[Cuis-dev] VectorEnginePlugin: parts in motion

[Joseph Turco]

That's awesome. I could use the headless raspberry pi OS and start into smalltalk. Its what I've been aiming for really. I hope it can work with the pi400. I'll watch for your guide.

Regards,

Joseph Turco

Aug 8, 2021 11:06:47 AM ken.dickey at whidbey.com:

> On 2021-08-07 15:58, Joseph Turco wrote:
> 
>> You were able to get Cuis to start without windowing and use it?
>> Meaning booting into a console and starting Cuis? Kinda like using
>> Cuis as "the" operating system?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> I like simplicity and think about "value added".  Where can I add value?
> 
> Doing device drivers, setting up page tables, interrupt code, writing file systems and network drivers and testing them et cetera is _not_ where my interests and abilities reside.
> 
> So why not use a minimalist Linux "OS shim".  Like using Git.  Leverage other people's work and do fun things in Smalltalk!
> 
> As Smalltalk pre-dated _other_ window systems, there is a FrameBuffer display option, vm-display-fbdev.
> 
> So one can use a minimalist Linux, like Alpine Linux, which uses BusyBox for basic utilities and MUSL in place of libc.  It was made to be a clean & secure router solution.  You can also "startxfce4" if you install XFCE, but it boots into a console.  Armbian Linux in another good, reliable solution for SBCs.
> 
> I will write something up in the wiki after my latest fix gets released.
> 
> Basically, one used command line arguments or shell variables to set up for mouse/keyboard/framebuffer and things just work.
> 
> In the OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/platforms/unix/vm-display-fbdev there are notes on how to set things up.
> 
> E.g. in my .bashrc
> 
> # to allow    'squeak <image>"
> # rather than 'squeak -vm-display-fbdev -fbdev /dev/fb0 <image>'
> export SQUEAK_KBDEV=/dev/input/event0
> export SQUEAK_VM=display-fbdev
> export SQUEAK_FBDEV=/dev/fb0
> export SQUEAK_MSDEV=/dev/input/event1
> 
> Depending on your hardware, mouse and keyboard may be bound to different input devices.  If the default keyboard is not right, you have to get me to help or to wait until my fix for this is released into opensmalltlk-vm.
> 
> You need libevdev and framebuffer support libraries.  Again, check the notes in the text files.
> 
> ls -lasth /dev/fb*
> ls -lasth /dev/input/*
> 
> Should tell you if these libs are already installed.  Again, see the *Notes.txt in the vm-display-fbdev directory.  If available, teach your system to boot into console mode and have a go.
> 
> Good on ya,
> -KenD