Comments on: Your way is the right way

By: LM

LM — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:13:49 +0000

I’ve been trying to get Debian installed from a netinst disk up and running on my desktop PC. It’s been a couple of months now and I’m still fighting hardware issues and trying to set things up properly. One thing I really want (and FreeBSD does quite well) is to be able to boot into console mode and then only run X (startx) if needed. (I’d definitely be running FreeBSD on the machine instead if it only had the hardware drivers and hardware support the machine needs.) Still trying to work out issues in Debian. Since I have an ATI card, the system uses KMS to try to give me a nice pretty screen when I log in to X. However, if you’re not logging in directly to X, you’re left with a really high res console screen with really small print that’s hard to work with. I’ve tried boot parameters such as nomodeset and video: and I’ve experimented unsuccessfully with fbset. I think my next try will be to increase the font size instead of attempting to lower the screen resolution. Still looking for that magical combination that will give me a nice looking console mode to work in when I start the machine.

It’s always nice to read about others booting to and/or using console mode as well. The way KMS seems to work, it’s great for X applications, but makes you think everyone’s forgotten about trying to do anything outside of X. Nice to hear that’s not the case for everyone.

By: Sam and me « Motho ke motho ka botho

Sam and me « Motho ke motho ka botho — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:37:46 +0000

[...] it introduced to me, five years ago, but that’s no surprise. It will appeal to some, and their way is the right way. [...]

By: What’s a warranty worth? « Motho ke motho ka botho

What’s a warranty worth? « Motho ke motho ka botho — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:46:37 +0000

[...] Your way is the best way, and that is the mantra I shall repeat until the last post to this site, some dark day in the future. [...]

By: Rationalizing a CLI lifestyle « Motho ke motho ka botho

Rationalizing a CLI lifestyle « Motho ke motho ka botho — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 13:46:50 +0000

[...] Like I discussed a long time ago, your way of using your computer is right for you. Note the excessive use of the concept of “you” there. [...]

By: Once again: Don’t do it « Motho ke motho ka botho

Once again: Don’t do it « Motho ke motho ka botho — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:23:48 +0000

[...] I know it’s inappropriate. Your business is your business. Your lifestyle is your lifestyle. Your way is your way. For me to tell you what to do is presumptuous, and a tiny bit [...]

By: Howto: Switch to a console lifestyle « Motho ke motho ka botho

Howto: Switch to a console lifestyle « Motho ke motho ka botho — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:32:15 +0000

[...] serious. So is this the best way to use a computer? I don’t know. I don’t know you. You and I are relative [...]

By: There are no ugly GUIs « Motho ke motho ka botho

There are no ugly GUIs « Motho ke motho ka botho — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:49:43 +0000

[...] And before some wag shouts it out, yes, I know, pretty is a feature. And there is nothing to be inferred in my preference for a text interface. Your way is the right way. [...]

By: scannerdarkly

scannerdarkly — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:52:17 +0000

There are countless tutorials to help new/potential users migrate from Windows to Linux. Perhaps you could do a tutorial/run-through that holds our hands as we migrate from X towards a console-only system? What do we need to arm ourselves with? What tools are going to be essential for average desktop use?

When people see a text-based system, every form of intuitive input they’ve learnt from using GUIs is irrelevant and therefore TTYs are quite a scary place to be if you’re going to live there.. Surely the first step is setting up GRUB/2 to use the best resolution? Great blog!

By: Five unattached ideas « Motho ke motho ka botho

Five unattached ideas « Motho ke motho ka botho — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:49:28 +0000

[...] overview if you’re considering switching, or if you’re just starting out on the path of the Dark Side. It also puts me to shame by throwing in the category of “Unix Philosophy,” which I [...]

By: steve

steve — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:45:24 +0000

There is nothing wrong with using X. What alternative do we have in Linux? The idea that X is bloated is purely relative. WinXP uses about 250MB on this laptop at startup. X + openbox would be lucky to top 30MB. Now tell me which one is ‘bloated’. It’s all relative and most reasonably modern hardware (even DDR) can easily cope with the ‘bloat’ of X.