Gui IFL

User discussion and information resource forum for Image products.
Post Reply
TAC109
Posts: 273
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:41 pm

Gui IFL

Post by TAC109 »

I've just tried out the new (for me) Graphical User Interface version
of IFL.

I like the extra various utilities that are provided.

However, I found the screen colours very muted and difficult to read
in normal light. Is there any way to use a brighter colour scheme?

Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item. I discovered
I could do a tidy shut down by pressing the power button, but there
didn't seem to be any easy way of rebooting. Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing.
The only way I could find was to open a terminal window and type
'shutdown -r', which is not very GUI. Are there any plans to remedy
this?
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Gui IFL

Post by Brian K »

Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item
Tom, right click the desktop and you will find that option.
TAC109
Posts: 273
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:41 pm

Re: Gui IFL

Post by TAC109 »

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:58:40 PST, Brian K wrote:

>[quote:ea8zh31e]Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item[/quote:ea8zh31e]
>
>Tom, right click the desktop and you will find that option.
>
Many thanks Brian.

I hope a brighter desktop is on the horizon.
TAC109
Posts: 273
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:41 pm

Re: Gui IFL

Post by TAC109 »

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:40:05 PST, Tom Cole
wrote:

>I've just tried out the new (for me) Graphical User Interface version
>of IFL.
>
>I like the extra various utilities that are provided.
>
>However, I found the screen colours very muted and difficult to read
>in normal light. Is there any way to use a brighter colour scheme?
>
>Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item. I discovered
>I could do a tidy shut down by pressing the power button, but there
>didn't seem to be any easy way of rebooting. Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing.
>The only way I could find was to open a terminal window and type
>'shutdown -r', which is not very GUI. Are there any plans to remedy
>this?
>
Brian K helped me with the shutdown/reboot problem.

As to the muted colours, I've tried IFL GUI on a number of laptops and
it is only the first one that was difficult to read.

It is an old Dell Inspiron 510m with an Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME
Graphics Controller. Native resolution is 1400 x 1050 pixels.

Are there any parameters I can input to improve the display?

Many thanks in advance.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Gui IFL

Post by TeraByte Support »

did you try the brightness/contrast controls on the notebook and different
angle of screen?

"Tom Cole" wrote in message news:1598@public.image...

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:40:05 PST, Tom Cole

wrote:

>I've just tried out the new (for me) Graphical User Interface version
>of IFL.
>
>I like the extra various utilities that are provided.
>
>However, I found the screen colours very muted and difficult to read
>in normal light. Is there any way to use a brighter colour scheme?
>
>Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item. I discovered
>I could do a tidy shut down by pressing the power button, but there
>didn't seem to be any easy way of rebooting. Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing.
>The only way I could find was to open a terminal window and type
>'shutdown -r', which is not very GUI. Are there any plans to remedy
>this?
>
Brian K helped me with the shutdown/reboot problem.

As to the muted colours, I've tried IFL GUI on a number of laptops and
it is only the first one that was difficult to read.

It is an old Dell Inspiron 510m with an Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME
Graphics Controller. Native resolution is 1400 x 1050 pixels.

Are there any parameters I can input to improve the display?

Many thanks in advance.

TAC109
Posts: 273
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:41 pm

Re: Gui IFL

Post by TAC109 »

To your question, yes.

The notebook display is good in Windows. Also the character based
version of IFL shows up fine.

I've just done some more experiments with the GUI version of IFL. If I
set 640x480 when booting, the display is bright and readable. (Not
just because it is large!) All other display resolutions are dim. For
these, as the desktop is shown at the end of the booting process it
comes up bright then immediately the brightness level switches to dim.


On Thu, 1 Mar 2012 15:27:38 PST, "TeraByte Support"
wrote:

>did you try the brightness/contrast controls on the notebook and different
>angle of screen?
>
>"Tom Cole" wrote in message news:1598@public.image...
>
>On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:40:05 PST, Tom Cole
>
>wrote:
>
>>I've just tried out the new (for me) Graphical User Interface version
>>of IFL.
>>
>>I like the extra various utilities that are provided.
>>
>>However, I found the screen colours very muted and difficult to read
>>in normal light. Is there any way to use a brighter colour scheme?
>>
>>Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item. I discovered
>>I could do a tidy shut down by pressing the power button, but there
>>didn't seem to be any easy way of rebooting. Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing.
>>The only way I could find was to open a terminal window and type
>>'shutdown -r', which is not very GUI. Are there any plans to remedy
>>this?
>>
>Brian K helped me with the shutdown/reboot problem.
>
>As to the muted colours, I've tried IFL GUI on a number of laptops and
>it is only the first one that was difficult to read.
>
>It is an old Dell Inspiron 510m with an Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME
>Graphics Controller. Native resolution is 1400 x 1050 pixels.
>
>Are there any parameters I can input to improve the display?
>
>Many thanks in advance.
>
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Gui IFL

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

The resolutions available on the IFL Boot Disk depend on which VESA BIOS
extension modes are provided by the graphics card's BIOS, and some older
Dell systems with Intel graphics (I have one also) have the kind of
limitation you're running into.

In this case, the higher resolutions are only supported in 8-bit pseudo
color mode, which sounds like the "dim" display you are seeing. If you
boot in that mode and run the command shown below in the terminal, it
will show what mode it's running in, as well as the requested mode:

cat /var/log/xvesa.log

You could try the alternate frame buffer modes as shown in the "fail to
start" message on the initial boot menu screen, to see if any of those
help. Those are:

1fb = 1280x1024
2fb = 1024x768
3fb = 800x600
4fb = 640x480

If the one you select is not supported by that system, you'll get an
"Undefined video mode" message, and it will prompt you to choose from a
list of available modes. From there you can either choose a mode by
number as listed, or Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot.

--
Tom Pfeifer
TeraByte Support


On 03/01/2012 07:12 PM, Tom Cole wrote:
> To your question, yes.
>
> The notebook display is good in Windows. Also the character based
> version of IFL shows up fine.
>
> I've just done some more experiments with the GUI version of IFL. If
> I set 640x480 when booting, the display is bright and readable.
> (Not just because it is large!) All other display resolutions are
> dim. For these, as the desktop is shown at the end of the booting
> process it comes up bright then immediately the brightness level
> switches to dim.
>
>
> On Thu, 1 Mar 2012 15:27:38 PST, "TeraByte Support"
>
> wrote:
>
>> did you try the brightness/contrast controls on the notebook and
>> different angle of screen?
>>
>> "Tom Cole" wrote in message news:1598@public.image...
>>
>> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:40:05 PST, Tom Cole
>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I've just tried out the new (for me) Graphical User Interface
>>> version of IFL.
>>>
>>> I like the extra various utilities that are provided.
>>>
>>> However, I found the screen colours very muted and difficult to
>>> read in normal light. Is there any way to use a brighter colour
>>> scheme?
>>>
>>> Also I missed the old CUI 'Shutdown or Reboot' menu item. I
>>> discovered I could do a tidy shut down by pressing the power
>>> button, but there didn't seem to be any easy way of rebooting.
>>> Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing. The only way I could find was to open a
>>> terminal window and type 'shutdown -r', which is not very GUI.
>>> Are there any plans to remedy this?
>>>
>> Brian K helped me with the shutdown/reboot problem.
>>
>> As to the muted colours, I've tried IFL GUI on a number of laptops
>> and it is only the first one that was difficult to read.
>>
>> It is an old Dell Inspiron 510m with an Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME
>> Graphics Controller. Native resolution is 1400 x 1050 pixels.
>>
>> Are there any parameters I can input to improve the display?
>>
>> Many thanks in advance.
>>
>
>



TAC109
Posts: 273
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:41 pm

Re: Gui IFL

Post by TAC109 »

Hi Tom

The xvesa.log shows:
"Requested 1280x1024x24
1024x768x8 pseudocolor
pseudocolor bpp 8 depth 8"
(then some errors, including 5 fonts)
"Requested 1024x768x24
1024x768x8 pseudocolor
pseudocolor bpp 8 depth 8"
(then the same errors as above)

4fb was the only frame buffer mode that produce a bright display.

Thanks for your help.


On Thu, 1 Mar 2012 17:45:36 PST, "TeraByte Support(TP)"
wrote:

>The resolutions available on the IFL Boot Disk depend on which VESA BIOS
>extension modes are provided by the graphics card's BIOS, and some older
>Dell systems with Intel graphics (I have one also) have the kind of
>limitation you're running into.
>
>In this case, the higher resolutions are only supported in 8-bit pseudo
>color mode, which sounds like the "dim" display you are seeing. If you
>boot in that mode and run the command shown below in the terminal, it
>will show what mode it's running in, as well as the requested mode:
>
>cat /var/log/xvesa.log
>
>You could try the alternate frame buffer modes as shown in the "fail to
>start" message on the initial boot menu screen, to see if any of those
>help. Those are:
>
>1fb = 1280x1024
>2fb = 1024x768
>3fb = 800x600
>4fb = 640x480
>
>If the one you select is not supported by that system, you'll get an
>"Undefined video mode" message, and it will prompt you to choose from a
>list of available modes. From there you can either choose a mode by
>number as listed, or Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot.
Post Reply