Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

The new 1.1 release of syncterm (from gslapt) works well. Supports RIP ...etc. type BBS images. Here's one I snapped via the (telnet) blackflag.acid.org BBS, sixel images section

zmodem upload/downloads also worked OK.

I didn't know that native xterm supports sixel images

Install xterm from gslapt, run it with

/usr/bin/xterm -ti 340 -fa "Monospace" -fs 14

(the monospace font and 14 font size are optional, I find the default font to be too small, its the -ti 340 switch that enables sixel image support/rendering).

and within that xterm just cat a .sixel image ... and the image is visible.

You can use a online image converter to convert png (whatever) to sixel (I used https://convertio.co/png-sixel/)

Attached is a .sixel file that's gzip compressed (so uncompress it first)

Except for the initial screen, where you are prompted to press esc twice and the display is somewhat jumbled, this works relatively well ...

Install xterm from gslapt.
Create a script in /root containing ...

#!/bin/sh
export TERM=linux
export COLORTERM=linux
xterm -ti 340 -fa "Monospace" -fs 14 -e telnet blackflag.acid.org

make the script executable and then in rox click on that file to run it. Once the window opens its better to maximize that.

You'll have to create a account to access the BBS, a idea might be to add a comment line in that script with the userid and password you used.

For .sixel image examples viewing select option 1 when logging in (Black Sails ANSI Theme). At the main menu once you've logged in its the Z Sixel Image Gallery choice. Of those the 'B' choice shows a image of the person who runs the BBS (Hawk Hubbard).

For file uploading/downloading its easier/better if you use syncterm (also available in Fatdog's gslapt) as that includes zmodem.

Worked even if you route via ssh i.e. provided the above is setup/installed on your local system, then ssh into another boxes cli where xterm is a sym link to urxvt (not native xterm), and from that command prompt telnet blackflag.acid.org .... and the .sixel images were viewable.

ssh'd into another box using a xterm -ti 340 terminal .... twice, so I had two separate cli sessions on that box. Running 'tty' indicated which was /dev/pts/0 and which was /dev/pts/1. From the /dev/pts/1 tty session I could cat some.sixel >/dev/pts/0 ... and the image displayed correctly within the other terminal session. So you could have such a dual cli combination with one being for images, the other for control/actions - such as running dialog's. In the following image I cat the sixel image to the other xterm and then ran dialog --pause wait 8 30 30 ... to show a dialog with that xterm, and all via ssh into another box

Or rather than uncompressing the attached fatdog.sixel.gz file,
zcat fatdog.sixel.gz

Other sixel information

https://saitoha.github.io/libsixel/

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7z6lo4aq6zc?autoplay=1

I didn't know either (that xterm can do sixtel). I use my own build of the suckless terminal, which supports sixtel (needs a patch to do so). To be honest, I have found no practical use for sixtel pictures at the terminal. But it's amusing. Thanks for the fatdog picture.

Handy for BBS viewing, as sixel seems to be on the rise

Instead of the xterm -ti 340 switch, if you add to .Xresources

xterm*decTerminalID: vt340
xterm*numColorRegisters: 256
xterm*sixelScrolling: 1
xterm*sixelScrollsRight: 1

(either reboot or run xrdb ./.Xresources after edits) and it sets xterm up to automatically support the Dec 340 (sixel)

xterm has a lot of menu options in the ctrl left, middle or right mouse button clicks

For me adding

XTermSimpleMenufont: -misc-gelasio-medium-r-normal--0-160-0-0-p-0-iso8859-15

to ~/.Xresources and running xrdb ./.Xresources ... presents a nicer font size for those menus

On ctrl left mouse press/hold there's even a option to dump to svg (image), as well as toggling the xterm to full-screen ...etc. (along with Secure Keyboard ... that upon being toggled inverts the background/foreground colors i.e. for when entering passwords).

Interesting. Apart from the sixel support, what do you think is the difference between urxvt and xterm? Feature-wise, memory-consumption, customability, etc. I used xterm very sparingly (=almost never) and used mostly urxvt, but if xterm turns out to be better, perhaps we can have it as the default terminal in the future release ...

jamesbond wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 2:42 am

Interesting. Apart from the sixel support, what do you think is the difference between urxvt and xterm? Feature-wise, memory-consumption, customability, etc. I used xterm very sparingly (=almost never) and used mostly urxvt, but if xterm turns out to be better, perhaps we can have it as the default terminal in the future release ...

@jamesbond

urxvtd is more efficient, and urxvt is core to the as-is Fatdog, changing it could be inclined to introduce other problems in other code/scripts. Old style Xdefaults configuration is also more awkward IMO.

Access to xterm via gslapt is good enough. Perhaps also adding yaft ... that works in a framebuffer and also supports sixel images, that's not in gslapt at present but is a simple compile.

Attached is a sfs that if you click to open it in rox, then click to run the nc-server file within that, starts netcat listening on port 4444. Note that boxes IP address (ifconfig) and then from another box with proper xterm installed from gslapt start it by running

xterm -fa Monospace -fs 9 -bg black -fg white -ti vt340

and at the command prompt connect to that netcat server

nc <ip of nc-server box>:4444

Or you can even do that all on the same box

nc localhost:4444

Modify/refine/extend the cove.sh script that nc-server invokes as you see fit. You can use a online png to sixel converter to add in whatever additional .sixel images you might like. I set those already in the sfs to use a 640x480 image size (mtpaint scale image). Or capture the key pressed to flip to the next image ... to invoke whatever action. Maybe change it to use telnet instead of netcat, or even ssh/sshd.

yaft in the framebuffer is interesting
yaft /bin/sh
as the images look like old style BBS's (full screen) if you use a kernel=/vmlinux vga=ask type boot parameter to set the resolution to 640x480x16 before running yaft /bin/sh and net cat to the server.

Fun and pass-time.

In case you're lazy, attached is yaft for fatdog 901 that I compiled. A actual gzip so gzip -d it first and then drop it into /usr/bin or somewhere in your existing PATH

Then exit X (ctrl-alt-backspace) and run yaft /bin/sh ... and then you'll be able to nc to the server as I outlined in my previous post and see the images.

YMMV .. i.e. subject to what graphics card/system you have setup.

step wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 10:01 pm

I didn't know either (that xterm can do sixtel). I use my own build of the suckless terminal, which supports sixtel (needs a patch to do so). To be honest, I have found no practical use for sixtel pictures at the terminal. But it's amusing. Thanks for the fatdog picture.

@step Another thing I didn't know either, bash can detect mis-types/spellings, disabled by default however

shopt -s cdspellshopt -s cdspell

enables it

cd /archve instead of cd /archive and rather than a not found it changes to the archive folder

Somewhat redundant however if you use tab auto-completion (cd arc <tab> <enter>)