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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] USB and the digital camera
  • Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 04:13:08 +0000 (UTC)

On Tue, 6 Dec 2005, David Moberg wrote:

I have just uploaded a new linux-usb.tar.gz file. In the 1440.img
file, I trimmed busybox and /dev, and added e3, libvga.config,
USB keyboard, and loop support (for chrooting to BL3). reboot
now behaves like BL3 (it unmounts everything properly).

What else comes in usb now, external floppy and hard drives? Are they usb-storage?

I tested this on a computer without usb ports (because I have messed up my usb computer switching from DR-DOS to MS DOS 7.10).

I noticed the message about pressing Enter, thanks.

I know that I promised more disk images, but there is still just
one. Perhaps I will add more images in the next release.

Instead of another disk image, I added a small initfs.gz to boot
BL3 loop. It is currently untested.

/etc/vga/libvga.config has chipset VGA as the default,
because zgv works in VGA mode and there are a large
number of VGA-compatible chipsets. You can change it if it
is too low-res for you.

Since you omitted 'more', I used 'pico' (e3pi) to view it. I suggest shortening libvga.config to only a few lines. For zgv -M, include '#mouse microsoft'and 'mouse PS2' (unless your kernel supports other mice), and change mouse_accel_type power to mouse_accel_type off (because some mice act really screwy with power).

I doubt any USB computers have plain VGA video, so I suggest omitting that long list of chipsets and using:
chipset VESA
(improves resolution for Trident, Tseng, SiS and Virge, but messes up some other video chips, so maybe remark it out.)
#chipset VGA (I hope this will work with ATI cards, which require special modelines).

To get more than 800x600 you will also need:
HorizSync 31.5 49.0 (We have one of these that does 1280 with S3 cards)
VertRefresh 50 100

(As well as the defaults 31.5 35.5 and 50 90 - remarked out because USB computers most likely have monitors that do better than VGA but some screwy laptop videos might not work at more than VGA).

You could put in a few lines explaining what might need to be edited, in this file and maybe in a readme of some sort somewhere else, with additional instructions on mounting /dev/sda1 and /dev/hda1 etc.

You can leave out the rest. Save 16K and put back 'more'.

I notice you have three types of ppp*.o module, but not slhc.
What do we do with the ppp's?

I was able to Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot to a linux with slhc support.

I will take one of these disks to test with mice, keyboards, webcams and printers on Thursday.


Between Dec 1 and Dec 3, sindi keesan wrote:
David, could you compile the next kernel with the option of loading usb
modules

No need to recompile.

(maybe via an included script) for usb mouse and keyboard, so he
can test these in linux?

I added keyboard drivers and the relevant line in /etc/rc. You should
be able to plug a USB keyboard in and start typing. Please test, I do
not have a USB keyboard.

Nor do I, but know where to find one.


Include gpm if possible, maybe on a second disk with the modules.

Why? zgv -M will allow you to test a mouse. I don't have any plans
to compile gpm. No real USB mouse support yet, I will try to make a
script for the next release.

Sounds perfect! My friend will definitely be impressed with this disk.


If you want to use a PS/2 mouse with zgv, it is simple:

1) Boot 1440.img
2) cd /dev
3) ln -s psaux mouse
4) Edit /etc/vga/libvga.config and set the mouse protocol to PS2 or
IMPS2. If you do not make the above symlink, also set mdev to the
appropriate setting. You may also want to change the mouse
acceleration.

What is mdev?

Do you want to ln -s psaux mouse as a default? And set PS2 as default in the .config file? Are more computers using PS/2 than serial mice now? I would turn acceleration off as default.

5) zgv -M
This just worked in BL2.

What modules are needed to get a usb printer to at
least print plain text

printer.o + standard USB hci and usbcore
This 1-floppy kernel plus printer.o?

(do you cat filename > /dev/printer?).

First you need to mknod /dev/usblp0 or /dev/usb/lp0
Thanks. Should you include that in /dev, next edition?

He has no internet connection there to get Windows drivers with.

I have not seen a USB printer that will print plain text. Usually you
need to get gs and set that up to actually print anything. You might
need something else too, depending on the printer model. Some
printers might print PS or PCL.

So you can't use the single-floppy linux to test most usb printers?



A webcam driver would be nice, but he can also sell them 'as is'.

Maybe next release. Webcams are not very standard, and they
require a lot of software.

No problem, he has them marked 'as is', cheap. Your first disk at least recognized them, but did not have the driver for them. A test for usb printers would be most helpful.


usb-serial?

I included the generic module. It should work with most devices
after you mknod. If it fails to insert, you can use the vendor= and
product= options to specify the USB device ID of the device that
you are trying to use.

Do you do this at boot time? Is this for usb modems?
Are usb floppy and hard drives usb-storage?

Can you write scripts to insert the modules for all of these
so a DOS-ie can manage?

Maybe in the future. For now you can try the modules which I
have included and see how well they work.

Will try to do this Thursday at least for keyboard and mouse.

There are also USB PDA chargers - do those need modules?

Not ordinarily. But you may need to insmod uhci or ohci to get
the hub to provide power to them.
No idea what to do with them after that.


My partner will take along some blank disks. Will this 1-floppy linux
include dd so he can make newer disks?

Both versions included dd, as well as fdformat and cat. You
still need to use mkdosfs or mkfs.ext2 unless you do not need
formatting.

He will take DOS formatted disks and write the next edition of 1-floppy BL to them.

But I cannot see much purpose in a pager when the main intent
of this disk is to allow you to view pictures and copy them.

They have been removed. You can use e3 as a pager if you save
stdout to a file first. Maybe in a later release I will add less. It's not
critical at this point.

I used it to view libvga.config. Ctrl-x exits without changes.


or to change the horiz syn and vert refresh

Can you add lines to libvga.config with echo?

Yes.

echo "chipset VGA" >libvga.config
echo "mouse PS2" >>libvga.config
echo "HorizSync 40 70" >>libvga.config

etc.

These lines get added at the end?

is there something even smaller then e3?

e3 is very small and has many features. It will work fine
for now.

It is half the size of libvga.config.


Does busybox have a line editor?

It has vi and ed, but neither are very newbie-friendly.

I see you now have a separate vi (link to e3?). BL2 busybox has no vi.

Good color, but we are taking 1280 resolution photos and can see only part
of the photo without scrolling.

Press 'Z' while you are viewing an image to make it the same size as your
screen. I need to add a manual for zgv...

Z appears to toggle the resolution.

After using e3pi to edit libvga.config, press ] to increase resolution.
zgv -z (zoom) shows everything screen-size.


David




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