Browser Password Files
I am migrating computers, and wish to transfer my browser password files. Currently I use two browsers, Epiphany and Firefox 2, and wish to add Firefox 3 to the mix (to use a color profile with a wide-gamut monitor). I know where the password files for Epiphany are located, but it is unclear to me which one(s) Firefox uses. Do FF2 and FF3 use the same signon and db files buried in .mozilla? Are these compatible with those stored by Epiphany? If so, is it possible to use a single file with symbolic links so that all of these browsers can access the same passwords? Thanks in advance. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Linux Java Update?
I'm setting up a new i386 computer, and I always include a complete Linux browser (usually Opera), including plugins. I went to the linux-sun-jre16 port, and I find a disagreement on the jre version number requested in the port (u3) versus what Sun has on their web site as their latest (u12). This is odd, since the native version runs u7. Why is this? Update 3 is a couple of years old, which is fine I guess, but is there a reason that update 12 is not used? Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: mouse movement repaint
The mouse issue seems to be caused by a very recent upgrade to xorg-server. It can be fixed temporarily by disabling moused and using xorg to control mouse movements (use psm0 instead of sysmouse). There is an active discussion on the X11 list to diagnose and solve the problem. I've seem the other symptoms you describe as well, but so far they have not been mentioned. I'd suggest following up with a post to that list. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: best way to run vista inside freebsd
On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 00:47 -0400, Francisco Reyes wrote: Frank Jahnke writes: VMs in general are a problem on Free. There is an effort to port the most recent VMware Workstation by a very good man. VMware employee? No. He is the fellow who did the VMware 3 port. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: best way to run vista inside freebsd
On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 10:23 -0500, Matt wrote: VirtualBox builds from the Innotek svn sources, and the GUI runs but with some issues. However, it is possible to boot a full VM instance from within VirtualBox on a FreeBSD host (which is very promising). The major missing component (that I'm aware of) is the kernel acceleration module, so the VM is very slow. That's all very good news, and thanks for the update. The VirtualBox developers have been receptive to contributions that were required to get their program to build on FreeBSD, and they have written a skeleton kernel module as a first step to getting accelerated VMs on a FreeBSD host. The kernel modules always seem to be the main challenge. This one at least is open source, so you don't have to try to figure out what is going on. I'd help, but I'm not that sort of coder. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: best way to run vista inside freebsd
On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 16:47 +0200, Frank Staals wrote: What is the status of that project if I may ask ? I did some research on it some time ago but the best I could find was that there was someone porting vmware-workstation 4.5.X to FreeBSD allthough there were quite a lot problems so there wasn't much progress it seemed. The same fellow is doing the port. I haven't corresponded with him for a while, so I can't really say what the current status is. Quite some time ago the issue was getting VMware to discuss what goes on in their kernel module (IIRC). It would be great if FreeBSD could be a VM-host. Agreed. For me it is the biggest problem with using a FreeBSD desktop. One other sign of hope: there has been intermittent work on a port of VirtualBox. When I checked last, the GUI environment would build. That's certainly not a complete VM yet, but it is one necessary piece. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: best way to run vista inside freebsd
I have heard that Win4BSD is really good. Your hearing is not good. Win4BSD is a terrible product when compared with the very old version of VMware. Its only advantage is that you can run it with more than one CPU (namely, APIC is enabled). Win4BSD is less stable, less responsive, and it appears to be dead as far as activity goes. FWIW, in my opinion qemu/kqemu is not particularly good, either. VMs in general are a problem on Free. There is an effort to port the most recent VMware Workstation by a very good man. I do hope this works, because right now things in the VM world on FreeBSD truly are bleak. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: wyswyg editors for tex (was re: replacement for openoffice)
Can you explain the difference between troff and groff. I thought groff is the more useable troff, or do I have that backwards, or is that only a fbsd replacement? troff is the old Unix utility that drove a C/A/T typesetter. That was a real liability -- not everyone has a typesetter -- so it later was extended as ditroff (or titroff -- really!): device (or typesetter) independent troff. There were also a few commercial packages that extended basic troff to cover more devices. groff was an independent recoding of the entire troff family by James Clark; the first release was in 1990. It has useful extensions to troff (like picture inclusion and ease of mounting more fonts), but it is code-compatible with troff. These days troff is dead, and everyone uses groff. I refer to it as troff primarily for historical reasons -- the comparison with TeX originated with troff in the old days -- though it is not quite accurate given how it is used currently. If you have never seen phototype from a C/A/T device, you are missing something, While not as good as the commercial typesetters that drove Mergenthalers, the quality is stunning. What we have now on laser printers is a very poor cousin of the original. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: wyswyg editors for tex (was re: replacement for openoffice)
And another thing, how do you choose whether to use TeX or troff? What's the diff? They are different programs that do the same thing. A good comparison might be comparing different compilers, like C and Fortran. Not that one is more like C than the other, just that they have a different language to accomplish similar goals. If you know neither and want to learn one well, choose TeX. That is what is used more commonly. There's nothing wrong with troff, and the support is still quite good, but all the major journals, for example, accept TeX code but not troff. It is still a good idea to know enough troff to do man pages, though. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: wyswyg editors for tex (was re: replacement for openoffice)
On Wed, 2007-10-10 at 01:33 +, Aryeh Friedman wrote: If you know neither and want to learn one well, choose TeX. I think the only place *roff is still is used is for man pages. Well, that's an overstatement. I still use it, and there is quite an active community on the groff support lists. It is not as large a community as TeX, but it is used for much more than just man pages. For example, the publisher O'Reilly has used it for a long time to set its books. Many of these are about Unix, Linux, OS X and various open-source programs. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: wyswyg editors for tex (was re: replacement for openoffice)
From what little experience I have with PS and *roff the idea of hacking inline embedded languages just for typesetting sounds stupid beyond belief You have to learn one of the troff macro packages. -ms is the easiest, but I agree that a wysiwyg document processor is just easier for this purpose. I'm agnostic about this one, and use Abiword (which I have never had any issues compiling, and do install all of the plug-ins), TextMaker, OO.o, Word or WP. For this purpose it does not really matter much, and I have all installed, either natively or in a virtual machine. For technical or scientific writing, though, there is nothing that can replace TeX or troff unless you invest a lot of money into adjunct programs for Word. Even then you still wind up with an ugly document. Sometimes that does not matter (like business letters) but hey, I'm a perfectionist and want my documents to look good in addition to containing good information. FWIW, my typical scientific article has over 100 references (which change as the document is written), a lot of partial differential equations and their solutions, graphs, chemistry, tables, images (like photomicrographs), and so forth. For that troff and TeX are the only way to go unless you want to spend a considerable amount of money for Word add-ins. By itself Word is not that good, but an ecosystem has developed around it to make it workable. And it is the standard. I'll stand by my basic recommendation. For everyday use and Word compatibility, buy TextMaker (and PlanMaker if you use spreadsheets). For the heavy lifting use TeX (or LaTeX or LyX) or troff and its pre-processors and macro packages. and since all the more traditional (sorry I do not think of any inline text language as being traditional) Here you are misguided. The text formatters *are* the traditional way to process documents. In fact, Unix existed only because its commercial justification was the text processing system. And that was built on DEC's runoff (with its embedded codes), which the Unix fellows abbreviated to roff, which became nroff for fixed-width character devices, and troff for typesetters. It took WordStar to change that paradigm (there are many other ones, of course, but WS was the gorilla in the late 1970s and early 1980s). Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Equations
On Sat, 2007-10-06 at 12:22 +0300, Giorgos Keramidas wrote: Since the first releases of TeX, there have been many interesting developments about font-handling in the TeX world, like the typeface definitions of ConTeXt, and the drop-in packages of LaTeX which allow one to use Palatino, Helvetica, and other classic fonts. I figured this was the case, and it makes a difference. This is OT, but do you have a link that describe what font families are available? I assume the Postscript base set is easy. But how about the others? Continuing the OT, it is also interesting that the desktop publishing applications that I am aware of (an that is certainly incomplete) do not handle equations very well either. Scribus didn't the last time I looked; Frame might but that is not really an option. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Equations (WAS: good replacement for open office)
Since you seem to use the equation feature quite intensively, maybe you have any clue on making the equation editor perform better. Sorry I can't really be of much help with OO.o equations. What I do personally is a kludge, but it works well enough. For documents that I create for read-only use, I use groff and friends. For those that require collaboration, I use Wordperfect to create the equations (it has an equation mode like troff's eqn), export them into Word format, and then read them into Word. The equation mode in Word is crippled, and you need to purchase MathType (I think that is the name) to make it usable. The same goes for references, BTW: you really need to purchase an add-on to make Word usable. In troff I just use refer together with Refbase. I've just not had much luck with OO.o's equation mode. If often crashes Word, and since all the people I collaborate with use Word, well, I use Word rather than try to teach them troff (or TeX). While they are all top-flight scientists and engineers at major US research Universities, their computer literacy is surprisingly low. I've given up on trying to find a BSD or Linux program that is good enough for this purpose -- none really are. So I just use Word in a VM and am done with it. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Equations (WAS: good replacement for open office)
On Fri, 2007-10-05 at 20:13 +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote: Word rather than try to teach them troff (or TeX). While they are all i'm not top-flight scientist but i was able to learn latex... That may be true, but trust me, the faculty with whom I work just would not do it. No way, no how, never. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Equations (WAS: good replacement for open office)
On Fri, 2007-10-05 at 12:34 -0500, Andrew Gould wrote: Have you tried LyX? I'm aware of it, and will indeed try it one of these days, but that is not the issue. I'm fine with troff -- I've used it for so many years that I can get it to jump through hoops. Time has passed it by, though, so moving to TeX (or LaTeX or Lyx) one of these days is probably a good idea. The issue is the skill of the people with whom I collaborate, and their inclination to change. They won't, at least not for me alone. This is not a battle worth fighting. You are of course welcomed to disagree for your own case. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Equations
On Fri, 2007-10-05 at 23:34 +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It seems there is no reason to be optimistic about the existence of an ``office-like'' program that deals smartly with equations. The input method from MathType (which is what WP uses) actually is quite good. The formatting, however... I am always a bit surprised that TeX was released in 78 (before my birth!) and---despite its algorithms are published---its output quality remains unmatched [1] by common programs. Why these programs do not apply TeX's strategies to solve their problems? This makes me wonder. This is a good question. TeX didn't really hit its stride until about 1989 (with Metafont and the language freeze), and the effort learned a lot from troff. Nevertheless, I am always struck by how ugly is the type that Word produces. You can always tell. I've read about how sophisticated its algorithm for this or that is, but the end result is terribly inferior to both troff and TeX. I don't really know why -- and it extends beyond the hyphenation algorithm to things like inter-word kerning and type face formation -- but I just don't like the way Word documents look. Maybe one of these days I'll look into it. I also find the insistence of the TeX community to use the dreadful CM font family to be misguided. There's a reason that the classical fonts are classics. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: good replacement for open office
what would be a good replacement(s) for most of it's functionality (word processing and spreadsheets are what matter to me) You really have to decide what you want to suite to do. Otherwise, your problem is underspecified. 1) Collaboration (complex). If you collaborate with colleagues who use Word (for example) then practically you have to use Word if you deal with complex documents. By collaborate I mean exchanging documents back and forth, with edits in each pass. Mine are always heavy in equations and chemistry. Run it in a virtual machine (VMware, Win4BSD, qemu/kqemu) on XP, W2K or 98SE. You probably don't need the latest and greatest version of Word unless you colleagues are very sophisticated. Word 2000 has been fine for me. 2) Document creation. If you only want to create documents, and Office compatibility is not that important, then there are many options: Abiword/Gnumeric are quite good if you want WYSIWYG (but do install all the extensions), the formatters TeX and groff are exceptionally powerful if you learn them well. Abiword does not read Word files well; Gnumeric has many short-comings in reading Excel (particularly for graphics) but is very good otherwise. Personally I use the groff family for all my complex documents, but I have used it for 25 years and know it inside and out. (Well, it was troff and friends long ago.) 3) Read-only. You can use Antiword to get the raw text, but you lose all formatting. It is a pretty lousy choice in my opinion. Textmaker/Planmaker do a very good job for this. 4) Mixture. If you have a general mixture of these tasks and don't want to set up a VM, use Textmaker. The programs are quite good, they are quite compatible with Office (but choke on obscure files I use regularly, as does OO.o and all the others), and much better than OO.o and Aibword/Gnumeric in my opinion if you like Word. They are also quite inexpensive -- you can often find them for $20 or so on sale from the publisher. Personally, I use groff (with chem, grap, pic, refer, tbl and eqn for all the heavy text formatting), VMware/XP/Office 2003, Win4BSD/W2k/Office 2000, Textmaker/Planmaker, OO.o, Abiword/Gnumeric, and Windows computers. What I use depends on what I am doing. Good luck! Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: good replacement for open office
On Fri, 2007-10-05 at 01:20 +, Aryeh Friedman wrote: 1) Collaboration (complex). Read/write .doc, pdf and rtf mainly 2) Document creation. WYSIWYG editing for the above including embedded graphics and equations I also want to keep the learn curve as small as possible (I know enough troff to be dangerous) My suggestion would be to buy Textmaker/Planmaker -- it is well worth it -- but if you are really heavily into math, learn TeX or troff for document input. TeX (and its various packagings) is the better of the two to learn, since most journals take TeX input files but not troff. (I still consider the eqn preprocessor for troff as the most brilliant user-level software program ever written.) Most publishers do take pdfs, but they complain. Oh, and if you want to read pdf files and do any editing, you need Adobe Acrobat (Windows and OS X). There is nothing in the open-source world that comes anywhere close. I run it in a VM and on Windows boxes. Writing to pdf files from many input formats is handled well with ghostscript, which is used by many open-source programs. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Portupgrading cups-base gives compiler error
The cups-base upgrade error can be fixed with a simple patch. See http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=116721 (I was bitten by this as well.) ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Hairy Cats and mice and FreeBSD
Anyone with experience using their optical mouse under FreeBSD? All input will be very much appreciated. Wireless mice on either PS/2 or USB ports work fine with FreeBSD/X11/Window Managers. I've used them for years, and would never go back to a corded or balled mouse again. I too live with cats, though not Maine Coons, and you really should learn how to fix mice. FWIW, my optical mouse (a Logitech MX700) stopped working -- at least the scroll wheel stopped working. So I took it apart, and removed an unbelievable amount of hair from around the scroll wheel. It covered both portions of the optical train, and once it was removed, it worked fine. Very fine tweezers helped a lot. Other than that, you have to clean the optical port on the bottom once in a while, but that's it. I use tweezers. Rather than buy what's cheap, I'd suggest finding a quality one on a deal or buying a used one. I recently bought a Logitech Mediaplay (a fine general-purpose mouse) for $15, and another lightly-used MX700 also for $15. Yes, I have that many computers... Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Hairy Cats and mice and FreeBSD
Anyone with experience using their optical mouse under FreeBSD? All input will be very much appreciated. Wireless mice on either PS/2 or USB ports work fine with FreeBSD/X11/Window Managers. I've used them for years, and would never go back to a corded or balled mouse again. I too live with cats, though not Maine Coons, and you really should learn how to fix mice. FWIW, my optical mouse (a Logitech MX700) stopped working -- at least the scroll wheel stopped working. So I took it apart, and removed an unbelievable amount of hair from around the scroll wheel. It covered both portions of the optical train, and once it was removed, it worked fine. Very fine tweezers helped a lot. Other than that, you have to clean the optical port on the bottom once in a while, but that's it. I use tweezers. Rather than buy what's cheap, I'd suggest finding a quality one on a deal or buying a used one. I recently bought a Logitech Mediaplay (a fine general-purpose mouse) for $15, and another lightly-used MX700 also for $15. Yes, I have that many computers... Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Browser Plugins - State of the Art???
Overall, I've gotten the best results with Linux-Opera. It works fine with Acroread, Java and Flash. I've not tried Real Player. The only thing it can't do is use the MPlayer plugin. Opera 9.10 (FreeBSD native) supposedly takes Linux plugins directly, which would be a huge step in the right direction. Flash 9 even works, through it is still a bit unstable. Native Firefox/Epiphany/linuxpluginwrapper works fine for me with Acroread, Flash sites coded for older players (but please see http://www.jail.se/freebsd.html for the appropriate patch) and Java. FWIW, while the Poppler-based PDF viewers like Evince and KPDF work well for many documents, for the really complicated ones there is no replacement for Acroread. Yes, this is on 6.2-RC. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jakarta Slide
I have an intern doing a project for me that uses Jakarta Tomcat and Slide. He is unable to find where exactly in ports he might find Slide (or where else, for that matter). Both he and I are unfamiliar with this whole branch of software, the names, and what is contained where. I don't know the details (as you can tell), but I am very familiar with FreeBSD. Could someone give me a few pointers on how we might find and install Slide? Thanks! Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Passing Parameters from BSD to Linux and Back
I use a few Linux programs on FreeBSD, and sometimes they invoke other programs that use command line options. I have never been able to get this parameter passing to work. For example, PDF files read by Acroread can contain links to a web browser or an email program; these are often invoked as program-name %s in the set-up file. VMware does the same with invoking a browser from defaults set in a config file. I am able to get the appropriate program to open, but the parameters are never passed. I have tried many, many schemes to quote or escape the command and its options, but never have any of these worked. Any suggestions on how I might do this would be most appreciated! Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Passing Parameters from BSD to Linux and Back
On Thu, 2006-07-06 at 16:43 -0400, Lowell Gilbert wrote: I am able to get the appropriate program to open, but the parameters are never passed. I have tried many, many schemes to quote or escape the command and its options, but never have any of these worked. Any suggestions on how I might do this would be most appreciated! Hmm. Works for me. A web link in a PDF in Acroread (7) brings up the linked page in my (native) firefox. I had to configure the executable name (without path) into the browser link preference in acroread, and I think the .mailcap entry (text/html; firefox %s) is needed as well. Hmmm indeed! Acroread now works for me as well. This did not used to be the case; I updated Acroread about a week ago and had not tried this again. (What does .mailcap do? I surmise from the name that it is like termcap for mail entries...). Maybe it is that upgrade? Or a change in how the desktop environment interacts with aware programs? I am still unable to open the help browser from within VMware; the file config simply reads: webBrowser = linux-opera %s (without the quotes). linux-opera is found, but the string %s is not passed at all. Invoking linux-opera with a command-line flag works as expected. I think it uses a Motif set for its interface. I think I have source for VMware; let me look at the calling sequence. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Problems with xorg dual monitors
Paul, Xinerama using Xorg 6.9 on FreeBSD 6.0 works fine for me. I'm using dual CRTs and a Matrox G450, which is fine once you remove the (nonfunctioning) HAL layer that 6.9 includes as part of the out-of-the-box set-up. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Problems with xorg dual monitors
Xinerama using Xorg 6.9 on FreeBSD 6.0 works fine for me. I'm using dual CRTs and a Matrox G450, which is fine once you remove the (nonfunctioning) HAL layer that 6.9 includes as part of the out-of-the-box set-up. How do you get rid of the HAL layer? That's a Matrox-specific feature. It is needed on some of the older cards to use Xinerama, but not for the G450 and G550 (not that these are exactly new). So I deleted the file. I can find the particulars if you like, but I don't think it applies to your case. See http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/x11-servers/mga_hal/ for details on mga-hal. You may wish to sort through the X.org log file, though, to make sure that there are no similar vendor-specific files that have broken in the upgrade to 6.9. That's how I found that mga-hal did not work. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Help Sun Blade 1000
FreeBSD does not run on the UltraSprac III processor. The US II is fine (4m in the lingo), but that is not what you have. There is also no port for Java for the 4m, if this is important to you. Stick with Solaris. If it is anything like the usual Sparc machine, go to the OBP (from the remote console, that is stop-A or ctl-F6-Break in Hyperterminal, if you use that) and that gets you to the OBP prompt. Usually boot cdrom works. There is a host of information on the OBP on the web that I'd suggest you look at. You may also consider resetting the OBP to its factory defaults. Then is should boot off the CDRom, usually after you try the disk and the network. You may have to relabel your disks. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: BSD Question's
One good alternative that no one has mentioned is PC-BSD. It is FreeBSD that makes it very easy to set up a KDE desktop and install software. It works very well indeed. Yes, it has issues with some of the plugins at the moment (like FreeBSD) and java still has to be compiled. But the installation is painless, and overall it is nicely done. It is well worth considering. www.pcbsd.org. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
BSD Question's.
I didn't see the first few emails in this thread so excuse me if you have answered this, but what can you do on Windows that you can't do on FreeBSD. Other than play the latest and greatest games. I'm just wondering. Schwab Streetsmart Accounting Software (CA) I don't know these, so I can't comment. Quicken I run Quickbooks on an old 98SE box. I also use this machine for a proprietary program NIH now requires for electronic submission of grant applications. At the moment, it runs only on Windows. Photoshop I don't need full Photoshop -- I use GIMP and NIH's ImageJ, which are good enough for my applications. These are very technical (mainly interpreting photomicrographs), and not putting cat or dog heads on images of people. Also, many versions of Photoshop (but not CS) run quite well under Wine. Adobe Acrobat (for creating PDFs) I run this under Wine, and it works fine. Usually I create PDFs with ghostscript, but Acrobat is very useful for things like sorting or collating pre-existing PDF files, which I do need, and filling PDF forms. Then again, I use troff and TeX for text formatting, which most people don't. No question, the greatest strength of Windows is the huge amount of software available for it. EVERYTHING runs on Windows, and yes, you have to invest time in FreeBSD to get things to work right. Usually there is an acceptable work-around. Not always, but usually. While I don't use the Win98 box much, it is useful to have around. Since you can pick one of these up for $100 or so, I don't see this as a limitation if you prefer the Unix environment most of the time, which I do. One thing that FreeBSD (and Linux) offers is an extensive numerical analysis software (matrix inversions, Finite Element methods, graphical pre- and post-processors and statistical software) and decent free compilers that would cost a lot on Windows. That's very helpful for a cash-strapped start-up, like mine. Admittedly that is not the question the OP had. OTOH, the amount of money I've save on software has allowed me to hire someone to do more work in the lab. That's the most important thing for me. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Dual Display
I'm using an old Matrox G450 with 2 19 tubes. It works very well for 2D applications (which mine are), but it certainly is not that good for 3D. The open-source driver is stable and very well debugged. Now if only more applications were more Xinerama-aware... Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RELENG_6 cvsup returns 6.0-RC1
I just ran a cvsup with a tag of RELENG_6 and rebuilt world/kernel. After installing kernel/world and subsequent reboot, I expected to see a kernel labeled: FreeBSD 6.0-STABLE but am instead seeing: FreeBSD 6.0-RC1 I double-checked my supfile and my tag is indeed RELENG_6. Set your tag to RELENG_6_0 and all will be well. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RELENG_6 cvsup returns 6.0-RC1
On Fri, 2005-11-11 at 18:07 -0500, Kris Kennaway wrote: Set your tag to RELENG_6_0 and all will be well. No, that's the release branch. RELENG_6 indeed should work as he expects. Is anyone else able to confirm that this cvsup server is handing out old files? Kris I've read on other boards about the same issue (see http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36432 ). When I upgraded from -RC1 to 6.0-RELEASE (by portupgrade) I used the tag I mentioned without issues. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RELENG_6 cvsup returns 6.0-RC1
On Fri, 2005-11-11 at 15:09 -0800, Frank Jahnke wrote: I've read on other boards about the same issue (see http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36432 ). When I upgraded from -RC1 to 6.0-RELEASE (by portupgrade) I used the tag I mentioned without issues. Sorry, that wasn't by portupgrade, of course, but rather the usual buildworld etc. process. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RELENG_6 cvsup returns 6.0-RC1
On Fri, 2005-11-11 at 18:21 -0500, Kris Kennaway wrote: I've read on other boards about the same issue (see http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36432 ). When I upgraded from -RC1 to 6.0-RELEASE (by portupgrade) I used the tag I mentioned without issues. OK, but you're still wrong :-) Kris If you are talking about the tag designations, you're right, but it worked for me! I also remember something in the release notes about this, I think... Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RELENG_6 cvsup returns 6.0-RC1
On Fri, 2005-11-11 at 18:32 -0500, Kris Kennaway wrote: You're trying to do something different: upgrade to 6.0-RELEASE+security patches instead of upgrade to 6.0-STABLE. If it's indeed a cvsup server that stopped updating in the 6.0-RC1 timeframe, neither will work with that server (hence why I asked for confirmation), but the user wanted the latter, and you gave him the wrong branch tag. This may be semantics at this point. Is there really a difference right now between 6.0-RELEASE and 6.0-STABLE? Yes, I understand the difference between the designations, but I cvsuped and built seven days ago, shortly after the release of -RELEASE. Have there really been changes in the snapshot during that time? If so, what? Frank (Kris, sorry for the duplicate...) ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Firefox + acroread7
We talked about this extensively on the ports list about a month ago, when I saw the same thing with Epiphany on 6.0-RC1. The conclusion was that this is a bug in linuxpluginwrapper. See: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=87404 To my knowledge, this has not yet been fixed. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Firefox + acroread7
On Tue, 2005-11-08 at 21:32 +, Eric Schuele wrote: Yes! That's the problem exactly. In fact I was getting the 'undefined symbol' error up until I changed the libmap.conf to point to where the nppdf.so resides. At that point the error went away and the plugin was available in the about:plugins dialog. However, the pdf fails to load. Is there in fact no known workaround? Maybe an older version? The only one that I am aware of is intentionally to put the wrong directories in libmap.conf for the Adobe Reader, or remove the plugin entirely. Then you can at least choose the application that opens the PDF, at least in Gnome. That's a good working definition for a kludge, but I know of no others at the moment. You could of course use a different PDF reader, but honestly I like the Adobe Reader the best. Evince is just too slow to be useful, and the others just feel klunky to me. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Wine 20050930 on FreeBSD 6.0-BETA5
On Mon, 2005-10-10 at 09:27 +0400, Andrew P. wrote: FWIW, all of my fonts used for Wine are located in .wine/drive_c/windows/fonts -- you may want to see if you have the directory. Frank Can you please post your `pkg_info | grep font`. %pkg_info | grep font bitstream-vera-1.10_1 Bitstream Vera TrueType font collection cmpsfont-1.0_4 Computer Modern PostScript Fonts (Adobe Type 1 format) fontconfig-2.2.3,1 An XML-based font configuration API for X Windows freetype2-2.1.10_1 A free and portable TrueType font rendering engine gsfonts-8.11_2 Fonts used by GNU Ghostscript (or X) gucharmap-gnome-1.4.3_1 A Unicode/ISO10646 character map and font viewer libXft-2.1.7A client-sided font API for X applications linux-fontconfig-2.1_3 Linux/i386 binary of Fontconfig p5-type1inst-0.6.1_2 A script that helps install Postscript fonts in X Window Sy ttmkfdir-20021109_1 Create fonts.scale file for use with TrueType font server urwfonts-1.0Another font package for X webfonts-0.21_1 TrueType core fonts for the Web xorg-fonts-100dpi-6.8.2 X.Org 100dpi bitmap fonts xorg-fonts-75dpi-6.8.2 X.Org 75dpi bitmap fonts xorg-fonts-cyrillic-6.8.2 X.Org Cyrillic bitmap fonts xorg-fonts-encodings-6.8.2 X.Org font encoding files xorg-fonts-miscbitmaps-6.8.2 X.Org miscellaneous bitmap fonts xorg-fonts-truetype-6.8.2 X.Org TrueType fonts xorg-fonts-type1-6.8.2 X.Org Type1 fonts xorg-fontserver-6.8.2 X font server from X.Org These don't include the ones in the Wine directory. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: IE in FreeBSD
On Tuesday 20 September 2005 14:52, Ashley Moran wrote: Why not submit your CV as a PDF? Because it's common for companies and recruitment agencies to specify MS Word documents only. It's a de facto standard. I have never gotten grief when I tell the recruiter that I do not have Word and I do not support proprietary formats and then send a PDF. YMMV My wife is an independent recruiter in the life sciences area. She can personally read a CV in most any format (and the few she can't I convert for her). It is the preference of the Human Resources department within her client companies who specify the MS .doc format. If a resume comes into HR that is not in .doc format, they will ask that it be resubmitted in that format. It is not a formal standard, but it sure is a de facto one. Companies in the IT area more be more flexible; I can't say. Chad Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: IE in FreeBSD?
On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 10:58 -0700, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: And as for basic apps like wordprocessors and such - well I have to remind you that you yourself already argued in a previous post that this entire scenario of yours that your talking about here specifically dealt with apps that are more complex than that. In other words the rules of engagement you set up for this discussion was specifically NOT home user apps, it was complex business apps in a work environment. Now your dragging in home users which are a different deal alltogether. Recall the OP wants to run IE to deal with vendor websites that are IE specific and already ruled out telling the vendors of these busted websites to fuck off (like a home user has the freedom to do) since he has to go to them for work. Uh, Ted? It really is customary to at least acknowledge and reply to the proper author. Mario Hoerich wrote about home apps; I did not. So Mario set no such ground rules. Given how this thread appears to have turned into your own personal soapbox to show heaven knows what, I'll bow out. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: IE in FreeBSD?
One example: how do you suggest that complex forms in PDF format are filled out and saved on a FreeBSD system? PDF doesn't belong in complex forms that are filled out online. I didn't say these were filled on on line -- that can be done just fine with OSS or the free Adobe Reader products. What I was talking about was downloading PDF forms, filling them out locally, and saving them. Right now OSS and other free products can fill out forms and have them printed -- they cannot be saved. When the forms are 45 pages or more, treating the computer as a simple typewriter is just silly. You need to be able to go back and edit them. I know of no way to do that with anything other than a proprietary product, such as Acrobat. I have that running under Wine on BSD. I use PDF at my job and we use it for one use only - contracts. A contract must be in paper with a human's signature on it to have any validity whatsoever in a court of law, despite what you may read otherwise. The PDF forms we send out are NOT intended to be filled out and printed, they are designed to be printed only, then the printout filled out and signed by hand. And we have alternative formats available (such as word doc) for those who don't have Acrobat loaded. I'd send these out in .png format if I figured the user could print them off without botching the printout. Or in PostScript to be fed directly to the printer. Every other type of form we deal with that doesn't have to stand up to legal scrutiny (ie: needs a siggy) we have long ago migrated to online webforms. That's fine: the documents I'm describing are downloaded, completed locally, signed, copied, and submitted (an original and six to eight copies). That your company does it differently is wonderful. I don't have a choice in this matter, if I wish to do business with this concern. And I do -- there are $24 billion in proposals that are funded annually that I would like to take part in. In many ways, this sums up the entire disagreement: I'm saying I have a need that I have to deal with. You are saying I shouldn't have that need if they did it properly. In this case, they don't. So I need to deal with it, and some Windows applications work just fine. I'd just like to run them on the computer where I do the majority of my work. No, you are missing the point totally. I'm arguing that the so-called desktop isn't important. The desktop needs to serve as a portal to the real applications and processing, which is centralized. It is a means to an end, not an end itself. The servers in the center that are doing the Really Important Work are of course all FreeBSD. If Microsoft wants to spend it's life writing goopy gimpy winders that runs on the latest Far East dreck, more power to them as long as they put a decent networking stack in the thing so that my xterms don't get disconnected all the time. So here we are at the crux of it, and I haven't missed that point at all. As I said, I have no issue with a server-client architecture, and I'll extend that all the way to having a mainframe and terminals. For many situations, it is a better or at least a reasonable way to go. If the only issue is how much local power or intelligence remains, that's fine. I do think that there will remain a lot processing that is done locally, like the web browsing that started this whole thread off, particularly for smaller concerns such as mine. For smaller companies having desktops works well enough, and is probably a better use of resources. It is in my case, where the needs are rather diverse and complex. One example: an electronic laboratory notebook that complies with FDA tracability and data integrity requirements. You see this is a perfect example once again. Why do you need traceability and data integrity on a notebook? Because there's data there!! Move the data to a central location and the notebook becomes a dumb window with no data on it, and there's no need to pay attention to the notebook. A laboratory notebook is a term of art that describes the legal documentation of laboratory work which is ultimately used for patent prosecution and FDA approvals, among others. An electronic laboratory notebook is simply its electronic version, and there are companies who have tailored products to fulfill patenting and FDA requirements. These are specialized databases where access and modification rights (among other things) are handled carefully, and yes, they are all server-client based, though the client end does process a lot of data from diverse sources (like LIMs-- laboratory information management systems) before it is approved and entered to the central database. Nowhere did I say anything about a notebook computer. I was pointing out the need for a certain kind of software that is available for Windows that will not be filled by the OSS community. Whether the application will be ported by an ISV I have no way of
RE: IE in FreeBSD?
On Thu, 2005-09-15 at 22:12 -0700, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: My opinion on WINE is that it merely harms people who are writing software for FreeBSD. I often hear this said, but I don't think it is true. I saw this kill OS/2. I ran OS/2 exclusively as a desktop OS for a number of years, it had excellent networking integration with UNIX, better than Windows. But IBM spent way too much effort in keeping Windows emulation going in the OS and as a result didn't put the development effort where it would have helped - primariarly strengthing the OS on different hardware. There a lots of opinions on why OS/2 failed. I won't go through those, but I do remember those days well. As far as I can tell, there is essentially no commercial software written for FreeBSD (and very little for Linux) as it stands, and while the FOSS software has improved a great deal, much of that targeted for the desktop is either not good enough or simply does not exist at all. Not desktop but there's a lot of commercial back-end software that uses FreeBSD. I don't think that commercial back-end software is a target for Wine; I'd guess those will continue to grow in number. I'm talking about the desktop alone. The one good commercial software title for BSD is TextMaker from SoftMaker (German; a Word clone). They do not seem inclined to release their new version on BSD. They simply are not a replacement for native programs unless no alternative exists. An alternative always exists. It depends on how far you want to go with alternatives. Sure, you could keep a Windows box around. You could not do the task. Those too are alternatives. But if you are looking to do certain tasks on a BSD desktop, I will say that in many cases there is no alternative, at least no alternative that is workable. One example: how do you suggest that complex forms in PDF format are filled out and saved on a FreeBSD system? Anyway, in a way it does because it forces the user to go through a lot more trouble than an emulator, and the only way to get users to invest the time to learn how to use FreeBSD is to make the alternative more difficult. Look at Macintosh software sometime, the UI for most apps is little different than what it was under System 7 except more colorful and glitzy. Most Mac users don't even know UNIX is involved with their OS. The Mac isn't a gateway to UNIX by any means. Apple made it easy for Mac users to continue to be stone stupid, and the Mac users by and large chose to stay stone stupid. Apple knows it's customer base that's for sure. I find this attitude to be very distressing, but remarkably common. Sure, users are not as informed as they might be, and they can do stupid things. But they use the computer as a tool to do certain tasks, and they shouldn't have to know about how the computer works to accomplish those tasks. My own work is in biological physical chemistry -- that's what pays the bills. Should I require my IT people to be conversant with that area, and understand the experiments that we do? If not, why should I require my molecular biologists to understand the ins and outs of their computer? Indeed, the tools I am developing are designed so that the user does not have to know all of the details about how they work. They put stuff in, and get useful information out. If I had to hire Maxwell's demons to do the work, the users wouldn't care. It is my job to do the hard work and tailor it to their needs. This is not so different from computers. Simply increasing the market share numbers won't do jack. Look at MacOS, Apple has far less of a market share than FreeBSD yet has tons of software for it and more every day. You must increase the market share among the people that pay money for software in order to interest ISV's in porting. That's fair enough. Many people in the FOSS community simply don't want to pay for software. That has to change. Still, I would posit that the Mac has a much larger installed base on the desktop than BSD. This is one of the famous catch-22 of FreeBSD. Skilled and smart techs can make free applications that run under free OS's like FreeBSD work for them, or fix them if they don't work. Garden variety users don't want to learn much and are willing to pay money to not have to do so. If you dumb-down the OS like Windows and MacOS is, you attract the garden variety users and you get a lot of money which atttracts all the ISV's who want to port to you, but the skilled users get sick of the shit and they are out of there. For commercial OS's that's not a problem they just pay people to continue building them, but it will break the back of an Open Source volunteer effort. RedHat understood this and that's why most RedHat Linux users today are pretty basic, and the skilled Linux people have fled to Suse and Debian, and even some to Fedora, while the RedHat owners are smiling all the way
RE: IE in FreeBSD?
My opinion on WINE is that it merely harms people who are writing software for FreeBSD. If I write a wordprocessor for Linux or FreeBSD and try to sell it, why would a customer buy it when he can just use his Microsoft Word under Wine? As a result the existence of these programs discourages interest in native FreeBSD programs, and encourages people not to wholeheartedly switch over to FreeBSD. It also gives an excuse to software developers not to bother writing software for open source development since they can always run it on wine Ted I often hear this said, but I don't think it is true. As far as I can tell, there is essentially no commercial software written for FreeBSD (and very little for Linux) as it stands, and while the FOSS software has improved a great deal, much of that targeted for the desktop is either not good enough or simply does not exist at all. Wine will always be a compromise: some (but with hope, an increasing number of) important programs will work very well, some will perform with limited functionality which may be OK for a few selected tasks, and many or most will not work well enough if they work at all. They will also continue to be difficult to integrate with other desktop programs, even more so than Linux programs which are bad enough already. They simply are not a replacement for native programs unless no alternative exists. Your early proposed solution of running a remote desktop to run the real windows program also does not encourage writers to introduce a FreeBSD program version. Instead of saying run it on Wine, one could always say run it on a remote desktop. Old computers that may well be good enough for such occasional use are very inexpensive. Why then would anyone run a native version? I think that the best way to increase the number of native programs written for or ported to FreeBSD is to increase its market share, particularly on the desktop. The rapid acceptance of desktop-oriented versions of FreeBSD, such as PC-BSD and DesktopBSD, I find very heartening. But as long as the OS has such a small market share, we will have to rely on such non-optimal solutions such as qemu, Wine, CrossOver Office and the like. Sadly, I think this will be the case for the near-term future of a few years at least. It will likely be longer. In the short term, I have work to do that requires windows programs, or at least the function of certain windows programs. Not IE, as the original poster of this thread, but others that are common in the Windows world. I'd like to use a single computer and its tools for this purpose -- the workflow is so much more convenient. As it stands, I cannot turn wholeheartedly to FreeBSD until I can perform the sort of tasks I need to -- I will always need a Windows box for too many things otherwise. And I certainly can't subject my employees to this situation, unless they are Unix heads like me. That's why I started the petition to CodeWeavers to port CrossOver Office to BSD. That product may not be the perfect solution, but it would sure help me a lot with most of the needs I have now. That petition is located at http://www.bsdnexus.com/petition.asp and to date we have nearly 900 signatories. If you have not signed, I would encourage you to do so. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: IE in FreeBSD
Sorry I can't continue this as a thread -- I get this as a digest and unless I'm copied, I can't. My opinion on WINE is that it merely harms people who are writing software for FreeBSD. If I write a wordprocessor for Linux or FreeBSD and try to sell it, why would a customer buy it when he can just use his Microsoft Word under Wine? Because it's an industry standard. Unless you come up with a better product and convince the masses to switch, people aren't really as willing to learn new software albeit the fact that it may be better in terms of features/functionality. One thing that is overlooked is that office and other professional software is much, much more than Microsoft Office. How about complete Acrobat, AutoCAD, electronic laboratory notebooks, solids modeling, laboratory information management systems, LabView, and ... and ... FOSS seems to do alright with entertainment software (music, videos, IM, RSS and so forth) but is woefully deficient in so many other areas. I give one practical example in my interview with Dru at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7731 Not true. Running Wine means I don't have to have Windows installed and thus I don't have to dualboot my machine or use a true emulator like vmware, qemu, etc to have to run a copy of Windows on top of FreeBSD. Absolutely. Dual booting is so inconvenient that it simply is not worth it for me. And for workflow reasons I'd really rather run every application from the same desktop. Wine will always be a compromise: some (but with hope, an increasing number of) important programs will work very well, some will perform with limited functionality which may be OK for a few selected tasks, and many or most will not work well enough if they work at all. They will also continue to be difficult to integrate with other desktop programs, even more so than Linux programs which are bad enough already. They simply are not a replacement for native programs unless no alternative exists. Very true. That's why I mentioned the fact that installing and running IE is very difficult under Wine. In effect it's so much of a pain in the ass I wouldn't even bother to be honest, but some people need ActiveX, etc like I mentioned before. Wine is indeed difficult, and it usually requires a lot of futzing with DLLs and such to get acceptable installations. That's once you get the program installed from the source disk in the first place, which is often not trivial. That's the area where CodeWeavers' product can really help. Old computers that may well be good enough for such occasional use are very inexpensive. Why then would anyone run a native version? Yes. Waste of power and hardware if you ask me because I would rather devote a machine to a greater series of tasks as opposed to running an OS which I don't really need except for a few programs. Agreed (again). I use an old PIII with a small monitor for some of these applications. It just seems silly to waste a BSD machine with dual monitors and dual CPUs. The purpose of my email previous was not to invoke people's unhappiness and spite against Microsoft; I am in fact very anti- Microsoft (or a better way to phrase it would be pro-Mac/-Unix?) It does seem like the Mac is a good way to go to get a reasonable form of Unix and a decent selection of commercial software. Unless I can get the software situation improved (like with CrossOver Office), that is really my only option. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: IE in FreeBSD?
There is also a petition circulating to encourage CodeWeavers to port their CrossOver Office product to BSD. It should be able to run IE. Not tomorrow, mind you, but soon (if the petition and its follow-on efforts succeed, and I think it will). Please sign if this might help you. The petition is located at http://www.bsdnexus.com/petition.asp Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Codeweaver for *BSD software petition, please condsider signing.. :)
Bill, You beat me to this! I was going to post here on Monday. For more information on the petition, please see Dru Lavigne's most recent blog entry, http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7731 Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Wine
I did a direct install. I'm aware of the report and have read it many times. I thought I'd give it a go from the original CD, as I don't have a Linux machine around. One advantage I have is that I have a version for Small Business so I don't have to worry about Access. I had no issues with files not being found, as the report mentioned, so that part seems to be in error. The install terminates part way through, and IE is not installed. Still, the files are extracted, the DLLs are installed, and it almost works. I may just copy over the files from my Win98 box, and update the Wine registry for it. That may work better. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Wine
Wine is a difficult program to use, particularly on FreeBSD. Please note first that it is in the FreeBSD ports collection (/usr/ports/emulators/wine), and not of the CD. That version should be 20050725. You should patch it according to http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-emulation/2005-July/001181.html ; that will get rid of a heap error you will otherwise get. So far colleagues and I have a few successes. Photoshop 7 runs very well, as does Acrobat 4.0 (note: not the Reader, but Acrobat), but not the distiller. I almost have Excel and Word from Office 2000 working, but there are a few major bugs, like the ability to save a file (!). Excel in particular works very well otherwise. I have fiddled with the installation so much, though, that I'm not sure I'd be able to reproduce the steps so you could install it. I suppose I will have to reinstall Wine and try a second time once it works. Finally, I am initiating a petition encouraging CodeWeavers to release CrossOver Office on FreeBSD. It will be announced next week, and I will post a copy of the announcement here. After working with Wine a bit, I find it frustratingly tantalizing, but very difficult to get just right. The documentation, such as it is, is awful. So a professionally-supported product would be a great help, I think. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Opening BSD Browser from Acroread7
I am attempting to integrate Acroread7 (Linux, of course) into my Gnome 2.10 desktop running under FreeBSD 6.0-Beta2. Part of that is to call a browser from links embedded into PDF files, and so far I have not been able to get this to work completely. That is, the browser (Epiphany 1.6, in my case) loads, but the URL is not passed to it. It seems that Acroread7 only follows a path in its configuration, and does not permit flags. FWIW, it does not work for Mozilla 1.7 either. Has anyone succeeded in calling a native FreeBSD program, and a browser in particular, from within Acroread7 with complete functionality? If so, would you share how you did it please? If there is a more appropriate list I'd appreciate guidance. Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Upgrading GNOME
I am upgrading Gnome from 2.4 to 2.10 with a clean install (I have backups) as part of an upgrade from FreeBSD 5.2.1 to the 6.0 Beta (which is working well, btw). I would like to preserve various settings from my old system, including bookmarks, passwords, old email, contacts, and various folders. How do I do so? The upgrade is from Epiphany 1.4 to 2.2; Evolution is from 1.0.6 to 1.6.0. A simple-minded copying of the old files into their original locations showed that both Epiphany and Evolution did not recognize them. If there is a page describing the upgrade I'd be happy to follow it if a link is provided. Please copy me on any replies; I don't read both of these groups regularly. Thank you in advance! Frank Jahnke ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading GNOME
On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 14:51, Joe Marcus Clarke wrote: | | The upgrade is from Epiphany 1.4 to 2.2; Evolution is from 1.0.6 to | 1.6.0. A simple-minded copying of the old files into their original | locations showed that both Epiphany and Evolution did not recognize | them. If there is a page describing the upgrade I'd be happy to follow | it if a link is provided. You should never copy settings files. Instead, let the applications themselves handle migration. Evolution, for example, will migrate its own settings files. Copying files by hand will only break things. OK -- so what settings files do I delete to get this to work? Evolution's import facility, for example, did not recognize that any email files existed. I suspected that some of the index files need to be deleted, but before I do so I seek advice. Note: an upgrade step this large has not been tested by the FreeBSD GNOME team. I'll let you know how it works if you like. Joe Frank ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: some advice needed to considering to move my w2k machine into a freebsd workstation.
I'd suggest leaving your Windows machine (and all the software you use) in tact, and play with FreeBSD on the side until you are comfortable enough with it to use it full time. You may like it (most do), but you may not. There are two ways I would proceed. One is to get a live FreeBSD CD (Freesbie) and play around with it. The other would be to make your system dual-boot. That is, you can select either FreeBSD or Windows at boot time. That way you can have the benefits of both environments (though not at the same time). I'd recommend you buy a second hard drive -- 40 MB is fine to get going -- and install FreeBSD on that. Drives are cheap right now; I've seen decent 40 GB drives for $30 or so. Download the ISOs from FreeBSD.org onto the new disk, and have at it! You may find that you need to keep windows around, because as you mention there are sites where you really need IE. Otherwise, I find there are no limitations on the FreeBSD desktop, though I'm not big into multimedia. FWIW, that's how I got started on FreeBSD -- an inexpensive secondary disk on a PIII/dual boot. I liked it well enough that when I put together my dual Athlon workstation I used FreeBSD as the only OS. I like it. Frank ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Two faced FreeBSD - or is that two headed
There are a number of ways to run dual monitors on FreeBSD, Leaving out the option of having the same desktop on each monitor (which is not very interesting), they are: Independent X sessions on each monitor. This gives you two totally independent screens, each with its own desktop. Advantages: you can run hardware acceleration on each (OpenGL, DRI, etc.). Disadvantages: you cannot drag windows from one screen to the other. I find this annoying. Xinerama. This spreads a single desktop over the two monitors. Advantages: a single desktop is wonderful. Disadvantages: no 3D hardware acceleration at all; software 3D only on the primary monitor, and none on the secondary (I think). Also, not all applications are Xinerama-aware, so you sometimes get dialog boxes split between the monitors (half on one, half on the other). Of course, you can simply drag the box onto one monitor or the other. MergedFB. Like Xinerama, except that it uses a single frame buffer for both screens (Xinerama uses one for each monitor). Advantages: Hardware acceleration is available. Disadvantages: some fiddling with the graphics drivers to get the windows to behave like Xinerama (for window placement and resizing). If you have no need for hardware acceleration, I recommend you try Xinerama to see how you like it. It may well be good enough. If you do need acceleration, it is your call on which of the other two options would be better. I don't know your graphics card, so I have no advice to offer here. It is possible to use two different graphics cards (the one you have, and the one integrated onto your motherboard) but I've not tried that. I use an old Matrox G450 in MergedFB mode (still on XFree 4.3.0; this should work on X.org as well). It is no speed demon, but 2D quality is nice, and speed is adequate for the few applications I have that require OpenGL. In addition to googling on Xinerama, try www.botchco.com/alex/dualhead and www.winischhofer.net/linuxsisvga.shtml for information on MergedFB. I have XF86Config files for all of these modes (for the G450); unless there is general interest I'd suggest you contact me off-list to get them if they would help. And good luck! Frank Jahnke ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Epiphany/Acrobat Plugin
I am trying -- in vain so far -- to get he Acrobat reader plugin to work in the Epiphany browser. I have installed linuxpluginwrapper, and flash works properly. My libmap.conf file contains (flash stuff deleted) # Acrobat with Mozilla/Firebird/Galeon/Epiphany [/usr/local/Acrobat5/Browsers/intellinux/nppdf.so] libc.so.6 pluginwrapper/acrobat.so and symbolic links have been added to /usr/local/lib/linux-mozilla/plugins and /usr/X11R6/lib/browser_plugins pointing to /usr/local/Acrobat5/Browsers/intellinux/nppdf.so, and the permissions are correct. The plugin is listed on the browser, and a path leads to acroread (it executes fine from the command line). The plugin is found, but hangs on the splash screen. I'm using 5.2.1RC, Acrobat 5.0.8, and Epiphany 1.0.6. Any ideas would be most appreciated! Frank Jahnke ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Temperature Monitoring Software
I'm looking for software to monitor the temperature (and various voltages) on a Tyan Thunder K7X Pro (S2469) motherboard (dual Athlon, MPX chipset). It has two sensors (Winbond W83627HF and W83782D) that split monitoring duties. This confuses many programs such as healthd and lmmon, which give nonsense values even when switching between SMB and ISA I/O ports. Mbmon gives values, but those that one gets depend on the options and history of commands. It isn't at all clear which of these, if any, are correct, and even if they are, to what they refer. Tyan has a Linux monitoring program, which I've not looked at in detail (has anyone?). Has anyone succeeded in installing and using a temperature monitoring program for this motherboard? I'm currenlty on FreeBSD 5.2-RC2. Any wisdom would be most appreciated! Frank Jahnke [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Concluded: Tape Conversion
Some time ago I posted a request to this list asking for assistance in retrieving data that I had stored on a 15 year-old 9-track tape and writing it to a CD. I'm following up to inform you all this succeeded wonderfully. A kind gentleman contacted me that he would be pleased to do the conversion. He was formerly a mainframe operator harkening back to the tape-and-mainframe era, who happened to have a 9-track tape drive in his rather extensive collection of old and very interesting computer hardware. I sent the tape half-way across the country, and after letting it warm up, the reading and writing went without a hitch. He even untarred the files, and sent the tape and the CD back a day later. I wish publicly to thank this gentleman for his outstanding work!! I leave his name out here only because he wishes not to leave it in a public forum. He would be pleased to talk with others, though, so if you have a similar need, please contact me off the list. I will forward your request to him. Once again, I am amazed at the high quality of support from the FreeBSD community. It really helps to make FreeBSD more useful and productive. I am also quite impressed with the archival quality of those old tapes. The tape was recorded 15 years ago in upstate New York, has traveled around the country with me without particular care given to its preservation, and was read by a different tape drive without any issues. That is outstanding performance! Oh, and the code I was after has been retrieved, translated (to C from Pascal), and is working great. Frank Jahnke ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Follow-up: Tape conversion
I'm following up with my request yesterday for recommendations for converting data from an old 9 track tape to a (more usable) CD. First, I'm grateful for all of the relies. Thank you! For the particulars, most have already been posted. I do not have a 9 track tape drive, nor do I wish to get one. I already have enough ancient computer stuff, and this tape (which has only about 5 MB or so of data) is the only one I have to convert. To Michael Squires: thanks for the tip on service bureaus in the Indianapolis area. If you can personally recommend one or two, I'd appreciate it. I'm in northern California, between Lake Tahoe and Sacramento, but I'd be happy to ship the tape to someone who can work with it (see also below). To Dan Nelson, who provided a list of potential vendors from a google search: if you can recommend one, I would be most interested in hearing about your experience, or that of one of your colleagues. Indeed, I came up with much the same list from my own google search. I did receive one personal reply from a gentleman who has collected almost a museum's of interesting computer hardware from an IBM 360 to a VAX with VMS and lots of other goodies, including of course a 9 track tape and a FreeBSD box. He kindly offered to do the conversion for me. So I have the tape boxed up, and I will send it to him on Monday. Still, my experience with tapes (admittedly more in the audio area than in computers) is that head alignment can be quite important, and old machines can sometimes be cranky. The quality of the tape is also unknown. So I'll see how this works out. I may yet need to go to a professional service, though I have every hope that this will succeed. Finally, I received a gentle admonishment to follow up to this list. My experience with mailing lists (mostly on Usenet over the last 15 years) has been that my public inquiries have given rise to a mixture of public and personal responses, as it was with this one. It has been my practise to collect the responses, and follow up publicly with those that also post to the list. Since I receive this list as a digest, that takes a bit of time. It seems that this list works a bit differently, and if it is expected that each reply be answered publicly to the list, I'd certainly be happy to do so in the future. Frank Jahnke ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tape Conversion
I have an old 9 track tape that, as luck would have it, contains a substantial amount of code that is now of interest to me. Does anyone have a recommendation for someone who might either to transfer it to a CD, or to make it available by ftp? The file contents are all in tar format, written from a Sun cluster under SunOS in the Sun 3 era (remember those days?) Your help would be most appreciated! Frank Jahnke ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Mouse/X11 Documentation
---BeginMessage--- On Sun, 2003-08-03 at 03:00, Ryan Merrick wrote: Frank Jahnke wrote: Uncomment this line in your XF86Config #Option ZAxisMapping 4 5 The imwheel port is more or less intergrated into the X11 since 4.2. I dont have it installed and the wheel works great in X11. You must use the device /dev/sysmouse in X11 if you run moused on the console. If you disable moused on the console you can use the device /dev/psm0. I suggest you get rid of moused to simplify the troubleshooting. Do check (#dmesg | grep psm0) what your mouse is being seen as by the kernel. I get flakey issues with my KVM that made my mouse into a generic ps2. You might need to change a flag on atkbd and rebuild the kernel. -Ryan Merrick Thanks for the note, Ryan. I have indeed tried to uncomment the line for AZxisMapping, though my note did not make this clear. Again, this did not work. It is my understanding that if I wish to use the mouse on the console, that I MUST use moused. Is it not possible to get a useful mouse on the console and in X11? Certainly it is true that the mouse is more useful in X11. Still, I do use it on the console, mainly for cutting and pasting. So I really would like to use both if possible. Here's the output from dmesg: % dmesg | grep psm0 psm0: PS/2 Mouse irq 12 on atkbdc0 psm0: model MouseMan+, device ID 0 So BSD is finding the mouse on psm0 as it is supposed to, and it is identifying the mouse model properly. I will try to troubleshoot by not using moused. Still, there ought to be a way to do this... Any other suggestions would be most appreciated. Frank ---End Message--- ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Mouse/X11 Documentation
OK, I commented out the moused references from /etc/rc.conf, and changed XF86Config to psm0 from sysmouse and enabled ZAxisMapping. It worked -- even without imwheel! That's a great improvement -- thank you! Still, is there any way to get the mouse to work in X11 with moused? I'd really like to keep the mouse working in the systems console, if that is possible. Frank ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Mouse/X11 Documentation and Moused
List, I'm sending this summary of my efforts to get the wheel mouse to work in FreeBSD 4.8 and XFree86 4.3. I sent along a couple of messages earlier, but they seemed to get muddled... There are two ways to get the wheel mouse to work. I have succeeded only if X11 does the translations, but not using moused. I would like to do this... Has anyone succeeded in getting a wheel mouse to scroll in X with moused translation? X11 Translations: First, remove or comment out the line moused_enabled=YES in /etc/rc.conf if it is present. This turns off moused, which was the root of my problems. Then in /etc/X11/XF86Config use the following: Section InputDevice # Identifier and driver Identifier Mouse0 Driver mouse Option Protocol auto Option Device /dev/psm0 Option Buttons 5 Option ZAxisMapping 4 5 EndSection I've left out various other options from InputDevice; these can be added back in if you like. Note that my Identifier is Mouse0, which corresponds to my CorePointer at the end of XF86Config. The line setting Buttons to 5 is probably superfluous, but I didn't check that. So the documentation in the FAQ is correct, AS LONG AS MOUSED IS DISABLED, and YOU USE A CONSISTENT IDENTIFIER FOR INPUTDEVICE. I had had moused running, which caused the above to fail. Moused Translations. Alas, this does not work yet. I'm still setting up FreeBSD, so I am spending a LOT of time editing configuration files, particularly for X. I do most of these in the console window; I'd really like to keep the mouse working here. So, I did the following: activate in moused in rc.conf as moused_enable=YES moused_port=/dev/psm0 moused_type=auto moused_flags=-z 4 allscreens_flags=-m on which also enables the mouse for the virtual consoles. Before enabling moused, moused -p /dev/psm0 -i all gives /dev/psm0 ps/2 sysmouse MouseMan+, so BSD is correct in detecting my hardware. The file /etc/X11/XF86Config contains: # Identifier and driver Identifier Mouse0 Driver mouse Option Protocol auto Option Device /dev/sysmouse Option Buttons 5 Option ZAxisMapping 4 5 EndSection It doesn't matter if ZAxisMapping is removed or not -- this does not work. So -- has anyone succeeded in getting a wheel mouse to scroll in X with moused translation? Frank ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mouse/X11 Documentation
I'm writing you this message for assistance in getting my mouse wheel to work with X11. Yes, another one of these requests. I have been through the documentation (and numerous articles on the web) and yet I still cannot get it to work. I am running BSD 4.8 with XFree86 v4.3.0 (downloaded last week, so it should be a very current version of the latest stable release). My window manager is currently Window Maker v0.80.1. The mouse is a Logitech MouseMan Wheel, which I understand is equivalent to the MouseMan+. With success I have installed support for the mouse using moused for the console drivers. I added line allscreens_flags to my rc.conf file for mouse support on the various virtual consoles. That works fine. I can also use the same three buttons for text selection and pasting in X11. What I cannot get to work is text scrolling using the wheel. From section 11.3 of the FAQ, first there is a description of /etc/XF86Config (which is now located in /etc/X11/XF86Config) that is for XFree86 v3 only. I currently have the 4.3 equivalent (see below) with SysMouse replaced by Auto. Changing from one to the other did not make a difference, as far as I could tell. Moving on to section 11.4 of the FAQ, I have tried without success to use either moused or the X server for wheel support. For the former, I added the moused_flags line and options to rc.conf, as suggested. Moving now to Example 11-2, first the caption is incorrect. It DOES describe use of XF86Config with moused Translations, does it not? I needed to use an Identifier of Mouse0 instead of Mouse1, or else X11 would crash (again, see below). Imwheel was downloaded and installed from the ports collection; the configuration file moved to ~/.imwheelrc (which was used without alteration). No success. Next I tried to use the X Server to translate wheel events. The suggested use of MouseManPlusPS/2 was not recognized by XFree; since BSD recognized the mouse type on boot-up, I reverted to Auto. Using the device /dev/psm0 was not successful -- the device was busy, and X11 would not load. I replaced psm0 with sysmouse. After imwheel was loaded, the wheel still did not scroll the screen. I admit that it is frustrating to find files in different directories, mislabeled headings in the documentation, and configurations that do not work as suggested. It feels to me that XFree86 is new, and has not been fully incorporated into the various texts. I am at loss on how best to proceed, and your suggestions would be most appreciated. Frank Jahnke, Ph.D. President, FMJ Associates Auburn, CA 95604 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Section InputDevice # Identifier and driver Identifier Mouse0 Driver mouse Option Protocol auto Option Device /dev/sysmouse Option Buttons 5 #Option ZAxisMapping 4 5 #Option Emulate3Buttons No # Mouse-speed setting for PS/2 mouse. Option Resolution100 # When using XQUEUE, comment out the above two lines, and uncomment # the following line. #Option Protocol Xqueue # Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some Logitech mice. In # almost every case these lines should be omitted. #Option BaudRate 9600 #Option SampleRate150 # Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button Microsoft mice # Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms) #Option Emulate3Buttons #Option Emulate3Timeout50 # ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice #Option ChordMiddle EndSection ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
