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Topic: kbdconfig change doesn't remain, how to make it (eg "us-intl") permanent?

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mourafa

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Posts: 11
Joined: April 2008

Posted: July 05 2008,18:28

Still newbie in linux and dsl, I have frugal install in a notebook with regular US keyboard, and the menu.lst below, wich I believe is correct for persistency, but seems not to help retaining my change from keyboard "us"(default) to "us-intl", done via GUI kbdconfig (ControlPanel/Keyboard):

kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi frugal dma toram mydsl=hda6 home=hda7 opt=hda6 host=ALBANY

EDIT: I'm using DSL version 4.4.1

Ultimately, I am trying to replicate the normal settings I do when in MS Windows, when I select 1) a keyboard, "us-intl", and then 2) a language (depending on my needs, portuguese, german or spanish).

Questions:
1) What am I missing here to ensure "us-intl" remains selected?
2) When (or for which circunstancies) should "restore=hdaX" be used?
3) I notice that even without "restore=hdaX" at the boot options, a message apears during boot stating that "something" is being restored. Is this restored thing rather a result from the persistence (home=hda7 opt=hda6) added to the boot options?
4) What is the purpose of the boot option "lang= "? I am guessing it's where language, other then english, is selected. Am I right? (EDIT: I mean just regional LANGUAGE and nothing to do with selecting keyboard layout)

Thanks a lot in advance for any help.

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Mourafa

roberts

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Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 05 2008,19:08

Quote

Questions:
1) What am I missing here to ensure "us-intl" remains selected?

When using the control panel and selecting kbdconfig, that program tries to write your selected keyboard into /opt/bootlocal.sh Look in that file. You should see a loadkeys us-intl.iso01

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2) When (or for which circunstancies) should "restore=hdaX" be used?

Depends on your needs. Perhaps with both a persistent home and persistent opt maybe you don't need it. However, you should look at /opt/.filetool.lst and /opt/.xfiletool.lst to see what would be in your backup and what would be excluded (.xfiletool.lst). It is entirely under your control. Where you decide and if you decide to backup.

Quote

3) I notice that even without "restore=hdaX" at the boot options, a message apears during boot stating that "something" is being restored. Is this restored thing rather a result from the persistence (home=hda7 opt=hda6) added to the boot options?

You likely already have a file named backup.tar.gz residing on a drive. If restore=xxx is not specified the default is to scan drives looking for it. If found it is written to /opt/.backup_device Clearing this file will stop the backup for the current session. Removing/renaming the backup.tar.gz would then stop future backups as well

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4) What is the purpose of the boot option "lang= "? I am guessing it's where language, other then english, is selected. Am I right? (EDIT: I mean just regional LANGUAGE and nothing to do with selecting keyboard layout)

There are specific languages that the original Knoppix supported. You can see them within the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script.

Edited by roberts on July 05 2008,19:09

mourafa

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Posts: 11
Joined: April 2008

Posted: July 06 2008,22:21

Thanks so far!

Quote

Quote

Questions:
1) What am I missing here to ensure "us-intl" remains selected?

When using the control panel and selecting kbdconfig, that program tries to write your selected keyboard into /opt/bootlocal.sh Look in that file. You should see a loadkeys us-intl.iso01

Looking at /opt/bootlocal.sh, I see ¨loadkeys us-intl¨ added after ¨# put other system startup command here¨, though without ¨ .iso01¨.
And it is there even after rebooting, meaning that point one is solved. However, the functionality is not and my humble needs not yet resolved.

By looking at /KNOPPIX/usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty, I find two files ¨us-intl¨ (¨us-intl.iso01.kmap.gz¨ and ¨us-intl.iso15.kmap.gz¨). And I guess it may explain the two options for selection of ¨us-intl¨ when in kbdconfig, via control panel.
I even tryed editing /opt/bootlocal.sh, adding .iso01 and .iso15, and respectively saving and booting with ¨loadkeys us-intl.iso01¨ and ¨loadkeys us-intl.iso15¨, but could not see the expected results neither in Ted nor in OpenOffice´s Writer.

So, something is still missing! Note that when in Windows2000, I select keyboard ¨US-International¨ combined with a language, and I get the same wished results independently from the selected language - ultimately I get the ¨accented¨ vowels and the "ç" (c-cedilla). So, to test if the US-INTL keyboard is working, we can try a ¨c-cedilla¨ by typing quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ” ) key before typing character ( c ) key, or by trying some accented vowels, by typing quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ” ) key before typing any vowel key (a, e, i, o, u).

I understand DSLcore development is THE priority, but whenever time permits, please give a try in your system to see if US-INTL keyboard works for you and you can get a c-cedilla or accented vowels, and thus determining weather the limitation is in my use of DSL or in some other problem, requiring perhaps editing some files by experts.

ALSO: Thanks for clarifying points 2, 3 and 4. I fixed the RESTORE issue. For now I remain with my persistent home and persistent opt, but in the future I will also try ¨BACKUP/RESTORE¨, disabling the persistent home and persistent opt in the boot options, to increase my knowledge of the usage options for DSL.

Thanks a lot in advance for your time and patience with this noobie.

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Mourafa

roberts

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Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 06 2008,23:48

You should see a difference at a command prompt, whether typing at CLI or an xterm. Beyond that is up to the specific application in question. You keep bringing up Microsoft. They are a huge enterprise responsible for both OS and Applications. They are a closed system. Many Linux distributions are kinda following that model where there is tight intergation between Desktop Environment and Applications, ie., KDE & Koffice and K K ...

DSL being so tiny cannot afford the luxury of such and most applications were selected on size and functionality versus language support.

I am not knowledgeable enough in specific applications. Perhaps OO uses their own keyboard drivers. Perhaps TED does not support or perhaps TED as compiled for DSL does not support. I can't answer you beyond that. Perhaps a DSL community member who is move familiar with these specific applications can be of assistance.

3 replies since July 05 2008,18:28

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Damn Small Linux Board » Damn Small Linux » Other Help Topics » kbdconfig change doesn't remain