OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Sharp Zaurus => Zaurus - pdaXrom => Topic started by: zi99y on October 14, 2006, 03:56:43 pm
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Scroll Down for the Howto...
[img]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/8596/fluxboxscreenshotsq3.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
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Hi all,
I have spent quite a lot of time configuring a really nice and functional desktop in Fluxbox, I've picked up lots of nifty tricks from others and added some of my own, and now I can say that it really is a great replacement for the default desktop environment.
Fluxbox really does give pdaxrom the edge as it's a lot lighter than some of the others, and you can really feel it running faster.
If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll create a package of all my settings and tips and post them here.
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sure Post a detailed how-to and I'll mirror it on my site.
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I would love a how-to, or a tips and tricks article. Thanks
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I agree... Post
Late
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Ok, a lot of credit here goes to bastichelaar for the theme and the fluxbox ipk, I've just gone ahead and fixed up the menu to my needs and a few other bits and pieces to make it really useable.
Bear in mind that the below config was done on a C3200, I have no experience of other models but it should be fine on the C3X00 series and only need minor tweaks for others. Also I do not run as root, and instead use a basic user and have sudo installed, many of my tweaks include "sudo" or "su -c" to gain root privelidges to perform tasks, you can remove these if you are root.
My config is an attempt to make everything easier to access, it includes aterm popping up to display values that will auto close after a few seconds, also I have tried to make it easy to use without the keyboard by having a key modifier for the right mouse button, and maximise for the other. The virtual keyboard loads faster in this WM, and you should use the "remember" window option to keep it where you want it.
Fluxbox and fluxbox-theme can be installed from the unstable feed: http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/cacko/pdaXrom/unstable/ (http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/cacko/pdaXrom/unstable/)
Feh from chero's feed:
http://www.pdaxrom.org/contrib/Chero (http://www.pdaxrom.org/contrib/Chero)
Mixmos from Voiders feed:
http://www.pdaxrom.org/contrib/voider_feed (http://www.pdaxrom.org/contrib/voider_feed)
Other components I recommend you install are vdesk for desktop icons and wallpaper, and torsmo for a system panel to be printed on your desktop. Alternatively you can install feh to do the wallpaper instead of vdesk (see below). Also, mixmos is used to modify the volume, you should have this installed.
backup your old .xinitrc and create a new one like so:
#!/bin/sh
if [ -f $HOME/Choices/lightnpower.cfg ]; then
lightnpower.py --loadandquit
fi
xmodmap /etc/X11/kb/spitz.xmodmap
xset +fp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/artwiz
xset fp rehash
#vdesk &
fbsetbg ~/Documents/wallpaper.png &
torsmo &
fluxbox
Ok, once you restart X11 you should have the funky sn33z theme, you can create your own or modify this one to your taste.
I have included 2 files to copy into the .fluxbox folder - menu & keys, these are my custom settings for the fluxbox menu and keyboard mapping. I have modified the menu with packages I have installed, you should add/remove entries in the menu file to your own needs.
To enable to configuration menuitems in the lower set of menus, you will need to copy the \bin folder into your home directory and make sure that is in your bash path (if you don't know how to do this just ask).
Customised Keymap:
Use the 2 files in .fluxbox folder to enable my keymaps and custom menu
I have included the spitz.xmodmap file that usually goes in /etc/X11/kb this was sourced on the forums and enables various things, like the function keys can be used when holding Fn and hitting the numbers, and super_l is now configured. Because of this, If you hold super_l and press 1 & 2, this affects zoom, 3 & 4 brightness, 6 will show volume status, 7,8,9,0 are volume levels where 0 is mute.
When the lid is switched into pda mode, the rotatescreen.sh file is launched and fsetbg will rotate the wallpaper to match. if you are using vdesk, you can put in here "killall vdesk" followed by "vdesk &" to restart and rotate the wallpaper the same way.
Super_l + F reloads fluxbox config, Q closes the current window, K kills the current window, R opens the run dialog (yes I've used too much windows). And there are a few other surprises.
fluxbox menu:
I have included the fluxbox documentation which is linked from here if you have links installed. Other items are available to tailer fluxbox to your liking.
System Controls:
These are the original python scripts that you found in the default openbox desktop, they will run in aterm and prompt you for the password if necessary
Screen Options:
Brightness control, change resolution, and change orientation.
Cards & Mounts:
Clicking on status will open a window displaying mounts and CF card details, also you can eject and insert the CF slot (status is mapped to the address button on the keyboard, and eject and insert are accessed using SUPER_L + E or I - super_l is the right kanji key)
Sound Volume:
You must run mixmos and set the 4 sound levels before these will work, then you can set volume here or the levels are mapped to SUPER_L + 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.
Change Keymap:
These are some of my presets, the PDA keymap is very useful when the lid is folded down so you can press cancel to modify the mouse button so it performs a right-click, press the button again to return to left-click.
Desktop wallpaper & icons:
Ok, I'm not that fond of icons on the desktop anyway, so I've removed that capability and am using feh to display the wallpaper. If you want to have icons I suggest installing vdesk as it's very slim. One benefit of using feh is that some apps with "fake" transparency will work like mrxvt and fluxbox menus.
Hope this is helpful - my bash skills aren't great so I'm sure folks out there might want to make comments and improve on this setup.
enjoy!
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Did I mention fluxbox runs really well?
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Did I mention fluxbox runs really well?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144002\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Any chance of a screenshot?
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Ok/ screenie in the first post...
Forgot to include my torsmo rc file, get it here - just remove the .txt extension and place it in your home dir
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Did I mention fluxbox runs really well?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144002\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
yep, I agree. fluxbox is just very customisable and fast. I use it all the time
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Thanks I really need the help with the .xinitrc file. I also had to do some serious tweeking to fix a font problem on my C1000 (I stole the fluxbox init from my desktop and edited it a little). Now that every thing works I am playing with themes and styles. It looks great and is super fast.
Just to share, I have attached a screen shot.
About the screen shot:
Theme:
I customized darkmystic for the zaurus with smaller fonts and l adjusted fluxbox's transparent settings. I forgot where I got the picture, but I have a full size version if anyone wants it(or my zaurus size shown here)
Menu:
I made a directory called /home/user/.fluxbox/Backgrounds and a /home/user/.fluxbox/styles ran a 'fluxbox-generate_menu -B' now I can select my "User Styles" and "Background from the flux menu.
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Hey thats a nice looking theme, can you zip it and attach it to this thread?
It would be a nice idea if we built up some fluxbox resources on this thread - if anyone can suggest any improvements over my settings it would be cool.
Cal- just a suggestion but maybe upload screenies as a jpeg or png to save the site's bandwidth
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-Fixed the bmp.
I have the real theme file at home, and I'll upload it asap. Untill then here is an archive of my /home/user/.fluxbox/style/darkmystic
unzip it in the .../.fluxbox/style/darkmystic directory and run a fluxbox-generate_menu and you should be able to select it in the User Styles menu.
Its kinda vista aero-y isn't it? It may anger the linux snobs, but I like it.
-Edit : added the background
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Just cannot get this thing to work on my C1000 - I have the background showing and the Torsmo window, but no menus!
I copied the .xinitrc file and all the other stuff in the how-to but no go.
Maybe I will start with a fresh install of pdaXrom......
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Just cannot get this thing to work on my C1000 - I have the background showing and the Torsmo window, but no menus!
I copied the .xinitrc file and all the other stuff in the how-to but no go.
Maybe I will start with a fresh install of pdaXrom......
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144144\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I thing reinstalling pdaxrom is a bit drastic- the default key for the menu is XF86Start - use xev to check this key is correctly mapped to the Menu button - or update ~/.fluxbox/keys to choose another key trigger.
If you hold Fn acd click the desktop (right click) do you get nothing?
Cal: Thanks for the them, trying it now
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Just cannot get this thing to work on my C1000 - I have the background showing and the Torsmo window, but no menus!
I copied the .xinitrc file and all the other stuff in the how-to but no go.
Maybe I will start with a fresh install of pdaXrom......
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144144\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I thing reinstalling pdaxrom is a bit drastic- the default key for the menu is XF86Start - use xev to check this key is correctly mapped to the Menu button - or update ~/.fluxbox/keys to choose another key trigger.
If you hold Fn acd click the desktop (right click) do you get nothing?
Cal: Thanks for the them, trying it now
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144148\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
or install fluxconf
it lets you easily assign and map keys as well as do a lot of other configs.
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Cal: Thanks for the them, trying it now
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144148\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
how did it work out?
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Nice! It's now my main style - I've set the translucency on the panels and my mrxvt terminal and it's looking too hot!
I can't believe how nicely everything is running now, fluxbox rules! Things even seem to load quicker than they did previously in openbox..
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Openbox was pretty fast too, when it didn't have matchbox on it. It might be a memory thing. Did you use the fluxbox_generate-menu command for your menu, or did you make a custom one? I'm thinking about having tinkering with ipkg to get it to run fluxbox_generate-menu every time I install or uninstall somthing. I might expiriment with py-panel as well.
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No, I just update the menu file manually - it's a bit labourious but I hope one day I will have every app I need there and ready so I don't have to keep installing/testing new stuff!!
(yeah..... right!)
An example of how it's speedier is the virtual keyboard xvkbd opens very quick now, before it took >2sec
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Should we make a wiki or add to the oesf.org wiki?
Also, can we use this? https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...c=17950&hl=xorg (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=17950&hl=xorg)
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Hi,
I'm using pdaX 1.1.0r121. I tried to install fluxbox using the one in the r121 feed. However, so far it doesn't work or at least I don't know how to make it work
I followed the instructions (without installing feh or vdesk) and changed the .xinitrc. I got into the WM without wallpaper and the garbled font. Is there any chance for r121 to use fluxbox? Thanks
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Hi,
I'm using pdaX 1.1.0r121. I tried to install fluxbox using the one in the r121 feed. However, so far it doesn't work or at least I don't know how to make it work
I followed the instructions (without installing feh or vdesk) and changed the .xinitrc. I got into the WM without wallpaper and the garbled font. Is there any chance for r121 to use fluxbox? Thanks
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144639\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I had a simular problem with my C1000 and beta3. I had to steal a theme and init from my desktop. I think the default font has problems on some machines. If you want, I can send you a replacement .fluxbox directory to get started. Also I had better luck when logged in as a user other then root.
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Hi,
I'm using pdaX 1.1.0r121. I tried to install fluxbox using the one in the r121 feed. However, so far it doesn't work or at least I don't know how to make it work
I followed the instructions (without installing feh or vdesk) and changed the .xinitrc. I got into the WM without wallpaper and the garbled font. Is there any chance for r121 to use fluxbox? Thanks
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144639\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I had a simular problem with my C1000 and beta3. I had to steal a theme and init from my desktop. I think the default font has problems on some machines. If you want, I can send you a replacement .fluxbox directory to get started. Also I had better luck when logged in as a user other then root.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144641\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I would like to try it. Please post the file. Thank you:)
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Hmmm...I'm having some font problems. The artwiz fonts in the .xinitrc got commented out because all I could see was was numbers!
While I can see letters now all of them have a sort of square between them...I heard a while ago it was some unicode thing but how would I fix that?
Thanks,
Frank
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Hmmm...I'm having some font problems. The artwiz fonts in the .xinitrc got commented out because all I could see was was numbers!
While I can see letters now all of them have a sort of square between them...I heard a while ago it was some unicode thing but how would I fix that?
Thanks,
Frank
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144742\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Anybody figure out the font thing? I get the same thing.
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Anybody figure out the font thing? I get the same thing.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145199\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Try switching on anti-aliasing. You'll find it under fluxbox menu - configure. It worked for me and at least one other with the same problem.
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Anybody figure out the font thing? I get the same thing.
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=145199\")
Try switching on anti-aliasing. You'll find it under fluxbox menu - configure. It worked for me and at least one other with the same problem.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145201\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Yup, mjotad's solution worked for me.
Here is the link for the font-problems specific thread that I started if you want to continue posting there: [a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=21829]Font Problems[/url]
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That would probably work if I could actually read any of the text on screen. It's all just garbage.
Nevermind, found it!
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congrats
as a suggestion for those who are having trouble looking at the menus you have two options:
1) .fluxbox/init has the settings for antialiasing (search for it in the file). Edit this from the terminal if you can open one.
2) ssh in and edit the init file from another machine
[edit]
Correction, you have 3 options -
3) keep clicking all over the menus until you get it right
[/edit]
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congrats
as a suggestion for those who are having trouble looking at the menus you have two options:
1) .fluxbox/init has the settings for antialiasing (search for it in the file). Edit this from the terminal if you can open one.
2) ssh in and edit the init file from another machine
[edit]
Correction, you have 3 options -
3) keep clicking all over the menus until you get it right
[/edit]
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145269\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
How'd you know??
Nother quick question, when I try to start up torsmo is can't load the artwiz-glispbold fonts. I can't get it to load any fonts. Any quick tips? Why don't we use conkey?
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Tried fluxbox out, and thanks to this guide (and a little post tweaking) it's working pretty well. One question I had thus far; is there a way to not have icons on the desktop of whatever applications are open/running? Or did I just miss a config somewhere.
Thanks in advance
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If you have icons of running apps on the desktop like the default setup, it sounds like you have included the openbox-desktop in your .xinitrc file.
Or is it that you want icons for running apps on your desktop?
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If you have icons of running apps on the desktop like the default setup, it sounds like you have included the openbox-desktop in your .xinitrc file.
Or is it that you want icons for running apps on your desktop?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145337\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
My bad, had both fluxbox and xfce4 on to try out and got them confused... it is xfce4 with the icons on the desktop as applications run, probably for the reason you said.
For the record, if anyone wants yet another opinion; fluxbox is very fast and does have low memory usage. Plus the max window size feature and transparency is nice.
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How'd you know??
Nother quick question, when I try to start up torsmo is can't load the artwiz-glispbold fonts. I can't get it to load any fonts. Any quick tips? Why don't we use conkey?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=145275\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Hmm, I'm not sure. I *THINK* my fonts are loading OK. Haven't tried anything else though I did spend a great deal of time tweaking my torsmo yesterday.
And yah I had never heard of Torsmo before, I had always used conky too....
Good Luck,
Frank
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I'm a conky person on my laptop also, but I had trouble running it on pdaxrom, something about i2c sensors.... Anyway I believe that conky would be more load on the system as it polls various functions frequently. Torsmo is very light and doesn't seem to use much resources.
Not sure about the fonts issue, mine just worked out-of-the-package!
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Fluxbox has always been my wm of choice, it's nice to have it on the Zaurus too. Thanks for the howto I had the "blocks between each letter" problem which was solved by turning on antialiasing.
But I've noticed it takes a loooong time (20-30 secs) to load. Being such a light wm, this shouldn't happen, but I had that same issue on a few desktops and a laptop.
The output of # fluxbox -info in console confirms the package was compiled with XMB enabled. I believe the boot-up time could be reduced quite a lot by compiling it with --disable-xmbThis worked for the desktops and the laptop I had. Maybe it could solve the problems with the fonts too.
However, I don't feel comfortable enough with pdaXrom on my Z to try any compiling yet. Could any of you test this?
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Here, I compiled the latest fluxbox 1.0rc2 with
Compiled options (- => disabled):
-DEBUG
EWMH
-GNOME
-IMLIB2
-KDE
NLS
REMEMBER
RENDER
SHAPE
SLIT
TOOLBAR
XFT
-XINERAMA
XMB
XPM
it is much quicker to load.
just delete the languages you don't need from /usr/share/fluxbox/nls
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Wow, that was fast! Thanks a lot!
It really is quicker to load.
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I can never seem to get transparency to work!
How does one enable it? - I've changed "Unfocused window alpha" down to 0 even and it doesn't seem to do anything.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Frank
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Try changing the menu alpha or toolbar, also you will need a compatible wallpaper display the one I used was feh. can't remember exactly how it worked as I'm using icewm now (defector!!)
Have you looked at the documentation on the fluxbox site?
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Fluxbox seems to eat all Control key presses. I can't use Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Q, both of which are really annoying. Is there any workaround? I have them mapped correctly in my xmodmap.
Thanks in advance.
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Nobody else has had this issue?
Just as a note, Ctrl seems to work when selecting things in ROX-filer, but nowhere else. Even in ROX-filer it won't let me use Ctrl+button xyz.
Any ideas on where the problem is? It wasn't working in the first place, so th issue isn't some config file I messed up.
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Nobody else has had this issue?
I haven't, but I'm wondering if I can point you in the right direction...
I don't use the vanilla 'akita.xmodmap_us', instead I hand-altered the 'akita.xmodmap_us' and don't bother to use a 'userdefined.xmodmap'; there's no symlink to the akita one, as I changed .xinitrc to point directly at my modified file:
xmodmap /etc/X11/kb/akita.xmodmap_usThe 'inputconfig.py' and 'kernel.map' are also none-standard; I use the ones to correct the 'no period or question mark when in console mode' error. I can post these up if you need them.
Just as a note, Ctrl seems to work when selecting things in ROX-filer, but nowhere else. Even in ROX-filer it won't let me use Ctrl+button xyz.
I use XFE, so can't help you there either ;;
Any ideas on where the problem is? It wasn't working in the first place, so th issue isn't some config file I messed up.
I'm wondering if it's because you stuck with the defaults - maybe you should try tweaking the aforementioned files and see if you can get results?
EDIT: Hmm, I'm not sure of how much use any of the above will be to you, now that I've noticed you're using 1.1.0 beta1, but I thought I'd give it a go ^__^
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Nobody else has had this issue?
I haven't, but I'm wondering if I can point you in the right direction...
I don't use the vanilla 'akita.xmodmap_us', instead I hand-altered the 'akita.xmodmap_us' and don't bother to use a 'userdefined.xmodmap'; there's no symlink to the akita one, as I changed .xinitrc to point directly at my modified file:
xmodmap /etc/X11/kb/akita.xmodmap_usThe 'inputconfig.py' and 'kernel.map' are also none-standard; I use the ones to correct the 'no period or question mark when in console mode' error. I can post these up if you need them.
Just as a note, Ctrl seems to work when selecting things in ROX-filer, but nowhere else. Even in ROX-filer it won't let me use Ctrl+button xyz.
I use XFE, so can't help you there either ;;
Any ideas on where the problem is? It wasn't working in the first place, so th issue isn't some config file I messed up.
I'm wondering if it's because you stuck with the defaults - maybe you should try tweaking the aforementioned files and see if you can get results?
EDIT: Hmm, I'm not sure of how much use any of the above will be to you, now that I've noticed you're using 1.1.0 beta1, but I thought I'd give it a go ^__^
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=151968\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Actually, this is on r121.
I have hand-edited my xmodmap file, as well as the inputconfig.py file to fix most of the mappings. I haven't fiddled with the kernel.map file, and it would be awesome to have a fixed version.
Sadly, my Z is dead for the moment. Linux is having issues with keeping a Conics restore file in caps, so I'll have to extract it with windows. I'll see if it works without a fixed inputconfig.py but with a custom xmodmap, then try fiddling.
A totally fixed inputconfig.py and kernel.map would be much appreciated as I'm too lazy to totally fix the inputconfig one.
Thanks for responding. I was getting worried!
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Actually, this is on r121.
Oh bum - I did actually mean r121... put it down to tiredness =_=
Sadly, my Z is dead for the moment. Linux is having issues with keeping a Conics restore file in caps, so I'll have to extract it with windows.
Whereas I've not had a problem in Debian with my Conics SL-CXXXX-NAND.zip O_o Good luck with the extraction/restore.
I've attached the inputconfig and kernel.map. All credit goes to whoever posted these versions - I can't recall who made them (there was a thread posted on this some time ago), but they work for me
Thanks for responding. I was getting worried!
No problem - I hope I can help you for a change (I've used some of the ipks you've compiled)
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I've used some of the ipks you've compiled
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=151974\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I feel important!
Thanks for the files, I'll probably get to them tomorrow.