Release Candidates :: DSL v4.0rc5

Curaga, thanks for the suggestion. I tried many different ways without success. When I tried fb I got a fatal i/o error 104. At the moment I am using dsl 3.4.4 that works perfectly.

I took so long to answer you because I was downloading a torrent of rc4 at the average rate of 1.3 KB/s because my ISP blocks torrents. It took more than ten hours to download DSL-4.0rc4!!! And then when I tried to burn it I got the wrong md5sum. I found another download site that again took more than ten hours and I got another bad md5sum. I am laughing now but not then.

There is usually no need to redownload the whole file. You can use wget -c <file_address> to resume an incomplete download regardless of whether you choose a different server. This assumes both are the same file. I do this with every large file I download and so far have not had a problem, even over the course of several sessions and several servers. Firefox often falsely claims a file is complete, and wget can resume those files too.

First of all kudos. DSL is really coming along nicely.

1. The MyDSL Extension dialog seems to have a bug. It works if you use the DSL start menu item and navigate to it. However, I boot from a USB stick and if I browse to "MyDSL app" (on sda1) through the file system and double-click it, I cannot download new appications. I receive a "Non DSL User error." message after being prompted for a download location.

2. I also use a large monitor (1920x1280) - It would be nice but not mandatory to support this resolution.

3. My larger resolution makes it apparent that when speeding up the mouse, the mouse pointer moves a larger number of pixels at a time. This makes it very hard to say, click on a '+' sign in the file browser. Is it possible to have the mouse move a smaller number of pixels the slower it is moved by the user?

4. I love that xpdf is open source. However, it supports such an old version of the Adobe PDF spec that PDF's created with the latest PDF creator software do not always render properly. Is there anything other PDF reader that fits your size requirements and work with more recent PDF specs?

Finally, I have to say I have been a C Windows developer for the last 15 years and of all the fancy linux distributions, DSL is the only one that has made me really WANT to switch. In fact, I'd love to help develop some of the UCI/DSL modules (maybe assist in improving #4 above). Could you please let me know maybe the 'first three resources' I should start reading or studying to get started? Thanks and again, good work.

Quote (Mule @ Oct. 14 2007,16:05)

Not a bug, but likely a limitation of the filesystem being used. If booted from sda1 then it is owned by user root. With 4.0 need mydsl/ owned by dsl.staff. The 4.0 default usb pendrive installation creates two partitions to handle this. The first larger one owned by dsl.staff and a second smaller partition owned by root.

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2. I also use a large monitor (1920x1280) - It would be nice but not mandatory to support this resolution.

DSL uses a tiny Kdrive X server. Check what your card/monitor supports by using the Xvesa -listmodes commmand to get the appropriate vga code to use as a boot time option. Or use the Xvesa button in the DSL panel.

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3. My larger resolution makes it apparent that when speeding up the mouse, the mouse pointer moves a larger number of pixels at a time. This makes it very hard to say, click on a '+' sign in the file browser. Is it possible to have the mouse move a smaller number of pixels the slower it is moved by the user?

Navigate to Apps->System->Mouse folder to change mouse speed. Or directly with mouse-config.lua

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4. I love that xpdf is open source. However, it supports such an old version of the Adobe PDF spec that PDF's created with the latest PDF creator software do not always render properly. Is there anything other PDF reader that fits your size requirements and work with more recent PDF specs?

I agree, I have been using the xpdf.uci in the repository. I am leaning towards removing some of these applications.

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Finally, I have to say I have been a C Windows developer for the last 15 years and of all the fancy linux distributions, DSL is the only one that has made me really WANT to switch. In fact, I'd love to help develop some of the UCI/DSL modules (maybe assist in improving #4 above). Could you please let me know maybe the 'first three resources' I should start reading or studying to get started? Thanks and again, good work.

Get a copy of the Official DSL Book. ;)
The Wiki has much information as well as posting in the mydsl extension area.

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I have been using the xpdf.uci in the repository. I am leaning towards removing some of these applications.

I only recently learned that the gv application also displays pdf files, although I haven't run enough tests to compare it with xpdf. gv is pretty close to gvu in DSL (which doesn't read pdf), but seems to have fewer dependencies.

Some of my first reactions to DSL 4.0...
The exit options and improved switcher are great. I wonder if switcher.lua might be improved even further by reading in a list of user-installed window managers.
Extra directories in /ramdisk. How does this affect low-ram systems?
Maybe more "Open" options could be available for dfm, such as "edit" as an option for all files. It wouldn't be useful for every file, but would be useful for many files that are currently editable but are only associated with one application.
There seems to be an unused KNOPPIX/tmp symlink.
What is /tmp/.mydsl? It was created when I installed mc, but is an empty file.
The "Help" menu item is good. Maybe this isn't new? I don't remember seeing it before.
On my own build of dfm, I can press Esc to highlight the first desktop icon. From that point I can start typing an arbitrary icon name and focus will be shifted to that icon. This doesn't seem to work in DSL.

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