Milan Demo CD (beta) - Release notes
Foreword:
After Indlinux.org's first release of Milan (the Hindi interface for
GNOME),
the feedback we received indicated that though many people may have
downoaded Milan, they may not have used it, or dont have access to a
Linux
box. Also since the release was Redhat 8 specific, many users using
other
distros like Mandrake, Debian, etc, would not have used it or faced
problems during
installation. In this context it was thought that a bootable CD version
of
Milan would allow users to "test and experience" the Hindi interface
without
neccesarily installing the software onto their hard disk.
Knoppix was
an obvious choice to make such a CD, but it did not have Gnome
2.x in it. While we were exploring how to modify Knoppix , we came
across
Morphix which is a modular
distribution based on Knoppix.
Morphix has seperate builds for KDE, GNOME, etc. Its HeavyGUI iso
contained Gnome 2.2 as default desktop. So then, Morphix was the easiest
choice. All that was needed was to put the Indic stuff into the HeavyGUI
build.
Putting Indic stuff involved the following:
- Installing fonts
- Installing keymaps and gkb settings
- Building locales
- Installing updated translations
- Setting language options at boot time
- Some customization to desktop items, panel etc
These have been done to some extent in the current release of the
'MilanDemoCD beta'.
More things to do are
- Add more applications that support indian languages like gaim,
balsa, gnumeric,etc., ( ie gnome extras & fifth toe applications )
- Make the Indic stuff as a mini module - so that we can just plug
it in a existing Morphix HeavyGUI build.
- Customize boot screens, backgrounds, themes, product strings (
put IndLinux/Milan in place of Morphix) etc.
Getting it
You can download MilanDemoCD from http://www.indlinux.org/downloads/
Or from the project File release section
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11495
Once you have downloaded the iso file ( MilanDemoCD-0.5beta.iso
Check its size and md5sum. This is needed to ensure that the cd image
was not corrupted while downloading.
Do the following at a terminal:
$ md5sum MilanDemoCD-0.5beta.iso
See that the output matches the one below.
202b3fb1a43b8fc87b49d185dff92de3
MilanDemoCD-0.5beta.iso
Size in bytes
should be - 471,113,728
Now burn the iso , using the following command
# cdrecord -eject -v -isosize speed=16 dev=0,0,0
MilanDemoCD-0.5beta.iso
subsitute entries for dev= , as per you machine configuration.
Or use you favorite CD writing tool like xcdroast, k3b,koncd, etc.
Windows Users: Consult your CD
writing tool help on how to burn ISO images.
Using it
MilanDemoCD is a bootable CD. To boot from the CD you have to change
system bios settings to make booting from the CD as the first option.
This can be usually done by pressing 'Del' key when system has just
started up. Bios has a Advanced settings option where the boot device
options are. Set the first one to CDROM , second to HDD-0 . When done
save the settings.
MilanDemoCD directy boots into Hindi Gnome mode. You can boot into
other language interfaces also by giving following option at boot prompt
boot: morphix lang=ml
this will start the GUI in Malayalam.
For other languages, substitute 'ml' with your language code.
Language codes are bn - bengali, hi - hindi (default language), kn -
kannada , ml - malayalam , ta - tamil.
Telugu (te), Gujarati (gj), Punjabi (pa), Oriya (or), Marathi (mr) are
avialable but will not work as there is not much localisation done for
these languages.
After the initial boot and autoconfiguration screens (in english),
Gnome GUI will start in Hindi mode ( or the language you set ). Now for
the exciting part. You should be seeing the desktop environment, the
panel, the menus, etc., will load, giving a complete GUI in Hindi or
your favourite Indian Language, once it is loaded.
Using the keyboard:
The keyboard, by default is set to Inscript Hindi layout. Right now,
the keyboard layouts, which are enabled are Hindi and English , default
is Hindi . (See the tricolour in panel with hindi written beside it) .
To toggle between the layouts, use Left Alt + Left Shift keys, ie.,
press both keys simultaneously and release them. The flag and label
change in Keyboard applet to reflect English. For help on using the
Inscript Keyboard Layouts, go here and open the page having the name of
your language:
http://www.indlinux.org/keymap/
Few points to note:
- All menu entries are not in Hindi, this is because its work in
progress, by version 1.0 we expect to have complete GUI in Hindi.
- There is an option to install onto harddisk - this has not been
tested and is still beta, so use it at your own risk. The partitioning
software is especially buggy and will go ahead and create a logical
partition for you, even if the extended partition is full.
Feedback:
Any feedback is welcome , you can give your feedback in following ways :
Join the mailing lists at:
http://www.indlinux.org/lists.php
https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/indlinux-group
Post your views on the forum at
https://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=11495
Bugs could be reported either on the lists orforums or through our
'Bugs tracker' Interface at
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11495&atid=111495
You can also join on IRC at #indlinux on irc.gimp.org for
live queries.
IndLinux Team,
1 June 2003