Baslinux mailing list

[baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> Message from Steven
> ===================
> Sindi wrote:
> > I would appreciate knowing what wget can do
> > better than links besides reume download
>
> The key difference between links and wget is that
> wget is a commandline utility specifically designed
> to grab files.  It is fast, clean and can be scripted.

Links accesses the directory and then you need to specify what file 
you want.  Ftpget is usable instead of busybox wget but does not resume 
downloads.

> I often use a wget script to grab a web page containing
> a steaming-audio URL, strip out the URL and feed it to
> mplayer.
How?

> > I was not asking to leave it out, just to somehow
> > provide correct instructions.
>
> No, it's simpler to leave it out.  AFAIK nobody but you
> uses it and you've already got ftp, kermit, etc.

Not on the 2-floppy BL, but I don't recall going online with it.
I use it a lot to test hardware and copy files.
I can use Samir's ftp from hard disk.

> > > > For a minimal BL, is wget really needed?
> > >
> > > sigh...  yes, wget is a really useful utility.
> >
> > Other than resumed download, what should I be using it
> > for that links does not do?
>
> Resuming download is *very* useful, particularly for
> people (like me) on dialup ppp.  wget scripting is
> also *very* useful.

We are also on dialup, but wget repeatedly failed to download a file, as 
did lynx and links, and kermit ftp worked (or maybe it was kermit file 
transfer that worked).  The file would stop downloading every time at the 
same point.  Several different files.  Maybe it is our bad phone line?

Would ftpget script similarly?

 >>> As I've said before, I will not be using upx for BL3.
> > I don't recall why not.

> BL3 is designed for old computers.  It is designed to
> run on slow CPUs.  Therefore the primary goal is to
> reduce CPU overhead by eliminating unnecessary processes.
> Despite appearances, the number one priority for BL3 is
> not size -- it's speed.

It certainly has that.  But it is also perfect for 'new' somewhat broken 
computers (circa 2000) except I cannot get the blasted PCI IDE controller 
to work with it.  How do I figure out what Ubuntu did right to find the 
attached hds?  We were offered another such card.

> The purpose of UPX is to reduce the size of executables.
> It does this by compressing them and then uncompressing
> them on-the-fly.  This overhead is not welcome in BL3.

Does 2-floppy BL3 take longer to boot on slower computers, because of the 
need to uncompress the .gz and .tgz files?

> Cheers,
> Steven

Could you explain how to modify BL3 2-floppy so Samir can create his own 
upxed variant for faster old computers, maybe including ftp and ftpd?



Sindi