communicate between rooms this way with 'talk'.

> > Or with the dumb terminal method (serial cable) I could use as
> > client a 386 laptop computer with 1MB RAM, and DOS and kermit on a
> > boot disk and no hard drive.  Or use an actual dumb terminal - we
> > have a portable one (plus two dead ones made a long time ago in our
> > city - Ann Arbor Ambassador).

> I've always wanted to try using a dumb terminal with my setup here.
> It would be handy to be able to have two people using one computer at
> once. One could be checking their email with something like Sylpheed,
> and I could be browsing with links on the terminal.

You need only have a nullmodem cable (or adaptor of some sort) plugged 
between the two computers and set up an agetty somehow (remember to 
change ttyS1 back to what it was if you want to use a serial mouse). 
There was a long discussion about this a while back (I learn slowly).
You need some terminal program - even microcom worked for me.  A DOS 
terminal program will do it in 1 MB RAM with no hard drive (boot floppy 
with kermit or something smaller on it).

The telnet method is a lot simpler and can use serial, parallel, or 
ethernet connection.  netmailsetup explains them all.

> > Of course no X this way, just CLI.
>
> There are also those X terminals, but they're probably more expensive
> than a BL3-equipped computer masquerading as an X terminal.

There are pieces of hardware actually called 'X terminal'?  We have a 
portable dumb terminal with lots of different places to plug in various 
cables - don't know if it works.  Handle and case.

> > Fine for reading email, links, practicing shell scripts while
> > someone else uses the computer for other things.
>
> Heh-heh. I typed almost exactly the same thing above before I read
> all of your message. :)

Or FTP, but I have not yet figured out how to move things between 
computers while telnetted - I tried to do a kermit file transfer while 
telnetted with kermit but nothing transferred.  Will try again some day. 
Any ideas on how to download a file from the internet via the server to 
the client?  I can get it as far as the server, then send/receive to 
client.

> > Fun. I have to try httpd some time soon.  Any other features of BL3
> > you suggest learning on?
>
> httpd is simple. Just cd to the directory you want to serve up, and
> type httpd. Then open up a browser and type in your IP address to
> access it.

While I am telnetted to the server?  By 'your IP address' do you mean 
address of server: lynx 192.168.1.1?    Or wget 
http://192.168.1.1/filename ?  That would answer my question above about 
file transfer without having to type things on the server.

> I can't think of any other interesting features to comment on at the
> moment.

Enough to play with for a while.  I just used my scsi scanner for real 
today - worked perfectly once I typed --mode before the L.

scanimage --mode L > filename.pbm and L may be default (lineart) depending 
on the scanner.  Some are Color default.  This is one of the few things I 
could not do with DOS.

I even have 80x34 text on here now (but it interferes with use of the two 
mda consoles - no cursor).  I had to resizecons three times in a row to 
actually get the right number of lines as well as the right size letters.
DOS S3 only does 143x25 or 43, or 80x25 or less.  There are a couple of 
other ways to change font size but they are monitor dependant and look as 
hard as X86config to set up, with refresh rates etc.  With Tseng video I 
can get 100 columns text.

My partner is now happily copying the output of his little scripts to pico 
with two rxvts side by side, using a 2-button mouse in Xvesa (4 colors).

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