Talk:Terminal

Merge

It looks to me as though Terminal and Terminal Activity should be merged, probably into Terminal, since that's the activity name.

There's a note in the Terminal page code saying "Intentionally separate" from Katie in regards to a previous merge proposal, but it's not clear why. The two pages aren't clear about any distinction. Tdang 13:46, 7 April 2008 (EDT)

The Terminal Activity page is part of the Support FAQ, whereas the Terminal page is a (rather anemic) home page for the Terminal activity. I suggest rebuilding the Terminal page as an along the lines of Moon or Log. I think we should also be using more Wiki hierarchy, for example FAQ/Terminal Activity and Activities/Terminal. wade 21:10, 16 May 2008 (EDT)

I did my best to resolve this merge, by making the Terminal page into a standard activity page, and moving some of the extra instructions into this FAQ page. Comments welcome. For now, I am removing the merge proposal banners. wade 05:55, 23 May 2008 (EDT)

Looks good to me, Wade. Thanks! Tdang 10:02, 23 May 2008 (EDT)

Duplicate of Terminal Activity page?

It looks like this page and the Terminal Activity page are somewhat out-of-sync duplicates? Should the be merged? Tdang 23:49, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Feature Suggestions

It would be nice if, when you resumed a Terminal activity from the journal, you got back right into the stage you where when you stopped it. I imagine it would be nice for kids, so they could have different on-going terminal activities, which they could stop and later resume transparently.

Also would be good to allow sharing of Terminal activities. Of course, each Terminal activity would be bound to the machine it was started on, but would be usefull to have a kid help a friend by entering into his Terminal activity (let me fix that up for you), or for two or more kids to explore the system together through this interface, having a chat box to help discussion.

As for "let me fix that up for you", I believe that you can ssh from one machine to another - at least I can ssh from the OLPC to my Linux box and vice-versa. Of course for a kid that may be somewhat advanced, but then so is the terminal activity. Norm 22:36, 5 January 2008 (EST)

Keyboard Shortcuts

What are the copy/paste shortcuts? --198.145.74.169 22:22, 19 December 2007 (EST)

I'd like to know this, too. Ctrl-V/C seem to be translated literally and I can't find any button chords for it. I'd kind of suspect drag-and-drop from the frame but that doesn't seem to work currently. Thither 06:55, 21 December 2007 (EST)

Bugs

072509 09:23 MST: Now that i am on the page with later comments (why not just get rid of that previous one) here is a serious problem i have encountered in following the advice concerning increasing FONT size in Terminal. I would advise anyone against trying this.

I found terminal font of 8 rather small on this tiny OLPC screen. (too bad it doesn't have a VGA connection).

Concerning the advice and example about changing the Terminal Font: bad idea. It suggests changing from 8 to 16. Be advised that if you do this you may not be able to get back.

It worked the first time. However, i found the terminal font size too large. When i tried to repeat the steps described the text (to change to 12 which would have been a bit better than 8) the following happened:

I could change the line, but when i tried to implement it the edit information ran off and over itself. I couldn't find the entry place to enter "Yes" (Y). Now i am stuck and cannot figure out how to get back.

Going to Console (either one available -- that tiny white on black print) didn't do any good because i was automatically made a root and found myself trying to write "terminalRC" into the root folder.

I tried to reasonably increase the console text size, but couldn't understand it all; and though i was given a choice of (unfamiliar and maybe uninstalled) fonts, nothing would happen.

I am not familiar at all with LINUX and need SPECIFIC step-by-step instructions on how to get out of this.

I had posted this earlier on the page that contained the first entry above. (BTW why are these pages so slow to open. I have a 1.8mb connection and am accessing this through Safari on an Apple 400GB iMAC)

Regards:

Lost the Terminal Entirely on OLPC

In attempting to change the font, previously mentioned, I found that I could change the FONT using the VI editor which comes with the OLPC Terminal Program. The first time I did it right and got the Font back to 8. I thought maybe an even smaller Font would work better and so tried to use VI again to do that. Unfortunately, I made an error and apparently butchered the file ~/.terminalrc. Thereafter when I attempted to launch terminal, the terminal symbol flashed (forever).

I tried the Update from the Control Panel, hoping that perhaps Terminal would be reestablished. Such was not the case.

Then I tried to ERASE the terminal and reinstall it. Still didn't work.

Finally, after doing some reading, I totally reinstalled the OLPC system, including flashing the firmware. After everything installed, I found that the Terminal Program worked again OK.

To solve my small print, old eyes problem. I installed the VNC Activity. Now when I want to do something involving the terminal I use (on a MAC) Chicken of VNC. That brings up terminal print to nicely readable size. I can also do screen captures for later reference. My monitor is an ACER 1716W and the size is 1440 x 900, 75hz, millions. On the older CRT Monitor I used, the entire Terminal screen wouldn't fit. I do have to do all the typing and mousing on the XO itself (which sits in close proximity). Don't have a sophisticated enough remote program (or enough smarts) to control the XO from the Mac.

Anybody Out There? 10/18/09 17:40MST

Is anybody out there looking at any of these entries. This is a very non-intuitive way to communicate changes. Several improvements

First: Please date the entries (as Norm did back in 2008). There is no magical keystroke that i know of to do this. I just looked at my calendar and clock and typed it in. Common sense:). Reacting to out-of-date "edits" is a pointless exercise. After examining some of the other entries under "edit" i realized that a new heading is created by placing "==" on either side of the text. Simple.

Second: I think this whole OLPC project is overwhelmed by duplicaton and overlap from a lot of places. Be good to have some unified "tree" that would explain where to go.

I just looked at the help link for editing on this wiki. It would take a course in itself to completely understand it. A printout for study, or an extremely photographic memory, would help:). p.s I don't understand the purpose of the Summary box above the "this is a minor edit" and "watch this page" buttons. It seems like it could all be said within this entry.

Regards WILLIS: