1 Topic by Hajo

(0 replies, posted in Help & Support (Stable))

Hi!

Haven't been here for a while because finally the NBR is usable on my Eee. However, I still have a touch-screen project based on a rather slow Via C7 and of course crunchbang came right back to mind for the job. Currently it is running a gentoo but I found myself spending more time on compiling than on actually using the computer while offering not much speed advantage over jaunty.

If I do all the steps to use the touchscreen manually, it works quite well, so I really need your experience with structure. Here is my problem (somebody using the serial port for a legacy mouse or other input device should have the same issue):

The touch screen is connected via a serial controller. Thus HAL does not recognise and handle it.
To attach the touch screen as an HAL-enabled input device, there is a small application called "inputattach" which works fine (not ubuntu but debian version).
The modules "elo" (for the touchscreen) and "serport" are added to /etc/modules for this to work.

What I do manually is this:

  • boot into X

  • open a terminal and inside, a sudo screen session

  • try to start inputattach -elo /dev/ttyS0: It sometimes wont connect the first or second time - don't know why
    What is maybe special about inputattach: When successfully connected, it does not terminate but stay in foreground

  • detach the the screen session

  • restart HAL by sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart

  • restart GDM by logging off

When logging back on, it will read the fdi file I created (evtouch driver with long-click = right-click etc.) and work quite OK.

My question is: Where do I call the inputattach for this to work automatically. I think it has to be
- after modules
- before HAL and GDM
- with super user rights
- able to repeat itself until successfully attached (not terminating)

My knowledge about the start-up process is limited and even more so my scripting skills. But I'm willing to try almost everything that can be undone. :-)

Thank you all in advance.

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2 Reply by Hajo

(119 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

Follow-up to my own question about the scheduler above: 

#cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

reveals the active scheduler to be CFQ (completely fair queueing). I suggest everybody with a SSD uses deadline or even noop here to make use of the short seek times of the flash and get a generally more responsive system. Google for it, there are several ways: I suggest to change the "kopt"-line in /boot/grub/menu.lst to include elevator=deadline (or noop). Note: Keep the one(1) '#'.

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3 Reply by Hajo

(119 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

Hi everybody,

last weekend I ran a benchmark of 6 distros and cruncheee is the winner (with fluxflux in 2nd place). I have an Eee 901 Go (german edition which means: SLOW SSD) and boot time was my main concern (cruncheee was among the best), followed by codebase/community (ubuntu is imo currently best because of the broad userbase) and eee support third (preinstalled eee-control didn't do it for me but elmurato-scripts do work perfectly http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~elmurato/EeePC/). Arch was close but then I shyed away from the configuration effort. (How often do you have to reboot 10sec quicker to make up for the dozens of hours going into reading man files and example configs?) I already run a gentoo on an even slower machine (C7 1GHz) so I know what I would get myself into...

Of course, I have a few suggestions:

  • I found it odd to ask in the OP which applications could be ADDED. In my opinion, synaptic is easy enough to be used by anybody and the community is great at giving advice as to which software to use for any task. Apart from firefox and leafpad nothing should be preinstalled. (And you could argue about these two as well...)

  • Given the Eee's screen size, I believe the panel must have autohide capabilities. LXpanel doesn't have that (now) and neither does tint2, if I read correctly but pypanel and fbpanel do. I am currently offline but I will try those two at home...

  • As already mentioned above, eee-control from the ubuntu-repository was broken for me (and might be for all newer Eees). I tried eee-applet but that one resulted in several freezes of my system (mangled screen and all). I can recommend the elmurato scripts. Features and discussion here:http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=420248

  • That is probably a matter of taste, but I will change my 1px border in openbox from the top to the left side: Unlike with a mouse, it is difficult to hit the close button of maximized windows with the touchpad. It is easier to go to the extreme top right and just click there. Big improvement in usability I believe especially with the first generation Eees and their tiny touchpads.

I also have a couple of questions:

  • Has anyone ever tried fastinit (or finit) with a ubuntu derivate? How did it go?

  • Which scheduler is selected in the eee-lean kernel? I added elevator=deadline to my boot-line to make better use of the short access time of the SSD but that may be unnecessary...

  • Synaptic marks the "linux-eee-lean" (not sure if I remember the name correctly) virtual package for removal after I ran apt-get update. Why? I've kept it for now...

  • Is there a way to have instant feedback that a program is loading? I once started 4 skypes before realizing I was still waiting for the first to come up. This is particulary an issue with the acpi hotkeys above the keyboard and quicklaunch icons as they have no other feedback (like the menu, which disappears after clicking an entry.

Thank you for a great distro and a fine selection of base tools! It is exactly the same I would have chosen. Apart from the (imho) bloat in the "internet" branch everything is both slim and expandable in whatever direction you'd want to go (office, games etc.).

Keep up the good work!
Hajo

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