Adding office suite and seeking graphics editor #Raspberry4B #sBITX_v3
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I added an office suite and attempted to add a small graphics editor. My sBitX is my holiday and vacation radio. With it I do not need to carry a laptop since the Raspberry Pi 4 (4gig memory in my case) with external keyboard and mouse does very well as my "laptop." The 64bit version of V3 that I'm testing does not have office or graphics-editor apps.
I have used LibreOffice on Windows, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pi since it forked from OpenOffice and it is my office suite of choice so that is what I wanted for the sBitX. There are two way of adding it. Under the Preferences menu the Add/Remove Software app will install it. To make sure I have the latest version, I added it using the terminal commands from . I have not found a simple graphics editor like Pinta for the Pi. Mirage installs but does not initialize. Dia works but does not seem to do simple things like cropping, color changes, etc. GIMP - my favorite Photoshop substitute - is over kill for the small screen. If anyone has a simple graphics editor for a Pi that works well for them, please reply. 73, Bruce, W4BRU |
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There's all kinds of graphics, and thus a variety of editors. Inkscape and yEd are two of my favorites, after GIMP. I did a bunch of work for The PMRC Blurb with Libre Draw back when I was editor.? On Fri, May 31, 2024, 11:39 JJ - W9JES via <w9jes=[email protected]> wrote:
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Bruce,
you mentioned Pinta. I installed it on March 28, because before that I tried several options, but I didn't like them for some reason. To install Pinta on a 64-bit system: 1. snapd install (Menue-> Preferences-> Add/Remove-> snapd 2. sudo snap install core 3. sudo snap install pinta (be patient, it will install) 4. Reboot and Menue-> Graphics-> Pinta 2.1.1 That is all. -- Gyula HA3HZ |
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On Fri, May 31, 2024 at 12:17 PM, HA3HZ wrote:
Thank you, Gyula, I will try it.How did you get the increased content on your HDMI large screen example? The holiday beach condo has a large screen TV with HDMI connection, I have the cable for a second display, and it works well. On a plain Pi I know how to control display sizes but things seem different with the sBitX version. I don't know if your screen-size manipulation is affected by 32- or 64-bit versions. I'm currently trying JJ's 64-bit version with Toolbox? that is not going so well for me. If I cannot get that going by June 7 I'll revert to 32-bit V3 code. I intend to play radio with the sBitX at the beach! 73, Bruce |
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On Sat, Jun 1, 2024 at 09:09 AM, Bruce W4BRU wrote:
On a plain Pi I know how to control display sizes but things seem different with the sBitX version. I don't know if your screen-size manipulation is affected by 32- or 64-bit versions. I'm currently trying JJ's 64-bit version with Toolbox? that is not going so well for me. If I cannot get that going by June 7 I'll revert to 32-bit V3 code. I intend to play radio with the sBitX at the beach!I am curious to know of the problems you have with the 64 bit version? What type of issues are you having? It is difficult to improve my product without honest feedback :( The sBitx behaves similar to any other Pi with a DSI display connected. Some manipulation is required to connect an external HDMI display while using the built-in DSI display on ANY Pi. Here are some references found on the Wiki page that may help. /g/BITX20/topic/99957650 /g/BITX20/topic/sbitx_v2_external_monitor/99966620? Another way to effectively use the sBix is by utilizing the VNC connection option over wireless so you don't have to worry about cables. The VNC connection pairs well with the screen resizer in Toolbox. It is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Pi. Here is how to utilize VNC (Sorry for the scribbles, I had hand surgery on Wednesday) -JJ |
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JJ, I have every intention of giving you every symptom of good and bad behavior. I appreciate your efforts, I want you to succeed for all of us, and I am keeping notes and taking screen snaps as appropriate. Since I changed a bunch of things after my initial installation of sb64b2.img.xz, I couldn't isolate the issue. I've just re-burned the SD card with the image. Today and tomorrow I will be testing it unchanged and then add my office and graphics apps one at at time testing after each installation.? I haven't written code since the mid-80s so you 'll get a user's not a programmer's experience.
73, Bruce |
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Thanks for your notes on VNC, JJ. I have VNC on my station computer that is a Pi so I can control my station remotely. It's ironic that "Real VNC" is withdrawing their free VNC for a paid one. But, of course, they can't do that because it's based on an open source package and so they have to continue to offer the free one. They hide the availability of the free one where they hope we don't see it.
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I haven't checked myself yet, but you might want to take a look at Krita. It was low overhead and portable last time I looked. I think it's open source, and you might be able to build it for the Pi of someone hasn't already.? I use Krita for lightweight graphics editing once in a while.? With a minute or two of Googlewhacking, I found this:?. Worth a look. But you still should have an 8gb Pi. 73, Gwen, NG3P? |
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I thank all of you for your help. Once I got JJ's latest version of the 64-bit system installed (sb64rc1.img.xz) I installed LibreOffice, Pinta, Snapd, and Veracrypt. All except Veracrypt work well. Pinta isn't usable on the small screen since you need access to the buttons on the bottom of the screen and they seem unreachable on a screen so small. I'm now encouraged to try Gyula's, HA3HZ, large screen approach.
I've made a few QSOs in SSB and FT8 so installing my favorite "laptop" apps didn't break it. |
Bruce W4BRU
Margaret Leber
HA3HZ
Gwen Patton