[buug] Mouse problem in Linux

[Rick Moen]

begin  ezekielk at iname.com quotation:

> No, I was caught up in the installation process, where I couldn't use
> the mouse. I know about using gpm in console. I figured you were
> suggesting I jump to another console and somehow force the
> installation routine to accept my com port mouse. Sorry for not being
> clear enough about my problem. 

Ah.  If the installation is graphical, which I recall Stormix's being,
then you would indeed have to specify the mouse port and protocol
correctly as part of X setup (if that's not autodetected correctly).

I've only fooled with Stormix once, so I don't recall any of this
clearly.  You probably want to check their documentation.

> I admire their efforts to usurp the Evil Empire; somebody's gotta do
> it! However, they should consider that as root, one may need to
> perform some troubleshooting and maintenance...for which we'd
> appreciate console utilities like "mc" and "minicom". 

Here's a tip for you:  Install the ssh package.  Then, when you
absolutely need to become root for a moment, do "ssh root at localhost".
In the root-user shell you then get, you can start _even_ X-based
utilities from the command line; the ssh daemon will forward your
X session, such that those utilities will be able to image onto your
regular-user X session.

Most people, when they need to run an X application (like, say,
printtool) with root authority will log out entirely, login as root,
do root-user stuff for a while, log back out, and log back in as a
regular user.  The above alternative allows you to avoid this
time-wasting drill -- and avoid the temptation to stay logged in as
root, which you should always be leery of.

For non-X root-user tasks, just do "su - " to become root temporarily,
do what you need to do, then hit Ctrl-D or type "exit" to close the root
shell and revert to being a regular user.  Again, you don't want to
wield root authority any longer than necessary.  It's too dangerous to
your system.

> So I'm downloading "mc" and other utilities I'd like to include.

You know, you can do that using apt-get, the Debian utility.  You
may want to add a few additional lines in /etc/apt/sources.list .
If you're interested, I'll suggest a few. 

> I just don't understand why *all mail clients and services don't
> provide word wrap for both incoming and outgoing. This one, iname.com,
> has ingoing wrap only. And apparantly, your own client may not have
> this ingoing option (if you are actually receiving messages, rather
> than viewing the archives).

Standard Unix MUAs do not themselves display messages:  That is done by
spawning a pager (such as less) or an editor (such as vim).  My MUA is
mutt, which is configured to call vim to edit reply drafts, and which
by default quotes the original message and prepends "> " in front of 
each quoted line.

Additionally, the spawned instance of vim auto-wraps the _display_ of 
any quoted lines that exceed the screen width.  (I keep the screen width 
at 80 columns.)  So, when my vim message-draft buffer includes quoted
text with lines longer than my screen (80 columns), they are shown as
apparently-wrapped text in the display, but vim treats such text for
editing purposes as still part of the one (very long) line.  Thus, for 
example, each entire damned paragraph-long quoted line gets exactly
one "> " delimiter, at the beginning.

If I wish to correct this situation, I have to do it manually.  I of
course have a vim macro to re-format such a misshapen "line" to
individual lines of 72 or so characters each, each one properly 
delimited with a "> ".

But, to answer your implied question, it is inappropriate to impose on
MUAs a need to "word wrap" either outgoing or ingoing message.  The
messages are supposed to start out as proper ASCII lines of less than
80 columns, and remain that way when quoted in replies.  It is 
serendipitous that my MUA happens to largely compensate for other
people's formatting screw-ups, but it's simply wrong to suggest that
it _should_ do so.
 
> Mandrake is very generous to a fault...tends to overwhelm the new
> Linux user. But I have come to appreciate the Mandrake distro as a
> result of trying out other distros...except SUSE, which I understand
> is the *most generous of all (too much for smaller HDs).

I believe SuSE 6.4 comprises about 2200 packages.  If you add up all
four Debian 2.2 ("potato") collections -- main, non-free, contrib, and
non-US -- I believe there's around 4200.
 
> Caldera *does use a different ppp interface: one that only lets you
> register one ISP.

By "interface", you mean configuration tool, I assume.

> I thought when you recommended "Learning Linux", it was also a
> recommendation for all the author's other books. Never mind.

No.  Definitely not.

The one I mentioned was _Running Linux_, 3rd edition.  Details and link
are always on my personal FAQ page, at
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#cheaplinux 

--  
Cheers,               It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Rick Moen          It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
rick (at)        The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning,
linuxmafia.com         It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.