Text 7890, 123 rader
Skriven 2006-11-09 21:34:36 av Maurice Kinal (1:140/13.1)
   Kommentar till text 7889 av WAYNE CHIRNSIDE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Re: ttylinux
====================
Hey WAYNE!

Nov 09 15:53 06, WAYNE CHIRNSIDE wrote to MAURICE KINAL:

 WC> OK Maurice.
 WC> I've changed plans once again.

That happens.  ;-)

 WC> Blue sky dream system is now a 2.53 GHz *64 bit* white box by MadTux.
 WC> At $208.00 U.S. with 512 Meg RAM (256 added) 13 Gig hard drive, 3 PCI 
 WC> and 1 AGP
 WC> is just too good to pass up.

Sounds good.  I don't see what chipsets etc. but given what I do see up there
at least you won't have to concern yourself with pci-e which is likely a good
idea.  I have a Matrox G450 AGP card dualhead here I'd be willing to part with
if you later decide it would be a good addon.

 WC> This will be down the road a bit yet not too far off.

If you have a link to where I can get specs on it I may be able to give you
further insight.  I am guessing as to what this might have cpu/chipset wise but
offhand given what you say it probably won't give as much grief as newer 64-bit
systems.  Just a guess on my part though.

 WC> If the woman next door still has the 486 I'll offer her 10 bucks for 
 WC> it if
 WC> it has a decent chipset, video card and a minimum of 32 Meg of RAM. 

Excellent.  I wouldn't worry about the video card too much as all you need is
to get it up and running and once that is done it shouldn't need a monitor or
keyboard whatsoever.  You could do further configuring/upgrades/etc from your
main pc on a trusted wired LAN afterwards.  For sure a 486 can more then keep
up with a high speed internet connection such as ADSL or cable.  10mbs cards
are all you'll need on there.  I've got a bunch of those (3com) if you find you
are in need.

 WC> I'm spending a lot more time at the command line and liking it better 
 WC> all the
 WC> time.

For sure.  That is where the real power and fun really is.  GUI's are really
boring in comparison.

 WC> I still need to figure out the proper syntax to invoke mplayer full 
 WC> screen
 WC> from the command line rather than the 1/2 screen I get now.

That might be due to vesa.  Matroxes (mga_vid) will yeild true fullscreen. 
Awesome!!!  Definetly the best card to use in conjuction with MPlayer (xawtv
too) on a framebuffer console.  If you got AGP on the Gateway I have a card
(G200) kicking around somewhere ... I think.  Just a sec ... yeppers just found
two of them.  They are both single heads but last time I checked they worked
awesome with both the mplayer's mga (framebuffer) and xmga (GUI) drivers.

 WC> I _think_ it requires another video drive than the default.

Probably.  The vesa framebuffer doesn't do true fullscreen unless it happens to
correspond with the monitor which isn't likely.  Possibly but not likely these
days.  If you boot to the right framebuffer it will probably be real close but
then you're stuck with that resolution.  With matroxfb you can change on the
fly which is REALLY nice.  :-)

 WC> I've already found the configuration file to set it as default once I 
 WC> get the syntax.

Right.  If you look in the kernel source there is a file called vesafb.txt in
the Documentation/fb/ subdirectory.  Also other ones for different framebuffer
drivers as well as some information about framebuffer graphics in general. 
Great stuff for sure.

 WC> I'm still using GUI browsers and likely always will however I am 
 WC> weaning myself
 WC> to viewing html from the command line using Links.

I like links.  I usually use lynx but like links when frames and tables are
employed as links handles those better.  Also links can do graphics if you
compile it to with the --enable-graphics switch.  However if you do that then
you need to make sure the proper dependancies are in place and it doesn't
always work with some crappy servers, mostly Windows ones with broken java and
php etc.  It is a real mess out there.

 WC> The GUI browsers are starting to become annoying due to ceratin 
 WC> behaviors.

Right.  See above.

 WC> Knowing VI supports color I need to see if I can make the quoted text
 WC> green when it sees the greater than sign.

That is nice at times.

 WC> Next on the todo list  is a  cheat code sheet on VI shortcuts I used 
 WC> to know, 
 WC> highlighting, find, find and replace, ect.

It takes time and practice.  Definetly worth the effort.

 WC> Now my inquiry should I move forward on my obtainable 64 bit system.
 WC> Do such completely 64 bit systems support legacy 32 bit software 
 WC> transparently?
 WC> ( my stupid question of the day)

Most do.  I am guessing the system you are talking about does.  Also it depends
on the distro you use but if you just intall a regular 32-bit system it should
work but then it isn't really 64-bit is it?  Mind you MS got aways with that
for years calling themselves 32-bit when most of it was really 16-bit.  Right?

 WC> I'm thinking it would have to right?

It does.  I can run 32-bit apps on both a Sempron (amd64) and Intel (em64t)
systems as long as I take care of the 32-bit libs for those apps.  I am moving
away from doing that though as I want a pure 64-bit system.  So far it works
great for all the stuff I call mission critical and even some stuff that isn't,
such as MPlayer which I still need to take care of on my newest build.  xawtv
works great.  :-)

Life is good,
Maurice

--- Msged/LNX 6.2.0
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