[PLUG] how to get screenshots of text installs

[Auke Kok]

On Wed, 10 May 2006 13:42:11 -0700, Carla Schroder <carla at bratgrrl.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 10 May 2006 11:01 am, Galen Seitz wrote:
>> Scott Chapman <scott_list at mischko.com> wrote:
>> 
>> > Carla Schroder wrote:
>> > > Anyone know how to capture screenshots of text Linux install
>> > > screens, like Debian sarge?
>> > 
>> > Install it in a virtual machine?
>> > 
>> 
>> Serial console and kermit/minicom?
>> 
> 
> I'll give it a try. Don't feel like messing with virtual environments.
> Once I 
> heard that hitting Ctrl+Print Screen saved screenshots to the root folder,
> 
> but it's never worked for me. What good is a Print Screen key anyway,
> hmph. 

while vmware is nice and gives you decent speed, it also costs money

qemu is free, and perhaps slowish (slower than vmware), maybe fast enough for a text installer (for an example installer screenshots in qemu see http://lunar-linux.org/~sofar/1.5.0-screenshots/installer-boot.html ). Toss on the non-free but gratis kqemu and performance is acceptable, especially on faster systems.

bochs is sloooow but would work the same as qemu.

serial console is uber-fast (native cpu speed) but usually requires some tweaking and/or cable mess. You can get the same effect by using qemu with console->serial->terminal redirection, and capture using ^A^H by running it all under 'screen', maybe doesn't work too well with colors though

My preferred method still is qemu since the fonts are acceptable and it's relatively easy to use a grabber to get the window, and all free.

Cheers,

Auke