Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => TCB Q&A Forum => Topic started by: henry on October 05, 2010, 04:34:52 AM

Title: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: henry 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.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: moB 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

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: gerald_clark on January 08, 2011, 11:33:14 AM

You could also add an aterm alias in .ashrc.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher 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

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: roberts 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.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: moB on January 10, 2011, 03:27:07 AM

Quote from: roberts 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.

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

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: TaoTePuh 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

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 10, 2011, 08:54:05 PM

Quote from: roberts 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.

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

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: maro 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.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: moB on January 11, 2011, 01:21:41 PM

Thanks for that TaoTePuh!

Exactly what I needed  :)

Quote from: rbacher on January 10, 2011, 08:54:05 PM

[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 (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 (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

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher 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).

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher 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.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: tinypoodle on January 11, 2011, 09:21:41 PM

And what happens if you boot with 'vga=ask' (see Reply #8!)?

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: moB 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".

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 11, 2011, 10:20:03 PM

Quote from: tinypoodle on January 11, 2011, 09:21:41 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.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 11, 2011, 10:45:11 PM

[removed 6]

Yes, indeed. I have several posts there. Mavrothal was great helping me to solve other issues with installing a minimalistic microcore onto an olpc XO computer. I previously installed the Tinycore versions he has there, but I wanted (and I now have) an even more minimalistic OS. Quite possibly Tinycore has some way to make the fonts bigger, however I am running Quozl's microcore for the XO. Boot time from a cold boot is 24 sec (on a dinky powered XO)!  I will try the other ideas you wrote. There has to be a way to do this. I have succeeded in making all of the other fonts larger and perfectly readable. It's just the "system" fonts (cpanel, appbrowser, etc) that remain microscopically small

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: maro on January 12, 2011, 01:32:00 AM

So it appears that some "special" boot loader has some influence on the outcome, I just wonder what the result of cat /proc/cmdline might be.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 12, 2011, 09:47:18 PM

Quote from: maro on January 12, 2011, 01:32:00 AM

So it appears that some "special" boot loader has some influence on the outcome, I just wonder what the result of cat /proc/cmdline might be.

no_console_suspend selinux=0 fbcon=font:SUN12x22 quiet norestore tz=EST+5 home=LABEL=sd tce=LABEL=sd opt=LABEL=sd

Does this help any in figuring out how to make the system fonts bigger or the resolution smaller?

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 12, 2011, 10:16:07 PM

I tried:

sudo xfbdev -screen 800x600x24 && export DISPLAY=:0.0 || echo Failed
startx

The result was the same as when I do $ Xfbdev.
What I get is a gray and black cross hatching with an X instead of a mouse arrow. When I go back to the CLI by pressing alt-cntrl-del, I see the following line:

$ Could not init font path element /usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi, removing from list!

Under /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ I have 75dpi and misc but not 100dpi.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: maro on January 13, 2011, 03:40:09 AM

Quote from: rbacher on January 12, 2011, 09:47:18 PM

no_console_suspend selinux=0 fbcon=font:SUN12x22 quiet norestore tz=EST+5 home=LABEL=sd tce=LABEL=sd opt=LABEL=sd

Does this help any in figuring out how to make the system fonts bigger or the resolution smaller?

Maybe not directly, I just wanted to be sure what boot codes are getting passed to the kernel. I assume all the ones after 'quiet' are your own. But where is the 'vga=...', and are the first three also specified by yourself? This must be a rather "special" setup ...

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: tinypoodle on January 13, 2011, 03:47:10 AM

FWIW, you can find the boot options for fbcon here:

http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: tinypoodle on January 13, 2011, 03:52:03 AM

Quote from: maro on January 13, 2011, 03:40:09 AM

Maybe not directly, I just wanted to be sure what boot codes are getting passed to the kernel. I assume all the ones after 'quiet' are your own. But where is the 'vga=...', and are the first three also specified by yourself? This must be a rather "special" setup ...

What puzzles me most is the 'selinux=0' part...   ::)

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: tinypoodle on January 13, 2011, 04:01:10 AM

Quote from: rbacher on January 12, 2011, 10:16:07 PM

Under /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ I have 75dpi and misc but not 100dpi.

FWIW, same here   ;)

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 13, 2011, 10:09:40 AM

Quote from: maro on January 13, 2011, 03:40:09 AM

Maybe not directly, I just wanted to be sure what boot codes are getting passed to the kernel. I assume all the ones after 'quiet' are your own. But where is the 'vga=...', and are the first three also specified by yourself? This must be a rather "special" setup ...

Yes, it's a special set up. Not sure what I am allowed to write about it. Some previous text I wrote was deleted per Rule 6 (which I then looked up, it says "6. No specific remasters/remixes releases or discussion"). Not sure why that's a rule but I am not here to make any trouble, only to look for help.

I have an olpc XO computer. It comes with a child like OS named Sugar. You can't just replace it with another OS like you can on a "normal" computer, there's something different in the hardware. There are a few OS's out there specially written for the XO by people who know how to do it. A popular one is Ubuntu adapted for the XO. I ran that for awhile however I wanted a smaller OS. That's because the XO computer is very low powered, small ram, slow processing speed, etc. So my novice wanderings led me to Tinycore, and then to Microcore. Microcore is a perfect fit for the XO computer. But you can't just put microcore "as is" onto an XO computer. It has to be modified in ways beyond my ability. Fortunately there is such a modified version out there written by someone named Quozl. I installed it and it runs perfectly. My only problem is the tiny system fonts.

The boot codes after "quiet" are required by the XO computer. There is currently no "vga=" because it does nothing. Originally it came as "vga=788".  At the suggestion of a message I received (I think in this thread) I changed it to "vga=785" and I tried some other numbers. This idea was based on the fact that I run Xfbdev and, it was explained to me, the frame buffer is made bigger or smaller by the "vga=" setting. But that's not what happens on an XO with the OS that I have. The "vga=" does nothing. It's just not there now because I made 5 or 6 changes to it, to see what would happen, and the last change was simply to take it out altogether.

Finally, sorry for the long post, and thanks to those who have tried (are trying) to help me. This may be an unsolvable condition due to installing a modified microcore onto a computer that has unusual hardware.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: tinypoodle on January 13, 2011, 11:12:36 AM

If vga=ask doesn't bring up any prompt with a choice, it is unlikely that setting any other value would do anything.

it does not make much sense to speculate about a kernel which is obviously very different from the TC stock kernel without seeing its config, but as you seem to use a fbcon kernel parameter, perhaps you might do trial and error with other fbcon parameters, as per the manual.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: rbacher on January 13, 2011, 04:00:01 PM

I tried vga=ask along with several other combinations (vga=785, vga=text-mode, and others) just trying by hit and miss to get the screen to show up different in some respect. The vga=ask did not bring up a prompt, and no combination did anything different. I can only conclude that "vga=" does nothing in my set up

I agree that it makes no sense to speculate about this. I don't want to waste anyone's time. In other situations I have gotten excellent answers on forums like this one. It's hard for me to know when I will get an answer that works and when I won't. I grew up with Windows and only recently tried to do things with Linux. It can be incredibly frustrating, I feel like I am stumbling around in the dark much of the time.

I will try some different combinations with the fbcon parameter tonight. As always, thanks for trying to help me.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: CleverClogs on March 26, 2025, 04:41:48 PM

A very old thread ... but I will add this as it is regarding the original topic on page 1.
I will start a new thread if asked to.
This uses a simple trick (see important note below) nothing special.
It might help someone with ageing eyesight see all the apps in the list

This zooms in everything (rather than just changing the font which sometimes spoils gui layouts)

Use xrandr to determine a safe LOW resolution for your monitor (with correct aspect ratio}

xrandr > xrandr.txt
I chose 720x400 to display the app browser, whereas normally I use 1280x720

For an openbox menu or pipe menu use this one-liner and a small script (see below)

Code: [Select]

<item label="" icon="/usr/local/share/pixmaps/Tango-24px/package-x-generic.png"><action name="Execute"><command>sh -c "/home/tc/.config/openbox/size.sh &amp; apps &amp;&amp; /home/tc/.X.d/autostart.sh"</command></action></item>The app browser opens straight away when clicked in the menu.
After a delay of one second the app browser now fills the screen with panning for extra room.
Install apps or whatever.
Close app browser and the original size is restored by autostart.sh.

Important note:
&amp; x1 allows the next menu item to fire immediately
&amp; &amp; x2 waits until the previous menu item finishes before firing the next menu item

Zoomed in
/home/tc/.config/openbox/size.sh

Code: [Select]

#! /bin/bash
sleep 1
xrandr --fb 1280x1440
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 720x400 --panning 1280x1440 --scale 1.0x1.0
Zoomed out
/home/tc/.X.d/autostart.sh

Code: [Select]

# just the part for xrandr
sleep 1
xrandr --fb 1280x1440
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1280x720 --panning 1280x1440 --scale 1.0x1.0
    [Edit]: Added code tags.  Rich

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: Rich on March 26, 2025, 05:03:08 PM

Hi CleverClogs
Please use  Code Tags  when posting commands and responses seen in a terminal. To use  Code Tags  click on the  #  icon
above the reply box and paste your text between the  Code Tags  as shown in this example:

Quote

[code][   36.176529] pcm512x 1-004d: Failed to get supply 'AVDD': -517
[   36.176536] pcm512x 1-004d: Failed to get supplies: -517
[   36.191753] pcm512x 1-004d: Failed to get supply 'AVDD': -517[/code]

It will appear like this in your post:

Code: [Select]

[   36.176529] pcm512x 1-004d: Failed to get supply 'AVDD': -517
[   36.176536] pcm512x 1-004d: Failed to get supplies: -517
[   36.191753] pcm512x 1-004d: Failed to get supply 'AVDD': -517
Code Tags  serve as visual markers between what you are trying to say and the information you are posting. They also preserve
spacing so column aligned data displays properly. Code tags also automatically add horizontal and or vertical scrollbars
to accommodate long lines and listings.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: CleverClogs on March 26, 2025, 06:08:50 PM

Thanks Rich for the note regarding code tags.
I did my post today very quickly using <code> </code> and did not look at any of the buttons or emoticons.
Having not posted code anywhere for about a decade I relied on my memory.
I already know all the newbie descriptives about code tags what they are etc.
I just did a typo.
So of course it will be \[code\] not <code> in future.
Anyway great distro I have been using tinycore a long time (>7 years) and before that I used other minimal fast distros. Linux since about 2006.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: Rich on March 26, 2025, 09:06:06 PM

Hi CleverClogs
I did notice your attempt at code tags. I just thought I'd give
you a friendly nudge in the right direction with one of my
standard posts on the topic.

Welcome to the forum.

Title: Re: text font too small to see on AppBrowser and Aterm
Post by: CleverClogs on March 27, 2025, 01:18:05 AM

Hi Rich
That's okay.
Thank you for the correction.