Mouse key emulation
Although in the Pismo trackpad hardware supports tap, double tap, and drag capabilities etc. I find that using a key + click command works better and faster for me in emulating a mouse right-click and mouse middle-click than setting multi-tapping modes.
To set up the following:
Mouse right-click via Ctrl + click, e.g. to open a contextual window /menu
Mouse middle-click via Command (Apple) + click, e.g. to open a browser URL link in a new tab
you need to do the following in Terminal:
su --login (and enter root password when requested)
nano /etc/default/mouseemu
and in the nano window you should see
# Defaults for mouseemu initscript (/etc/init.d/mouseemu)
# These are the default values on PowerPC. On all other architectures
# middle and right click are disabled by default.
# Key codes can be found in include/linux/input.h in the kernel headers
# or by using `showkey` in a console.
#MID_CLICK="-middle 0 68" # F10 with no modifier
#MID_CLICK="-middle 125 272" # Left Apple Key (LEFTMETA) + click
#RIGHT_CLICK="-right 0 87" # F11 with no modifier
#RIGHT_CLICK="-right 29 272" # Left Ctrl + click
#SCROLL="-scroll 56" # Alt key
#TYPING_BLOCK="-typing-block 300" # block mouse for 300ms after a keypress
then save a backup version of this file via ^O under the filename 'mouseemu.bak' before uncommenting the appropriate preset commands as follows:
# Defaults for mouseemu initscript (/etc/init.d/mouseemu)
# These are the default values on PowerPC. On all other architectures
# middle and right click are disabled by default.
# Key codes can be found in include/linux/input.h in the kernel headers
# or by using `showkey` in a console.
#MID_CLICK="-middle 0 68" # F10 with no modifier
MID_CLICK="-middle 125 272" # Left Apple Key (LEFTMETA) + click
#RIGHT_CLICK="-right 0 87" # F11 with no modifier
RIGHT_CLICK="-right 29 272" # Left Ctrl + click
#SCROLL="-scroll 56" # Alt key
#TYPING_BLOCK="-typing-block 300" # block mouse for 300ms after a keypress
and then save the modified mouseemu file by overwriting the original via ^O and then exit via ^X.
Close Terminal and reboot to activate the modified mouseemu defaults.
Alternatives / Additions to LXMusic simple music player
AFAIK the LXMusic simple music player is limited to playing MP3 and OGG files , and so I have installed Audacity (audio recording and more), Audacious (audio player), and Asunder CD Ripper for audio file encoding (including the LAME encoder as an extra install (as root via apt install asunder lame); however, the available repos ported to powerpc do not currently include the fdk-aac package, which is needed to encode AAC files.
Problems with Abiword
For the present, I have purged the MintPPC CD-installed version of Abiword because it is not functioning properly on my Pismo, essentially 'stuttering' and 'freezing' so much that it is not usable. I am currently making do with Leafpad.
Keyboard Volume Level and Mute Control
Still trying if possible to get the Volume Down (F3), Volume Up (F4) and Volume Mute (F6) to function. Presently, PulseAudio Volume Control is not functioning on the Pismo.....
FocusWriter 1.7.3 installed in place of Abiword
At present I have installed FocusWriter 1.7.3 via #apt install focuswriter, and it is working. However, having the backported version of Abiword would bealso be very useful as it is more fully featured thanFocusWriter and can save documents as .rtf files for export to MS Word.
Frozen PulseAudio Voulme Control freeze fix
Some good news - I appear to have sorted the PulseAudio Volume Control on startup 'freezes' on "Establishing connection to PulseAudio. Please wait..." issue with the Pismo G3 MinntPPC installation.
It appears that the installer only installs the pavucontrol package (hence the PulseAudio Volume Control app icon being present) but not the essential pulseaudio package!
To fix the problem:
1. Go to root via
su --login
2. Then bring the system up to date
apt update
apt upgrade
apt autoremove
3. Then fix pulseaudio
apt remove --purge pavucontrol
apt install pulseaudio pavucontrol
4. Exit root and at user prompt
pulseaudio --start
and then PulseAudio Volume Control should be working and not freeze at "Establishing connection to PulseAudio. Please wait..."
Frozen PulseAudio Voulme Control freeze fix restores the functioning of the volume down (F3 key), volume up (F4 key), and volume mute (F6 key)
1. Fixing pulseaudio also restores the functioning of the volume down (F3 key), volume up (F4 key), and volume mute (F6 key), although the stepping is not continuous (unlike with OS9 and OSX) and there is a response time-lag, so avoid pressing the F3 or F4 key rapidly otherwise you will get stuttering audio.
To see if I can minimise this, I have edited /etc/pulse/daemon.pa and added to the file, the following lines since pulseaudio is a network-capable multichannel software sound server 'sitting' above alsa:
# realtime-scheduling = yes
realtime-scheduling = no
and will be testing to see what effects these two settings each have on audio.
2. Another relevant issue to note when changing the volume control panel settings (accessed via right-clicking on the volume icon in the panel) appears to be that only a USB mouse button right-click functions within the LXDE panel, not right-clicking via CTRL + Click or via a three finger tap on the track/touch pad.
Additional Packages (Apps) self-installed via 'apt update' that are working:
FocusWriter 1.7.3 as a replacement for uninstalled non-working Abiword originally installed by MintPPC CD installer
GDebi Package Installer to install .deb packages
Synaptic Package Manager to install/fix/remove etc. packages
Asunder CD Ripper to encode CDDA Audio CD tracks to different formats.
Audacious to play musics files and notably play CDDA Audio CDs directly.
Audacity to record,edit and play audio files.
Audacious and Audacity were originally installed automatically within the installer. I removed them as these packages are very often broken on Debian-ports leading to a stalled installation. If we were to have a stable repository, which we don't, I would gladly add them to the standard list of programs.
No tapping solution for G3 and any Apple laptop without a multitouch trackpad:
If you have generated touchpad.conf and/or synaptics.conf files following the guidance in this forum, they are not required, and if you have put them in, they can be deleted from /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d.
The Linux/PPC kernel in fact has an in-built utility called trackpad for configuring how the trackpad functions, which can only be run as root.
Its options are:
1. For tapping, dragging, and drag lock:
# trackpad drag lock
2. To switch off all trackpad functions except tapping:
# trackpad tap
3. To switch off all trackpad functions except moving pointer:
# trackpad notap
Hello, I'm trying to install minppc on my old pismo, but the install process hangs on "Starting partitioning 47%" (I don't know how it writes it in English, but it's just before choosing partitioning method and options). System is not freezed, I still can switch to console two and use commands, but installation process doesn't go on. I experienced the same problem on another machine, a G4 Quicksilver. Same deal booting from a usb key instead of cd. I did also some ram exchange using PC100 dimms instead of pc133, but nothing changes.
Did anyone else had these problem? Any idea on how to solve this?
Thanks in advance,
Andrew
