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Author Topic: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm  (Read 8693 times)

Offline henry

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text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« on: October 05, 2010, 04:34:52 AM »
 The text displayed on AppBrowser and the terminals are very small, is there any way to increase the text font size?

Thanks.

Offline moB

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2011, 10:56:53 AM »
henry,

don't know much, but can venture to answer part of your question .

I am not sure about the appbrowser, but there is an easy way to increase the font size in aterm.

I made you a small example script.  You can save it in your tc directory as myterm and run it with
Code: [Select]
./myterm
(from the tiny default CLI :^)


Code: [Select]
#! /bin/sh
#
# opens aterm with selected font.
# To see fonts installed say xlsfonts at CLI (terminal)
# The ones at the bottom work this way.
# Do the ones at top of listing work in .Xdefaults? (I've not yet tried this)
#
# start this with ./myterm if in tc directory.
#
# pink is perhaps easier on the eyes -- find colors and effects you like
#
aterm -fn 10x20 -sh 94 -tint lightyellow -fg orange &
exit


One can make a TCE from this to load at boot.

See the wikki: http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/Creating+Personal+Icons
[Thanks to: dentonlt , OldAdamUser2 , Sandras , curaga and Kingdomcome]


Perhaps the fonts listed above by the xlsfonts command are suitable for use in the /home/tc/.Xdefaults file?
If that's the case your problems with appbrowser will also be solved.

I like to just say (ie type) "aterm ...bla bla bla & exit" and make the terminal as I like it at each use.
You might do it this way, too.

Hope it helps!

moB


No more the whale did me confine.
 --Melville, Moby Dick


4. Saying smart things and giving smart answers are important.
   Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important.
 --Bob Sutton
« Last Edit: January 08, 2011, 10:59:05 AM by moB »

Offline gerald_clark

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2011, 11:33:14 AM »
You could also add an aterm alias in .ashrc.

Offline rbacher

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2011, 11:19:13 PM »
I have been working on the exact same problem. I have a very small screen and it's very hard to see the small fonts. I figured out how to change the fonts in aterm, that's not so hard, but I can't figure out how to make the fonts bigger in Tiny Core in general (cpanel, appbrowser,etc)?  One suggestion was to edit .Xdefaults but that didn't work. If you run a Tiny Core program (for example, appbrowser) from the command line in a terminal window, you can get a list of options by running $ appbrowser -h however there wasn't any option for fonts. I tried to set a bigger font in .xsession but that didn't work either. Can anyone help? Thanks

Offline roberts

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2011, 01:23:20 AM »
Typically specifying a lower resolution results in larger characters throughout.
If using Xvesa see Xvesa on the control panel or at boot time with the xsetup boot option.
10+ Years Contributing to Linux Open Source Projects.

Offline moB

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2011, 03:27:07 AM »
Typically specifying a lower resolution results in larger characters throughout.
If using Xvesa see Xvesa on the control panel or at boot time with the xsetup boot option.

I feel as though I should be asking something important--this is my chance!

A mundane question: How does one deal with the application windows opening in sizes that run off the edge of the screen at low resolutions?

My son's machine is set to a low pixel size. He asks me, but I use 1024x768, so no issue.

He's working on pygame, most of the other users have high screen-resolution by default in their games.

I started him at five on logo, then HTML, javascript, css, mysql, xml, perl, python, Cpp, and next FLTK  :)
He's ten.

I feel a bit slow around him. Any tip you can give  me will help me out a lot.

Thanks for everything roberts!

moB


Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes  glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl's forehead of heaven.
--Melville, Moby Dick

Offline TaoTePuh

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2011, 07:37:56 AM »
Maybe you are looking for CTRL+ALT+- or CTRL+ALT+M in FLWM ?

For more (FLWM) shortcuts, see
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/3.x/tcz/flwm_topside.tcz.info
« Last Edit: January 10, 2011, 07:40:45 AM by TaoTePuh »

Offline rbacher

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2011, 08:54:05 PM »
Typically specifying a lower resolution results in larger characters throughout.
If using Xvesa see Xvesa on the control panel or at boot time with the xsetup boot option.

I am using Xfbdev on an OLPC XO computer. Any idea how I can specify a lower resolution? Thanks

Offline maro

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2011, 09:26:37 PM »
Have you tried to see what FB modes are supported?

If you use boot code 'vga=ask' you should be able to get a list (after pressing "ENTER" when requested). Since I'm not a FB user myself I'm not sure, but I was only ever able to specify a FB resolution at boot time. I did so via a suitable 'vga=...' boot code, but others might know better.

Offline moB

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2011, 01:21:41 PM »

Thanks for that TaoTePuh!

Exactly what I needed  :)


[I am using Xfbdev on an OLPC XO computer. Any idea how I can specify a lower resolution? Thanks

rbacher,

As maro was saying, you set the framebuffer size using the vga= bootcode.

Xfbdev then uses this info for its resolution. See this informative discussion:

Quote
    xfbdev uses the resolution of the framebuffer configuration set via the "vga="-bootparameter. If it's set to text-mode, it can't run at all.
 
  http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?action=printpage;topic=7021.0

The FAQ lists these 640x480 sizes, for example (or use ask as advised above by maro):

  vga={769,784,785,786} Choose one of these 640x480 sizes, or use another.
 
http://www.tinycorelinux.com/faq.html#bootcodes

More vga codes listed in FAQ.


moB

  "That I will, and thank ye very much, my fine fellow"
--Melville, Moby Dick



Offline rbacher

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2011, 08:23:51 PM »
Changing vga= didn't work. The boot code was set to vga=788. I changed it to 785 but the screen resolution stayed the same. I tried a couple of other numers. No change. I tried vga=text-mode which the faq says "can't run at all" but it ran fine. Something else is controlling my screen resolution. I suspect it is because I have an olpc XO computer. They are very different somehow. I don't run (because I can't) tinycore out of the box. I have some modified version specially adapted for the XO. It's a neat little computer, very sturdy and great for travelling, and I have everything humming on it except for these teensy size fonts on the tinycore utilities (cpanel, appbrowser, etc).

Offline rbacher

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2011, 08:51:36 PM »
If it helps anyone understand my situation, so they can maybe help me to make my system fonts larger (or screen resolution smaller), the version of Tinycore (it's actually microcore) l run was specially created for the XO computer [removed, see rule/guideline 6]

When the XO boots, it gets the Tinycore boot codes (and other boot files) from a file unique to the XO named "olpc.fth". Without that file the XO won't boot. Other boot codes needed for Tinycore are there (such as tce=). Yet vga= seems to have no effect on my screen resolution.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2011, 01:11:02 AM by ^thehatsrule^ »

Offline tinypoodle

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2011, 09:21:41 PM »
And what happens if you boot with 'vga=ask' (see Reply #8!)?
"Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster." Niklaus Wirth - A Plea for Lean Software (1995)

Offline moB

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2011, 09:30:20 PM »
rbacher,

yeah, I see...

It seems you might try starting TC in CLI (no GUI), then:

Code: [Select]
sudo xfbdev -screen 800x600x24 && export DISPLAY=:0.0 || echo Failed
startx
(nb. && means run second command if first one works, that is returns a zero.
       || means if not success... so don't say "startx".)

I found these links below:

Best results come with persistence.

moB


I protested my innocence of these things
--Melville, Moby Dick



[removed, see rule/guideline 6]


Do they all work the same way?
 
    

You are not the only one...
<snip>
   You'll see that the fonts are pretty small in the apps. Should be some
   way to increase them altogether adjusting the dpi but I could not find
   anything easily. If you know the trick for tinycore running in Xfbdev,
   please let us know.
</snip>
[removed 6]      
 
 
<snip>
   Try to see if from the console (press ctrl+alt+del) either of these
   commands will execute w/o errors and get you to the desktop when you  
   enter it as sudo.
   Code:
   Xfbdev -dpi 200 -mouse /dev/input/mice,5 &
   export DISPLAY=:0.0
   # and/or
   Xfbdev -screen 1200x900x16 -mouse /dev/input/mice,5 &
   export DISPLAY=:0.0
   startx
   change the -dpi value to something  smaller (150) and/or the -screen
   option in the second case. See how it goes. I'm not sure that the    
   framebuffer can support different resolutions on the XO but try it just
   the same.
</snip>



Xfbdev manual:
 http://www.xfree86.org/current/Xfbdev.1.html

TinyX:

 This incarnation of TinyX is colloquially known as kdrive.


 Xfbdev [:display] [option...]

 -screen widthxheight[xdepth[xfreq]][@rotation]
          Use a screen of the specified width, height, screen depth,
          frequency, and rotation (0, 90, 180 and 270 are legal values).


====

Edit:
Code: [Select]
sudo xfbdev -screen 800x600x24 && sudo export DISPLAY=:0.0 && startx || echo Failed

The manual says to make both screen commands as "sudo".
« Last Edit: January 25, 2011, 12:43:36 PM by moB »

Offline rbacher

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Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2011, 10:20:03 PM »
And what happens if you boot with 'vga=ask' (see Reply #8!)?

Nothing different happens. I already tried it  It is clear that vga= in the boot code on the system I have makes no difference. I just now took it out altogether. There's no vga= anything in my boot code and it makes no diference one way or the other. Something else is going on.