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init-sysv-refracta video

Mon Nov 10, 2014 10:37 am

I decided to go for an installation of:
proto-refracta-jessie-with-sysvinit-t440.html
just to test it (in general, said more than once, i am done with Debian and Debian based).

Worked good, like usual.
On horrible specs (Pentium 3 with a Gig of CPU and 256 of RAM).
IBM Thinkpad, in case that is helpful.
Installer crashed first time, during gparted, but i am pretty sure due to the specs.

One thing:
It has a savage video care.
I had one like that way back, 2 or 3 years ago, also a stoneage machine (i made a thread over at forums debian, pretty sure i finally went back to lenny, and that solved the problem).

Anyone has a *really quick* solution, idea?
With such a crap PC i am not willing to invest any work, GUI is crap on it anyway. If no *quick* solution, workaround is to be found, i will go CLI, enable popularity-contest (to make sure they get feedback about systemd) and call it a day.


Short version:
--------------------------------------------------------------
No bad experiences with the sysv-refracta.
Still liking look&feel, works well on very low-specs machines.
Everything like usual.

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Mon Nov 10, 2014 10:38 am

UPS:
iceweasel didn't work well, due to specs.
I installed dillo and netsurf.
dillo ... well: at least it didn't make the GUI freeze.
i didn't look at netsurf yet (probably a better solution than dillo, iirc).
arora didn't work any better than iceweasel.
midori not to be found. Say what?

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:18 pm

Which display driver is xorg using? (check the Xorg log.) Try specifying one in xorg.conf, maybe vesa will work ok.

I thought I had installed popularity contest, but I guess not. Just did that now. My plot to get thousands of people to report their use of sysvinit to popcon has failed.

It already comes with two of the lightest-weight web browsers - Lynx and w3m.

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:25 pm

K, thanks.
I had to search the web (via lynx ... :-) )
created a template for xorg.conf via "Xorg -configure"
replaces "savage" with "vesa"
was not too sure if that worked, so i removed the package xserver-xorg-video-savage (or similar)
rebooted again, this time i started X and it worked
Not too happy with the fonts in CLI (hence i assumed replacing savage with vesa didn't work, with now seems a bit weird to think like that .... )

Couldn't really figure out which driver is used by looking at Xorg.log.0. Both, vesa and savage, were said to be "Loaded".
Also loads of EE's about savage, mainly about drm (whatever it might be, i don't know).
Used "nomodeset" in default/grub. Not really a clue why i did that (wild guessing .... trying things)

Yup, sure lynx or w3m. Gotta say that i got problems with cli only web-browsers, but if in doubt they do the job. Thanks for the reminder too.

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:26 pm

popularity-contest: I usually enable it during installation. But without much reasoning. Kinda: it won't hurt ...

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:27 pm

Nother question:
Where is wicd set to be started?
Like said: i am on very low specs, hence disabled wicd via sysv-rc-conf, but didn't find wicd in .config/openbox/autostart and can't find the config for the panel

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:43 am

I'm not sure how wicd gets into the panel. I've lost it for awhile, and then it comes back on a later reboot. I would think that stopping it with sysv-rc-conf would take care of it, but maybe you have to right-click on the icon and quit. Easier solution: 'apt-get remove wicd'. It's a bit of a memory hog. Then you can use network/interfaces. I think I left a stanza for dhcp on eth0, and all you need to do is uncomment it.

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Tue Nov 11, 2014 11:14 am

Yes, that was the problem, to be honest:
I did use sysv-rc-conf to stop the service during boot.
Then it ran in the panel, gave errors (of course ...) and i exited it via right click (really no biggie ... i don't care to click once and exit, just asking questions).
Perhaps it is the systray? But then the question remains: why does it get autostarted, if it is not in .config/openbox/autostart?
(again: just curios about openbox ways to do things).

quote fsmithred: apt-get remove wicd
Duh !
Not sure why i didn't think of that (it still is a laptop, perhaps i wanted to keep the option? Or perhaps was simply too closed-minded? ...)
Anyway: thanks.

---
I think about removing the panel too, really low resources there, every single RAM counts. But for now i want to keep the "original" look&feel to test it and give feedback. I doubt my feedback will change: It a) looks good/sexy it is b) comfortable and c) it runs on really crap hardware, and it runs well. Very well (iceweasel works if nothing else runs. netsurf runs pretty well, lynx runs like one would expect it to run ... :-) ).

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Tue Nov 11, 2014 11:18 am

Side note:
Refracta and Debian GNU/kFreeBSD are pretty much the only options for me - to stay in a loose touch with Debian.
The OS and distro i used for > 6 years, and pretty much the only OS i ever have seriously used at all.

Thanks.
Really.

Re: init-sysv-refracta video

Tue Nov 11, 2014 12:46 pm

You don't need no stinkin' graphical interface for wireless...

Code:
___ SAMPLE WIRELESS CONFIGURATION ___


Sample wireless configuration

Manual configuration (not needed if wicd works)

Edit (/)etc/network/interfaces
This example is for WPA2 Personal encryption with shared ASCII key.
Items marked with ### are only needed for encrypted networks.
Use appropriate local IP numbers.


   # wireless interface
   iface wlan0 inet static
      wpa-driver   wext
      wpa-ssid <ssid>
   ### wpa-proto is WPA for WPA1 (aka WPA) or RSN for WPA2
      wpa-proto RSN
   ### wpa-pairwise and wpa-group is TKIP for WPA1 or CCMP for WPA2
      wpa-pairwise CCMP
      wpa-group CCMP
   ### use 'wpa_passphrase <ssid> [passphrase]' to generate hex-key
   ### enter the result below
      wpa-psk <hex-key>
      
      address  192.168.xxx.xxx
      netmask  255.255.255.0
      gateway  192.168.1.1 (maybe)

   auto wlan0



Start/stop the interface with:

   ifup wlan0
   ifdown wlan0
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