Slax author's Blog (RSS)
03
January2013
Slax 7.0.3 with PXE support released
A new version of Slax Linux is available for download. This release adds several new features and fixes few bugs as well. Probably the most interesting feature is PXE boot support and improved X autodetection.
PXE feature description:
All modern computers nowadays support PXE, which allows booting of an operating system over network interface independently of data storage devices (like hard disks). Slax fully supports PXE booting now. How to do that? One computer will act as a server, so just boot Slax on it from CD or USB and make sure to have the appropriate boot menu option "Act as PXE server" checked. Slax on the server computer will provide DHCP, TFTP and HTTP services to enable PXE booting for other computers in your network. Now turn on all the other computers (clients) and make sure to select PXE boot in BIOS boot menu of all these computers. All the clients will autodiscover Slax PXE server and will load all needed data from it. Slax will start on all clients over network.
Raw changelog for Slax 7.0.3 follows:
Enjoy the new Slax release, and feel free to submit your comments.
User comments
Dobrý den,
Jsem linuxový amatér, mé zaÄátky a jediné zkuÅ¡enosti jsou s Mandrivou (4 roky). Ta žel zkolabovala a jejà odnož Mageia mi dÄ›lala problémy.
Velmi se mi lÃbà SLAX jako takový, že je opravdu jednoduchý a funkÄnÃ.
Z CD se mi to podařilo bezproblémově nabootovat a vše běželo. Jen wifi se mi nepodařilo rozběhnout, přes kabel již nebyl problém.
A tak mám dotazy :
1 - Je nÄ›kde Äi bude fórum pro SLAX v ÄeÅ¡tinÄ› ?
2 - Rád bych SLAX provozoval na svém starÅ¡Ãm NB > jak instalovat na HDD ?
3 - je někde návod jak zprovoznit wifi ?
4 - Jestli jsem dobÅ™e pochopil tak "repozitář" je v plánu a brzké dobÄ› se objevà vÄ›tÅ¡Ã množstvà programů (balÃÄků) aby systém byl ucelenÄ›jÅ¡Ã a komplexnÄ›jÅ¡Ã ?
DÄ›kuji za odpovÄ›Ä.
Daniel:Me pro wifi stacilo pridat soubor kernel-firmware.sb do /slax/modules (muzes stahnout tady: http://www.slax.org/cs/modules.php?category=drivers ). Jestli si toto udelal a nepomohl, tak sry.
I suppose the PXE is built into the Linux live kit now if we use it to create our own distro?
Yes it is (the client side, not the server side). I've just pushed out a new tag v1.7 for Linux Live kit. Yet remember that by default there are no network drivers packed inside the default initramfs, so your livekit-based distro will be missing drivers for network card. In Slax, there is /sbin/pxe script which just creates a new initramfs by reusing files from /mnt/live and by using kernel modules for ethernet cards from /lib/modules/ ... so it will send over network a different initramfs image (full of network drivers) than the initial one Slax booted with.
Hmmm so then how do we make a server side distro with linux live kit like we used to with the old linux live scripts? If I understand you correctly, the linux live kit distros are not the same as slax distros?
Also in
http://ftp.slax.org/Slax-7.x-development/sources/Slax-7.0-sources/kernel/
I've noticed you've removed the aufs patches?
aufs3-kbuild.patch
aufs3-base.patch
aufs3-proc_map.patch
aufs3-standalone.patch
aufs.dirty-fix.patch
Are the not needed anymore? Or are they all available from git? I was concerned that the aufs.dirty-fix.patch was not available from git.
I have poked around the rc scripts and /sbin/pxe. The linux live kit distro only needs the /sbin/pxe to enable it to act as a server?
Also you used gz to build the initrfs.img with /sbin/pxe but you used xz in the live kit previously. Any reason for the change?
@ sedrata
On wine (32 bits / 64bits) in slax 7
http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=83631
Regarding kernel sources, everything related to aufs / squashfs is in the additions.tar.gz archive, which can be found at FTP at the same directory like the kernel sources. AUFS dirty patch was provided by Junjiro Okajima (aufs author) for Slax 7 release before he fixed a bug in official aufs release. It is no longer needed now since the bugfix has been ported to official aufs.
Regarding PXE functionality, yes /sbin/pxe is the script you need to run on any livekit-based distro to turn it into a PXE server. I will explain the idea how it works in a blog post.
How is it with wifi support?
I've tried 7.0.2 on two different laptops with different cards (3 & 5 years old) and in both cases slax failed to recognize wifi. It worked out of box with similar sized live distro porteus. I'm finding this quite a fail for live distro :/ ... is there some more info on what to do with wifi, ideally how this would work out-of-box for in advance unknown hw?
thanks & cheers
On Slax 7.0.3, I compiled b43-cutter to extract the b43 firmware from the broadcom driver and I created a slax bundle for this b43 firmware.
If I activate the module and I do:
rmmod b43; modprobe b43
slax crashes with the error "Fixing recursive fault but reboot required".
If I boot up with the sb in the modules directory, the wireless is detected with no crash.
Very curious behaviour. Just to note, when I did the same thing on Slax 7.0.0 there was no issues when I do modprobe b43. I wonder if there is anything with the 3.6.11 kernel that is causing this?
If I remember correctly I had some discussion with Manfred (Quax) regarding broadcom drivers and the conclusion was that if certain modules are present by default in Slax then it makes some troubles. I don't fully remember the details but I think it is this case - Slax 7.0 doesn't have the broadcom driver for SoftMac, while Slax 7.0.3 has, including some related kernel settings which had to be checked in order to even see the SoftMac entry. Maybe this is somehow related.
Mark, I noticed you're maintaining your own repository for Slax Bundles. Is there any chance you could share your work with others by uploading buildscripts to Slax repository? Thank you
@Dirka, it depends on the card you have.
For slax, the drivers are there, but the firmware is missing. A lot of the cards require proprietary firmware that while free to use, cannot be distributed. You have to install the firmware later.
So far I have used a variety of cards, intel, broadcom, realtek, atheros, etc and even my super old Cisco Aironet and Orinoco silver/gold PCMCIA wireless cards work fine. The broadcomm and intel cards required firmware, but the drivers were present in slax. You can get the slax bundles for the firmware using another machine and include it into your the slax/modules folder in the usb stick so they are present at the next boot up.
@Tomas, I recompiled my kernel 3.6.9 with the softmac driver and also had the b43 drivers and there was no problems like these crashes so I'm not so sure the analysis of the problem is correct.
I have no problems sharing my work, but I didn't make any buildscripts for my slax bundles, I just compiled, makepkg and txz2sb. If there were any compilation problems, I fixed them on the spot. Others I just downloaded the txz packages from packages.slackware.com and txz2sb.
I'm actually running around quite a bit with multiple projects on hand (work has started again after my long Dec holidays), so I don't have the time to create nice buildscripts for the stuff I did, but when I have the time I will sit down and try to complete the buildscripts for all the packages, but I don't know when that will be. Even the last few days I've hardly had time to even log into slax.org to check out whats happening.
My apologies in advanced if I am unable to get the buildscripts out quickly.
When I have some time I'll look at the broadcom issue in more detail and see if I can fix it. Now all together I am looking at:
1) bootsplash for slax 7
(the patches from http://www.uli-eckhardt.de/bootsplash/index.en.shtml work with minimal tweaking and I can include the bootsplash images and conf in the initrfs.img, but once KMS is activated, the bootsplash images are wiped out. Setting kernel parameter "nomodset" fixes this, but some machines can't configure X correctly and get the wrong resolution without KMS)
2) using back initrd.gz instead of initrfs.img for slax 7
(easier to use bootsplash with initrd.gz - so far my attempts to use initrd.gz instead of initrfs.img always lead to slax kernel panic)
3) broadcomm crash issue when module is called on the fly with firmware present
(issues described above)
@ Daniel
There isn't any czech forum and it probably never will. In the forum of the old Slax there was a rule, that every comment must be in english, so everyone understands and everyone could help you. I think we sould keep this rule and respect the non-czech users.
Installation on HDD should be the same as on USB keyring, at least if you are going to install it as the only system on your ntb - download the zipped Slax, unzip it to your HDD, run the bootinst.* script and restart.
@Tomas:
> If I remember correctly I had some discussion with Manfred (Quax)
> regarding broadcom drivers
No, we discussed usb-uas, Realtek and ene_usb cardreader needed to
boot Slax7 v7.0 on an Acer AO751h from the internal cardreader and the
kernel oopses when those drivers are compiled into the kernel.
This night I've tested the Realtek cardreader driver compiled into the
3.6.11 kernel from Slax7 v7.0.2 and there are no more kernel oopses.
I will test few days more and post the results.
@Mark/Broadcom:
I am using the free but proprietary Brodcom-STA driver with FluxFlux.
Manfred
Ah, I see, so I remembered incorrectly, sorry for the confusion and thank you for clarification :)
Mark, thanks but I still don't get what should I do - also I don't see any wifi modules on the site.
In particular I have laptops with Intel 5100 AGN and BCM 4322 - can you tell me how to make those work?
Ideally Tomas or someone could prepare how-to descibing this, how to make this work for various card (still don't understand, why it could not be included out-of-box when porteus does).
thanks guys
dirka: Download the module kernel-firmware from this site (section Modules) and put it in the /slax/modules directory. When Slax boots, it activates the modules in that directory and your wifi should work.
@Dirka
The intel card and the bcm4322 need firmware. The new slax seems to have all the necessary firmware required for the 5100 and the softmac bcm43XX. Actually the softmac drivers for the bcm card were already in for version 7.0.2.
As to why Porteus includes them and Slax does not, I can't answer. In terms of distribution, its legally correct not to distribute the firmware with the distro. If other distros breach this fact, its at their own legal risk. As users we may not see the risk, we only see the inconvenience, but the distro creator bears the legal risk if the chipset company decides to take action.
Mark and Prcek, thanks.
It works with Intel now after getting kernel-firmware, doesn't with broadcom despite module was loaded correctly (no wlan interface).
I also confirm the same issue with my BCM4322 card. Same steps with same results as dirka.
I've tried a fresh install of 7.03 486 32bits.
I encounter a strange phenomenon after KDE loading.
Turning Gear keeps a back screen during almost 30s, then desktop appears and every thing seems running fine.
I noticed nothing special in var/log/messages except that :
slax kernel: usb 2-1: reset high-speed USB device
Does anyone encounter that ?
Is there a way to easy debug KDE at starting point ?
7.01 runs ok.
Maybe the way Xorg hardware detection is newly implemented could explain that too.
@Dirka, Cloud
I assume the module that was loaded was the b43 driver kernel module.
Can you guys get the b43 firmware module from here:
http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/b43firmware.sb
Put it into your slax/modules directory and reboot and see if the broadcom BCM4322 comes up?
@Mufeed Ali: what version and language of Slax are you using?
@Matt: I initially thought that I will be able to make a diffbundles which let you upgrade to the newest version easily, but I discovered it is a lot of extra work for me, so it is not possible at the moment (yet)
@Mufeed Ali: software center is not removed. Why do you think so?
@Tomas M: It's not on the desktop! I tried in KDE menu too.
Is there a text file where the software centre icon used to be. While testing modules on numerous ocasions, slax 7 icon (software centre & the documentation icons on n the Desktop & the Terminal/Console icon on the bottom task bar) will turn into text file .
Then I have to go back and test modules one by one to find out which one is the cause.
Is it possible to server Slax 7.0.3+ over PXE using an *existing* PXE server?
If yes, what parameters would be required on the boot command-line?
I already have a dnsmasq+apache setup which can server the modules once the kernel+initrfs are sent using TFTP.
Regards,
Shantanu Gadgil
Yes it is possible to use existing PXE server, I've just updated the other blog post. Please try and report your result. Thank you
http://www.slax.org/en/blog/20662-How-PXE-boot-works-in-Slax.html
@Matt,
Plug your usb stick into your windows or linux machine.
1) copy out your slax/rootcopy and slax/modules directory from the usb to some place safe
2) delete the slax/ folder from the usb
3) unzip the contents of the slax 7.0.3 zip file you downloaded into the usb - you will have a new slax/ directory in the usb
4) move your rootcopy and modules folders back into the new slax directory of the usb
5) this may not be necessary, but you can run slax/boot/bootinst.bat (or slax/boot/bootinst.sh) again.
Of course you can just unzip the slax 7.0.3 zip file you downloaded into the usb and let it overwrite the necessary files which will leave all your modules and rootcopy stuff untouched, just don't format the usb. If you want to format the usb, then follow the steps above.
Tomas, I just overrited version 7.0.1 with 7.0.3. When I do not press any key in boot, the system starts to boot, but fails at loading modules. It says: "incorrect parameters".
When I press any key, for the menu to open, and press [ENTER], boot goes correctly and everything works fine. What might be wrong?
I had changed the syslinux.cfg and thought it was my mistake. So, I put the original syslinux.cfg again and the problem persists. That means that my changes to syslinux.cfg were not the cause.
Sorry, gice. It was something wrong in changes.dat. Slax does not have any bug here. Sorry. I solved it deleting changes.dat.
One good new is that Tomas fixed the bootinst,bat, which was not working in the own Slax.
I'm coming back with my first post ( KDE slow startup ).
It seems my SD Card reader and/or SDCard is the cause.
I have to investigate much more to confirm, using another one.
Running from a hard stick is better.
It's a bit curious because i've tried Porteus on this SDCard and works like a charm ( but with TDE not KDE4 )
Mark, yes, it is b43 driver ... I've tried with your package and it's better now, but doesn't work, yet - card is recognized and fw loaded
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4322 WLAN found (core revision 16)
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
and wlan0 exists
wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:21:00:63:ed:0c txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
but it does not connect, I guess it should have also running flag like - <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> any idea?
@Dirka
Most curious. My 4312 starts up like yours and connects without issue.
Are you able to list available SSIDs?
@Dirka,
Confirmed, no "RUNNING" flag at all:
--------------
root@slax:~# dmesg |grep b43
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
root@slax:~# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:21:00:3c:5e:9e txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
--------------
I can see available SSIDs using the network tool widget and connect to them without problem. After connecting:
root@slax:~# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.1.50 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
inet6 fe80::221:ff:fe2b:4f5a prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether 00:21:00:2b:4f:5a txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 3245 bytes 3218302 (3.0 MiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 2499 bytes 403597 (394.1 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
root@slax:~# uname -a
Linux slax 3.6.11 #1 SMP Fri Dec 21 22:57:14 AKST 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5750 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
root@slax:~# more /etc/slax-version
Slax 7.0.3 64bit
root@slax:~# more /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 14.0
Might want to check your wireless AP/router's settings.
Forgot to mention, you need to be connected before the "RUNNING" flag comes up. As in associated to the AP and obtained an IP address from the DHCP server.
@Tomas,
Just noticed, for firefox, when I download something, and I select "Open containing folder" nothing happens. Seems to be the same issue all the way back to Slax 7.0.0.
Ok, it looks like the broadcom driver is quite crap.
I could connect for some time when disabled entirely encryption on AP. With WPA2 on, just connects and the dies.
Anyway, thanks for the all the support Mark, not Slax issue anymore.
@Mark, do you have a knowledge of what firmware files are needed for the broadcom driver? It seems this problem is very common so it is probably worth to add the firmware directly to Slax, even if that makes it bigger.
@Tomas
The b43 driver requires different firmware from the brcm drivers. From what I see, you already have the soft and full mac drivers for the brcm driver in slax 7.0.3, but the b43 firmware is completely missing. If you look at the module I indicated in my post above, you'll see all I did was to pack /lib/firmware/b43/* into a slax bundle.
Expanded, the firmware takes up 1.1M, but compressed as a bundle its only 164K.
I can't say if its _legal_ to distribute the firmware with slax though, because its extracted from the broadcom proprietary driver.
@Dirka,
Glad to be of help.
The broadcom b43 driver is performing pretty well on my side though. Maybe you ought to reset your router?
I can't see b43 in /lib/firmware. I thought that the firmware you added was from kernel-firmware package, but this is not there.
Thanks, Tomas!
--[
I hope, one day, Slax with Lua language embedded. It's tiny and powerful.
-- Size: 244 kb.
-- Source: <http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.2.1.tar.gz>
--]
Very well done job!
Linux slax 3.6.11 #1 SMP Fri Dec 21 22:57:14 AKST 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
Slax 7.0.3 64bit
@Tomas,
Its not. its extracted using the b43fwcutter. See here:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
Extracting the relevant portions:
-------------------------
wget http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-017.tar.bz2
tar xjf b43-fwcutter-017.tar.bz2
cd b43-fwcutter-017
make
sudo make install
cd ..
export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
-------------------------
in 7.0.3 .desktop files open with text editor. shortcuts not working pls help
On this nvidia Geforce 9300 system, the new xorg startup is not working. 7.0RC3 was working fine, I upgraded as I was curious to try PXE-boot, but the startup ends up in a flickering screen, trying and looping to configure xorg. I downloaded 7.02 which works fine; It seems the new method is not a gain everywhere.
As I understand from my testing, if an xorg.conf is present in /etc/X11, X will use that to configure the screen.
If you boot to 7.0.3 and the screen is all crazy, press CTRL-ALT-F2 and you should get to the console. Login as root (passwd toor) and cd /etc/X11 and remove the xorg.conf - see if that helps.
The x configuration in 7.0.3 is THE SAME like in 7.0 or 7.0.2. The only change is that there is just a background process started, which watches xorg log file in /var/log/, and if (and only if) it finds "Fatal server error" string in the log file, then it runs X -configure to retry the autodetection.
@Tomas: not sure what happened yesterday but today it works. Perhaps the system needed a cold boot, or something. Sorry for the false alarm. 703 works for me on G9300(IGP), 9400GT and GT220M(laptop) - all nvidia with LCD, all nicely supported by nouveau.
Perhaps I had a "fatal error" yesterday, and then it keeps retrying so hard I could not login at the console...
Please consider some modification for next release:
- moving kde-games to separate SlaxBundle or maybe separate modules;
- pidgin to separate SlaxBundle just like firefox;
- klipper to 05-kapps.sb;
- KolourPaint and KColorChooser to 05-kappimg.sb or even separate modules;
- KRDC and Krfb to 05-kappnet.sb;
- replace konqueror with rekonq or add webkit engine for konqueror.
This separation would greatly improve the ability to customize default distribution.
I running 64bit only. And the romanian keyboard is not working, has no effect.
@Tomas M, I just submitted a Slaxbuild script to generate an yakuake bundle I hope that it works.
Team, I wanna add a note regarding the template.Slackbuild script. If your statements to configure and compile the source fails, the template script will not stop processing. It will continue and it will generate an empty bundle. So make sure that the resulting bundle is not empty and check the files in the directory "package-<number>-sb-target-dir" to make sure that it performed the install process correctly.
PS: I will add this note in the post regarding the buildscripts as well. @Thomas M, we need a forum :)
Regards,
tdmsilvino
@Tomas M, I just gave up adding the same note in a different blog post as it will make duplicate entries. Could you please add that note in the documentation regarding the Slaxbuild script? This way we can make sure that everyone trying to make a Slaxbuild will read that note.
Regards,
tdmsilvino
@Remus, try this then:
http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/skype_static-4.1.0.20-x86_64-3sl.sb
@Thiago Silvino: thanks for suggestion. I could make modifications to the build script library so it refuses to make an empty bundle. Yet that doesn't solve everything, since if the 'make install' part fails in the middle then there will be some files but the software won't be fully functional.
It is up to the module creator to test the buildscript on a fresh Slax to assure it works properly before uploading it to Slax server. Let's assume that if a person uploads his buildscript to Slax server then he was clever enough to test it and thus the result of the build is exactly as the person intended.
Maybe I should add 'set -e' at the beginning to make the buildscript terminate on error, that would probably be the best solution.
If I wanted a quick fix to that I'd force the build script to have the actual executable (or one of the main executables or libraries, etc) that is built by the make identified at the variable section and to check for that in the bundle after the completion of the script:
TESTFILE='usr/bin/mybundlefile'
....
....
if [ -z "`unsquashfs -l <bundlename>.sb | grep $TESTFILE`" ]; then
echo "$TESTFILE not built, possible error in compilation
fi
I'm sure there are some possible cases where this may fail, but it should cover most especially with the -e in place.
Just my 2 cents worth.
@Thomas M, set -e would be great, we just need to be careful to clean up the environment if the first attempt fails. Let's say we activated two modules to compile the software and the "make" command fails. When we try again the "slax activate" command will return with an error status and it would stop the script. We would have to deactivate and remove the two modules first before the new attempt.
One question: how long does it take for the server to generate the bundles? How do we know that it built the bundle successfully?
I uploaded the yakuake buildscript yesterday, it show up in slax info, but it doesn't show up in slax search.
Skype works well! Thank you! I need shortcuts for desktop and start menu. And I need LibreOffice.
The server will start building of modules immediately. If you wait so long, most probably it failed. I have to modify the system to email you with the result, so you know where is the problem so you could fix it and update your buildscript.
Tomas M.
I am experiencing same thing with my jwm buildscript.
It build successfully locally, but doesn't show up on modules section on web page.
I just checked it and it seems there was something in the queue which took eternity to complete. I've canceled it. Your buildscripts are now processed. I've also added some information to 'slax info' command so you can use it to see if your buildscript has modules generated or if the processing failed. Thank you all for making buildscripts for Slax! :)
Tomas M. Thanks for response.
Just a thought, creating buildscripts for software currently buildin in main.sb's.
Would you consider removing that software to make base distribution even lighter?
@ Tomas M
I believe what evasive gyron meant was to suggest that for some of the applications included in slax base bundle , for eg in kdeapp.sb , would you consider removing them , and make then available as in slax module repository instead, so that the base slax is lighter.
@ jcsoh this is exactly what i meant. Thanks ))
@ Tomas M. Sorry that I made so cryptic post.
Been Malaysian , we are non native speaker of English and at times our "poor english standard" is refered to as "Manglish" which stand for "Mangled English" .
Been multi racial we also tends to localised english to our native tougue , so we have malaynised english , chinesenised english , indianised english etc.
So our brain have been trained to understand and interpret "various non standard flavours of english".
So you sentence was totally understanderable to me ! :)
Some people think we should remove KDE games. Some other people will think we should remove entire KDE desktop and put it just online as a module. Some other people will even think that removing everything but the core module will be ideal. I can keep removing stuff, then the Slax itself will be ideal tiny base for further extension, but would be unusable at all.
Somebody suggested a similar idea which I prefer more, to put some of the software into separate modules. For example, kde games could be separate module, pidgin too, and so on. This way all the software would be still part of official Slax release, but could be removed more easily by users who don't like it. I think I'll go that way, because I want to keep that software in Slax, and yet I wish to make it easy for people to remove the software if they don't need it.
"Somebody suggested a similar idea which I prefer more, to put some of the software into separate modules."
I agree with you . This issue had also pop up in slax 6 and then you had accommodate users by separating koffice to accommodate openoffice users.
I recalled you highlighted that slax need a certain basic programmes notwitstanding that users can easily add them later via modules. You gave an example of a new user downloading slax and then try to open a pdf file or play a movie . If slax can't do this , the user may just throw aside slax as a crappy distro which doesn't work out of the box.
Separating applications in bundles allow a balance between the two ie the need for slax to work out of the box for common task , and at the same time allows regulars users to pick and choose their preferred applications.
The only concern isthat if there are too many modules , slax especially with copy2ram takes noticeably longer to load.
Super awesome new version of slax, now it works (beta versions resulted in kernel panic for some reason on boot). Only question is, why is my Atheros AR9271 wifi not working ...
for some reason it is not listed in lspci nor lsusb ... anyone has some suggestions?
Oh, sry about my previous post, I downloaded kernel-firmware and now it works perfectly :)
Sorry about posting it here, but just to let you know, there seems to be some trouble with wifi password saving, for the session it works just fine, but after reboot (not sure if X restart will do the same), the connection manager says some stuff I don't know what exactly, but when you retype the password again, it works fine, so password saving I guess is somehow broken .. I use default save to file unencrypted..
@ Tomas M.
"Somebody suggested a similar idea which I prefer more, to put some of the software into separate modules."
Actually I've mentioned this :)
Also it would be cool if 01-core.sb gets separated into:
00-kernel.sb (kernel)
01-base.sb (slax magic and essential utilities)
02-console.sb (console apps like mc, htop, iftop and etc)
and 02-xorg.sb into:
03-xorg_base.sb (just basic fonts and vesa driver)
04-xorg_drv.sb (additional drivers)
05-blackbox.sb
@ jcsoh
"The only concern isthat if there are too many modules , slax especially with copy2ram takes noticeably longer to load."
Simple combine and re-compress *.sb script could easily fix that problem.
Recombining the modules would defeat the purpose and as can been seen here on the blog, most users are not the type to create their own modules, not even for their own use. They just want to download and insert.
I have about 200+ modules on my Slax7 and copy2ram takes more than a minute to complete on an i7, 8GB RAM machine. There are that many modules because a lot are individually required for certain modules to work and they overlap. The beauty of Slax is the ability to load modules as you need them for applications as you need them. If you keep combining then that is lost. It goes back to the old Slax issue of people creating modules with libraries so it works as a stand alone module, but another module may have the need for the same libraries and thus you have library duplication if you use both modules together. It doesn't matter at the final start up, but in terms of the size of the distro, it does get larger.
That being said, I too agree with the individual app per module concept (kdegames -> kdegames.sb, pidgin -> pidgin.sb, etc). The ability to avoid duplication of components of each sb is the actual challenge.
"Recombining the modules"
What we need is for some one to create such a bundle /script . The merger can be done on our own personal installation. For eg I use sane+xsane and ImageMagick . This comes with a whole bunch of dependencies , and I don't want to have to activate them one by one to use . I rather create a merge single bundle for each ie one for sane+xsane and one for Imagemagick.
Eg of such a module in Slax 6
Slax Module Tools Uploaded by jayflood (Now Porteus 32 bits developer)
http://old.slax.org/modules.php?action=detail&id=3316
I stop using copy2ram with slax 7 as it is noticeably slower to load on a Pentium D machine.
Due to missing utilitys /functions like ability to right click a bundle and choose extract here , or right click a directory and choose make , I haven't extracted , stripped (usually I get rid of manuals , locale , man etc) and merged any bundles yet.
Hint : Experts . We are waiting for your "make life easy " utilities....
I was thinking about loading a lot of modules during startup - what if you want to use your fine tuned Slax with lots of modules on some old computer with small RAM? There should be option to boot Slax only with the basic modules (like after fresh install), and the modules from directory /slax/modules would not be activated during this startup. Because now it activates the basic modules and the content of the directory /slax/modules. If I put the modules away, it would be very annoying to activate a lot of modules by hand after KDE starts.
In slax 6 there is a noload cheatcode . If you were to name the modules that you do not want to load on some computer say with 01_filenamexxx,
Then you can use the cheat code noload 01_*.* so that all modules with 01 in front of theiir names won;t be loaded. This cheatcode is missing in slax 7.
"t would be very annoying to activate a lot of modules by hand after KDE starts."
That's why I highlighted Jflood slax mod tools .Among the thing it can do is to activate an entire folder.
Eg of such a module in Slax 6
Slax Module Tools Uploaded by jayflood (Now Porteus 32 bits developer)
http://old.slax.org/modules.php?action=detail&id=3316
So I tried to separate some of the software and from my point of view it is not worth. KDE games in Slax are only 1.6MB, that is about 0.5% of entire Slax size. Pidgin is 2.6MB, that is around 1.5% of Slax size. Actually any package itself will be such small on its own, the problem are the dependencies, which can't be separated. For example pidgin depends on the dbus* stuff, gstreamer, and many others. I'm more inclined to leave it as it is now.
@Tomas M
You can split core.sb into main and opt dependecnies, and when make ffox+pidgin+dep.sb
@Tomas M
Can you provide slax-build-7.0.3.tar.xz in source tree directory, and for the upcomming version?
- run kbuildsycoca4 on module activation to update KDE menu
I have some modules in the directory /slax/modules and they are activated automatically upon startup. But there is no icon in the KDE menu. The icon then appears when I run the kbuildsycoca4 command manually. Maybe the kbuildsycoca4 command isn't executed during automated activation of modules?
@Prcek: you're right, it is not executing kbuildsycoca4 during startup. Yet it shouldn't need to be, and it is a mystery for me that you don't see the menu entries until you run kbuildsycoca4.
Well I see them now, after the first run of kbuildsycoca4. Every other reboot is fine and the menu entry is there. It wasn't there after the first reboot. I just downloaded the .sb files and put them in /slax/modules, but did not activate them. They were first activated during the boot process.
@ Tomas
Is there any legal restriction on the distribution or rar (rarlinux) , unrar and p7zip . If not can they be included as the rar /7 zip format is quite common (especially rar).
@ Tomas
Is there any legal restriction on the distribution or rar (rarlinux) , unrar and p7zip . If not can they be included as the rar /7 zip format is quite common (especially rar).
I was expecting rarlinux which I assumed is an open source implementation of rar.
The same thing with p7zip which is supposed to be unix port of 7zip.
As far as I know rar is only provided as closed-source software. Even unrar is closed source. If you know where to download at least unrar sources, I am happy to include it in Slax. But I'm not sure about the closed-source binaries.
"only provided as closed-source software."
I know rar is closed sourced but I am under the impression "unrar" is allowed on the basis that if someone have a legal copy of rar the the recepient must have a mean to "unrar" to open it. It is still close source but distributable ?.(of course alternatively they can make a self extracting package)
Isn't it the same with window zip and unzip ?
Ok that aside , but why are they (unrar) freely hosted:-
http://slackfind.net/en/packages/search/?name=rar&distversion=
http://www.slacky.eu/asche/pkgs/index.php?sear=unrar&ver=16
Or unrar can be hosted but not included in the package ?
The unrar binary can be included in Slax. By 'closed source' I mean it is provided as binary only, where you can't compile any source codes, you have to simply use the precompiled binaries and you have to trust their creators. And you can never be sure what the binaries are going to do, since you don't know the source codes.
@Somewhat Reticent: Would razor-qt provide the same look and feel and the same features like KDE? You answered your own question.
Ah, I found unrar sources. Good! so I'll include unrar in Slax, so you can extract RAR archives either by commandline or by ARK.
What about p7zip.
The source code is also available.
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
The format is less common than rar.
I am not a programmer, but the user. I'm used slax 7.0.3 for 2 weeks. I am very pleased with this system, but interferes the lack of support printer. at The collection of module could not suitable for slax7, and I do not have enough experience to build it. Has anyone done this?
PS: please forgive me for machine translation.
@ javorm
Printer support is already available:-
slax7-printpack_sp1.1: (available at http://mirror.fluxflux.net/index.php?dir=bundles)
Slax7 printing fixes with configuration gui (system-config-printer)
@jcsoh Unfortunately, this is not working. I tried on version 7.0.3. and 7.0.4. At first i'm posted "slax7-printpack_sp1.1" to folder "modules". After the failure, I moved the file to the folder "Slax" - the result is the same.After clicking the "print" is proposed to save the file of PDF or Poststsript . Printer in this window are not shown.
Please tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Bug in zram 3.6.5 already corrected and included in mainstream?
Compiling 3.7.3 with broadcom f/smac drivers and bootsplash now.
@ jarovm 2013-01-20 06:58
I am not sure what print button you mean , but the printingpack merely provide print support . You still need to install printer as normal.
For eg in Openoffice / LibreOffice , even if we sucessfully instaa printer , selecting print or testprinting gives no out put (nothing is actually printed).
But with the printingpack , the printer actually prints.
The printpack is only providing the necessary printing libraries files etc , you still need to:-
(a) Check if your printer can even print in linux.
(b) If yes , how to set it up. In my case I need to download the correct printer ppd files and select it during installation)
(c) Do and complete the installation.
(d) In the software concern is you default printer (that you had selected earlier selected) (Some software still set their own default). You may need to change the selected printer.
Good afternoon! On computers with 1 processor (Pentium 4), I can not load by PXE. What could be the reason?
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