german keyboard layout / usbmouse / ppp / gnome / gcj questions

[Otto <otto@poellath.org>]

hi,

I just installed potato on my pismo, and now I need some help setting up
some basic stuff. I bet these are FAQs, but I checked the archive and came
up with nothing too helpful, so..

1)

how do I configure X to use german keyboard layout? this was tough under
LinuxPPC, too, and I forgot how I did it.. =)
my XF86Config (I'm using the default potato X server) currently reads

Protocol      "Standard"
XkbLayout     "de"
XkbVariant    "nodeadkeys"
XkbModel      "macintosh"
XkbRules      "xfree86"

but this didn't help at all..

2)

how do I configure X to use both the trackpad and my USB mouse as input
devive? my XF86Config says

Device "/dev/mouse"

and /dev/mouse is a symblic link to /dev/adbmouse. I tried changing the link
to /dev/usbmouse, but that left me with no mouse or trackpad at all..

this is some new input layer stuff, right?

3)

I set up ppp with pppconfig (according to
http://www.oreilly.de/catalog/debian/chapter/ch11_04.html) and ppp connects
fine, but for some reason I can't ping or lynx any damn server..

/var/log/messages says

pppd[523]: pppd 2.3.11 started by root, uid 0
chat[524]: abort on (BUSY)
chat[524]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
chat[524]: abort on (VOICE)
chat[524]: abort on (NO DIALTONE)
chat[524]: abort on (NO DIAL TONE)
chat[524]: abort on (NO ANSWER)
chat[524]: send (ATZ^M)
chat[524]: expect (OK)
chat[524]: ^M
chat[524]: OK
chat[524]:  -- got it
chat[524]: send (ATDT276760^M)
chat[524]: expect (CONNECT)
chat[524]: ^M
chat[524]: ^M
chat[524]: CARRIER 33600^M
chat[524]: ^M
chat[524]: PROTOCOL: LAP-M^M
chat[524]: ^M
chat[524]: COMPRESSION: V.42BIS^M
chat[524]: ^M
chat[524]: CONNECT
chat[524]:  -- got it
chat[524]: send (\d)
pppd[523]: Serial connection established.
pppd[523]: Using interface ppp0
pppd[523]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
pppd[523]: Unsupported protocol 0x8207 received
pppd[523]: local  IP address 134.95.89.122
pppd[523]: remote IP address 134.95.89.1

and ifconfig gives me

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
          inet addr:134.95.88.91  P-t-P:134.95.88.1  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:16 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2
          TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:10

but still, no ping or lynx.. the same ppp settings work fine under
LinuxPPC.. ???

3)

whenever I log in to a gnome session, windows open in the left upper corner
of my screen, with the title bar cut off by the screen boundaries, so I
can't move them. in debian sessions, I'm happily using icewm.. so how do I
get gnome to use it, too?

4) we're almost there..

I'd love to use gcj (the java frontend for gcc/egcs), but I just can't find
libgcj for either debian or LinuxPPC. is anyone actually using it?


thanks for any help. once my system is running smoothly, I'll be happy to
post a summary or whip up a website. for some reason, there seem to be very
few debian-ppc specific websites and tutorials out there. or am I missing
something?

TIA,
-otto.