Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

tigrmesh · 2008-06-21 16:06:52

@ ioky:

The idea of life without X fascinates me; I know I will have to try it sometime. Enjoy your adventure!

Berticus wrote:

Also, why would you use gnu screen? If you're in runlevel 3, you can just hit Alt+function key and you'll get a new virtual terminal...

Because you can't scroll up in a virtual terminal. Here is a quote from a gnu screen tutorial:

To scroll back through screen's history, first enable the copy mode by pressing Ctrl+a [ . Now, use either one of the arrow keys, page up, page down, home and end keys to scroll through screen's history.

I don't use screen because I use terminals in X. If I were using virtual terminals a lot, I would use screen.

Here are a couple of links that might be of interest: http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/bl … without-x/ and http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=45962.

I don't use IRSSI; I like weechat better.

Last edited by tigrmesh (2008-06-21 16:07:37)

indoultimate · 2008-06-21 16:43:59

well,i think it is a nice idea,but maybe u can try cubuntu ,google it ,it is ubuntu without x,purely command line,maybe will give nice base.but, i think ,if it just command line that u would like to use, arch base system and cubuntu will do the same. thats just my opinion,if using x arch is the best!

kinection · 2008-06-21 16:57:41

Also, why would you use gnu screen? If you're in runlevel 3, you can just hit Alt+function key and you'll get a new virtual terminal...

Screen offers:
* history
* pretty much unlimited number of "tabs"
* ability to organize and name your tabs
* ability to have multiple sessions that you can detach, disconnect, and reattach to
* cut and paste between terminals
* silence/activity monitoring
* split (have multiple shells running and in view)
* locking

The most important features being the ability to detach and to have multiple terminals in one session.

pauldonnelly · 2008-06-21 23:04:23

vogt wrote:

pauldonnelly wrote:
...And being able to just press Enter on a picture, text file, pdf, web page, POV-Ray source file, Java .jar file, Hydrogen drum pattern, and so on, then have the right thing happen without tying up the terminal is very good.
Artificial terminal shortages?
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/28/200 … cq1.th.png
That is what X with a nice wm sure solves. That many xterminals is a brain overload (and not that nice on memory, especially if the hardware is half your age ). But you can see that the marginal cost of another xterm/urxvt(c) is insignificant.

I'd rather avoid the brain overload of all those terminals, and of remembering whether to put "&!" (background and disown) at the end of every graphical program I launch (except when I don't want to).

ioky · 2008-06-22 02:27:22

I have a quick question, did Arch have most of software I listed in package? I mean that would be make life a lot easier. or I should ask, which one I listed doesn't have a Arch package.

Thanks all your support, and suggestion.

ioky · 2008-06-22 03:17:06

Ok, here it is. I am now officially Name this Project, "Arch Clinu"

Thank for all the people from difference places, I am collect a list of CLI software that would make a computer run purely under CLI, and do most of the Everyday Computing, such as List to music, view the web, burning CD/DVD, and etc. What this project really do is, to help the others/ myself, who want to know more about CLI/Linux. I believe, we can learn faster when we are at the right environment. I name this project "Arch Clinu" because this sub-distro, is base on Arch Linux, which we all know how good it is and the idea behind it. Clinu is original come from the make-up-work, Linu, (Linux without X). and with the cool Idea from "sniffles" ("Linu (Linux without X)" <-- witty. How about CLInux ?) I combine them together. So that is why it is call Arch Clinu. to me it make perfect sense. (It is okay, if you think it is non-sense, hehe)

Once I organize all the software I have found, and pick up the one seem most reasonable to be the "default". I will make another post to announce it.

Please keep this topic going, if you get any idea or suggestion. please let me know.

One last word, this action is not against X.org. or any Desktop environment. It is just here to help people get a difference taste of linux/ learning it at another way.

Thanks all of your support all the way. hehe.....

vogt · 2008-06-23 01:50:50

pauldonnelly wrote:

I'd rather avoid the brain overload of all those terminals, and of remembering whether to put "&!" (background and disown) at the end of every graphical program I launch (except when I don't want to).

To run gui programs, without any disowning considerations, use dmenu or similar bound to a random key in your window manager.

pauldonnelly · 2008-06-23 06:22:40

vogt wrote:

pauldonnelly wrote:
I'd rather avoid the brain overload of all those terminals, and of remembering whether to put "&!" (background and disown) at the end of every graphical program I launch (except when I don't want to).
To run gui programs, without any disowning considerations, use dmenu or similar bound to a random key in your window manager.

What when I want to run a program on a file? Dmenu is fine otherwise (I use it, as well as yeahlaunch).

vogt · 2008-06-23 07:39:09

@pauldonnelly: This is kind of getting off topic, but I have a solution!

dmenu might not help in completing files, but xmonad's (contrib) Xmonad.Prompt.Shell module does (and it's fast too).

Now, anything more complicated, and I guess we have to use an actual terminal

dawn · 2008-06-23 08:12:48

ioky wrote:

Please keep this topic going, if you get any idea or suggestion. please let me know.

gmailreader is great! (That is if you have a gmail account and don't like downloading mail to you computer)

Otherwise you've already mentioned all of the CLI programs I use.

ioky · 2008-06-23 17:33:52

So far, I get a good feeling on using the internet with all the CLI, and kind of like it. especially IMs. haha. What I really have trouble with is the Twin, and Screen. Like how can I actually running more then just one application at a time?

And one thing I would like to mention is the graphic mode in Links2, worked, but it freeze, and I can't quit because I can't do anything, well, at least I can't see anything happening.

pauldonnelly · 2008-06-23 19:39:15

vogt wrote:

@pauldonnelly: This is kind of getting off topic, but I have a solution!
dmenu might not help in completing files, but xmonad's (contrib) Xmonad.Prompt.Shell module does (and it's fast too).
Now, anything more complicated, and I guess we have to use an actual terminal

Oooor... I could use mc, which takes less typing and also takes care of selecting the proper program.

ioky wrote:

So far, I get a good feeling on using the internet with all the CLI, and kind of like it. especially IMs. haha. What I really have trouble with is the Twin, and Screen. Like how can I actually running more then just one application at a time?

Dunno about twin, but in screen you press ^a c (control+a then c) to get a new terminal, ^a ^a to "alt+tab" between two windows, ^a " to get a list of existing windows, and ^a number to select a window by number. ^a h will bring up a screen showing the key bindings. You can (and probably will want to) change ^a to something else. I like ^].

ioky · 2008-06-23 22:18:08

pauldonnelly wrote:

Dunno about twin, but in screen you press ^a c (control+a then c) to get a new terminal, ^a ^a to "alt+tab" between two windows, ^a " to get a list of existing windows, and ^a number to select a window by number. ^a h will bring up a screen showing the key bindings. You can (and probably will want to) change ^a to something else. I like ^].

Great tips pauldonnelly, Now, I just wondering how can I start screen automatically at boot time/ or start up, however you want to call it. starting screen at this case is very useful.

again Thank you so much for the tips

vogt · 2008-06-24 00:08:31

ioky wrote:

Great tips pauldonnelly, Now, I just wondering how can I start screen automatically at boot time/ or start up, however you want to call it. starting screen at this case is very useful.

mingetty to login automatically.

Then in ~/.bash_login have something like:

if [ $(tty) = /dev/vc/1 ]; then
      screen ......
fi

And you get screen starting whenever you login to the first vc.

scj · 2008-06-24 01:03:38

orpie is a pretty powerful RPN calculator.
Also, you should consider making zsh the default shell, because it's bad ass.

ioky · 2008-06-24 01:54:55

I just try out some framebuffer software, I found out that, if I am a pure console mod (running under VMware) I can't really quite "zgv" The system is just like freeze there, I have using it under screen, and I can't really do anything once I try to close zgv. actually it freeze if I type zgv -help too

Any one has any idea, what can I do? or why is that happening?

Last edited by ioky (2008-06-24 01:58:23)

Intrepid · 2008-12-26 05:43:24

ioky: Dosbox does not run without X. You can, however, run Dosemu in graphical mode. this requires root though to access DOS commands. Actually, it is MUCH faster than dosbox (about as fast as native DOS), and almost as accurate (uses freedos).

dosemu -V

uses the BIOS VGA mode.

I tried to use a console-only environment for a while. It was nice, but I ended up missing 1)modern games 2)some emulated games (zsnes & gens) 3) Youtube 4)OpenOffice Impress. I could have used youtube-dl to stream video to mplayer on the Framebuffer I guess. Add that and other video downloaders! It seems like just about every need except for Impress, some games, proprietary internet (e.g. if your workplace uses crappy web coding), and some emulation can be provided by the CLI. Another problem with CLI is complex scripts like Hindi and Urdu. Is Siag-Office listed?

Last edited by Intrepid (2008-12-26 05:47:50)

vogt · 2008-12-29 02:55:09

Intrepid wrote:

I tried to use a console-only environment for a while. It was nice, but I ended up missing 1)modern games 2)some emulated games (zsnes & gens) 3) Youtube 4)OpenOffice Impress. I could have used youtube-dl to stream video to mplayer on the Framebuffer I guess. Add that and other video downloaders! It seems like just about every need except for Impress, some games, proprietary internet (e.g. if your workplace uses crappy web coding), and some emulation can be provided by the CLI. Another problem with CLI is complex scripts like Hindi and Urdu. Is Siag-Office listed?

For number 4, you could theoretically use the beamer package for LaTeX. With that, it should be possible to write good presentations without previewing them. However looking up the documentation is either going to be tricky or a waste of paper without X.

3. Mplayer has output codecs aa and caca, for ascii and color ascii respectively, if that framebuffer output does not work.

moljac024 · 2008-12-29 11:15:00

Omg, just use X people!
Use ratpoison and open one terminal maximized, you won't even know you're in X, but you get the advantage of being able to use Firefox and OpenOffice

Procyon · 2008-12-29 12:41:14

vogt wrote:

3. Mplayer has output codecs aa and caca, for ascii and color ascii respectively, if that framebuffer output does not work.

Have you ever tried this out? You need a tiny font to get even something remotely recognizable and that will use way too much CPU. I don't see how it is anything but a joke.

Intrepid · 2008-12-30 18:48:41

I agree too much cpu, but not a problem on my fast machine. Theoretically one could write a script for elinks/lynx/whatever to pipe youtube to mplayer via youtube-dl.

@moljac024: absolutely, that's why I gave up on CLI-only and just use terminals for most tasks. Still, think about people who have 386 to pentiums or pentium IIs and 32MB of RAM and can choose between a)old, deprecated X11 and programs or b)fast, up-to-date CLI software. That's partly what this is about.

Last edited by Intrepid (2008-12-30 18:49:27)

Arch Linux

#26 2008-06-21 16:06:52

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#27 2008-06-21 16:43:59

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#28 2008-06-21 16:57:41

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#29 2008-06-21 23:04:23

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#30 2008-06-22 02:27:22

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#31 2008-06-22 03:17:06

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#32 2008-06-23 01:50:50

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#33 2008-06-23 06:22:40

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#34 2008-06-23 07:39:09

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#35 2008-06-23 08:12:48

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#36 2008-06-23 17:33:52

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#37 2008-06-23 19:39:15

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#38 2008-06-23 22:18:08

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#39 2008-06-24 00:08:31

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#40 2008-06-24 01:03:38

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#41 2008-06-24 01:54:55

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#42 2008-12-26 05:43:24

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#43 2008-12-29 02:55:09

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#44 2008-12-29 11:15:00

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#45 2008-12-29 12:41:14

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

#46 2008-12-30 18:48:41

Re: Setting up a pure CLI system Linu (Linux without X) NEED HELP

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