Hi John, I typed apt-get install gnome-orca. It is ready to go if I type yes. However, i have a couple of concerns. Will the desktop come up the next time I boot? I want to be sure the boot is in command-line moded. Orca was using an old and buggy version of liblouis. It replaced the good version that I was using for translation. Something to do with the search path for .so files. Thanks, John On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 01:53:50PM -0500, John G. Heim wrote: > I recommended the SSD drive because you seemed so concerned about speed. > Everything you say below sounds right to me. You cannot save a significant > amount of money buying less than 8Gb of ram or a hard drive smaller than > 1Tb. You will be able to switch to a gui some time in the future. > > If you are going to install debian yourself, basically what you want to do > is to unselect the graphical user interface when it gets to the page where > you select software to install. And then after you are finished with the > install, use apt to install the graphical user interface as a separate step. > I've done this many times myself but not for a year or so and my memory is a > little fuzzy. I think the gui (or it might be called the desktop) is item 10 > or 11 and it is selected by default. You have to unselect it and then > continue with the install. After it finishes and you reboot, it will be in > character mode. I think you can then install the gui by simply typing > "apt-get install gnome-orca". That will install orca, gnome, and all of > their dependencies. You can then start the gui by typing "startx". > > > > > Well, that's from memory. I could try it at home sometime soon but I won't > have time to try it until next week. > > > On 07/17/2016 03:53 PM, John J. Boyer wrote: > >With the information i have received from the list I would now say that > >8 GB of RAM is more than enough. Since Linux caches files in memory, the > >value of an SSD is debatable. I'll probably get a 1 TB hard drive. The > >performance with my present hard drive is fast enough, and 1 TB drives > >are cheap. > > > >I'll stick with a desktop tower and have bluetooth, an ethernet gigabit > >port, USB 2.9 and 3.0 ports, etc. > > > >How would I set up Debian so that it boots in command-line mode but I > >can start a desktop when I want it? Which desktop is most like Windows? > >Right now I have a new VGA monitor for work with sighted colleagues. > >Would this be enough? > > > >Thanks, > >John > > > >On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 12:16:35PM -0500, John G. Heim wrote: > >>I was going to say the same thinga bout getting 32 Gb of ram. The main > >>reason most people get as much as 32Gb for their personal workstations is > >>for on-line gaming. Or if you are into creating virtual machines you might > >>be able to use 32Gb of ram. But here at the Math Department at the UW, the > >>only machines we have with 32Gb of ram are used for research like modelling > >>cloud formations. None of our web server, mail server, database server, or > >>file server have 32 GB of ram. I think you could combine all 4 of those > >>functions onto one server and still get by with less than 32Gb of ram. If it > >>was me, I'd spend my money on an SSD drive. > >> > >>As for the cpu, at the Math department, we have bought nothing but Intel I5 > >>machines for the past several years. It used to be that Intel and AMD would > >>leapfrog each other with each new cpu release. But that hasn't happened > >>lately. I think the money Intel has been abel to spend on research has put > >>them ahead for good. I have a brand new PC on my desk at work but I turned > >>it off for the weekend. I can't see the cpu model right now but I know it is > >>some type of Intel I5. But the last 2 groups of machines we bought had Intel > >>I5-4570 and I5-4590 cpus. If you are doing something that actually will use > >>32Gb of ram, you might get an Intel I7 processor to go with that. But again, > >>I'd spend my money on an SSD drive. > >> > >> > >> > >> > >>On 07/16/2016 05:36 PM, Joel Roth wrote: > >>>Hi John, > >>> > >>>If you are working in the console, you won't generally need high > >>>performance hardware. If you compile a lot of software, or > >>>do disk intensive work, a solid-state disk is nice. I notice > >>>powerful processors make a difference in compressing video > >>>and any scientific computing. > >>> > >>>A big issue in new hardware is uefi vs BIOS booting. > >>>And in that motherboards shipped with the microsoft > >>>signed boot loading restrictions. > >>> > >>>http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/secureboot.html > >>> > >>>BIOS has been around a long time, and easy to deal with > >>>in a linux environment. > >>> > >>>Have fun, > >>> > >>>Joel > >>>John J. Boyer wrote: > >>>>Thanks for the information. I had forgotten some of the Linux terms, > >>>>such as swap file or partition. How do I go about setting up a tmpfs? > >>>> > >>>>The installation will be command-line only Braille only Debian. I might > >>>>add a desktop later, but I don't want it to be automatically loaded at > >>>>boot time. > >>>> > >>>>What CPU would be appropriae. I would guess something recent, but not > >>>>the latest. > >>>> > >>>>Thanks, > >>>>John > >>>> > >>>>On Sat, Jul 16, 2016 at 02:06:45PM -0400, Sam Hartman wrote: > >>>>>>>>>>"John" == John J Boyer <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > >>>>> John> I've more or less decided to replacer my ten-year-old Linux > >>>>> John> machine. It is giving error messages intermittently. Most of > >>>>> John> them are about sector errors, but others seem to have nothing > >>>>> John> to do with the hard drive. It may be more and more > >>>>> John> troublesome, even if the hard drive is replaced. Besides, it > >>>>> John> would be nice to get more up-to-date hardware. > >>>>> > >>>>> John> I'm thinking of getting 32 GB of ram. 8 GB will be for normal > >>>>> John> use. The other 24 GB will be in a ramdisk. > >>>>> > >>>>>I think you must have a DOS background here. > >>>>>An explicit RAM disk is rarely if ever useful on Linux. I'm tryinfg to > >>>>>remember if I even know how to create a block device backed by RAM... O, > >>>>>yeah, I can think of a way, but you probably don't want to do that. > >>>>> > >>>>>Instead, you probably do want to create something called a tmpfs. > >>>>>That's a filesystem backed by RAM. When your computer reboots all its > >>>>>contents go away. > >>>>> > >>>>>There are important differences between a tmpfs and a RAM disk. > >>>>>The biggest is that Linux will only use as much RAM as is needed by the > >>>>>tmpfs to store what currently lives in it. > >>>>>(You can set a maximum size, but with 32g I wouldn't bother) > >>>>> > >>>>>So, you can get the best of both worlds, storing your temporary files in > >>>>>RAM, but using RAM for RAM if you don't have 24G of temporary files at > >>>>>the moment. > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> John> Do I need a paging > >>>>> John> file? 8 GB of available ram should be more than enough. The > >>>>> John> paging file on my present machine always shows 0 usage, even > >>>>> John> with only 4 GB of ram. > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>>Having a paging file has a couple of affects even if it is not used, but > >>>>>no, you probably don't want a swap partition or file (linux names for > >>>>>paging) > >>>>> > >>>>> John> How do I avoid setting up a paging file > >>>>> John> during installation? I'm using Debian Jessie. > >>>>> > >>>>>In expert mode, avoid creating a swap partition and if asked don't > >>>>>create a swap file. > >>>>>If you don't want to use expert mode, don't worry about it; having a > >>>>>swap partition won't be a problem. > >>>>> > >>>>> John> How do i set up the ramdisk? I want to assign the temp > >>>>> John> directory to it. > >>>>> > >>>>>I think the installer will do that by default. > >>>>>But in /etc/fstab you want a line like > >>>>> > >>>>>none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0 > >>>>> > >>>>> John> It might be nice if the > >>>>> John> bin, sbin and usr > >>>>> John> directories were loaded onto it at boot-up. > >>>>> > >>>>>No need for that. > >>>>>Linux is also smart enough to cache files as they are used, storing > >>>>>copies in memory, so no value in moving them to the tmpfs. > >>>>> > >>>>>The file will be loaded the first time it is used. > >>>>>You could do that at boot for /bin, /sbin and /usr, but you probably > >>>>>don't want to. The reason is that the system is fairly busy at boot, > >>>>>and it would probably slow down things like bringing up your desktop and > >>>>>starting system services. The only advantage of pre-caching files on > >>>>>boot would be faster performance the first time you accessed a program > >>>>>after pre-caching is done. However you get slower boot times and slower > >>>>>performance during the pre-caching. > >>>>-- > >>>>John J. Boyer; President, > >>>>AbilitiesSoft, Inc. > >>>>Email: john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > >>>>Website: http://www.abilitiessoft.org > >>>>Status: 501(C)(3) Nonprofit > >>>>Location: Madison, Wisconsin USA > >>>>Mission: To develop softwares and provide STEM services for people with > >>>> disabilities which are available at no cost. > >>>> > >>>>_______________________________________________ > >>>>Blinux-list mailing list > >>>>Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > >>>>https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > >>_______________________________________________ > >>Blinux-list mailing list > >>Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > >>https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > -- > -- > John G. Heim; jheim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; sip://jheim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- John J. Boyer; President, AbilitiesSoft, Inc. Email: john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Website: http://www.abilitiessoft.org Status: 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Location: Madison, Wisconsin USA Mission: To develop softwares and provide STEM services for people with disabilities which are available at no cost. _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list