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Message from Steven
===================
Czerno wrote:
>
> Desktop background is, saddeningly, black.  Is this 
> by design, or due to my obligatory video settings 
> in 16 colours 

The color scheme in jwm was designed for 256 or more
colors.  If you have only 16 colors, it will be forced
to choose an available color, which can be less than
ideal.  Apparently bluish grey shows as black on your
system.

> Is it possible to (re-)define the palette used by 
> apps and the desktop itself 

Yes, you can edit the jwm config file to set different
colors for the desktop.  The colors for the apps are
set in the app config files (or sometimes in .Xdefaults).

> so colours are applied and, where necessary, approximated
> (guess it's called dithering) ? 

AFAIK you only have 16 colors available in 640x480x4.

> After all my Windows 95 also runs in 4-bit coulour modes, 
> yet it shows a multiplicity of colours, manipulating the 
> HW palettes 

I know nothing about Windows 95.  However, I would 
be surprised to find that it is able to create a 
multiplicity of colors on a VGA monitor.

> For instance, running Lynx in a virtual terminal 
> window

I know nothing about Lynx (it's not a standard BL3 app).  
Tell me about Links -- what does it look like in a
virtual terminal window.

> As such Lynx is barely usable in the GUI

Is Links usable in the GUI?

> I have been making all sort of efforts to set up 
> a usable BL3, 

And we have been making all sorts of efforts to help you.

> but if I can't fix more or less this colour problem, 

We have already suggested installing a better Xserver
to give you more colors.  Can your monitor display
more than 16 colors?  Can your video card?

> not to speak of the national keyboard at least in 
> the GUI, 

I am surprised that none of our foreign-language users
have helped you with this.  However, here are the
instructions Chris provided a few years ago for BL1
and BL2:

-----------------------------------------------------

Adding support for foreign language can be divided into:

1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.
2. setting linux to show messages in proper language.
3. adding support for other programs like mc.
4. adding manpages in required language

As for Console:
===============
1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.

Check and put if required your font into
/usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts (BL1)
/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (BL2)

and keyboard
/usr/lib/kbd/keymaps (BL1)
/usr/share/kbd/keymaps (BL2)

Now tell linux to use required font and keyboard map:
(suppose we want to do Polish for BL1)
----------------------------------------------
setfont /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/iso02grf.psf
loadkeys /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/pl02.map 
----------------------------------------------

I think in BL2 you might have to use 'consolechars" 
instead of 'setfont'

Test if it works:  try `pico`
QUESTION: "It works in pico but not under pure command line!"
ANSWER:   Put in ~/.inputrc the following:
--------------------
set meta-flag on
set convert-meta off
set output-meta on
set input-meta on
---------------------

2. setting linux to show messages in proper language.

For example, to do Polish, edit /etc/profile (or: ~/.profile)
and put # before `export LC_ALL=POSIX` and add below:
------------------------
export LANG=pl
export LC_ALL=pl_PL
export LESSCHARSET=latin1
-------------------------

3. adding support for other programs like mc.

In mc set in Options -> Display Bits -> ISO 8859-1 and 
Full 8 bits input, and Full 8 bits output.


4. adding manpages in required language

If you have manpages in your language (from SLackware), 
you are lucky. If not, you have to download it from somewhere
(look for "localized man pages" on WWW in your country).

Structure of downloaded file is something like:
\usr\man\pl_PL\man1
\usr\man\pl_PL\man2 
...

Now you have to config man (/etc/man.config or /usr/lib/man.conf)

Check if `-T` in

NROFF          /usr/bin/groff -S -Tascii -mandoc

is set properly.

For example for Polish I have to change it to:

NROFF           /usr/bin/groff -S -Tlatin1 -mandoc

You may want hyphenation patterns for your language.
The simplest way is just to take them from TeX. :)  
Copy  /usr/lib/texmf/tex/generic/hyphen/plhyph.tex  
to  /usr/share/groff/tmac/hyphen.pl

Now set macros in /usr/share/groff/tmac/troffrc
Change the following lines:

.\" Set the hyphenation language to `us'.
.do hla us
.\" Load hyphenation patterns from `hyphen.us' (in tmac directory).
.do hpf hyphen.us

to: 

.\" Set the hyphenation language to `pl'.
.do hla pl
.\" Load hyphenation patterns from `hyphen.pl' (in tmac directory).
.do hpf hyphen.pl


Now back to /etc/profile and change:

export MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man

to:

export MANPATH=/usr/man/pl_Pl:/usr/local/man:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man

Then re-login for the changes to take effect.