Tons of information flows through the Be-sponsored mailings lists: beusertalk, bedevtalk, and becodetalk. While Be doesn’t archive these lists in any publically accessible format, Adamation does. Head over to BeSpecific to search through massive archives of these lists.
In addition, [the following courtesy Be’s Michael Alderete]:
Be has worked with eScribe to make the BeUserTalk mailing list available via a web interface, and to host archives of the postings to the list. You can access this service at:
http://www.escribe.com/softw are/beusertalk/
It gets better. eScribe has extracted messages from the digests of BeUserTalk, and saved those messages into the archives. So you can access all the messages posted to BeUserTalk (or BeUserGroup, as it was formerly known) for 1999 and 1998. Almost a year and a half of BeUserTalk, nearly 14,000 messages, in one place!
eScribe’s service has some really cool features. I think that the threaded version of the archives makes it extremely easy to follow topics of conversation (and to steer clear of those threads that are uninteresting):
http://w ww.escribe.com/software/beusertalk/index.html?by=Thread
You can also search on particular contributors to the list. For example, this string will find everything from Michael Alderete:
http://www.escribe.com/software/beusertalk/index.html?by=Autho r&a=Michael%20A.%20Alderete
If you want to be able to run console-based applications or scripts by double-clicking icons on the Desktop or in the Tracker, there are several ways to go about it. If you’re just running a script, the easiest way is to make sure you’ve got the magic cookie as the script’s first line, e.g.:
#!/bin/sh
And then make the script executable with, e.g.:
chmod 755 scriptname
If you want to get a little fancier, and make sure the program’s name appears in the title tab of the Terminal windows, you’ll need to invoke them from a secondary script. That script will launch a Terminal session and pass the desired app or script to it as an argument. Create a file on the Desktop with these contents:
Terminal -t "Window Title Here" /bin/sh --login -i -c your_app_here
This starts Terminal with the title of your choice (-t), starts the BASH shell in interactive mode, and passes the command after -c to the shell. Now just make your shell script executable (chmod a+x yourshellscript) from the Terminal.
For example, let’s say you want to run a keepalive script to keep your Internet connection awake, and you don’t want to have to launch a Terminal and type the keepalive command by hand each time. Just create an executable text file on the Desktop, containing:
Terminal -t "Connection Keeper" /bin/sh --login -i -c keepalive
As long as the keepalive script is already in your path, you’re all set.
Note that a program like xicon will do the same thing AND will give you the ability to drag/drop files onto your script icons for passing to the script.
rabba@maine.rr.com contributed to this tip.
In addition to using the left mouse button to manipulate the objects in the 3dmov demo, you can also hold down the Ctrl key and use the left and right arrows to zoom in and out.
You already know that you can rotate and set the GL Teapot demo into motion by dragging the mouse while holding down the left mouse button. The right button allows you to move the teapot around.
Users with a third mouse button will discover they can not only change the color of the teapot, but change it’s transparency.
The Dvorak keyboard layout is a wonderful thing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, start with Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard.
If you alread knew about the Dvorak layout, then you may have noticed that the keymap that ships with BeOS is broken. The Caps-Lock key modifies all the keys, not only the letter keys. While this problem does not affect most people most of the time, it is anonying.
However, this can be overcome by using the power of the command-line tool keymap and an appropriate map file:
dvorak.bemap< /A> — a text keymap file for dvorak on the BeOS.
Download this file, and save it somewhere in your home directory, such as /boot/home/config/etc. Then add the following line to your /boot/home/config/boot/UserBootscript. If you don’t have this file, just copy UserBootscript.sample to UserBootScript and then add this line:
keymap -l $HOME/config/etc/dvorak.bemap
Adjust the line to match if you put the file somewhere else.
More information, links, and hints on the topic of Dvorak can be found on my Dvorak page.
Looking for answers to general BeOS-related questions? In addition to the voluminous resources on Be’s web site, be sure to check their collection of Frequently Asked Questions. A separate set of Be-provided FAQs are here. Common „BeOS not working“ problems are answered at Breaking News. If you’ve been using Be’s Bug Database, you may be interested to know that the database has its own FAQ.
Didn’t find what you were looking for? Brent P. Newhall maintains the comp.sys.be (Usenet) FAQ here.
Programmers will be interested in reading the comp.sys.be.programmer FAQ, documenting answers to development questions frequently asked on usenet.
If, for some reason, you’re having trouble networking two BeOS machines, you can still transfer files between them over a serial connection (via null-modem cable). Download a copy of Jerome Fillon’s SerialTransfer. A precompiled binary is included, but so is the source code, so you can modify or re-build it if necessary. Place a copy of the binary on both machines.
Zip up the files you want to transfer, then, on the receiving machine open a Terminal and type :
Transfert READ serial1
(of course this could also be be serial2).
On the sending machine, open a Terminal and type :
Transfert WRITE serial1 MyPathAndFileName
There should now be a file in the /boot/home directory with the filename you specified.
[Editor’s note: Be very cautious when using DiskProbe, especially when viewing your entire filesystem. One slip of the mouse could render your system unbootable. Look, but don’t touch.]
If you launch DiskProbe and look at the 2nd sector of a Be partition you will be pleasantly amused. On a BFS-formatted diskette you’ll see an ASCII picture of Ms. Pacman with the text „Wakka waka wakka“.
On my hard drive I found a bunch of words all grouped together. Things like „children of the bong“, „metallica“, some band names, and a whole lot of other nonsense words!
Note : the second sector is 0x01 in hex.. since 0x00 is the first sector.
Use the following command in a Terminal window to add your Bookmarks to the Be Menu:
ln -s ~/config/settings/NetPositive/Bookmarks ~/config/be/Bookmarks
Now you have one-click access to any of your favorite sites.
The Tekram P6B40D-A5 Dual Pentium II motherboard is a relatively inexpensive way to run two processors with BeOS.
The BIOS with which it ships, however, does not work properly with BeOS R4. Symptoms of this include „crunchy“ audio, poor shell script performance, and abysmal performance when CPU 1 is switched off using Pulse.
The problem is that the BIOS does not enable the cache on the second processor. Upgrading the BIOS to version 1.03 will fix this (You need the AWDFLASH.EXE program as well).
Also note that „A“ Celerons will not be recognized with a BIOS version prior to 1.02.