Baslinux mailing list

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

> > Will the wheel mouse also work with gpm?  My partner liked pasting between
> > terminals with it.
>
> The mouse should work with gpm. AFAIK, when you have entered
> all of the above commands, you will end up with an emulated PS/2
> mouse (wheel or otherwise) at /dev/mouse.
>
> > We have several wheel mice, PS/2 or USB-with-PS2-adaptor and I was unable
> > to get them (I may have only tried one) to work with the wheel even as
> > PS/2.  Does BL support wheel mice?
>
> Some versions of Xvesa support wheel mice. I do not know if the one in
> BL3 does.

I looked at the BL3 kernel config file and it supports mouse and psmouse - 
which I hope includes imps2.  I will try again with plain X, but some of 
our video cards don't do plain X, just Xvesa (two Matrox, one Tseng, one 
Trio3D).

> Full-size X works with wheel mice (you need to change the Protocol
> to something.. is it IMPS/2??)

I can try the wheel mouse in svgalib as IMPS2, which is not the same as 
PS2.

> > > > Okay, I will install the svgalib package from SW91.
> > >
> > > SW81 svgalib might be more convenient.
> > I have not done that yet but hope it will also work better with the newer
> > graphics cards.
>
> SW81-SW10.2 svgalibs are all actually the latest stable version of svgalib.

I am still having the same problems with some video cards.  One Matrox 
refused to work at all with svgalib, another card worked with it except in 
framebuffer mode.

> > > I don't know which static version you are talking about, but I think it
> > is
> > > because the old vgalib code is statically compiled in. This code does
> > > not like 2.2.26 or 2.4.31.
>
> Minor correction here: There is a configuration option in svgalib which
> provides some feature, but it makes svgalib not work on kernels >2.2.
> something and <2.0.3x.
>
> > I think Steven may have compiled zgv a few years ago.  Would he have used
> > code from SW3.x or 4.0 rather than recent source code?
>
> He probably used an svgalib which had that configuration option set
> to 'Y'.

Meanign it would not work on kernel 2.2.26?
> > If you compiled zgv statically with the latest vgalib code would it work
> > with kernel 2.2.26 and 2.4.31?
>
> Yes.

Then people would not need to get SW81 svgalib, which might not work with 
older libc's, in order to use a USB kernel.

> > Then people would not need svgalib at all
> > with your newer kernel, just to look at photos.  (It would still be needed
> > for the delilinux links2).  I don't know if uClibc would cause problems.

> It wouldn't. I have busybox and vimage (a small svgalib viewer) working
> with uClibc on 2.4.31. I will try to put all of this together on a floppy disk
> image.

You mean a 1-floppy USB linux for downloading and viewing images?
Would it qualify as BL4 or BL3.4?  Thanks!

> > Do you want to statically compile a later zgv?
>
> No. I will probably provide a dynamic zgv with the disk image
> mentioned above.

Which version of svgalib would you include with it?  I think you only need 
two files - libvga and libvgagl - but they total close to 400K.  Would a 
static zgv  (or vimage instead if it views jpegs) be smaller than zgv plus 
these two libraries?  zgv from delilinux also needs libraries for viewing 
jpg, and tiff, another 300K (and libpng).  Would you compile these 
libraries and zgv with uclibc?

If the floppy image included ppa and imm scsi support (maybe as modules 
from another floppy disk) one could download to a zip drive.  scsi_mod, 
sd_mod, parport, parport_pc, and imm or ppa.  That might make it too large 
for one floppy disk.  Another 100K or more.  Could one fit a USB kernel 
with support for these modules onto a parport zip disk linux boot disk?
Then the modules and viewer and libraries could go on the zip disk.

> > I was thinking of booting BL3 from floppy disks (with lilo) and using it
> > to download photos.  But DOS is working just as well, from a single boot
> > disk with space for a viewer and even a few low-res photos.
>
> But it is not working with one of your card readers, and I think that the
> latest kernel will work with said card reader.

It worked with the reader  (with compact flash card) but not with the 
smartmedia card.

I will try the new kernel soon. BL2 RAMdisk and BL3 loop use initrd.gz - 
do I just substitute the two files for what came with BL?  And just the 
kernel for BL2 and BL3 ext2?

XP recognized both cards in the Sandisk reader (slots for CF and SM), but 
wanted more software from the web to use the Olympus smartmedia reader. 
So no support for XP filesystem is needed, but a linux USB/viewer/boot 
disk will be really handy for DOS or Win9X.

> > With BL3 kernels and the framebuffer kernel you made, I have to
> > mount -t msdos  /dev/..... but with BL2 I don't need to specify the file
> > type.  Why?
>
> I have no idea.

If I insmod vfat I no longer have to specify -t msdos.  If you build the 
kernel with vfat support that should do it (or supply the module, or we 
can mount -t msdos).

I can't imagine a need for cd-rom support to download photos.

> > I forgot what your new kernel requires.
>
> Nothing?

I meant re mounting DOS filesystems. I think I need to mount -t msdos, as 
with the BL3 kernel and the framebuffer kernel.  No big deal, just curious 
what was going on.

I attempted once to compile my own framebuffer kernel and it did not work. 
Until I have time to try again, I will use yours, or my old one to use 
Mplayer or copy music CDs.

Thanks again.    I will try to test the new kernel soon (and also 2.2.26 
with IMPS2 wheel mouse).

> David