[kde-linux] KDE 4. Trying to get it working like I need it to.

[Duncan]

Dale posted on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:38:02 -0600 as excerpted:

> I installed mc and have been giving it a once over.  It seems OK but I
> need to make some changes to my console.  It has the default fonts which
> are pretty large and resolution which is pretty low therefore I don't
> have a lot of screen room. It does work tho.

Yeah, you definitely appreciate how constricted the default 80 character 
by 25 line (or whatever) console is, once you begin running something 
like mc! =:^(

FWIW, you can probably enable a framebuffer driver in your kernel config, 
and get full native resolution (assuming LCD, whatever you run X at, 
anyway, if CRT) at the console, if you get the config right.  There's the 
generic VESA framebuffer driver, and some of the video cards have their 
own -- I'm running the radeonfb driver, here.  It's nice to get full 
1920x1200 resolution.  I now have something ridiculous like... let me 
check...
240 character by 75 lines...  That's actually almost /too/ much, even 
split in half as mc does.  I could fit a 3-pane setup in that, if mc 
offered it, and still have the full 80 character width panes, double the 
40-char width defaults after the default 80-char width is split into two 
panes.

The other alternative is to make better use of the default resolution, by 
choosing a smaller default font.  For awhile I was using the 4x6 font, 
available in the kernel config under device drivers, graphics support, 
console display driver support, select compiled-in fonts, mini 4x6 font.  
(You can set that later using the consolefonts system service, as well, 
if you prefer, that gives you more choices, depending on the fonts you 
install.)  Of course, I could do them both, but the default fonts give me 
enough character resolution since I did the framebuffer thing.  In fact, 
I could either increase font size a bit or decrease framebuffer 
resolution, and still be fine, if I wanted to, as 240 character width 
/is/ getting a bit ridiculous! =:^)

> I also enabled the mouse on the console too.  Pretty neat.  ^_^

Yes, gpm for the win! =:^)  Besides the normal mouse stuff, I appreciate 
two things it does at the console.  First, you get select/paste behavior 
like you do in X. =:^)  That can come in handy when you're running 
multiple VCs, reading docs in one, typing input in another, maybe running 
links or lynx text-based browsers, googling something on the web in a 
third, and have data or a bit of a command to copy from one and paste in 
another.

Second, and this is a bit of a trick you'll need to read the gpm manpage 
for to get the details on to configure it, but you can setup three triple-
click commands.  See the "Special Commands" section of the manpage.  
Here, I have two set to switch init-levels and a third to issue my 
hibernate command.  So I can do that from the console, without even being 
logged in. =:^)

There's a third thing I've not setup, but the docs (/usr/share/docs/gpm-
*) talk about that would be neat.  Basically, you can setup a console 
mode menu system.  IOW, the three "special commands" above are just the 
beginning!  Imagine setting an entry to run the sensors command, for 
instance (assuming you have lm_sensors installed and configured, of 
course).  There's all sorts of neat stuff possible.  Maybe one day I'll 
configure it...

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman