DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: The future of Damn Small Linux



Quote (guido @ Jan. 06 2004,16:31)
But the work isn't done...
First of all , normaly i'm speaking dutch , the kids (there are about 1100 in my schools) also. So i must seak a possibility to translate the english software in dutch. I think that this must be possible.

Yes, it can be done, there is a Debian command which changes the default language of your system. I don't remember it out of my mind, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find.
However the compatibilty of DSL with Debian is a bit dubious to say the least.

On a lighter, offtopic note, let me say that at your school they must be a bit mean or badly organized to use such ancient hardware.
Here in the UK they collected money for school computers with the help of all major supermarkets and they were quite successful. :)
Guido -
   It would be great for you and I to correspond. I have the posts in the User Feedback area "Not For Profit Needs Help". I am attempting to refurbish exactly the type of computers you are speaking of for children. There are still a TON of those machines out there.
 I have a huge learning curve being new to Linux but I have had the most success with DSL. I still am struggling but that is from my lack of experience and not because of the distro. I think DSL has huge potential. The great thing has been that people like CappyCaffeine and Cbagger01 haunt these posts and give out alot of advise. They have been very helpful to me!

John - Keep it up!!

Chris
Guido,

With a few exceptions, most of the software provided in DSL has been translated into different languages by others. The Dutch language is a possibility, but I am sure that French & German are more common.

However, for non-English speaking users one of the problems with a distro like DSL is that some of the "locale" translations are likely removed from the CD in order to fit all of the software into a 50MB mini-CD (Business-Card Style) format.

It is possible to manually restore translation files with some amount of effort.

Another option would be to look for a similar project like DSL (liveCD) but still supplies the international language support files. I believe that the Morphix Light GUI liveCD may support this.

As for boot time paramters, for knoppix you would try:

Boot:    knoppix lang=nl

I doubt that this would work with DSL but you could try.

However, for Morphix, you would type:

Boot:   morphix lang=nl

and it may just work.  There is a FAQ on the Morphix web site that explains a procedure on how to change the default language for the *.iso liveCD.

Good Luck.
<knip>
Boot:    knoppix lang=nl
</knip>

The problem is that it must be knoppix lqng=be

(lqng on a azerty keyboard :) not lang that gives lqng)
And to explane this to teachers .... is to difficult.

BE becouse we use another keyboard layout in The dutch part of Belgium than in the Netherlands. (azertyuiop)


The 486 pc's are not more than 5% but the most of the used pc's are p1 (approx 50%) and PII (approx 25%)

The problem with other linux distro's is that they need more than 128 Mb of ram . And the computers have for 50 % not more than 64 mb.

I'm one of the life time lindows (www.lindows.com) members , but then i need minimum a 800 Mhz and 128 mb ram computer.

So that is'n also a usable school solution.

That's the main rerason that i prefere DSL => The RAM must be more than 32 ( 16 ? not tryed).

Other linux stuff  that i use (and prefere) :
www.fli4l.de (www.fli4l.be dutch version) for router
www.eisfair.org (www.eisfair.be dutch version ) for server.
Both from the same development team.

I have not the same knowledge in linux than in DOS (nice OS !) but it will grown. Step by step.... like in the good old day's with DOS.


Regards ,
Guido
You may be able to get away with changing the language to your desired choice and still assign a different keyboard map to your Xwindows.

Try using the "Search" button above and search the entire DSL user board for keyword "keyboard".  Be sure to search for all messages since "the beginning". I am confident that this has been discussed in previous posts.

As for Knoppix/Morphix/DSL lang support, knoppix did not add support for "lang=be" until version 3.2-2003-03-26  and I think that the DSL distribution was based on an older version of Knoppix.

This may also be true for Morphix LightGUI disk.

Maybe you should try this:

(1) Download latest Knoppix *.iso image and burn a new CD-R
(2) Boot the CD, or boot Knoppix using the boot floppy if your computer BIOS does not support booting from a CDROM drive.
(3) Choose boot command line options similar to this:
Boot:   knoppix lang=be keyboard=be xkeyboard=be desktop=fluxbox

You may be able to get proper language and keyboard map and a low-resource window manager (fluxbox) to work with a slower computer and limited memory. Then be sure to only start up the applications that work well with limited memory (the programs that are included on the DSL CD)

Hopefully, Morphix LightGUI will support this and then you won't need to deal with all of the additional heavy applications and window managers that are supplied on the full Knoppix CD.

Good Luck.
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