On Sun, 2005-03-27 at 15:34 +0200, Zbigniew Baniewski wrote:
> Hallo,

Hi,

first of all, this is the incorrect list for such questions.
current-users@ is for users of NetBSD-current, and you are using 2.0,
which is a stable release.  And, even if you used -current, all of
these questions are not specific to a NetBSD version.

You should have contacted netbsd-users@ or netbsd-help@.

> 1. Choosing a proper terminal type is a problem. Simply choosing "linux" is
> not a solution, because either I've got in return proper colors, but the
> screen gets ruined (ekg) - or still having proper colors, there aren't any
> "frames" (semigraphic) anymore (mp3blaster) and some function keys aren't
> working. It's very rare case, when the colours and the screen building
> both are OK (lynx).

I always use screen when in the console, and everything works
wonderfully inside it (TERM=screen, which is set automatically).
Obviously, setting TERM=linux manually won't work.

Before I discovered and got addicted to the screen tool, I used to set
the terminal type to wsvt25l1, which worked quite well.  But really, try
screen.  You won't regret it.

> 2. I can't understand, why <Delete> key behaves exactly just like
> <Backspace>. I prefer to have <Delete>, instead of just another <Backspace>,
> placed very close to the proper one. Is it possible?

I never use any of these keys (I prefer Ctrl+D and other emacs-like
keybindings), but I've just tested it and, in fact, they don't work
properly.  Take a look to stty(1); it may be of some use.

> 3. Some keys seem to work strange. F.e. running "mp3blaster" I noticed, that
> I cannot raise volume using ">" key. The similar thing occurs when running
> "aumix" - I cannot raise volume using "right arrow". In both cases I can
> only lower the volume. It's not any hardware/mixer problem. I can raise the
> volume using the ciffer keys. How can it be fixed?

Have you selected the correct keymap?

http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/wscons/#keyboard-maps

> 4. Haven't found any way to set the key-repeat speed. Does there exist one?

Yes.

http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/wscons/#keyboard-speed

> 5. Trying several other terminal types, occasionally I've got "core dumped"
> in return, when trying to run some apps. Seems, it sometimes depends on the
> chosen terminal type.

Using a terminal type not supported by the underlying terminal can lead
to problems, so this is not surprising.

> 6. Functionality of the "moused", when going to "copy & paste" text, is much
> less than the one of very old - well known from Linux - gpm. moused is very
> uncomfortable, but - as I can see - the only available at the moment. Or
> perhaps someone has ported gpm to NetBSD?

Can you say why it's so uncomfortable and "much less than gpm"?  I know
it has its problems, but still.

BTW, I hope you mean wsmoused, not moused, as they are very different
things.

http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/wscons/#moused
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/wscons/#wsmoused

> 7. Using my favourite text editor - joe - I've got strange errors directly
> in edited texts, when executing it from within vt100, vt220 and other "first
> choice" terminal types. F.e. when editing .profile file, I've got in some
> places within the text:
> 
> OOPS#       $NetBSD: dot.profile,v 
> [..]
> PATH=OOPS$HOME/bin:/bin:/sbin:/us
> [..]
> EXINIT=OOPS'set autoindent'
> 
> ...and so on. What does mean this "OOPS", inserted directly before some of
> the "extraordinary" characters?
> 
> No such problem, when wsvt25 is set as terminal type.

Dunno.  This is probably joe-specific behavior.

> 9. Why, as default shells, are chosen quite obsolete and uncomfortable (and
> even buggy - csh) shells like csh, ksh and sh - and the much more functional
> tcsh, bash and zsh needs to be installed additionally? I think, it should be
> quite opposite.

No.  First of all, /bin/sh is really fast and standards-compliant,
something you can't say about any of the other shells.  Second, /bin/ksh
is quite functional and more user-friendly, in case you want more than
the plain sh.  WRT csh, I wouldn't mind if it was removed, but it has
been the traditional BSD shell for a while, and some people still use
it.

Why are not the other shells in the base system?  Well, they don't
belong in there.  They are big and GPLed; this is not Linux.  (Not sure
about tcsh, though.)

> 10. It's curious, that until today there isn't ready internalization of
> console fonts. Found some "workarounds" for installation of ISO-8859-2
> characters (f.e. the one from netbsd.cz site), but when made it - I lost the
> entire semigraphic. Why not import the whole thing directly from FreeBSD?

i18n work is going on ATM; this is a free software project and, as such,
developers spend free time working on what they like or what they need.
Some of us would like to do more, but we either don't have the knowledge
or the time to achieve it.

Maybe you'd try VGA_RASTERCONSOLE in the kernel, a framebuffered vga
driver which can draw other encodings, but I can't be of much help here.

> 11. Such essential utility like mc should be available as ready-made,
> precompiled package. vfu isn't any equivalent for mc.

mc is in the packages collection.  A binary package should be available
in the FTP (and if it's not ATM, it's because it is vulnerable).  Just
FYI, new binary packages will be uploaded soon.

> 12. xmradio utility seem to be broken (it dumps core all the time). Didn't
> compile it from sources - it does need some pounds of dev-libraries.

Probably not our fault.  Build it from the sources and, if the problem
persists, either send-pr, mail tech-pkg@ or contact the original
authors.

> 13. Can't watch any TV using xawtv. Didn't find the reason. Perhaps someone
> knows, what's going on?

Without more information, we can't help.

Did the kernel recognize your card?  (Search for bktr in dmesg).
See bktr(4) for some options you can use to force the detection of your
card (I need them with mine, which is very old).

> 15. Couldn't it be much better to replace the whole package system with more
> functional one - perhaps to adopt the debian packaging system? Why keep the
> uncomfortable and less functional pkg? Just because NetBSD "should have
> it's own, different" packaging system? Why invent that wheel anew?

This looks like trolling; you don't specify any reason about why it
should be replaced, and just say "replace it with debian's one".
Uncomfortable?  Less functional?

It's true that pkgsrc could be improved in some ways, but its quality is
very good already.  Highly portable, free, and includes very nice
concepts such as the buildlink and wrappers framework, bulk builds,
stable branches, etc.

Not to say that Debian's packaging system is not free of problems
either.

Man, I used to be a Debian user and liked its packaging system a lot.
But now I love pkgsrc.  They are just (very) different.

> 16. Does there exist any JRE for NetBSD (as plugin for Firefox) - but not
> for using in "linux-emulation mode"?

No; and, as already said, you can blame Sun.  We can't do anything
unless we can provide native builds of Java for NetBSD. All we can offer
you are free VM's, such as Kaffe, SableVM or Wonka, all of which are in
pkgsrc.  Or the Linux VM's, which you've already discovered.

Install a firefox package built for Linux and all will be fine, as it
will be able to use the Java plugin. All of these are available in
pkgsrc.

> 17. Perhaps somebody can tell me the way to transfer entire installed NetBSD
> from one hdd to another (it's installed together with FreeDOS and NetBSD
> bootmanager)? Or even better: to make copy on the CD - and to install it back
> from such backup-CD to other hdd?

See dump(8), restore(8), installboot(8), newfs(8) and disklabel(8), just
to name a few.

Cheers,

-- 
Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmmv84@gmail.com>
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jmmv/
The NetBSD Project - http://www.NetBSD.org/