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Grex > Micros > #199: FreeBSD, Linux, or other PC Unixes? |  |
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| 25 new of 257 responses total. |
jshafer
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response 63 of 257:
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Feb 14 06:09 UTC 1999 |
Re: my floppy difficulties, back there somewhere, I got around
the problem by rebooting to Win95 (Actually whatever DOS comes
with Win95) and copying the files to the hard disk, then rebooting
in FreeBSD and mounting the DOS partition.
I just got a new external modem, and am now grexing from FreeBSD.
As soon as I figure out how to configure my X-windows display
stuff so I can get a display bigger than 320x200, and figure out
which of the ports I installed was the POP3 client, I may be ready
to do away w/ M$ in general...
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pfv
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response 64 of 257:
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Feb 14 16:45 UTC 1999 |
XF86Config is a LOT of fun.. Just remember to always leave the
^alt+[backspace] enabled ;-)
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jshafer
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response 65 of 257:
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Feb 14 19:33 UTC 1999 |
Thanks, Pete!
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dang
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response 66 of 257:
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Feb 17 05:16 UTC 1999 |
And keep a backup copy of one that works... :)
Actually, I've found that xf86config (the program, not the file) works
pretty well. If you want high color depth, tho, you're pretty much
stuck with a -bpp 32 somewhere on some command line.
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pfv
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response 67 of 257:
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Feb 17 06:22 UTC 1999 |
Gods yes...
Switching X versions needed a new config - it said.. Thankfully,
I'd saved the old one - in paranoid fashion.. the OLD one worked
all the time.. the new one was an abomination!
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gull
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response 68 of 257:
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Feb 17 22:11 UTC 1999 |
Re #66: Or do what I did. Edit startx (it's just a shell script) to make
-bpp 32 the default.
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toking
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response 69 of 257:
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Feb 18 16:55 UTC 1999 |
O.K. I finally got X working, but I'm stuck with some pretty crappy
color (just what does a color depth of 8 = in terms of number of
colors?) and suggestions on how to make that a little better? (I know
that in Windows I can set it to 16 bit
Ohh yeah....once you have FreeBSD installed is there some way to
reinstall the bootloader thing? (i'm stuck booting from floppy right
now...)
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pfv
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response 70 of 257:
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Feb 18 17:17 UTC 1999 |
Use "XF86config" - 8 bit is.. 256 colors (guys?)
Yeah, 16 or 24 bit make life tolerable..
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toking
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response 71 of 257:
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Feb 18 17:38 UTC 1999 |
I'm under the direct assumption that somewhere on my system there is a
program that I can run called XF86config, if so, where is it? do I run
it from inside X? ^---C?
ohh yeah...I've tried searching the web to no avail...anyone know where
I can find something about getting the MWave modem thats built into an
IBM ThinkPad 755CDV working under freebsd?
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dang
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response 72 of 257:
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Feb 19 00:19 UTC 1999 |
No, the program is xf86config, all lowercase. The config file itself is
capitalized like this: XF86Config. 8 bit color is indeed 256 colors.
You can actually use more than 256 colors, but only 256 at one time. If
you have 8 bit color, you usually get bizarre color changes when you
select programs like netscape, because they load thier own colormap. If
you are using startx to start X, then you can do this:
startx -- -bpp n
where n is one of 8, 16, 24, or 32. That coresponds to 256 colors, High
Color, and True Color (both the last two) on Windows. Its 256, 65,536,
16 million, and 4e9 colors. If you use xdm to start X, you will need
to edit it's config files and add a "-bpp n" to the line that has the X
server listed.
I know of no way to install the bootloader in FreeBSD other than by
installing. There probably is such a way, but I've never needed it.
Try http://www.freebsd.org which is a pretty good web site.
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eprom
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response 73 of 257:
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Feb 19 02:06 UTC 1999 |
hmm..the bootloader thingy? try /stand/sysinstall as root
then go to the post-config menu..then to fdisk then type "q" to quit
that should get you to the bootload thingy option...then go back to fdisk
and type "w" for write changes....theres probillly a more simple way
but i dunno know how....
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pfv
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response 74 of 257:
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Feb 19 17:28 UTC 1999 |
Hmm.. I find:
/usr/X11R6/bin/XF86Setup
No "xf[86config]" of any type.. We're heading into system
differences, I suspect. Sorry about misleading about, I'd have
SWORN I ran that..
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dang
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response 75 of 257:
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Feb 20 22:17 UTC 1999 |
I have /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config, which is a standard part of XFree86.
If you installed X yourself, you didn't install the Xcfg.tgz package,
which is very suprising. It's listed as needed. If it came that way
from your distribution, that's again surprising. I'd switch
distributions. There is a program called Xconfigurator which runs a
stripped down X server and gives you a nice windows configuration
program. You might try that. I don't really like it, tho.
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pfv
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response 76 of 257:
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Feb 21 12:17 UTC 1999 |
Yeppers, I suspect the Xconfigurator is what I've been using
of late..Either I went too far in "cleaning house", or RedHat-
stuff took a few liberties..
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jshafer
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response 77 of 257:
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Feb 21 12:46 UTC 1999 |
Anyone here used Accelerated X? XFree86 doesn't support my i740
AGP video card, & i'm not sure if there's anything I can do to
make it work or not. I haven't done too much mucking around with
it, but what I have done leads me to think that paying $75 for a
product that _should_ work right out of the box might be worthwhile.
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toking
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response 78 of 257:
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Feb 22 16:40 UTC 1999 |
(found xf86config, didn' do me too much good, so I think I"ll just have
to live with 8bpp)
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dang
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response 79 of 257:
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Feb 24 19:31 UTC 1999 |
(resp:78 if you need more than 8 bpp, you need a command line option on
the command line that starts the actual X server. If you are using
startx, then try "startx -- -bpp 32" which will start with 32 bpp.
Don't forget the "--", which signals startx that the following options
are for X rather than xinit. If you use xdm, then you need to edit
/etc/X/xdm/Xservers and add " -bpp 32" to the end of the line containing
/usr/X11R6/bin/X.)
resp:77 I use Accelerate X for my Diamond Monster Fusion. It's a brand
new alpha server. However, until recently, I couldn't use Accelerated X
because there wasn't a server. There is a way around it. Look here:
http://www.uno.edu/~adamico/banshee/
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jshafer
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response 80 of 257:
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Feb 25 12:23 UTC 1999 |
Hmm. Not sure how useful that will be, as I'm not using a banshee or
Linux, but I'll check it out in more detail later... Thanks.
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toking
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response 81 of 257:
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Feb 25 16:53 UTC 1999 |
if you read the page a little more it talks about how it could be useful
on something that's not a banshee
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dang
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response 82 of 257:
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Feb 26 16:34 UTC 1999 |
Exactly. It should work exactly the same on any modern graphics card.
I had it running on my banshee for several months, and it's okay. No
acceleration, so it's a bit slow, but otherwise okay.
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gull
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response 83 of 257:
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Feb 28 01:49 UTC 1999 |
What's the point of 32-bit color? I was under the impression (perhaps
mistaken) that 24-bit color already could generate more shades than the
human eye could discern. Is 32-bit color just a sop to the 'more is better'
crowd?
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mwg
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response 84 of 257:
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Mar 2 05:26 UTC 1999 |
I've found that xanim (a video player for Linux) will work with 16 or 32
bpp, but not 24. Strange.
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dang
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response 85 of 257:
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Mar 2 22:14 UTC 1999 |
xearth, a "View of earth from space" program, won't work at 24 bpp
either. Just 16 or 32.
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gregb
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response 86 of 257:
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Mar 3 02:49 UTC 1999 |
Okay, here's /my/ situation: I'm running Red Hat 5.2 along with Win98,
using Lilo (DOS is the default boot). For me installation went quite
smoothly. I was a bit concerned that it might have trouble with my
SCSI card (Adaptec 2940UW), but was delighted that Linux recognized
it. Each OS has it's own physical HD...Sorta. I have three physical
drives: Two 540 meg (C: and D:), and one 4.3 gig (E:-G:). I dedicated
a little over a gig on the big drive. I've partitioned Linux into "/"
and "/swap."
I've also installed Linux in my laptop at work. That one shares a
single 2.1 gig drive with Win98. Only problem with that setup is I
can't get X to work right. It comes on, but everything's super-
magnified. I've tried every video setting under Xconfigureator without
success.
At first, I thought I'd go with Slackware, cuz that was the one I'd
heard about most, but after doing some research, I went with Red Hat.
They were getting great reviews about how easy to install it was and
about their RPM system, which was a big plus for me as I've heard
manually installing Linux stuff was rather frustrating. Plus with the
boxed version, they included a couple bonus CD's full of docs, FAQ's,
apps, and not one, but two e-books on learning Linux in PDF format.
And I paid a whooping 35 bucks for it; The regular price was $54.
I guess the next question for me is, "What's next?" Well, as I
speak...er, type, I've DL'ed WordPerfect8 for Linux. That'll be my
first _real_ app. Whew! that sucker was big, over 26 megs. I guess I
should start reading the stuff on the other CD's I mentioned, starting
with the e-books.
Anybody have any suggestions, comments about anything I've written,
feel free. I'm still quite the newbie where Linux is concerned, but I
want to learn it all. I'm hoping to eventually dump MF...I mean MS
from my system.
Have a good one.
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toking
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response 87 of 257:
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Mar 3 07:21 UTC 1999 |
what kinda laptop is it?
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