Msg: XyWrite in Ubuntu Linux

Thanks, Patricia. I need all the blessings I can get! The NIC in this computer is "onboard," hard-wired into the motherboard, so I figure it's some generic piece of junk. I don't blame Ubuntu for ignoring it, and even with the little I know about Linux, I know I can eventually work around this. I may go with a wireless NIC. The full installation of DOSBOX would have required a single command-line entry (and about 10 minutes) if my network had been recognized automatically. DOSBOX will not install without a few other files that it depends on. These are retrieved automatically if an open internet connection is already configured. When you try to install manually, the "package manager" used to install all programs in Ubuntu tells you what's missing. Then several of those missing pieces have an unmet dependency or two. So that was frustrating and time consuming, going back and forth with downloads! But I have to say, Ubuntu is thoughtfully structured to make this possible. Seemed like most of these additional files were for sound configuration, which would be important for running DOS games but isn't at all for Xy. Tonight I located and customized the configuration file for DOSBOX (still haven't mastered the mysterious Linux directory structure, so it took some trial and error to find it and I got incredibly lucky and saved it in a totally different directory which turned out to be the correct one). I modified it to "comment out" all the sound elements because I won't be using this computer for DOS games or anything else requiring sound. XyWrite now runs much quicker and smoother, but seems to have a few hiccups still. Some of these almost certainly have to do with settings carried over from my recycled U2 registry (STARTUP.INT has been tweaked already). Turns out DOSBOX includes its own very clever "keymapper" that was a breeze to figure out, so I have no known hotkey conflicts now. I even created a "launcher," which is what Ubuntu calls a desktop shortcut, using the DOSBOX configuration file as you might use a batch file in DOS. The ol' XyWrite icon is my only desktop "launcher" so far. I have a couple of screenshots. I can post them on some dark secret corner of my website and send a link to the list, if anyone is interested. But right now, I'm going to get some sleep. Jeff Message-ID: 46352AD0.1000001@xxxxxxxx Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:31:28 -0500 From: "Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx MIME-Version: 1.0 To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Buying new computer - what operating systems will work with Xywrite Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit peregrine@xxxxxxxx wrote: > I've just succeeded today in launching both XyWrite IV and XyWrite III+ > on Ubuntu Linux, running within DOSBOX on a Dell Optiplex GX1 (Pentium > 3, 640MB RAM). Glory, Hallelujah! Bless you, Jeff. Way to go! > The operating system is a purely default install of Ubuntu 7.0 from a CD > image downloaded from http://www.ubuntu.com > ... I then updated that installation using the "alternate" CD update to > version 7.04 (I updated this way because the default installation did > not recognize either my onboard network interface or sound card). This > may not be the ideal, as it's the "bleeding edge" stable version of > Ubuntu rather than the "long term service" version 6.06, but I imagine > there's little difference as far as XyWrite is concerned (Ubuntu 6.06 > also failed to recognize my NIC, which is why I tried 7.0). I do keep hearing about various Linux distros having trouble recognizing NICs. Seems odd, since surely *nix is much more a NOS that any piece of Redmond Rubbish. > ... and after installing a few other things that DOSBOX depends on for > its functionality. Most of these will not actually be needed for > XyWrite, but DOSBOX looks for them because it is designed mainly to run > old DOS-based games. XyWrite does indeed work, though! Please do advise us what those "few other things" are. Linux docs are not, I have found, very good about telling you what else you might need. > One way or another, I'll have to remap the keyboard file > for XyWrite or for DOSBOX. DOSBOX has its own hotkeys that conflict with > some of Xy's. Ctrl-F9, for example, instantly shuts down DOSBOX (and > XyWrite, or anything else running within DOSBOX). So that's got to > change, or I can't switch into Xy's "expanded" mode. Remapping the Xy keyboard is probably easier. Everyone does it, to varying degrees. And was Ctrl-F9 perhaps a typo? Because Ctrl-F8 is the out-of-the-box key for Expanded mode. > I have had better luck with Ubuntu Linux > installations on other (newer) computers, which were instantly > configured correctly for internet access, so this is unlikely to be an > issue for most of you if you ever decide to try it. But if it IS a > problem, I have saved all the files I needed for installation and will > keep them in a ZIP file I can share. Hmm, I wonder if *nix assumes an always on connection? I have not been able to set up my dial-up account on Xandros, mostly because my "Linux-friendly" ISP's instructions want me to use programs and utilities that don't exist in Xandros, or else (using the GUI) to enter data in infoboxes that Xandros's wizard doesn't provide. I have Suse, but it's on a DVD, and with squirrels in the attic and whatever, I haven't had a chance to get a DVD drive yet. > I will try to find time soon to write out some simple instructions for > how to do all this, and maybe we can post the zipped file and the > instructions on the XyWwweb site, xywrite.com and elsewhere? > Yes! Please! -- Patricia M. Godfrey priscamg@xxxxxxxx