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On Sat, 15 Mar 2008, Sindi wrote:

> Opera works fine for me on this setup.  I don't even bother with a swap
> file (but I don't run anything else at the same time, and I close tabs).
> With 16MB I need a swap file or partition.

I may well be using (an)other program(s) while using Opera, so I plan on
setting up a swap partition. If I use BL for this I'll have plenty of HD
space for it.

> Presumably you first started X.

Is it possible to run Opera without first starting X?

> There are two ways to run opera.  You can unpackage it in / and then cd
> opera* and run from the wrapper script (named opera) by typing ./opera,
> or you can install it by cd'ing to opera* and typing install.sh, then
> after that just type opera from anywhere.  If you did not run
> install.sh, you may get a message about a wrapper script unless you run
> it from opera* directory.  Which of these methods did you use?

I ran install.sh, like Steven's directions indicate. Anywhere I type
"opera" after having rebooted the machine, I get the complaint about the
wrapper script. As I mentioned, immediately after installing Opera in this
fashion and before rebooting, I did not get that wrapper script error when
issuing the command "opera" from anywhere on the system, and Opera started
as expected. This is a very strange issue and needs some looking into for
the sake of newbies who may want Opera on their BL system. I should
mention that the version of Opera concerned is 9.23.

Anyway, I've resolved the wrapper script problem by simply renaming the
binary the installation routine placed in /usr/bin to opera.old and
copying over to /usr/bin the binary located in the unpackaged opera
installation directory. Now that I've done that, I can issue "opera" from
anywhere on the system and the browser starts fine (with just a non-fatal
complaint in the terminal about locales or something).

> The first method did not work for me as user with one version of opera,
> but it did as root.

I can operate as root on this system, though for web browsing it would be
good to set up an unpriviledged user, wouldn't it? Do I understand
correctly that you never managed to get Opera running on any BL3 system as
user? That could pose problems for me.

> BL3 has only a few Latin-alphabet fonts.  You could probably select a
> few other fonts to add but it is easier to do whole packages.

Any idea which packages?

> Yes to ps (see archives).  Why do you want pdf instead of rtf?

Thanks for the info. pdf because it preserves formatting better.

> A web search says it works with gs as ljet4.  Same as my HP Laserjet 5L
> and 6L.  300 dpi.  I compiled gs 8.54 with this driver and with
> deskjet as the default device (deskjet will also work with my laser
> printers and probably with yours).

You compiled with deskjet or laserjet? I did see ljet4 associated with
this printer in my web searches and, I believe, as I went about testing
this printer on my Ubuntu desktop.

> My gs does not support x11 as a device.  This keeps it smaller.  It only
> needs the one binary (2.7MB with a few devices including those needed by
> svp pdf viewer, a few printers, ps2pdf; 2.9 with default devices) and
> minimal fonts (not the 2-3GB package unless you want to print with a
> variety of fonts).  The Windows gs is 17MB download.  I did not compile
> in Chinese support.  GS8.60 is about twice the size.  I have not needed
> it. The Slackware 7 gs does not support some newer pdf formats.

Not sure what "gs does not support x11 as a device" means. Does that mean
you can't print from any program that runs under X? That would be a
serious limitation for me. Please clarify so that I'll know whether your
package might work for me. (btw, I think you meant 2-3MB rather than
2-3GB, correct?)

> Write us for details on printer repair using bike inner tubes and rubber
rejuvenator).

My printer seems to be in GWO but I will be in touch later off-list about
printer repair in general and perhaps some other projects.

> You would need to get this script working in Abiword and Opera to print
> directly from them.  See the archives.  Much easier than using lpr
> (which only works for user not root).

I'll begin searching the archive on this issue. Do I understand correctly
that the script has been made to work with those two programs? Or would I
be breaking new ground here?

> You probably need more ghostscript fonts.  You can use the Abiword fonts
> for English by making a symlink from /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts
> to /usr/local/AbiSuite/fonts (which will also work for xpdf and
> pdftopbm).

Would that be the gsfonts package I found in Slack4? Are those only for
printing, or does X use them as well? Thanks for the tip about symlinking
those directories--that may come in handy.

James