--- Begin Message ---
- To: pere@xxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Skolelinux 37 stand alone - outsider's review
- From: jastra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 20:55:22 +0200
- Cc: sveilund@xxxxxxxxx
- Delivered-to: pere@hungry.com
- Delivery-date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 20:55:36 +0200
- Envelope-to: pre@usit.uio.no
- Reply-to: jastra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Xref: saruman.uio.no priv.mbox:10090
Hi :-)
Because of some family relation, I am testing the Skolelinux 37 stand-alone
version and I am trying to make it possible to work.
I can imagine, that an innocent user, let us say 15 years old girl, has got CD
with Skolelinux from school and she decided to do some of her prosjekt oppgave
partly at school machine, partly at home. My personal sad experience says, that
saving file in OpenOffice to MSWord format does not guarantee, that the real
MSWord will read it. Probability is 1:3, that MSWord will open file in good
condition. Our innocent user has of course full support of her innocent family:
one year younger brother, famous games levels hacker, mother working with MSWord
and MSExcel in her office every day and knowing almost all secrets of them and
father, who eagerly plays games with his son and working in Den Norske Bank
customer service desk. As you see, I do not assume lack of computer literacy in
the family and lack of basic understanding of English. However, nobody in the
family has ever touched any Unix or Linux, execept the girl, who has got
Skolelinux ready installed and configured in computer room by the school
administrator. She knew, where to click 'K' icon, how to find some basic
programs and she knows, how it should look like.
So, I am trying to be like the innocent user with family and install
everything from the beginning.
1. Basic installation
I was lucky to have drawer with disk, which was decided to use with Skolelinux
experiments and nothing more. After strugling with some instalations of Debian
and Skolelinux before, the installation went so fast, that I hardly remember, if
I was asked for anything. Probably it was, if to install, warning about lost
data, what profile to choose and root password. Perhaps more, but I do not
remember.
2. What I wanted to be able to do in this 'home/office' machine?
a. reasonable work in console - Midnight Commander is my dream solution, but has
not come with Skolelinux installation.
b. ability to operate disketts, CDs and another hard disks put into another
drawer of our box.
c. ability to print own files (HP LaserJet 1100 printer on parallel port)
d. ability to connect to internet by modem
e. ability to at least read files coming by e-mail from various people using
various programs.
f. ability to use CD recorder
g. ability to run Windows programs (at least some)
Ability to produce more advanced sounds, than simple system 'beep', which
so usually means complain of harmed computer, I have skipped at the moment. I do
not like computers trying to talk to me ;-)
I have realized, that to use our AcerScan 620T Prisa scanner will be difficult -
I could find information, that probably Linux drivers do not exist for this
type.
3. My first adaptations.
a. Midnight Commander
I am backward and conservative already grey-haired historical blondie and
life without Norton Commander or any of its younger nephews is impossible for
me. I have installed Midnight Commander. It was necessary to obtain files from
either full Debian Woody distribution, which I have, or from internet. 3
deb files were needed:
mc
mc-common
gpm
Installation by KDE package manager was smooth and life became brighter.
I really have problems to understand, why the Skolelinux managers want to save
2MB of CD space, and as result, change usually simple tasks into very
complicated. It is always possible to switch it off to train plain shell
commands, if somebody really needs it.
Basic instruction:
To start Midnight Commander (later I will use just MC), open console window,
type
mc
and press 'enter'
You will see blue table with two main panels: left and right showing directories
in the box. If you are root, you start inside /root, if you are normal user, you
will start inside /home/your directory. You may travel easily between
directories by means or mouse or arrows from keyboard. You may switch between
panels and activate upper menu by mouse.
In the bottom line you will see short help of basic function keys meaning:
for example F3 Se på, F4 Rediger, F5 Kopier, etc
Files with slash / in front of name are directories.
Files with star * in front of name are to be executed. For any reason all files
copied from DOS/Windows system have this mark, which sometimes can surprise at
work. For
example .zip archives were impossible to open before removing
execution
attribute. How to do it - soon.
Files with at @ in front of name are links to another existing files
Files with tilde ~ in front of name are symbolic links to another existing files
To display hidden files, go to Alternativer -> Konfigurasjon -> mark vis skjulte
filer and lagre. They will appear with dot . in front of name.
To copy files or directories: on first panel mark them either by Ins(ert) key
from keyboard, or if all files have to be selected by * key from numeric
keyboard. Marking by Ins(ert) key works also for whole directories, while * key
marks only single files. On second panel display the desired destination. If you
have to create directory, press F7 and write new directory names. After you are
satisfied both with choice and destination, press F5 and copying will go on.
There is no danger, that marked file will be accidentally executed or vieved,
like in Konqueror.
To unpack archive, you do simmilar as with copying files or directories. In
first panel enter the directory and mark files to be unpacked, in second panel
display/prepare destination directory and press F5 to copy. It might be
reasonable to have some directories for experiments and some for important
files.
To change attribute of file, go to upper menu Fil -> chmod -> and do, what you
need. For example for above mentioned Windows .zip archive, I had to remove all
x marks in front of ever kjøre[...]. Afterwards unpacking was easy.
If you want to see content of any file, pressing F3 shows its content, permits
searching for words (press F7), but does not permit to change anything inside.
To make changes in for example any /etc/something.config file, press F4.
Searching for words works there also by pressing F7.
Sometimes Midnigt Commander protests about any access denied. It means, that you
have to be logged as root.
Good luck :-)
b. I have placed icons of diskett and CD drives on the KDE desktop. Mounting and
unmounting was easy. Perhaps in DOS/Windows machines is easier, but now is OK.
I was very surprised to read in the "Kurs i Skolelinux", that access to disketts
and CDs is not implemented yet. It is not too complicated for innocent user. It
is much more difficult things to be done, before computer is useable.
To be able to see partitions of another DOS/Windows disk, I had to edit
/etc/fstab file (F4 in MC).
It was discovery, that second disk is hdc, not as I could expect hdb. I could
find it out by looking at content of /dev directory.
Then I have placed icon on desktop, and I could read my files. For any reason
writing into the DOS/Windows disk was not possible. OK, it was not tragedy yet.
c. Power management was strange - after suspending the box, there was extremely
techno-blinking disco on the screen (graphic card S3Trio 2/3D 32MB)
installation by means of modconf module: /kernel/arch../apm solved the problem
d. I was tired by too dark blue standard KDE wallpaper. I have chosen from
Control Center -> Look & feel -> Background -> Wallpaper standard set the
'time-for-lunch', which I feel, is more convenient for me.
e. Installation program installed user 'root' only. By console command 'adduser'
I have added two more usual users. Home computer may also have several users :-)
In addition, some program go on strike, or complain severely, if run by root. I
have not found another way to add new user by means of any KDE application.
After it I could make decoration for login box by adding faces via Control
Center -> System -> Login Manager -> Users.
First added user got everything OK, but the second one got KDE corrupted for any
reason: there was no bottom panel with Kicker and it seemed no gentle way could
get it back. So we have decided to use drastic methode: erase the unlucky user
by command 'deluser unlucky' in console, then 'adduser lucky' and everything
went smooth with new KDE.
4. Unsolved problems (yet?)
a. I have tried to do something with long stop during start of whole system,
when network settings are searched. Our box has network card from former period
of its history, but it was not connected to any network at the moment. Placing #
in front of line including 'tjener' inside /etc/fstab file did not solve the
problem. OK, it was not so terrible, just to wait a little...
b. KDE help files for user root are badly displayed: the uppermost part is cut
by upper help logo. Increasing size of fonts helps a little, but part of text
may still be hidden. Normal user has no such problem. Why?
c. Strange thing: I have the same font configuration in the Control Center both
as root and as normal user. However, the standard Debian icon on KDE desktop,
starting Konqueror with links to various Debian site, as root displays only set
of Chinese characters, but as normal user, dispalys that, what should be. The
same is with displaying of Unix man pages: root gets them in 'Chinese', while
normal user gets them in English. Why?
Three months ago, I have reported simmilar problem (completely blank page at
this time) and I have got advice from Mr. Knut Yrvin to install support of
Polish language in KDE. However, I hope, there is another solution, more
friendly for Norwegians :-P
d. PS/PDF Viewer does not display correctly for example OpenOffice Draw HowTo
(downloaded from internet). There have been fragments missing. However, printout
was correct. I have one .pdf file which is not displayed at all. Perhaps would
be displayed by Adobe Acrobat Reader, but I have not started this fight yet.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is not included in the Skolelinux CD.
5. Installed modules by modconf
paride (perhaps useful?)
keybdev (perhaps useful?)
sg (for fight with CD recorder)
file systems: msdos, isofs, ntfs, umdos (perhaps useful?)
drivers/net: dummy, ppp_async, ppp_deflate, ppp_sync (perhaps useful for
fight with modem?)
6. Printing setup
I had to install driver HP Laser Jet 6 series for our HP Laser Jet 1100 printer,
and it worked well. After my former fight with printing in OpenOffice, I knew,
it was necessary to have installed everything for Postscript in system and in
OpenOffice Printer Administration, leave printer intact as generic. I have
installed from Skolelinux CD:
console fonts
psfontmgr (not Postscript printer)
foomatic (option 3 - parse, command avaliable a2ps)
It worked fine - no external files were needed and printing process was correct,
including from OpenOffice.
7. Internet connection
I was in so lucky situation, that in our box we have traditional ISA internal
hardware modem. It means all pleasure of configuration modem driver I could skip
this time. However, I have passed it with another box with newly bought Asus
modem, about which, the seller tried to convince me, that it is hardware modem,
which works in Linux. Yes, it started to work, after some time of work ;-)
I had to download driver, compile it from source and find out, in which exactly
port it has settled.
I have seen, there is no KDE internet dialer - it means KPPP. I have got it from
my set of Woody CDs and installed the .deb package. Configuration went smooth -
I knew needed Telenor phone number, DNS servers numbers, and real placement of
modem on ttyS3. As expected, it was easy to wake up modem, but connection was
broken fast with 'died unexpectedly' message. I had to go to /etc/ppp/options
file and place # in front of options:
auth
lock
to deactivate them. (I have found it in KPPP help files).
Later, everything went smooth. I have tested telnet, ftp via Konqueror and
Opera. At the beginning Opera complained 'fann ikkje mellomtenaren' and refused
to connect anywhere. I went to Fil -> Hurtiginnstillingar and deactivated the
'Aktiver mellomlagringstenarar'. It worked well.
It still seems, dialer sometimes (not always) crashes, when at least Opera and
PS/PDF Viewers are running. Probably, there is any wisdom there to solve this
problem. I have to check error code 16 in the internet.
The last thing to do is to allow normal users to use KPPP for contacts from
their account. Program KPPP is in /usr/bin directory. I have found it in MC and
Fil -> chmod and marked all possible permissions for it, including bruker ID and
gruppe ID.
Then permission to use modem by user, which for any reason was reserved for root
only. In MC i have found file /dev/@ttyS3 and in Fil -> chmod I have permited
others to read and write. Perhaps it was not top elegant solution, but it
worked. Without it, the Internet Dialer could not find modem.
To be sure, that everything would work in future, I have made symbolic link by
typing:
ln -s /dev/ttyS3 /dev/modem
In general, normal user could use modem to connect with to internet.
8. Reading and writing files from and for the surrounding environment.
a. Fonts from Monotype / Microsoft (MS core fonts)
I have downloaded from internet:
andale32.exe
arial32.exe
arialb32.exe
comic32.exe
courie32.exe
georgi32.exe
impact32.exe
times32.exe
trebuc32.exe
verdan32.exe
webdin32.exe
Additionally, from my Woody CDs I have installed following packages:
cabextract
msttcorefonts
During installation of msttcorefonts, all downloaded fonts automatically became
installed in /usr/share/fonts/TrueType. I have added them to OpenOffice
collection by OpenOffice Printer Administration -> Skrifter
b. Wine
It is possible to expect, that both schools and private people would like to use
previously bought useful and known programs, which were designed for Windows.
Therefore easy and reasonable way to activate emulation of Windows is important.
Wine can be configured from normal user level - it refuses to work, if root is
logged in. Does it mean, that an innocent user is left with the task alone?
Wine will not install majority of Windows programs, if MS core fonts and
freetype (do not mix with libfreetype) are not installed. Skolelinux CD contains
wine, libfreetype, but not freetype. MS core fonts have to be downloaded
from internet anyhow - from any legal reasons, they are not boundled with
any Linux, even in the non-free section.
Initial configuration of Wine was easy - just to accept everything. Installation
of MS core fonts was also no problem - the easiest was to use Run Command from
KDE and type wine /full/path/tofirst/fontname32.exe. If there is no error
message and first font gets installed, it is easy to repeat the operation by
just replacing font name.
After this it comes the freetype. I have not found any .deb package in the
Debian Woody distribution, because of some paent questions, so it was necessary
to download source from www.freetype.org and pass compilation and installation
ritual. It means: end of copying and clicking only.
c. Compilation of the freetype.
I have checked version of libfreetype in KDE Package Manager (File -> Find
Package) It was 2.0.9-1, so it was necessary to download from www.freetype.org
the same version of freetype and related files.
freetype-2.0.9.tar.gz
ftdocs-2.0.9.tar.gz (all together 1 MB of compressed archives files)
First to unpack archive freetype-2.0.9.tar.gz. In MC it is simple: in left panel
enter the archive, and you will see directory freetype-2.0.9. Mark it for
copying. In the right panel display the desired destination for unpacked
directories, click the left panel, press F5 (Copy) and files will be unpacked
into the wished place.
I have made directory (in MC press F7) /home/free for this task and after
unpacking, new directory /freetype-2.0.9 has appeared. Detailed instruction of
installation is in file README.UNX. You may read it (press F3 in MC), but below
is simplified instruction
Enter the directory and type:
./configure
and press 'enter'. You will see lot of messages on the screen, with question, if
system is detected correctly. Just press any key to go back to MC panel.
Then type:
make
press 'enter' and bigger flood of messages will come on screen again. All is OK,
system talks to itself and to user. It takes some minutes.
After it finishes, press any key to go back to MC panel again.
Then type:
make install
Press 'enter' and you will see messages from system installing various files
into various places.
Installing documentation of freetype:
In MC left panel enter the archive ftdocs-2.0.9.tar.gz. There is directory
freetype-2.0.9 with subdirectory docs. Enter the docs and mark its whole content
for copying. In the right panel go to directory /usr/share/doc and create new
directory freetype2 (press F7 in MC). Copy previously marked content of archive
into the new directory.
d. Last configuration of Wine
It has to be done for each single user separately with help of MC.
Let us say, our innocent user's name is Anne.
Inside directory /home/anne/.wine/fake_windows there are directories similar to
those, known from Windows, for example:
Program Files
My Documents
Linux hardly tolerates spaces in files names, however, sometimes, Windows might
requires exact such names.
To solve possible problems, I have decided new names, acceptable by Linux, for
example:
ProgramFiles
MyDocuments
Afterwards I have made symbolic links between names by typing in command line:
ln -s /home/anne/.wine/fake_windows/Program\ Files ProgramFiles
ln -s /home/anne/.wine/fake_windows/My\ Documents MyDocuments
It is possible to see inside directory /home/anne/.wine/fake_windows new
directories, with new names with tilde ~ in front.
e. test installation of Windows program
I have in old CD collection of programs IPhoto Plus for Windows 3.1 - small,
nice graphic program coming with my old scanner, and I like it up to now. In
addition, it is able to make simple GIF files, which ability because of some
patents (again!) was removed from GIMP
To start installation program, after mounting the CD, I have typed:
wine /cdrom/IPHOTO/SETUP.EXE
After process was finished, regret, nothing has entered the Kicker start menu,
so
, it is necessary to do something manually: either use KDE System -> Menu
Editor or place icon with shortcut on desktop.
command to execute is:
wine /home/anne/.wine/fake_windows/IPPLUS/ipplus.exe
To find right comand it is best to use the Run Command function from start menu,
because, in case of errors it is easy to correct command.
Regret, the Wine icon in start menu only starts configuration program, nothing
more... I would change it for my use by means of Menu Editor.
f. Installation of MS Word Viewer for Windows 9x or newer
Regret, OpenOffice is not able to read all possible files from MS Word.
I have experienced problems with scanned A4 pictures pasted into MSWord
documents and shown as blank page in OO.
It is easy to get it from internet or computer magazines - it is freeware. I
have it in my CD collection. After mounting CD I could type:
wine /cdrom/WORD/WORD97UT/W95VIEW/WD97VW.EXE
Installation went quite smooth, in KDE Start Menu has appeared group Wine ->
Programs -> Microsoft Word Viewer. It seemed all was OK, but attempt to start it
produced message:
err:module:PE_fixup_imports Module (file) WINSPOOL.DRV (which is needed by
C:\Program Files\WordView\WORDVIEW.EXE) not found
In another box I have little newer version of wine - from March 2003 and there
everything with MS Word Viewer works well.
Sad story for our innocent user...
---
9. Making possible to record CDs under Linux.
Story from our another computer.
To install IDE CD recorder in Debian 3.0 (recorder is slave on second connecting
tape)
you have to be root - (I think...)
installed Midnight Commander simplifies the job extremely. I can
not imagine to do it blind or in Konqueror. I have done
everything in KDE, using Mozilla to read instructions and advices from internet,
up to 4 console windows to read different files at the same time and Package
Manager to install lacking libraries.
TO WAKE UP CD RECORDER
1. Start modconf and install IDE - SCSI emulation, however it is
called, if is not installed already. At least check it, it will not hurt.
2. Make modifications:
in /etc/lilo.conf:
image=/boot/zImage...(was)
label=Linux (was)
append="hdd=ide-scsi" (added)
read-only
--
in /etc/modules.conf
options ... (was)
options ide-cd ignore='hdd' (added)
---
change CD-ROM type from IDE to SCSI after emulation
cd /dev
rm cdrom
ln -s scd0 cdrom
Then will be necessary to modify /etc/fstab to get new CD drive association and
modify properties of CDRom device icon on desktop.
---
3. reboot computer
-----
4. try command:
cdrecord -scanbus
If file not found, install cdrecord. I had any version from Debian
Woody distribution.
If can not open SCSI driver, check above procedures 1-3
If it lists drives, including one labelled as RW, or simmilar, it is nice. One
chapter (evening?) has passed.
---
INSTALLING XCDROAST
1. go to web page http://www.xcdroast.org and download the
actual version in tar.gz format (source), read and save FAQ file,
and hope the best. Ready made .deb file of the same version
demands already revolution in system - installation new set of
new libraries, which are in unstable branch of Debian.
2. copy the downloaded file to any reasonable directory and
unpack it:
tar zxvf xcdroast-098alpha13.tar.gz or in Midnight Commander.
It will create new sub directory, which, among many various
files contains some further instructions (install, readme, etc)
3. Go to newly unpacked directory and type
./configure
If everything is OK - no error messages, you may go to next
point 4.
I had problems: messages about not found glib-config script and advise to
include path to it into any PREFIX. At first, indeed, there was no such file in
the system at all. I thought, I would find anything in distribution disks by
package manager. I have installed libglib1.2 and libglib2.0 but it did not help
- there were the same errors and configuration was not done.
After some searching in internet among simmilar not answered problems, I have
found advice: install development .dev libraries, if you want to compile
programs from source.
It helped. After passing this step, there were similar messages about missing
gtk-config and gdm-config, but I knew procedure to
solve it.
---
4. It is easy, just type:
make all (wait for all messages)
make install (and wait for end of messages)
---
5. you may try to start XCDRoast by typing:
xcdroast
There are 2 possibilities:
a. you will see start of typical graphic program, so you may
concentrate on it and ignore the next chapter
b. you will see error message about missing or too low version
of cdrecord.
XCDroast wants to have these files exactly in path, as it is
displayed in the error message. Just copying cdrecord and some other files
demanded by program could satisfy it and you could see start window. It works,
if existing version is enough high.
To find files, I used Options -> FindFile in Midnight Commander
If not, so, read the next chapter.
In fact whole chapter (evening) is gone.
---
SETTING CDRECORD & Co, IT MEANS CDRTOOLS
1. I was lucky - I had CD from fresh Linux magazine with the actual source
version of Cdrtools in .tar.gz format.
After unpacking it:
tar zxvf cdrtools-2.0.tar.gz
attempts to follow procedure with the "./configure" command gave long message,
containing one usefull advise: use "make" command instead. After few minutes of
flooding messages, there are many new files and subdirectories created.
3. Try to type xcdroast and see, what it wants. If cdrecord - find it inside
(sub)directories created during unpacking and compiling of Cdrtools. I used
Midnight Commander for searching. So copy the requested file exactly into the
requested directory. Probably next cycle, it will be mkisofs, and some other
files.
Earlier, or later you will see XCDroast start window
Third chapter (evening) is gone.
---
Result is amazing: recording is fast and many advanced options, as overburning,
multisession CDs are possible.
---
Notes: no version of XCDRoast, CDRtools nor necessary libraries for compilation
are included in Skolelinux. At least, there is no .dev libraries, no gdm and
no gtk.
I have not checked yet, what more exactly is lacking, but it seems,
that recording CDs is decided to be not provided in Skolelinux.
It is great pity for our innocent user...
---
Story of another box with old Cirrus Logic graphic card and XFree86 4.1.0
(Standard for Debian Woody)
It was traditional Debian installation, so I had choice.
After first attempt to install Xserver and accidental acceptance KDE as
default windows manager, I have got extreme disco on screen: only waving and
blinking horizontal bands. Ctrl+Alt+F1 helped me to go to another console, login
as root start Midnight Commander and disable /etc/X11/default-display-manager.
Later I have used long time for experiments and searching in internet. Result
was poor: my grafic card was among not supported by this X server. Some
manual operations in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 liquidated disco, but computer after
opening several windows had to get several minutes to rest, after the
hard work. Finally I have found advise, which was best for my needs at this
time: go down with x-server to version 3.x. My Debian distribution had all
needed packages, so, everything went smooth and problems were almost forgotten.
Probably newer x-server could also solve the problem, but it was easier to go
down with version. Skolelinux installs KDE as default, and it might happen to
test installation in older box.
---
Best greetings and Happy Easter :-)
Basia Glowacka (at the moment in Kautokeino, Norway)
--- End Message ---