[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Capturing install screenshots



Carpenter, Dean wrote:

> Hey All -
> 
> I need to produce a screen-by-screen document detailing the woody/testing
> install process for internal use here.  So I need to be able to capture
> each and every screen put up during the install to show what it looks like
> and what choices should be picked.
> 
> Any ideas on how best to do this ?  I was thinking about using a system
> that will redirect output to the serial port, but I don't know that will
> work with the dialog system that the boot-floppies uses.

You should be able to do something like this.  Swtch to virtual console 2.  
Press return to get a shell.  Mount a spare partition somewhere.  Then, for 
each screen you want to capture:

  cat /dev/vcs1 > /<wherever>/snapshot<n>

Of course, that only gets you the plain text.  If you want attributes too, 
you could try playing with /dev/vcsa1 and try to figure out a way to decode 
the data later.

You'll want to run the snapshot files through fold to split them into 
lines, because /dev/vcs* doesn't emit newlines between screen lines.  Oh, 
and you might need to create /dev/vcs1 if it doesn't exist in the install 
system.

-- 
Charles Briscoe-Smith             Hacking Free Software for fun and profit
PGP/GPG:  1024R/B35EE811  74 68 AB 2E 1C 60 22 94  B8 21 2D 01 DE 66 13 E2
Governing Law:
   This License Agreement shall be construed and governed in accordance
   with the laws of the State of Inebriation.
                                    -- http://www.thalia.org/computer.html



Reply to: