A Couple General Questions

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mobad
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A Couple General Questions

Post by mobad »

I recently picked up a WebDT 366 LX from tbowland and I have a couple of questions.

Is there a way to maybe increase the sensitivity of the touch pad?  When dragging the cursor it often clicks the desktop (or whatever window I am dragging over) and it is pretty annoying.  If I press pretty hard it doesn't happen though.  (This happened in Windows as well but I didn't play with it for long)

I've installed Debian Squeeze with e17 (which installs perl for some reason), iceweasel (was the smallest install I could find), wicd-curses (couldn't get exalt to work...), and mplayer (Which runs 600x480 xvid over wifi great BTW) and I have 18 27MB free now.
I mainly followed quotaholic's E17 post.
I've compressed all executables in /usr/bin with UPX, installed localepurge, removed /usr/share/doc (and man), I've mounted /var/log, /tmp, and /var/tmp as tmpfs and remove locales (which removes localepurge as well, oh well).

Any tips on freeing space?

I'm thinking maybe a squashfs setup (I wish btrfs was more stable...) or mounting /usr on a CF card if it's fast (any one know?)

Thanks!
Last edited by mobad on Tue Oct 26, 2010 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
volkswagner
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by volkswagner »

Sorry I can't help with the touch screen settings.

You can free up some space by remove drivers that are not needed.  I have messed with this, but I don't have the expertise to dive deep and cut all the fat.

I have had great success with mounting /usr directories with little performance hits.

See this post for more details... forum/viewtopic.php?p=2571#p2571

I used symlinks which did have minor caveats.  I did do some direct mounting which did not seem to perform as well since I used the entire /usr and had to create a custom init so the CF would be recognized early enough on boot.
Nothing is ever easy, but if it is difficult you must be doing it wrong.
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mobad
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by mobad »

volkswagner wrote: Sorry I can't help with the touch screen settings.

You can free up some space by remove drivers that are not needed.  I have messed with this, but I don't have the expertise to dive deep and cut all the fat.

I have had great success with mounting /usr directories with little performance hits.

See this post for more details... forum/viewtopic.php?p=2571#p2571

I used symlinks which did have minor caveats.  I did do some direct mounting which did not seem to perform as well since I used the entire /usr and had to create a custom init so the CF would be recognized early enough on boot.
Thanks for the help, I'll have to check that out once I can get my CF card from home.

In the mean time I've found a way to get 70MB back so now I'm at a comfortable 104MB free.

(Don't blame me if this breaks anything)

First remove everything in /var/cache/apt/ and /var/lib/apt/lists/
Next add:

Code: Select all

tmpfs	   /var/cache/apt/ tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs	   /var/lib/apt/lists tmpfs defaults 0 0
to your /etc/fstab
Then add:

Code: Select all

mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
to /etc/rc.local

This will make you have to do a "sudo apt-get update" every time you want to install something and the package databases/packages will be stored in RAM not on your SSD and will be deleted on reboot.

Edit:
Don't know if anyone cares but I've remade quotaholic's xvkbd toggle script.
You need xdotool installed.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

function startXvkbd {
	echo 2 > /tmp/xvkbd
	xvkbd -secure -no-keypad -always-on-top -geometry 798x195-0+405 &
	sleep 1
	xdotool search --class XVkbd > /tmp/xvkbd-wid
	read wid 2> /dev/null < /tmp/xvkbd-wid
	echo 1 > /tmp/xvkbd
}

function map {
	echo 2 > /tmp/xvkbd
	xdotool windowmap ${wid} || startXvkbd
	echo 1 > /tmp/xvkbd
}

function unmap {
	echo 2 > /tmp/xvkbd
	xdotool windowunmap ${wid} || startXvkbd
	echo 0 > /tmp/xvkbd
}

read lock  2> /dev/null < /tmp/xvkbd

if [[ ${lock} = 0 ]]; then
	read wid 2> /dev/null < /tmp/xvkbd-wid
	map
elif [[ ${lock} = 1 ]]; then
	read wid 2> /dev/null < /tmp/xvkbd-wid
	unmap
elif [[ ${lock} = 2 ]]; then
	exit 0
else
	startXvkbd
fi
Instead of killing xvkbd and rerunning it, this script simply maps and unmaps it, making it much faster to load.
Last edited by mobad on Tue Oct 26, 2010 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quotaholic
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by quotaholic »

Fantastic work!

Check out this thread. About 5 posts down Mak mentions an xorg.conf option that helped me in the past to get the screen working better.

forum/viewtopic.php?p=852#p852

Although I have tried a squashfs approach I have not yet had success. Hard to find a good how to out there. That and dependencies are an issue with limited drive space.

Interested in how you compressed using Upx. In slackware I have gzip'd all the kernel modules saving around 40mb in the past however I cant verify if this will work in debian.
mobad
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by mobad »

I added that SendDragEvents option before and X wouldn't load because of a malformed config (probably just a typo) but when I added it now it works but I don't notice much of a difference.
I should mention that the weird clicking only really happens when using the stylus.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Max ... ing_.2Fusr
Seems like a pretty good tutorial on squashfs, I may check it out if I get time.

As for UPX I read http://wiki.debian.org/FreeSpace
and modified the /usr/bin stripper to use UPX

Code: Select all

find /usr/bin -not -name bash -execdir upx '{}' \;
Everything seems to work fine and you get back about half of /usr/bin.
I wouldn't run this on anything other than /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin though.
I ran UPX on the kernel as UPX seemed to be able to compress it... that didn't end well.
I'm going to test it on some other things as well and see they will work.
Edit:
I tried compressing a couple of libraries and they seem to work... I would use with caution though.
Edit2:
Well libcurl works but libavcodec doesn't :/

Hmm, compressing kernel modules seems interesting.
I found this thread http://www.groupsrv.com/linux/about160660.html and it seems like it has been recently enabled on debian kernels (well squeeze at least) I'll have to check it out tomorrow.
Edit:
Compressing initrd with lzma seems like it would work well.
Edit2:
Meh, one only saves less than 3MB by compressing with lzma.
Edit3:
Doesn't seem like gzipped modules work.

I am using the 686 kernel at the moment, is it better to use the 486 kernel?
If the 686 kernel works, would Arch Linux?

Edit:
If someone has used this forum/viewtopic.php?p=1934#p1934 tutorial and now startx is running when you try to SSH and open a terminal replace the startx in ~/.profile with:

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if [ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ]; then
	startx
fi
which will make it run only on tty1

Also, does anyone know how to assign a function to the record button?
Last edited by mobad on Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quotaholic
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by quotaholic »

Thanks for the links.

Never tried a 686 kernel on a DT. I see that arch has a 586 version.
http://archlinux-i586.org/

Thinking on it, when I posted the debian sid stuff working on the DT366-LX800 everything was working well. I screwed up the install doing something or another. When I formatted and went to install again I could not get x to start for some reason. Not even a hint of a reason in /var/logs/Xorg.0.log Took the exact same steps but no joy. Ever since I have been working on an e17 Slackware install. Penmount emailed me a driver that works on Slack 13.1.

Just took a look at distrowatch and it looks like arch 2010.5 is using the same kernel as slackware 13.1. Depending on xorg version arch uses the penmount driver just may work.

May just give arch a try this evening.
mobad
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by mobad »

Just checked out http://archlinux-i586.org/ and it seems like the images and packages haven't been updated in a year :(

I checked out the Arch Linux wiki and
Arch Linux is optimized for i686 and x86_64 processors and therefore will not run on any lower or incompatible generations of x86 CPUs (i386, i486 or i586). A Pentium Pro, Pentium II or AMD Athlon (K7) processor or higher is required. (technically, cpu's without the cmov instruction such as AMD K6 and via C3 are also i686, but we use gcc and it uses cmov instructions) Before installing Arch Linux, you should decide which installation method you would like to use.
It seems like cmov instructions are needed to use the normal version of Arch Linux and it just so happens that this processor has cmov instructions!

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processor	: 0
vendor_id	: AuthenticAMD
cpu family	: 5
model		: 10
model name	: Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS
stepping	: 2
cpu MHz		: 498.136
cache size	: 128 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 1
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu de pse tsc msr cx8 sep pge [b]cmov[/b] clflush mmx mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow up
bogomips	: 996.27
clflush size	: 32
cache_alignment	: 32
address sizes	: 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:
So I think normal Arch Linux should work but I'm not sure if it will fit on 512MB, let me know if you try it.

Also, does anyone know how to map the record button?

Update:

Damn, doesnt seem like it is that simple.  We are also missing nopl.
Doesn't seem like all hope is lost though.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=775414
http://notes.osuv.de/doku.php?id=geode
Seems like there will be a fix by the end of the year or if you can't wait you can compile a custom kernel.
But, I'm not really sure... the guy in the wiki/forums isn't very clear...
It may be fixed at the moment or it may not be, you need to change a setting in pacman.conf to make it able to install packages or something.
Last edited by mobad on Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quotaholic
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by quotaholic »

As far as I know the LinuxMCE project are the only ones that have been successful in mapping the record button. Their image, pad orbiter, is available here:
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=6663.0;topicseen

One should be able to mount it in loop back and take a look under the hood.

Not sure if they access the mic through their voip application or if its activated through the button. Hopefully the latter.
mobad
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by mobad »

I opened the image up and looked around and found a webdt button daemon.
The source is supposed to be here but it's not working :/
http://www.localeconcept.com/pub/PadOrb ... 0.0.tar.gz
I skimmed the thread and wiki and didn't see anything mentioning the record button.
quotaholic
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by quotaholic »

That button daemon will duplicate what xev sees if they are both installed. At one time I had that source but it was just an example file with only the first of the four hard buttons mapped. Tried myself to get that button recognized. Did an acpi listen with no luck. About the only thing I have not tried was evrouter and going through the different inputs. I'm not sure that LMCE will illustrate how its done however tkmedia and tschakee, both active here about a year ago, may be able to help.

As for the touchscreen, if memory serves the penmount installer comes with a debug utility. gpen or something similar. Possibly it could give some hints. Penmounts tech support line has been very helpful in the past. Dont hesitate to submit a ticket to them.
mobad
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Re: A Couple General Questions

Post by mobad »

Well I tried evrouter and it doesn't detect it either.
I discovered all the button presses were on /dev/input/event2
When I ran "sudo od /dev/input/event2" and clicked buttons, including the record, I could see text appear.
Something interesting that I found...
With xev it only seems to detect button presses but when I ran "sudo od /dev/input/event2" I could clearly see button releases being send when I let go of the button.
So it seems like some sort of driver error.

I installed the required libraries for gPen but it doesn't do anything, it just says "gPen.c use config file /etc/penmount.dat"
One thing I've noticed is that when calibrating in Windows it asked me to hold each point while in linux I just click them.
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