On 10/17/2016 08:14 PM, Steve Litt wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 13:49:34 +0000 (UTC)
> Go Linux <golinux@???> wrote:
>
>> FYI . . . Refracta 8.0 gets a nice review on Distrowatch
>>
>> http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20161017#refracta
>>



...
> About finding which of the 18 wireless drivers to install, and how to
> install them: The article mentions having a previous Debian/Devuan or
> Ubuntu install and then type "dpkg --get-selections | grep firmware".
> But what should one do if he/she has no such previous installation?
>
> The article mentions:
>
> =======================================================
> That's fine, except that there are 18 possible drivers, and you might
> not know which one to install. You really wouldn't want to install all
> 18.
> =======================================================
>
> Why not? What disadvantages would accrue if I simply installed all 18?
> I know doing so wouldn't be neat or crisp or geekily correct, but
> wouldn't it enable me to simply get on with it? What would be the
> disadvantage besides crudity?
>

I don't think there's any reason you can't install all of them, or more
likely, most of them. In wheezy, there were a couple of broadcom drivers
that conflicted with each other. Other than that, I think the worst thing
would be a waste of precious hard drive space.

They aren't pre-installed in Refracta for a couple of reasons. 1. Only the
main repo is enabled, so it's all free software. The non-free driver
packages are there if you want or need them. 2. Some of them require that
you agree to some terms when you install them. I can't agree for anyone
but me. 3. Waste of precious CD space. For jessie, we were able to stick
to the "fits on a CD" rule.

Another way to figure out which driver you need is to run 'lspci' and see
what network hardware you have. Compare the words you see there to the
list of driver descriptions in the readme file inside the wireless_drivers
directory. Some of them are pretty obvious, so you can narrow it down.


> And if I simply got on with it, couldn't I later perform:
>
> dpkg --get-selections | grep firmware
>
> and uninstall any drivers that don't get mentioned? If so, what
> uninstall command would I use (the install seemed not to use apt-get)?
>

'dpkg -i <filename.deb>' to install a package.
'dpkg -r <package name>' to remove a package.
apt-get and aptitude (and probably apt) can be used to remove packages
that were installed with 'dpkg -i'.


OK, sorry about the visual presentation. All good points below. (I'll have
to get golinux to translate some of it for me.) I did make a special build
for someone with poor vision, but all I did was add some accessibility
package and make the fonts bigger. I never got any feedback on that.

Are there any stock desktop themes in xfce that you can recommend? I don't
know of an easy way to change the theme before logging in, but I can
probably figure out something. Maybe even a second user with different
desktop settings.

Window borders are going to get wider across the board. I can't grab an
edge with a track pad. Pretty sure we already made them wider once. I've
been thinking about doing it again. Have to dig up some old emails.

Thanks for the suggestions. This is now on my (mental) list of things to
do. Now that 8.0 is done, it's time to start playing with ascii. There
will be plenty of new builds to play with.

-fsmithred



>
> A COUPLE OTHER REFRACTA SUGGESTIONS
>
> The Refracta I installed on the laptop was very hostile to those with
> bad vision. It had this garish mostly orange and some black background
> that camouflaged any desktop icons and even terminals. The terminals
> were set to some low contrast thing like #aaaaaa on #000000, with small
> fonts, and transparency. Imagine how hard it was to read anything when
> the garish background obscured the tiny, low contrast writing on the
> terminal.
>
> Pretty is nice, but pretty is a luxury for the well-sighted. Those of
> us with lousy vision hugely prioritize legibility, which is usually a
> direct tradeoff with pretty. There are times I can't read pretty enough
> to configure it to legibility.
>
> So I'd suggest a second theme for Refracta, either selectible at boot,
> or runnable by a click on the top left desktop icon (remember, the user
> might not be seeing the icon clearly enough to read it). The legibility
> theme should feature:
>
> * No background image. Just a straight #006600 color, no gradient.
>
> * Terminal coloration either #000000 on #ffffff or #ffffff on #000000.
> Yeah, that gives some people headaches, but those of us with bad
> vision can't even use the less contrasty stuff.
>
> * Big font for the terminals. Big enough that an 80x25 terminal
> emulator should occupy considerably more than 1/4 of the monitor
> area. Consider bold fonts. Ugly, but more readable to the
> less-sighted.
>
> * No friggin transparency!!!!!
>
> * Window border width of 2px instead of 1px, colored very noticibly,
> especially for the active window (I use #00cccc for the active window
> border and #666666 for the inactive window border). No silly
> gradients on the titlebar: legibility for the poorly sighted demands
> a solid block recognizeable as such.
>
> * Window title bar font big, similar to what I described for the
> terminal emulator font, and very contrasty with the window title bar
> background color.
>
> * Active window's titlebar *VERY* noticible at a moment's glance. My
> active titlebar has a background of #DD0000 and foreground #CCffff.
> I'm not color blind, but if I were, I might prefer something like
> #000000 on #FF6666. Ugly to most of us, but to a poorly-sighted
> colorblind person this would be a saving grace.
>
> As you read this, it will sound horribly ugly to you, but please
> remember it will be used by very few. Most people will use the standard
> theme. The only purpose of this alternate theme is to help those whose
> vision is so bad they can't afford pretty. And please remember, unless
> this alternate theme is either default or dead-bang easy and intuitive
> to get to, the poorly sighted person will not have the visual acuity to
> navigate the standard theme enough to make their computer legible.
>
> Thanks,
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> September 2016 featured book: Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/28
>
>
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