Country / Keyboard UK Choice : Built in selection Please!

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jcuk
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Country / Keyboard UK Choice : Built in selection Please!

Post#1 by jcuk » 14 Mar 2011, 08:41

Currently operating VirtualBox Guest VMs successfully from Porteus 64bit 1.0beta: the first time!
Thank you for all the hard work that is being put into this part of the project!

My "unbreakable" use on any ( of four ) PCs transportable solution remains as remix06 + VirtualBox (VB) v3.1.6
Host started from the project CDs; I do not use custom USB installs, or hard-disk installations; two of the
machines I use when I "Hot Desk" are not mine, and security of host installed software is untrusted.

I tried v0.9 64bit + VB 4.0 - with little success. Lockups, and very poor performance when it did work.
Most of this is probably because of bugs in VB 4.0.0; fixed in 4.0.4

Now I am on Day 4 of this 1.0beta Host, with the first successful overnight run [1] of one of my virtual desktop
guest machines (Ubuntu 10.04LTS)! It seems a little bit slower than the 32bit remix06 setup, but these
are early days. I'll benchmark things properly when the Porteus CDs are at 1.0

Eventually, I will be using only 64bit machines, and 64bit porteus will be a final migration.

URGENTLY NEEDED: A "UK" built-in choice for all Porteus Live CDs. Currently I dont know how to extend the
KDE4 one here, which has very limited choices for my keyboard. I work mostly with UK, sometimes US setups
( 1 out of 4, in an American family living in the UK )

The "add UK, then change country" step from the Live CD would be unnecessary if it was built in!
Could you make UK one of the built-in country choices for all of the Porteus CD isos please?

The default font size and type choices in 64bit 1.0beta are better! Thank you. I have to make three
changes to the Bold/Too large/font type in remix0? every time I raise console windows. I'd prefer that
annoyance to go away in Porteus 32bit + 64bit 1.x releases also...

Generally use 1280x1024 Desktop resolution in the host, with console command line windows wide
enough to support 132 character lines. The ultra large and bold font in remix0? makes that difficult,
and a bit ugly. I dont need to read the screen from across the room!

--jcuk

Note[1]
The host has a routable IP address on eth0, and a USB modem (Huawei E220). When I disconnect before
midnight, and connect the next day, the guest OS loses routing ( but can ping IP addresses OK ). I was
using it until just after midnight this time, and this morning ( 0815+) I connected and routing was
working! - Any ideas on what is happening here? remix06+VB 3.1.6 is fine, and never loses routing.
I just copied all the files from my remix06 host VB setup and used those unchanged with 64bit 1.0beta
and VB 4.0.4

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fanthom
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Re: Country / Keyboard UK Choice : Built in selection Please

Post#2 by fanthom » 14 Mar 2011, 10:04

@jcuk
"I'll benchmark things properly when the Porteus CDs are at 1.0"
good idea - please share the result (even if it's worse than slax-remix-v06) :D

"Could you make UK one of the built-in country choices for all of the Porteus CD isos please?"
is it only about keyboard layout (application showing 'US' in the taskbar) or something else? i can add more countries to default settings - no problems.

"The default font size...."
this is the matter of preferences. some people like small fonts, some (especially older guys) bigger. i would leave it like that.
i know that you are booting from CD so i would like to advise you to save all your favorite settings in a module and create new customized ISO.
all annoyance should be gone :)

"When I disconnect before midnight, and connect the next day, the guest OS loses routing ( but can ping IP addresses OK )."
hmmm.... currently there is a bug with KDE-4 + polkit authorization (user cant change the time through 'System Settings) - maybe this is the root of the issue.
or maybe it's something with dhcpcd which does not refresh DNS service the next day? dont know - sorry.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

jcuk
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Re: Country / Keyboard UK Choice : Built in selection Please

Post#3 by jcuk » 14 Mar 2011, 11:01

Thanks for the quick reply and suggestions to these two issues fanthom ;-)
I'm a complete noob at customizing SLAX, (and now Porteus).

But I'll try to find time to make changes better than I used to with my original use of SLAX

From 2008 I just compiled additional software and scripted changes after a live CD startup
...clumsy, but it worked well, and needed no deep understanding of the SLAX system internals
( or Slackware ) I'm new to both. Formerly Redhat/CentOS (dev standard) then Debain/Ubuntu

That also gave me i686 shells (bash 4 from first release) - Much faster than the i486 default binaries!
It might be a better choice to move away from i486 arch, because few or none of those older boxes
are likely to have the graphics or processor capability to do anything sensible with KDE4.

It would be wonderful to have a UK and other common choices from the default Live CDs in all versions of Porteus!
.. So Yes please... If you can. It shouldn't take up too much space on the image.

The Porteus Desktop artwork in KDE4, and presentation is first class:
the first time I was even willing to spend any time with KDE4
... I can use this to test the Live CD against new hardware, and demonstrate that Linux can compete
in looks and GUI functionaily with Windows Vista/7 to ordinary users critical of many Linux desktops

I am now probably "old" but still prefer high density text read up close!
Web 2.0 style Forums are not a favourite - I still prefer listmail / usenet type text presentation.
... especially when I use dial-up speed access!

You cant please everyone with a single Live CD iso, but I prefer not to have to spend time respinning
my own custom CDs ( it used to be a LOT harder to do that when I was active in the community until 2004 )

I'll keep this instance of Porteus 1.0beta 64bit Host running for awhile. And see if I can track down why the resolving
goes away overnight! - will check logs, and perform any tests that you recommend to isolate the cause.

--jcuk

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fanthom
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Re: Country / Keyboard UK Choice : Built in selection Please

Post#4 by fanthom » 15 Mar 2011, 21:58

"It might be a better choice to move away from i486 arch"
it depends on brokenman (i'm on x86_64 already) but i think we should stick to slackware standards. If Pat do it - we are just behind him.

KDE-4 is for 64bits only. in 32 we have Trinity!
forgot to add: you dont need to customize new ISO, just put all customizations in a module and then use 'extramod=/path/to/modules' cheatcode (mode info in /boot/docs/cheatcode.txt) and it will be loaded during boot.
I can se it like that: put your module on usb stick plugged to the PC -> assign usb device to Vbox session -> start porteus from the iso and load xzm module (with all customizations) from attached usb :)
Yes - it's possible with Porteus :D

"I still prefer listmail / usenet type text presentation."
have seen a request for this before. (i still prefer one place where every new message is under one click - forum). if more user asks for amailing list, we probably gonna have one.

BTW: bug tracker is ready:
http://redmine.ponce.cc/projects/proteus
i'm not sure if users gonna use it while we have special sections on the forum for reporting bugs.
Gonna write an announcement about it and will see what's gonna happen.

Cheers
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