Re: SSD drives

2012-12-30 Thread Oleg Goldshmidt
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 8:46 AM, shimi linux...@shimi.net wrote:

 I really don't think so. SSDs (IMHO) makes computer much faster due to the
 VERY low seek time - the time it takes you to get a block. Compare 10-20ms
 with ~0.1ms. A regular hard drive simply wastes a lost of time seeking the
 data, instead of... reading it :)

Absolutely correct. However, there is a tiny fraction of the seek time
that is not always a waste, and I think it is worth mentioning. There
is, I believe, a consideration that is usually overlooked when SSDs
are considered for server use, including a desktop that is used as a
server, which is why I am mentioning it here. In a server, magnetic
disk rotation - or, rather the air turbulence generated between the
rotating disk and its enclosure - is the only source of entropy that
makes random numbers random (seek times have a tiny random component
due to the turbulence, and it is captured). This does not apply to
SSDs, and as a result your security may be compromised (attacks
exploiting not very random RNGs are well known).

In a laptop or a desktop entropy is also generated by keyboard and
mouse (which may or may not be good enough). In a server that hardly
applies.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | p...@goldshmidt.org

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Re: A funny thing happend to me tonight.

2012-12-30 Thread Geoffrey S. Mendelson



Do you see a text screen with a *text* cursor or a *mouse* cursor?
If it's the former, I can't see how this could be KDE or Gnome
related...


No, I see a black screen with a working X windows mouse cursor.



Try looking in /var/log for any X server messages, or try to run X
yourself (startx) to see if you can see any hints of what's wrong.



In xsession-errors I found the problem. Sometime in 12.04's maintenance 
a bug was introduced to Gnome on Intel GMA-950 video cards.


It was not in the 12.10 release, but was propagated between Wednesday 
when I installed it, and Saturday night when I upgraded it.


It runs of of space somewhere, the diagnostic message makes it look like 
disk space but it is in the video card itself. Although the bugs filed 
are for Gnome, using KDM and KDE did not fix it.


Since I had made a backup before I ran the update, I restored my system 
and it works fine. I won't be upgrading again for a while.


Meanwhile, any suggestions for a more stable distro.

This, Dotan, is the reason why I said NO ONE can warranty that Linux, 
especially UBUNTU will run on a computer.


While I don't think anyone sells GMA 950's any more, I would not be 
surprised if this bug also affects other Intel display chip drivers. If 
it is the case and you had bought 4 computers last week after testing 
them with the UBUNTU (or any variant of it) live CD, and installed it on 
them today, you would have 4 useless computers and or a big headache. :-(


Geoff.


--
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Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician.
(sent to me by a friend)





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Re: A funny thing happend to me tonight.

2012-12-30 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson  In
xsession-errors I found the problem. Sometime in 12.04's maintenance a
 bug was introduced to Gnome on Intel GMA-950 video cards.

 It was not in the 12.10 release, but was propagated between Wednesday when I
 installed it, and Saturday night when I upgraded it.

 It runs of of space somewhere, the diagnostic message makes it look like
 disk space but it is in the video card itself. Although the bugs filed are
 for Gnome, using KDM and KDE did not fix it.


Please report that bug, Geoff:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug/?no-redirect


 This, Dotan, is the reason why I said NO ONE can warranty that Linux,
 especially UBUNTU will run on a computer.


I don't see how it is relevant. I didn't ask anyone to sell me a
computer running Linux that will never have any userspace software
issues. I asked a company which sells computer components which
motherboard has components that are currently compatible with
commonly-available Linux distros.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

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Re: A funny thing happend to me tonight.

2012-12-30 Thread Geoffrey S. Mendelson

Dotan Cohen wrote:



Please report that bug, Geoff:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug/?no-redirect


It's already been reported. That's how I found out that it existed. I 
don't think I can document it with any useful information except that it 
worked on Wednesday and was dead on Saturday. Since I no longer have 
that system, I restored to a Friday backup, I can't look for anything.



I don't see how it is relevant. I didn't ask anyone to sell me a
computer running Linux that will never have any userspace software
issues. I asked a company which sells computer components which
motherboard has components that are currently compatible with
commonly-available Linux distros.



It's relevant IMHO because it goes against conventional wisdom. If you 
tried a live CD, if you did an install on one system, if you looked at 
the Hardware Compatibility Lists, if you just looked up the driver 
status of every bit of hardware on the computer, if you had rolled 
twelve sided dice and accepted anything above 7 on each of them, it 
would have been ok, but failed miserably if you installed them this morning.


I'm not even sure it is a userspace issue. Before I gave up and went 
back to my working backup, I tried KDE. I got effectively the same 
results. I may of had something misconfigured at that point, but I can't 
tell anymore.


I'm not trying to make this a personal attack, and apologize if you were 
or are offended in any way. I seriously do not think it is possible for 
a computer vendor, even the size of Ivory, to warrant that a computer 
you buy will run Linux.


Ironicaly, I did buy the laptop in question from Ivory, almost 4 years 
ago to the day. In that time it has run Linux, Windows, BSD, occasionaly 
all at the same time.  Although I have had to live with lots of 
features of UBUNTU, until last night it never failed to run.


Geoff.

--
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Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician.
(sent to me by a friend)





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Re: A funny thing happend to me tonight.

2012-12-30 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson
geoffreymendel...@gmail.com wrote:
 Dotan Cohen wrote:


 Please report that bug, Geoff:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug/?no-redirect


 It's already been reported. That's how I found out that it existed. I don't
 think I can document it with any useful information except that it worked on
 Wednesday and was dead on Saturday. Since I no longer have that system, I
 restored to a Friday backup, I can't look for anything.


I hope that you at lest clicked the Launchpad.net button for Also
affects me as I do know that Canonical takes that seriously.


 I don't see how it is relevant. I didn't ask anyone to sell me a
 computer running Linux that will never have any userspace software
 issues. I asked a company which sells computer components which
 motherboard has components that are currently compatible with
 commonly-available Linux distros.


 It's relevant IMHO because it goes against conventional wisdom. If you tried
 a live CD, if you did an install on one system, if you looked at the
 Hardware Compatibility Lists, if you just looked up the driver status of
 every bit of hardware on the computer, if you had rolled twelve sided dice
 and accepted anything above 7 on each of them, it would have been ok, but
 failed miserably if you installed them this morning.

 I'm not even sure it is a userspace issue. Before I gave up and went back to
 my working backup, I tried KDE. I got effectively the same results. I may of
 had something misconfigured at that point, but I can't tell anymore.

 I'm not trying to make this a personal attack, and apologize if you were or
 are offended in any way. I seriously do not think it is possible for a
 computer vendor, even the size of Ivory, to warrant that a computer you buy
 will run Linux.

 Ironicaly, I did buy the laptop in question from Ivory, almost 4 years ago
 to the day. In that time it has run Linux, Windows, BSD, occasionaly all at
 the same time.  Although I have had to live with lots of features of
 UBUNTU, until last night it never failed to run.



I'm not offended, Geoff! I actually find your opinion very pragmatic
even if I disagree. Now, if you tell me that my children are ugly and
my dog is disobedient, I will be very much offended indeed!

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: A funny thing happend to me tonight.

2012-12-30 Thread E.S. Rosenberg
The GMA950 was very problematic in the beginning and clearly still has
it's issues.
Generally intel graphics are very well supported however be aware that
some of the new (or about to be released) intel CPUs will feature GPUs
based on the powerVR architecture which has *lousy* support on linux
(except on android in the binaries of the phones).

Regards,
Eliyahu - אליהו

2012/12/30 Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com:
 On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson
 geoffreymendel...@gmail.com wrote:
 Dotan Cohen wrote:


 Please report that bug, Geoff:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug/?no-redirect


 It's already been reported. That's how I found out that it existed. I don't
 think I can document it with any useful information except that it worked on
 Wednesday and was dead on Saturday. Since I no longer have that system, I
 restored to a Friday backup, I can't look for anything.


 I hope that you at lest clicked the Launchpad.net button for Also
 affects me as I do know that Canonical takes that seriously.


 I don't see how it is relevant. I didn't ask anyone to sell me a
 computer running Linux that will never have any userspace software
 issues. I asked a company which sells computer components which
 motherboard has components that are currently compatible with
 commonly-available Linux distros.


 It's relevant IMHO because it goes against conventional wisdom. If you tried
 a live CD, if you did an install on one system, if you looked at the
 Hardware Compatibility Lists, if you just looked up the driver status of
 every bit of hardware on the computer, if you had rolled twelve sided dice
 and accepted anything above 7 on each of them, it would have been ok, but
 failed miserably if you installed them this morning.

 I'm not even sure it is a userspace issue. Before I gave up and went back to
 my working backup, I tried KDE. I got effectively the same results. I may of
 had something misconfigured at that point, but I can't tell anymore.

 I'm not trying to make this a personal attack, and apologize if you were or
 are offended in any way. I seriously do not think it is possible for a
 computer vendor, even the size of Ivory, to warrant that a computer you buy
 will run Linux.

 Ironicaly, I did buy the laptop in question from Ivory, almost 4 years ago
 to the day. In that time it has run Linux, Windows, BSD, occasionaly all at
 the same time.  Although I have had to live with lots of features of
 UBUNTU, until last night it never failed to run.



 I'm not offended, Geoff! I actually find your opinion very pragmatic
 even if I disagree. Now, if you tell me that my children are ugly and
 my dog is disobedient, I will be very much offended indeed!

 --
 Dotan Cohen

 http://gibberish.co.il
 http://what-is-what.com

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Re: A funny thing happend to me tonight.

2012-12-30 Thread Geoffrey S. Mendelson

E.S. Rosenberg wrote:

The GMA950 was very problematic in the beginning and clearly still has
it's issues.


I bought the laptop around Dec 31, 2008. It has most of the time run a 
BSD variant, but I have always had Windows XP and UBUNTU on it from the 
day I got it.


Up until last night it has always worked (as far a graphics are 
concerned) perfectly on all three systems.


As soon as I restored the Friday afternoon backup, it worked perfectly. 
It was from UBUNTU 12.10 installed Thursday.


Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician.
(sent to me by a friend)





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hebrew (or arabic) transparency to call up when i forget key location?

2012-12-30 Thread Michael Shiloh
i just found a nice feature in Unity (new to me at least): press and 
hold the special key for a semi-transparent overview of keyboard 
shortcuts, great for jogging the memory.


such a transparency of the hebrew (and arabic) keyboard would help me 
learn to type in hebrew, as i have only english letters on my keycaps.


does such a thing exist?

if not, i'd like to make my own: hopefully i can find one already in 
source form and give it the correct properties, then figure out how to 
bind a key to display it.




any thoughts appreciated.

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Re: SSD drives

2012-12-30 Thread Dan Shimshoni
Lior,
- Can you please specify vendor and model of your SSD drive ?
second - which File System  do you have on it ?
DS

On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 8:45 AM, Lior Okman l...@okman.name wrote:



 On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 6:26 AM, Dan Shimshoni danshi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi,

 2 Questions about SSD drives:

 First, I would appreciate of someone who has SSD disk will
 run
 hdparm -t /dev/sda
 and post the results here. (In the spirit of the recent thread about
 HW for linux).

 I have
 /dev/sda:
  Timing buffered disk reads: 586 MB in  3.01 seconds = 194.68 MB/sec
 And it interests me to compare results


 I have :

 hdparm -t /dev/sdc

 /dev/sdc:
  Timing buffered disk reads: 988 MB in  3.00 seconds = 329.27 MB/sec




 Does a result of, let's say, 400  MB/sec, which is double speed comparing
 the
 above result, will boost a task of building a linux kernel (on a dual
 core machine)
 in about 1.5 or 2?

 Second question:
 I must admit that I am a newbie with SSD, so this question might seem
 obvoious to others:
 I saw that inner SSD disks, which are sold in stores like KSP/Ivory,
 are in laptop form factor (2.5'').

 Is there some reason that there are no inner 3.5'' disks for Desktops
 (there
 are extenal SSD which can be , so I believe, used with desktops) ?
 Is there something which prevent us from connecting 2.5'' inner SSD to
 a desktop (I mean STAT2- based or SATA3-based)  ?


 SATA connectors for 2.5 and 3.5 drives are the same (power as well as data).
 You can mount your 2.5 drive in a desktop, but if you don't have any 2.5
 bays (which are available in some enclosures specifically for SSD drives),
 there are kits of 2.5 to 3.5 brakets you can buy (e.g.,
 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994085 ).


 DS

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Re: SSD drives

2012-12-30 Thread Dan Shimshoni
Thanks!

Which File System  do you have on your SSD, if I may ask ?

DS

On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 8:46 AM, shimi linux...@shimi.net wrote:



 On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 6:26 AM, Dan Shimshoni danshi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi,

 2 Questions about SSD drives:

 First, I would appreciate of someone who has SSD disk will
 run
 hdparm -t /dev/sda
 and post the results here. (In the spirit of the recent thread about
 HW for linux).

 I have
 /dev/sda:
  Timing buffered disk reads: 586 MB in  3.01 seconds = 194.68 MB/sec
 And it interests me to compare results



 An almost two years old Intel X25-E :

 # hdparm -t /dev/sda

 /dev/sda:
  Timing buffered disk reads: 714 MB in  3.01 seconds = 237.40 MB/sec

 # uname -a
 Linux matrix 3.6.2-gentoo #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Oct 21 22:49:01 IST 2012 x86_64
 AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux



 Does a result of, let's say, 400  MB/sec, which is double speed comparing
 the
 above result, will boost a task of building a linux kernel (on a dual
 core machine)
 in about 1.5 or 2?


 I really don't think so. SSDs (IMHO) makes computer much faster due to the
 VERY low seek time - the time it takes you to get a block. Compare 10-20ms
 with ~0.1ms. A regular hard drive simply wastes a lost of time seeking the
 data, instead of... reading it :) When you work with a lot of files, getting
 to the file fast makes a tremendous difference. This is similar to the
 reason why browsing websites which are close to you network-wise is much
 faster - even though the bandwidth you have is the same - the client/server
 latency due to the network affects the time it takes you to negotiate
 (compare to 'seek') with the server the content you want. The more objects
 you want, the higher the latency, the slower the site will load. This is why
 using CDNs and reducing the number of HTTP requests (e.g. by using CSS
 Sprites) - help a lot in speeding websites.


 Second question:
 I must admit that I am a newbie with SSD, so this question might seem
 obvoious to others:
 I saw that inner SSD disks, which are sold in stores like KSP/Ivory,
 are in laptop form factor (2.5'').

 Is there some reason that there are no inner 3.5'' disks for Desktops
 (there
 are extenal SSD which can be , so I believe, used with desktops) ?


 Hard Drives have a reason to be large - they have a platter that occupies
 space. If you reduce the platter size, you need to enlarge the density, or
 add more platters - which adds thickness, noise, heat, and lowers your MTBF.
 Electronics nowdays are small and doesn't need all that... There's no point
 in making a large chassis just for the purpose of a large chassis...



 Is there something which prevent us from connecting 2.5'' inner SSD to
 a desktop (I mean STAT2- based or SATA3-based)  ?


 Not really. The SATA is the same. Your only issue is fixating the drive to
 your PC chassis. Some computer cases have a special place for 2.5 drives
 for SSD (like my Antec 1200). Alternatively there are 3.5-2.5 adapters.
 But learn from someone who made a mistake (me ;)) - check before you buy
 that they're compatible with the screws location of the SSD.

 HTH,

 -- Shimi


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Re: SSD drives

2012-12-30 Thread Lior Okman
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 7:36 PM, Dan Shimshoni danshi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Lior,
 - Can you please specify vendor and model of your SSD drive ?


It's a 180Gb Intel 520 Series SSD with firmware version 400i.


 second - which File System  do you have on it ?


I have an ext4 filesystem on it.


 DS


Lior



 On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 8:45 AM, Lior Okman l...@okman.name wrote:
 
 
 
  On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 6:26 AM, Dan Shimshoni danshi...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  Hi,
 
  2 Questions about SSD drives:
 
  First, I would appreciate of someone who has SSD disk will
  run
  hdparm -t /dev/sda
  and post the results here. (In the spirit of the recent thread about
  HW for linux).
 
  I have
  /dev/sda:
   Timing buffered disk reads: 586 MB in  3.01 seconds = 194.68 MB/sec
  And it interests me to compare results
 
 
  I have :
 
  hdparm -t /dev/sdc
 
  /dev/sdc:
   Timing buffered disk reads: 988 MB in  3.00 seconds = 329.27 MB/sec
 
 
 
 
  Does a result of, let's say, 400  MB/sec, which is double speed
 comparing
  the
  above result, will boost a task of building a linux kernel (on a dual
  core machine)
  in about 1.5 or 2?
 
  Second question:
  I must admit that I am a newbie with SSD, so this question might seem
  obvoious to others:
  I saw that inner SSD disks, which are sold in stores like KSP/Ivory,
  are in laptop form factor (2.5'').
 
  Is there some reason that there are no inner 3.5'' disks for Desktops
  (there
  are extenal SSD which can be , so I believe, used with
 desktops) ?
  Is there something which prevent us from connecting 2.5'' inner SSD to
  a desktop (I mean STAT2- based or SATA3-based)  ?
 
 
  SATA connectors for 2.5 and 3.5 drives are the same (power as well as
 data).
  You can mount your 2.5 drive in a desktop, but if you don't have any 2.5
  bays (which are available in some enclosures specifically for SSD
 drives),
  there are kits of 2.5 to 3.5 brakets you can buy (e.g.,
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994085 ).
 
 
  DS
 
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Re: SSD drives

2012-12-30 Thread shimi
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 7:37 PM, Dan Shimshoni danshi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks!

 Which File System  do you have on your SSD, if I may ask ?


Note that this is unrelated to the hdparm benchmark, which was on the
device, and not through the filesystem layer :)

# mount | grep sda2
/dev/sda2 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,data=ordered)

# tune2fs -l /dev/sda2
tune2fs 1.42.6 (21-Sep-2012)
Filesystem volume name:   none
Last mounted on:  /
Filesystem UUID:  [redacted]
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:  has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index
filetype needs_recovery extent flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file
uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize
Filesystem flags: signed_directory_hash
Default mount options:(none)
Filesystem state: clean
Errors behavior:  Continue
Filesystem OS type:   Linux
Inode count:  1937712
Block count:  7743330
Reserved block count: 387166
Free blocks:  618763
Free inodes:  1445964
First block:  0
Block size:   4096
Fragment size:4096
Reserved GDT blocks:  1022
Blocks per group: 32768
Fragments per group:  32768
Inodes per group: 8176
Inode blocks per group:   511
Flex block group size:16
Filesystem created:   [redacted]
Last mount time:  Sun Dec 30 18:19:33 2012
Last write time:  Sun Dec 30 18:19:33 2012
Mount count:  4
Maximum mount count:  30
Last checked: [redacted]
Check interval:   15552000 (6 months)
Next check after: [redacted]
Lifetime writes:  [redacted]
Reserved blocks uid:  0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:  0 (group root)
First inode:  11
Inode size:   256
Required extra isize: 28
Desired extra isize:  28
Journal inode:8
First orphan inode:   279868
Default directory hash:   half_md4
Directory Hash Seed:  [redacted]
Journal backup:   inode blocks

-- Shimi
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Re: SSD drives

2012-12-30 Thread Gilboa Davara
 It's a 180Gb Intel 520 Series SSD with firmware version 400i.
...
 I have an ext4 filesystem on it.

Semi-OT: A word of friendly warning:
I recently bricked a 120GB Intel 520 w/ the latest firmware (not sure
if it was 400i) w/ ext4 on Fedora 17/x86_64. (Second bricked SSD in 12
months)
A *very* short power shortage crept under my APC UPS and bricked the SSD.
Amazingly enough, the power shortage didn't crash the machine - which
continued working off the main HDD software RAID array.
Luckily for me I rather distrust SSDs (see below) and use it as fast
cache-of-sort, so I only lost a couple of hours of work.

IMHO SSDs have one huge drawback: Unlike HDDs that can be partially
recovered from more-or-less any type of damage by recovering data
around bad sectors or replacing a fried controller board, SSDs complex
write scheme and complex firmware usually means that any type of
damage / firmware error / etc usually bricks it with more or less zero
chance of getting the data back.
On the top of that, we (as in all of us) have 40+ years worth of
experience in predicting the life cycle (and death) of HDDs. There's
far less information about the life cycle of SSDs.

In short, backup. A lot.

- Gilboa

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Re: hebrew (or arabic) transparency to call up when i forget key location?

2012-12-30 Thread E.S. Rosenberg
Have you tried to see what happens when your layout is set to
Hebrew/Arabic, if the feature is to help you know where the keys are
then it should show in those languages when the keyboard is set to
that layout.

Though it may also be meant as a touch-screen feature allowing for
easy super+[key] combinations where super is the only key on the
touchscreen device, in which case it will only show English.

Regards,
Eliyahu - אליהו

2012/12/30 Michael Shiloh michaelshiloh1...@gmail.com:
 i just found a nice feature in Unity (new to me at least): press and hold
 the special key for a semi-transparent overview of keyboard shortcuts,
 great for jogging the memory.

 such a transparency of the hebrew (and arabic) keyboard would help me learn
 to type in hebrew, as i have only english letters on my keycaps.

 does such a thing exist?

 if not, i'd like to make my own: hopefully i can find one already in source
 form and give it the correct properties, then figure out how to bind a key
 to display it.



 any thoughts appreciated.

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Re: hebrew (or arabic) transparency to call up when i forget key location?

2012-12-30 Thread E.S. Rosenberg
(Either way, ubuntu unity, gnome3 and most other DEs feature onscreen
keyboards that can be set to any layout, so you can use those as your
onscreen map)

2012/12/31 E.S. Rosenberg esr+linux...@g.jct.ac.il:
 Have you tried to see what happens when your layout is set to
 Hebrew/Arabic, if the feature is to help you know where the keys are
 then it should show in those languages when the keyboard is set to
 that layout.

 Though it may also be meant as a touch-screen feature allowing for
 easy super+[key] combinations where super is the only key on the
 touchscreen device, in which case it will only show English.

 Regards,
 Eliyahu - אליהו

 2012/12/30 Michael Shiloh michaelshiloh1...@gmail.com:
 i just found a nice feature in Unity (new to me at least): press and hold
 the special key for a semi-transparent overview of keyboard shortcuts,
 great for jogging the memory.

 such a transparency of the hebrew (and arabic) keyboard would help me learn
 to type in hebrew, as i have only english letters on my keycaps.

 does such a thing exist?

 if not, i'd like to make my own: hopefully i can find one already in source
 form and give it the correct properties, then figure out how to bind a key
 to display it.



 any thoughts appreciated.

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