Baslinux mailing list

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

On Fri, 9 Dec 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> On 12/8/05, sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> > On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, David Moberg wrote:
> >
> > > > 4)  PDA - not even found
> > >
> > > Was it turned on? Did you tell the PDA to sync with the PC?
> >
> > I don't know.  I think he did what he usually does to use it in
> > Windows.  Should it be recognized as mass storage?
>
> In Windows you usually run some program. In Linux you have
> to turn on the PDA, press the hotsync button, and then it
> should show up in dmesg.
>
> No, it should be some variant of usb-serial, not mass storage.
We will try this next time.

> > > > 6)  mouse (into the other USB port on the computer) - found it but I
> > think
> > > > we need more modules.  I tried insmodding mousedev.o from your modules.
> > >
> > > You also need to mknod (I posted about this earlier).
> >
> > I will look that up.  Do you want to include that device in the next
> > edition?

> I will include a script to make it for you, since the device is useless
> without the symlink to /dev/mouse.
Will your script make the device and the symlink?

> > > > and are not insmodding usb-storage?
> > >
> > > usb-storage does not accept vend/prod ids at runtime, at least in
> > > Linux 2.4.31. You must recompile to add unusual device ids.
> >
> > So this boot disk is not likely to work with all usb storage devices?
>
> Correct. I really want to fix this.
Thanks.

> > > Have you tried Slackware? I believe that Linux has very poor support
> > > of unusual usb-storage devices.
> >
> > What counts as unusual?
>
> Unusual device IDs. The official USB mass storage document says that
> device IDs in a certain range are mass storage devices. Anything
> outside of that range must be specifically supported by the operating
> system. DOS doesn't support unusual IDs either, does it?

So far DOS has done less than linux.

> I will look at the source code and see if I can add a module option
> for an unusual device ID.
>
> > > > So is printer.o useful only for detecting the printer's existence, or
> > what
> > > > do we do with it?
> > >
> > > insmod it, mknod /dev/usblp0 c 180 0, try sending something to it.
> > Can you also include this /dev next edition?
>
> Why? It is nearly useless. My inclusion of printer.o was probably
> a mistake, just like ppp*.o

Can it be used to determine if a printer is capable of printing text?
I can also try sending it a test file created with pbmtolj or pbmtoeps.

> > > > Matrox works (surprisingly well) as plain VGA.
> > > > It works even better as chipset VESA.
> > >
> > > Does anything you have _not_ work with chipset VESA?
> >
> > I only tested your new zgv on Matrox and S3Trio3D (both vesa 2.0).  I
> > think some vesa 1.2 cards don't - S3 Trio64V?  Cirrus?
>
> So I should include VGA and some others for cards which cannot
> do VESA.

For SW71 svgalib, and VESA 1.2 PCI cards, all I needed was chipset VESA. 
Most VESA 1.2 cards worked without specifying chipset. SiS worked but only 
at low resolution.  Tseng and Trident may have worked at low res, or not 
at all.  I think S3 was messed up if you specified VESA.

I did not test non-VESA ISA cards.  They might need the other chipset 
lines.  I sort of doubt anyone is using ISA video with USB.
So chipset VESA might be enough, chipset VGA certainly enough.

> > > > chipset FBdev does not work with Matrox or Trio3d - mmap error rrr
> > > > Maybe you did not compile it to work with fb and should omit that line.
> > >
> > > I think it has FB support. Did you boot in FB mode and mknod fb0? I
> > > will remove the line if framebuffer will not improve compatibility.
> >
> > To boot with your 1-floppy linux in FB mode would I need to edit
> > syslinux.cfg?
>
> Yes.

I don't really need fb mode to download or view photos but I will give 
this a try some time.

I will also test your boot disk on some other video cards, including 
VESA 1.2 Trident and S3 and ATI and Cirrus.  It might be a few days.

> David

Tomrrow I will try it on a USB keyboard, and if I can find your 
instructions for modules and devices, also a usb mouse.