Slax author's Blog (RSS)
15
January2013
Slax 7.0.4 released
New version of Slax pocket operating system has been released. Improvements and fixes include:
User comments
If you actually see /run in Slax, you'll notice it is overmounted by tmpfs anyway. It is not possible to access /run/activate.sh and /run/deactivate.sh from within the root slax filesystem. Instead, each activate.sh and deactivate.sh script will be accessed directly on the mounted squashfs directory, eg. /mnt/live/memory/bundles/123-module.sb/run/activate.sh
This way, the scripts won't be affected by other ones from other modules. You should still put startup/shutdown scripts in /etc/rc.d/init.d/ since the /run/activate.sh and /run/deactivate.sh won't get executed on system startup. So a good practice, if you need /etc/rc.d/init.d/* script anyway, is to put it there, and make the activate.sh script only call it with 'start' parameter, and deactivate.sh script call the init script with 'stop' parameter, for example. This way it will be executed properly on system startup / shutdown and also on module activation / deactivation.
BTW the activate command will now activate even the dependencies. But deactivate command will not deactivate dependencies yet. In the future, it should be able to detect which dependencies are not used by any other software and offer to deactivate them.
> support for special files in Slax Bundles. Content of file
> /run/activate.sh gets executed on activate, content of
> /run/deactivate.sh gets executed on module deactivation.
So I guess I have to suit deb2sb to save the pre-/postinst and pre-/postrm scripts from the source .deb file as
(de)activate.sh in the /run folder, right?
Manfred
Actually I have no idea what those scripts do, and most likely those won't work on Slax since debian may have different methods of running whatever the scripts are intended to run. At the moment I would prefer to ignore them.
> I have no idea what those scripts do
They have nearly the same logic as Slackware's doinst.h
In addition they are able to redo changes they have made
during installation.
Are there any significant performance corrections since v7.0.0? First release was extremely slow comparing to 6th edition and it was slow also comparing to other modern KDE distros and even on relatively powerful machines...
Would it be possible for bundle-maintainers to receive an email, when automatic rebuild fails? Or may someone consider this as spam?
Is there really some other option, since source links in buildscripts can break someday, Slax base might change, etc. and bundles will fail to build.
Maybe a max. value of 'rebuild failed' emails could be set, before the bundle is flaged as unmaintained.
>each activate.sh and deactivate.sh script will be accessed directly on the mounted
>squashfs directory, eg. /mnt/live/memory/bundles/123-module.sb/run/activate.sh
Ok I understand now, so there wont actually be a /run directory in the root filesystem at all. It will only exist under the memory mount and run from there.
I have to go rebuild my mysql and sendmail slaxbundles to use this.
Both mysql and sendmail are official modules in the repository. Why do you rebuild them?
I made my own when Slax 7.0.0 was released way before they were in the official repo. I had to configure them to create the sendmail user/group and mysql user/group without replacing the entire /etc/passwd and /etc/group and hence screwing up the whole of Slax. Since the /run/activate.sh is now available, I will use that instead. That reminds me, I'll also need to update my posgresql module.
I have this problem now : http://www.slax.org/es/blog/18996-Konqueror-unable-to-load-SSL-sites.html
Could you detail me this and the required unix commands :
"Thus I just have to re-run update-ca-certs using chroot during Slax creation, to be sure it properly updates SLAXROOT/etc/ssl/certs directory. Since that is done, SSL (HTTPS) websites work in konqueror and in KDE in general."
Sincerely yours,
Thanks in advance,
--- "Both mysql and sendmail are official modules in the repository. Why do you rebuild them?" [...]
I will never understand your question.
Is it the first time that you use linux ?
There are MANY reasons that explain why people need to rebuilt a software.
New features, some bugs that matters to the user but may not matter to the slackware repository, etc.
For example, did you use the latest Kernel 3.7.2 which fix some bugs ?
(broadcom, usb, etc.)
If *not*, create slax 7.0.4.1... just in case...
I do recommend firefox 10.0.12 ESR or may be 17.0.2 ESR...
(People need some stability)
Thank you.
To check the downloads of the Slax 7.0.4 .zip and .iso files, where to get the md5 sum from ?
Make a back up of you slax 7.03 /changes folder or changes.dat.
Then just copy over slax 7.04 files to replace slax 7.03 files.
Krusader file manager can open and copy over directly from slax's iso.
http://www.mediafire.com/?t6wc1tt36qgy1
@R Jayaram 2013-01-15 11:37
wget --no-check-certificate http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/slax/Slax-7.x/7.0.4/md5.txt
@jcsoh 2013-01-15 12:18
It seems that you do love mediafire....
Don't you have another website without javascript ? :-D LOOL !!!
;-)
It's my 1st uploading site . Since Em and others usually use mediafire , naturally that's the first place I look.
And since its free and they allocates 50Gb , of which I have used less than 1Gb , I doubt , I be looking elsewhere for the time being.
Hey Tomas,
I was wondering when can we get a fglrx module? My graphic cards fans love blaring unless supplied with fglrx!
BUG Report
When it is copied and pasted multiple files and folders, the window closes and the copy is stopped. Example copy multiple files and folders from flashdrive and paste in the folder /home. The window will close and a copy will be stopped. In the previous version also happened.
@ Thomas
I would like to confirm Slaxmax bug report. It also happen to me many times.
When it happen , I can avoid the problem
by copying smaller number of files and folders. It seems too much multiple files and folders trigger the bug.
Confirmed the bug as well.
Nothing in dmesg when it happens. I copied 187 folders with files in them (unknown number) and 436 files together and it happened.
If I copied just the 187 folders with files in them (unknown number) its fine. If I copy just the 436 files alone, its also fine. So its only a combination of folders AND files that results in the bug.
Just to add, a whole load of "kdeinit4: kio_file..." processes startup and then die suddenly. It seems like the same number startup when I only copy folders or only copy files, but those don't die.
Also tried copying with Konqueror and the same bug happens.
Doesn't matter if I copy from tmpfs partition to tmpfs partition (/usr/lib to /home/Downloads) or external usb to tmpfs partition or hard drive partition to usb or hard drive partition to tmpfs partition or even hard drive partition to hard drive partition. So, kio_file bug?
Does this happen with stock Slackware? I don't have access to my Slackware 14 machines at the moment.
Slax 7.04 clean frugal live install to hard disk on ext 2.
Copy to ext2 partition .
Source of files slax 7.04 extracted files in main folder /slax_704
If I copy the entire /slax_704 , it copy without problem
But if I go inside /slax_704 and select all the files and folders inside , then it will crash. I copy using Dolphin file manager.
When you say dmesg , you mean after crash , open a console and type dmesg ?
If so see:
http://pastebin.com/P1tLAuX2
Note I repeat 3 times . Copy the single main folder always work.
Going inside the main folder , and selecting all files and folders inside , always crash within a second or two.
Bug confirmed. If dolphin is started from konsole, it reports "Application Dolphin crashing". The same happens on Slackware 14 installation, so it is a dolphin bug. Would be useful if somebody knew how to report this upstream, since it is very annoying indeed.
Note that it happens on Slackware 14 but with KDE compiled by myself. I'll try with Slackware's official KDE packages.
http://pastebin.com/Pi4nQuQj
Thanks for this Slax update.
Would-it be possible to include a recent realease of mtools ?
The current one doesn't implement the "-i" option and need to declare in /etc/mtools.conf drive letters manualy.
I notice this when using mlabel to change my usb-key label.
Compiling mtools-4.0.18 do the job.
Thanks for the update, Tomas, how can I update existing Slax installation in the usb I got from you? Just unzip, overwrite and run bootinst.bat? I don't wanna loose the settings.
Please Please Please Tomas I want Slax to make a beep sound when i release the slider after adjusting the sound volume
@Tasos
just unzip and overwrite all folders EXEPT slax/changes
so:
1) unzip
go to slax
copy all files except changes into /usbdrive/slax/
and overwrite
and to be absolutely sure, copy contents of /usbdrive/slax/changes/ somewhere else, or zip the folder, that way you cant loose the data
Tasos: Yes, overwrite existing data. Your settings is in directory /slax/changes, so you can back it up, just to be sure you don't lose them. But it should only overwite other files in other directories, because in the Slax ISO or ZIP there isn't anything in the directory /slax/changes. I think you don't need to run bootinst.sh, but it couldn't hurt to do so :-).
T: That is interesting - that beep sound when you move the volume slider always irritated me so I am happy it is muted :-). I don't know where is the issue, but maybe it is because the PC speaker functionality isn't included in Slax kernel, or is disabled some other way.
The noload boot parameter is working properly. Tomas, is there a command to cause kickoff menu to reload the *.desktop files? When I activate a module on the fly, the kickoff menu is not updated.
Plymouth seems to be a simple enough bootsplash that doesn't require kernel recompilation or patching, just needs to have the plymouth binaries and libraries inserted into the initrfs and called at the right time from initrfs. Compiling the binaries isn't much of an issue, but figuring where to insert it in the init script inside initrfs is what I'm not sure about.
Wonder if Tomas could offer any advice as to where in the init script to put this or perhaps could look at implementing it for future Slax releases, once the other more important bugs are fixed.
For viewing pleasure on what plymouth can do:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,76205.0.html
@X download the kernel fireware module
slax activate kernel-firmware
Make sure the firmware module is in your slax/modules/ directory and then reboot.
@Tomas M.
I am Italian and I am using Google Translate.
Hello Tomas when you released the beta of Slax 7 I had asked you a default theme dedicated to Slax 7 KDE, etc. ...
You answered me, that maybe I could create one myself for you. I read your post just now! Sounds good to me, if you want I can work with you to create a new theme for Slax 7 =)
I have worked with SliTaz time ago, I created wallpaper and theme base for OpenBox SliTaz 4.0
If you are interested send me an email to: iancilos@alice.it
I await your response, hello!
@X Read the documentation on how to use the 'slax search' command to search for modules.
If the modules don't exist, see if you can find the official txz slackware packages for it from packages.slackware.com or else where and then use the txz2sb command to convert the txz packages to an sb module. Place the converted module in your slax/modules/ directory and everytime you reboot you will have it.
@ x
Libreoffice for slax 7: (32 bits / 64bits)
http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=83194
Openoffice for slax 7 (32 bits)
http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=83576
@ x
Is possible: xzm ---> sb?
Just rename the module.xzm to module.sb.
Usually it will work but not always.
@X renaming works for the modules I've tried. You can try it yourself and see. If not best is to xzm2dir and then dir2sb.
Tomas, I had to add the command kbuildsycoca4 to /sbin/slax at activation/deactivation of bundles, because the slax activate/deactivate was not updating the kickoff applications' icons. Why are you keeping the /sbin/slax without this feature?
Maybe these lines are not beying executed properly:
if [ "$(find "$TGT/usr/share/applications/" -name "*.desktop" -type f 2>/dev/null)" != "" ]; then
kbuildsycoca4 >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
Can some one tell me if you face this problem . I saw this since slax 7.03 but it's intermittent and usually goes away by itself. When I try to delete files from Dolphin, it tell me the trash can is full, so I go and delete everything in the trash can.
Then it still tell me the rash can is full and I still can delete. I usually move the files I want to delete to a temporary folder. Later on I usually can delete and the trash can is working again.
"Then it still tell me the rash can is full and I still can delete. I us"
Sorry should be
"Then it still tell me the trash can is full and I still can 't delete. "
@jcsohan: I do not know the reason of the bug, but you can use shift + delete to delete the files directly.
@jcsohan/jcsoh ?
Use pcmanfm instead...
I've seen some issues with dolphin... either.
can any one make this module as it was in slax 6
http://old.slax.org/modules.php?action=detail&id=3316
same for slax 7
Regarding plymouth: I have no objections against boot splash, but it has to be small, useful, and simple. I am afraid this plymouth will depend tons of libs, like xml stuff and such. Am I right?
Regarding beep on volume bar click: if you tell me what to do to make the beep, I will do it. Is it beeping on other distros? I am afraid not.
Regarding trash: I can reproduce that too, will try to fix that since it is annoying.
@Tomas, erm no - I actually downloaded it from
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Plymouth
and just compiled off a stock Slax 7.0.4 and made a txz package which is 1.48mb. I doubt it requires a lot, since its supposed to run from initramfs. Then again it depends on what your idea of "small is".
again it depends on what your idea of "small is". vs 1.48 mb
I don't think so ... Let just say Tomas idea of "small" , if applies to a bikini , the wearer get arrested !....
hehe :) 1.5MB is not small.
It probably compiles everything statically, thus probably depends on nothing then.
@Jcsoh
1.4 mb is big for most users in countries where bandwith is low...
(under 10kb)
@Tomas M
Provide a script for people who do want Plymouth...
The script would create the rules in grub for example...?
@Tomas, I don't know if its statically compiled, but I don't think so. It has its own libraries and all.
I understand your wanting to not get any size bigger than what it is now, but if you have the time and there is nothing else for you to look into on a day when you're totally bored, perhaps you could try plymouth with Slax and see.
I see a lot of other distros get more traction than Slax does purely because they have bootsplash and that is honestly very sad indeed. The modularity of slax makes it one of the easiest to use and customise, yet people end up using another distro because of the nice looking splash screen. If we can draw people to the distro from the splash screen, perhaps they will stay longer to discover the other great things about Slax.
Heres hoping you'll look into Plymouth for Slax.
Cheers.
@ markds
I find it hard to believe a bootsplash that last a few second can really give a distro more traction?.
Slax is a livecd /frugal mode os which is the other side of the coin of the more traditional real install os.How many livecd /frugal mode os are there ?
Slax , Nimblex (dormant) , Wolvix (dead) , Porteus , Puppy , Knoppix ..
It's fairer to compare slax among these rather than the traditional real install distros (which I think most users expect). I don't think slax can ever be a main stream os.
Of the above the one that stand out is Puppy . Notwithstanding what Tomas think of Distrowatch ranking it does give an indication as to the Distro long term popularity. Puppy have always been up among the best at times within the top 10 or close. Slax like Knoppix moves up the ranking when there is a new or frequent release.
In the long term we should be looking at Puppy and in the short term at Porteus (it's now slax closest cousin).
But then again perhaps Tomas is looking at slax on a day by day basis , no monetisation , then no slax 8. So be sure to enjoy slax 7 to the fullest because it may be the last version.
Hey it's good for at least a year or two (before it get outdated).
@JC, the bootsplash piques peoples interest. You, me, and the linux hardcore can compare slax with those you mentioned, but casual end users are not going to differentiate between frugal/liveos and real install distros, and while we're on that topic, even though Tomas doesn't advocate it and will not support it, Slax can very easily be a main stream OS. Our students and staff have been pushing it as a their main OS (Slax with full install, not frugal, to hdd) since 2006. They love it, because they can customize it to the last detail before even installing it to the hard drive and immediately have a backup on a usb stick if anything goes wrong. Its a complete joy to use in cloud and virtual environments and has been an awesome timesaver with clusters. So why can't it be a main stream OS? Anyone who sees Slax boot up and Linuxmint boot up (for eg.) would be more interested in Linux Mint.
Maybe its just me, but I don't think Tomas really cares if Slax moves up the ranks of distrowatch. I sure as heck don't care where it is on distro watch. Even if one day my distro doesn't use Slax as a base, I will still be a Slax supporter. If from my experience I see ways to push Slax, or even monetize it, then I will definitely look for ways to ask Tomas to implement. I got interested in Slax because of Backtrack (when its base was still slax). I loved the bootsplash and graphic virtual terminals. That intrigued me enough to learn more about it which eventually lead me to Slax itself.
And as for monetisation, when I first lauched bioslax as beta, the people who saw it said it was "plain", didn't want to even use it much. After I put in the bootsplash, those same people offered to PAY for company/personally branded-bootsplashed-customized bioslax and students were VERY intrigued to explore the distro. So to say that a "few seconds" of bootsplash" can't give traction to a distro, no offence to you, but in my humble opinion, I think that is way off base.
In any case, I'm not here to argue and I respect that you have your own opinions on this, same way as I have mine.
Cheers!
About ksplashscreen, I got Ksplashscreen Air Curl theme kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=109185 and configured in KDE.
It fits in 5 MB, but, if you delete the smaller images, it goes down to about 1,1 MB.
Just to share, I already have bootsplash patched into the Slax kernel using the patches from here:
http://www.uli-eckhardt.de/bootsplash/index.en.shtml
Just need to edit one of the patches to remove some stuff from "Patch for 3.4 bootsplash-3.4.diff.bz2". It will still work with later kernel versions.
After recompiling the kernel, to get the bootsplash working isn't very clear on most websites (just doing splash -s -f ... >> initrfs.img doesn't work like it did with initrd.gz). So, as silly as doing this may sound to some, these are the steps I took to get it to work:
1) Get bootsplash sb from here http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/bootsplash-3.1.sb and activate it - you will have /etc/bootsplash after activating
2) Get your verbose and silent splash images or theme and config into /etc/bootsplash/themes
3) Generate the init bootsplash from the config with:
/sbin/splash -s -f /etc/bootsplash/themes/<themename>/config/<configfile>.cfg > /tmp/bootsplash
4) Extract the initrfs.img to someplace (eg:/tmp/inittree) using
mkdir /tmp/inittree; cd /tmp/inittree
xz -dc <path-to-slax-initrfs>/initrfs.img | cpio -i
5) Copy the whole of /etc/bootsplash to the /tmp/inittree/ and copy /tmp/bootsplash to /tmp/inittree (so its in the root of the inittree)
cd /etc; cp -R /etc/bootsplash /tmp/inittree/etc
cp /tmp/bootsplash /tmp/inittree
6) Recompress initrfs with
cd /tmp/inittree; find . -print | cpio -o -H newc 2>/dev/null | xz -f --extreme > /tmp/initrfs.img
7) Replace the stock Slax vmlinuz and initrfs.img with the patched kernel and the new initrfs.img. The initrfs.img increases by 30KB and vmlinuz increases by 10KB.
8) Boot, edit options, set vga=791
The bootsplash will only show up like the old behaviour until the KMS kicks in, then it will dissapear. To keep the bootsplash around and have graphic background for your virtual terminals, use kernel parameter "nomodeset" (which disables KMS) at boot.
I've been playing around with nomodeset and a lot of different graphic cards and even without KMS, the X resolution is fine. The only card I'm constantly having trouble with is the Intel GM945. Thats the only one I need to use KMS modeset with so far. I figure there are other cards that give issues too, but I find a majority still work well without KMS.
Based on this, to make a Slax based distro more appealing, I would propose the default to be booted with "nomodeset" to maintain the bootsplash and graphic background virtual terminals and have the KMS as a fall back mode for those troublesome cards. IE, another option (KMS) other than "Persistent changes", "Graphical Desktop", "Copy to Ram", etc. Thats likely how I would push my Slax based distro.
All that being said, Plymouth would still be a good addition to Slax by default because it doesn't need the kernel compilation that takes up a lot of time but still gives Slax some credible eye candy.
Just my 2 cents _work_ so far on this.
I am experimenting with simple fbsplash, which is already in busybox and can display any graphics on top of standard framebuffer. Yet I have to find out how to mute console output and unmute it on a keypress, so the text which is usually printed on console is available to those who want to see it.
@Tomas, doesn't fbsplash require patching the kernel and also using fbcondecor to do the mute/unmute?
Tasos: I just found out that probably you have to run bootinst.sh after you overwrite Slax data on your flash disk with new version. I didn't do that, unzipped version 7.0.4 over 7.0.3 and it wouldn't boot. After running the script it boots again.
@MarkDS
People are interested by Linux mint because it's an ubuntu based and not because of his plymouth thing.
The advantage of Mint upon Ubuntu is that Mint have got important packages that everyone do need such as Gimp, for example.
This was one of the main mistakes of Ubuntu.
The owner of ubuntu knows nothing about people needs...
I said it : I've used Ubuntu and mint and other distros.
So what ? Debian is the best I've used, even before mint.
But debian is not for everyone...
Slax is not that good. It only has one serious advantage: Slackware.
If it wasn't a slackware based, I will never make it a try.
Simply speaking:
Some mistakes specific to slax: no forums...
Who is going to use something who do not have any forum ?
Even the signin doesn't have OpenID...
That is just stupid...
@MarkDS
--- "xz -f --extreme" [...] ????
NO !
initrd size is only around 1 Mb...
"xz -3" is more appropriate.
@Jcsoh 2013-01-17 04:11
People are interesting in Puppy because it is light, so it does not take that much time to download it.
Knoppix was the first live distro I've hear about: simply the best in the past.
And it is a debian based.
Today a live system arch based seems to be better than slax... :-(
I wonder why.
Because I do not have time to test, I could not have appropriate response but may be I would make serious test so I may get it...
@ Kadalka
Perhaps. At one time Damn Small Linux was also up in the top 10 ranking.
But size alone cannot be a major factor . The top 10 main stream are at least cd (700mb) size.
Perhaps is the fact that Puppy do have a vibrant community which produced a lot of community edition or respin. A sign we can see in Porteus. I had hope slax remix could be the start of a slax community edition , but it was not meant to be.
But it's hard enough to learn , use and maintain a Distro. I stick to slax but if I ever switch , Porteus is the most likely candidate at the moment.
I want and need a frugal live cd , where I can add /update software offline . My main work computer and internet /entertainment computer is separated.
I actualy ever really use three Distros:-
(a) Mepis livecd
(b) Freespire live cd (Dead and gone)
(c) Slax
I have installed just to try out or try out the live cd /dvd of perhaps 50 over Distro. I would give a special mention to:-
(a) Knoppix
(b) PC Linux OS
(c) Wolvix (Dead and gone).
@ Markds
You could be right . Catching the user attention is the first step.
I was noticed slax because of slax 5.1.8 Kill Bill Edition.
Woa .. Garish bright yellow desktop with a katana (japanese samurai sword) , and named Kill Bill (you know which Bill!) . Yeah , how could I ignore.
That 's was my reaction as a linux newbie then.... :)
Integrating this great Slax release into the next release of Omniboot (http://omniboot.at) I had a problem with pxe: load=, noload= and from= don't get parsed, as port 7529 is no benefit for me. So I altered the section "download_data_pxe()" in initrfs.img//lib/livekitlib as follows which makes pxe-booting now equally modifiable as booting from a local filesystem.
<code>
download_data_pxe()
{
debug_log "download_data_pxe" "$*"
local CMD CLIENT SERVER GW MASK ETH PROTOCOL
mkdir -p "$1/$LIVEKITNAME"
FROM="$(cmdline_value from)"
cmdline_value ip | while IFS=":" read CLIENT SERVER GW MASK; do
echo_green_star >&2
echo "Downloading files from $SERVER ..." >&2
ETH=$(init_network_dev)
# set IP address as given by boot paramter
if [ "$CLIENT" != "" -a "$MASK" != "" ]; then
ifconfig $ETH "$CLIENT" netmask "$MASK"
route add default gw "$GW"
else
# if client ip is unknown, try to get a DHCP lease
udhcpc -i $ETH -f -q
fi
# well known IP address of Google public DNS service
echo nameserver 8.8.8.8 >> /etc/resolv.conf
PROTOCOL=http
[ -n $FROM ] && SERVER="$SERVER/$FROM"
wget -q -O "$1/PXEFILELIST" "http://$SERVER/PXEFILELIST?$(uname -r):$(uname -m)"
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Error downloading from http://$SERVER, trying TFTP" >&2
PROTOCOL=tftp
tftp -g -r PXEFILELIST -l "$1/PXEFILELIST" $SERVER
fi
( cat "$1/PXEFILELIST" | grep -v "modules/" | sort -n; cat "$1/PXEFILELIST" | grep "modules/" | sortmod | filter_load) | grep '[.]'$BEXT'$' | filter_noload | while read FILE; do
FILENAME=`basename $FILE`
if [ "$PROTOCOL" = "http" ]; then
wget -O "$1/$LIVEKITNAME/$FILENAME" "http://$SERVER/$FILE"
else
echo "* $FILE ..." >&2
tftp -g -r $FILE -l "$1/$LIVEKITNAME/$FILENAME" $SERVER
fi
done
done
echo "$1/$LIVEKITNAME"
}
</code>
I'm happy to try this new version of Slax, years after version 6 and previous ones.
Is there any ndiswrapper module for Slax 7 in order to make my wireless connection to work?
An other thing. I'm a bit desapointed that the translations of the web site have vanished (at least the french one). And the "improve translations" doesn't seem operating.
Thank's
Thanks for this great distribution.
Could anyone please post a link to specific directions on how to get wireless working on Slax 7.04?
I'm way more of a "Ubuntu/Linux Mint" person than an "Arch Linux" person, so hopefully you could tailor your responses/links toward someone who is very new to this.
Thank you for any help.
@Philippe & @Mister Pete, perhaps you could let us know what wireless cards you're using?
I find that Slax 7 works with most wireless cards, just that firmware maybe missing.
If you can plug yourself in from the wire and then bring up a terminal and type:
slax activate kernel-firmware
That would download the available firmware module and activate it for you. I believe it also saves a copy in your slax/modules folder so you will have it again when you reboot (someone please confirm).
For those using broadcom b43/brcm cards, download the firmware from here:
http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/b43firmware.sb
Put it into your slax/modules folder and reboot - don't try to activate it on the fly, it may (more likely than not) cause a kernel panic, but if you boot with it in the modules folder, its fine.
@Mark De Silva
Thank you very much for the help. I will try that report back this weekend.
I do have a Broadcom, but the laptop is at home and I do not recall the model #.
1. On trying abiword, it showed "abiword: error while loading shared libraries: libfribidi.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory".
I tried both wget and slax activate methods here.
2. Cups (32 bits) does not work and hence my Epson -9pin dot matrix printer cannot be used.
3. AS a surprise, LibreOffice with the required modules appeared in "Modules" yesterday but disappeared with no sign today !!
Pl help.
@Pete if its a broadcom, you'll need the firmware from my repo:
http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/b43firmware.sb
Download, put it into slax/modules and reboot.
@ R. Jayaram
If you look at the right hand side of the Slax's Abiword page
, it stated 5 modules are required . Fribidi is one of the m .
Did you download and activate it ?.
@Mark Da Silva
Thank's Mark for your answer.
My 12 years old desktop has a Trendnet TEW-423PI wireless card. According to lspci command, this card has a Marvell 88w8335 (Libertas) Ethernet controller. I'm used to use it for years and with many Linux distribution, includind Slax, by way of ndiswrapper with mrv8335 driver. Never succeed in running it by an other way.
In Slax 7, the command
slax activate kernel-firmware
doesn't work because there is no network connection.
@Tomas M
Many congratulations on another fine release. Slax has been my favorite pocket distro since so many years now.
I wanted to let you know about a minor issue that has persisted since v7.0. When you try to open a media file in "MPlayer", you get an error "Skin default not found". The error gets easily fixed on installing any of the many skins available at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html into /usr/share/mplayer/skins, and renaming the installed skin's folder as "default". IMHO, you can include a default skin for mplayer in the next release as most of the skins are very low on size. :)
Philippe Etienne: Your only option is to download the kernel-firmware module via wired connection (since your wireless isn't working), or on another computer and copy it to your /slax/modules directory.
Regarding the web translations and "Improve translation" button - there is only english version (except the short text on the homepage) and the button never worked. We have to wait for Tomas to implement the functionality.
@Jcsoh 2013-01-18 20:25
downloaded fribidi twice - 'slax activate' indicates that this is probably corrupt
@Philippe, the Marvel driver for 88w8335 is only for USB wireless devices apparently. Is yours a USB wireless device?
@Mark
No, my desktop has an internal PCI card http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=195_TEW-423PI&cat=3
You can trust me, I use it for years with ndiswrapper and the mrv8335 driver.
I own a laptop too, this one with a PCMCIA card http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=280_TEW-421PC&cat=42 and it works the same way.
I will try today the kernel-firmware module as adviced by Prcek.
@Prcek
Thank's for your advice.
I have loaded kernel-firmware module with the "slax activate" command. There are now a lot of files under /mnt/live/memory/bundles/1196-kernel-firmware.sb. But I don't know what to do with this now!
Don't do anything :-). The module kernel-firmware contains drivers for various hardware, including wireless network cards. If your driver is there, then your network card should work. Just copy the module to your /slax/modules directory and it will be activated during boot process. If your network card doesn't work after that, it probably means the module didn't contain your driver. In that case you would have to get the driver somewhere from the internet and make your own module.
I don't know exactly how this works, maybe I am wrong, but it is important to activate the module before the kernel tries to initialize hardware. This is accomplished by putting the module to the /slax/modules directory. Modules are then activated early during the boot and the kernel should then find appropriate driver.
OK but I boot into Slax from a CD since my PC is not able to boot from a USB stick, so I'm not able to put something in /slax/modules then reboot.
I didn't found too how to make a "frugal install" as I was used to do with Slax 6 and previous.
Last I already tried tens of Linux distros and none of them had detect my wireless card with a firmware kernel module.
@ Philippe Etienne 2013-01-20 00:55
Frugal install for Slax 7 is essentially the same as in Slax 6 for the bootloader.
Only the config syntax differ a bit.
I suggest you post or search in the slax 6 old forum. There have been sucessful discussion on grub /grub2.l
firmware != drivers.
The firmware is software that runs on the particular device. Drivers tell the OS how to communicate with the device.
In most cases firmware exists on the device itself, but in other cases it can be loaded (from a different medium) at the point it is initialized. The firmware in the module kernel-firmware is of this kind, where it is loaded when the device (eg: wireless card) is initialized.
If the firmware is not present, the device can't be initialized, so even if you have the drivers, the device won't work. An example is the b43 broadcom driver. Its present in Slax, but without the appropriate firmware, the wireless card will not initialize and hence it doesn't work.
I don't believe the marvel card has any linux drivers or firmware for Linux natively and for this reason, ndiswrapper needs to be used with the windows drivers to enable it.
Unfortunately I still haven't had a space of time to build the ndsiwrapper module yet.
Hello time ago I use slax, now use the latest version, my question is how to use GIMP.lzm image processor, place it in (slax / module) and does not work, put it in (rot / mnt / live / memory ) anything where I have to put you module, or such longer works on slax 7.0.4. thanks
@ Oscar Sosa
The old gimp.lzm work . New Slax 7 use module or bundles as they are now know with sh extension , for eg Gimp.sh.
Gimp.sh is not yet in Slax 7 module repository , but for the time being , they are available at:-
http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=83194
(You have to scroll down and search but both 32 bits /64bits a).re available
First of all, one BIG thanks to this awesome distro master/creator, Mr. Tomas M.
I have never - ever, in my life so far, tried a Linux distro, so small, so compact and so (may I say) smart and able to detect Ati Radeon gr. card, two screens (extended desktops), Audigy sound card ... better than "Windblows" can - at a glance!.
And yikes! It is - Slack under the hood! :D
What can be better than that?
The overall conclusion is as follows :
Windows 8 will never see my hard drive. I mean never.
The reason is - Slax 64bit.
Now, since I am Linux noob, but quite the opposite on the Windows platform, I need few hints or strict solution/answer if that's not too complicated to perform, as I googled already, but found nothing (probably missed few hundred lines somewhere on this internet 'bout that :D )
What I want to accomplish is next:
1. To leave my current Kingston Datatraveller (8gb) with slax dir on it, but with "changes.dat" file somewhere on the 3.5" hard drive, on some ext3 or ext4 partition, doesn't matter. (upon boot from usb, Slax can mount an external linux partition and load changes and settings from there, I believe, right ?)
2. To change boot start-up menu option copy to ram as default in order to avoid activating that each time it boots, as I do that each time.
I have tried to edit syslinux.cfg manually for the second option, but didn't accomplished anything.
Even if it isn't possible (which I doubt) it's still cool and best Linux distro EVER. :)
Thanks in advance.
1. it is not possible at the moment to redirect changes to a different drive than the one Slax starts from. Yet you may want to make your Slax start from your hard drive
2. in syslinux.cfg, find the first line starting with APPEND, at the end there is: slax.flags=perch,xmode ... change it to slax.flags=perch,xmode,toram
And I tried last night to ... move blocks of code from there from place to place.. :D with syslinux.cfg backup before that... *(real comedy show that was :D :D) .. tried to add a little star between square brackets here and there within, and what else not.. and yet, all the logic is within that line.. so simple.
What a dumbass I am.
Nothing odd for a standard 'windblows' user I suppose? :)
Ok. Will try that with .cfg file right away.
Regarding first one, @not possible "at the moment" seems quite promising. :))
Some newer version, probably.
You are not a machine but a human. I can understand that.
All in all, Tomas, once again, (overall conclusion, regarding Slax it self and the way it works) you deserve more than You can imagine.
I have tried a lot of distro's but couldn't stick to any of those.
Slackopuppy is quite interesting but it just can't compete with Your product.
KDE4 .. in just 212 mb?
Don't want to know how, but it is - real.
And it works better than a hungry Chinese in apple factory, and it is faster than a Bruce Lee.
Live long and prosper Mr. Tomas.
Here I am again.
For some reason, it won't listen. Won't remember 'toram' flag.
I have added that in the .cfg where You told me to, but when I reveal options from the boot menu, copy to ram still isn't as default flag, but left for me to choose manually, like I didn't changed anything.
It does listen when I press tab on boot menu, and type that in without selecting it as offered option from the boot menu. But, again, I need to alter that each time during boot. By typing in or selecting it.
Weird. :D
Hi Tomas,
slax 7.0.4 tr .iso version
bootinst.bat File includes these lines.
#!/bin/sh
exec /bin/bash "$(dirname "$0")"/bootinst.sh
exec /bin/sh "$(dirname "$0")"/bootinst.sh
@echo off
COLOR 2F
cls
....
....
....
ve bootins.sh file content is empty ?
Were ta bash and sh shell in Windows?
How do I use if any.
I wanted to inform you.
with all respect.
Çaylak Penguen
Türkiye
Great release :).
One problem is that asm-x86 files are missing from the kernel headers so making compiling such as Nvidia drivers impossible. Problem may be related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kernel-package/+bug/814902 as appears to be a 3.x.x kernel problem.
Thanks and stuff
Hi, thanks for update Slax!
How to boot Slax from my hard drive with grub?
Hi Thomas! Thank you for SLAX!
I am not yet a great connoisseur of Linux, so you might ask the question incorrect, but it is very important to me:
 how to use NTFS disks and partitions? In version 6.1.2 I had install the NTFS-3g and enable automounting connected drives. How to mount the drives and use (read / write) in SLAX 7.x. ???
Thomas, SLAX is great! Thx.
I just wanted to let you know that I configured my 32GB flash like this - 2 partitions, ntfs 31GB + ext2 1GB. Slax ext2 partition is invisible to windows, but the usb is still bootable, and Slax automounts the ntfs partition for data use.
This is great way for everyday usb use + eventual rescue use :-)
I just couldn't activate kdepartitionmanager module, although I downloaded 32bit module into modules dir (!?!)
I couldn't manage KDE partition manager to work either, but I resolved that with good, old Gparted Live USB variant. Works great.
However, I have noticed that parted is already present and functional within Slax from terminal, but I still don't have courage to format in a textual based mode, as I might screw M$/ntfs drive with ease like that. I know my self. D:
DK,
can you tell me how'd you managed Slax to automount ntfs partition?
I have noticed that each time I want to play some music, I first need to open any folder, with Dolphin for example, than from Smplayer, when I navigate to particular folder where music is Smplayer plays audio without problems. Otherwise, ntfs is not mounted and Smplayer fills changes.dat with a lot of error messages, along with Debug: lines, and that's not good at all.
I suppose that not only Smplayer fills changes.dat with errors or warnings, but any other program for sure. How do I stop that?
"Help" me always writes:
Požadovanou operaci nenà možné dokonÄit
Nenà možné iniciovat protokol help
Technický důvod: Nelze spustit proces
Podrobnosti požadavku:
URL: help:/systemsettings/index.html
Protokol: help
Datum a Äas : St 23. ledna 2013 10:43
DalÅ¡Ã informace: Nenà možné vytvoÅ™it io-slave: klauncher hlásÃ: Neznámý protokol 'help'.
Some solution?
Spooky:
>>can you tell me how'd you managed Slax to automount ntfs partition?
This is the 2nd partition of the usb flash itself, not the partition of the hard drive. But I'm not certian now after seeing your comment, possibly it could be that I mounted it myself in Nautilus by clicking it. Nevertheless, it's there, just have to click on it and it's mounted, no problem for me :-)
I'll check it later...
Spooky & DK: I have no problem with the KDE partition manager. I have 32bit Slax and the partition manager is functional (I've changed disk labels with it).
Cyberex: You don't have to install anything - NTFS works out of the box. Just open dolphin and click on some hard disk listed on the left panel. It mounts it automatically to /media.
It looks like the 64bit version of KDE partition manager isn't properly built, it has zero size.
http://www.slax.org/en/modules.php?detail=KDEPartitionManager
Please contact module maintainer to fix that. He intentionally included the software only for 32bit arch, and it got processed on Slax server at the time when it didn't check for this case.
If the maintainer doesn't reply, feel free to prepare a buildscript with KDE partition manager (compiled from sources) and I will give you the ownership.
Hello again! And yet I can not find the dolphin and open my D drive, which is NTFS, and the C drive, I see and I can normally work with. Both drives (C and D) are located on the same physical disk Toshiba hdd (slots - IDE)
Ok how to contact maintainer(s). Login to here does not work (yahoo).. no emails... Unable to compile modules due to kernel source bug.
@ Indogo
in Konsole write: slax info bundle
example: slax info KDEPartitionManager
see http://www.slax.org/en/documentation.php#modules
http://atakancal.com/dosya/hata-slax.png ---> Fuck this error. How can i solve this. Where did i do wrong? !!! ıhmmmmmmmmm
Any reason behind removing the slax bundle when not given the full path? Is it not wise to keep the file?
The kernel sources are not up to date with kernel-sources slax bundle, having problems building modules. Couldn't run the defconfig on kernel-devel package either, any suggestions? Any idea of updating kernel-sources package?
NOTE: Took the sources from kernel.org and used "/proc/config.gz" as the defconfig works fine with the PC I am using.
@Atakan Çal
I downloaded and booted "fresh" version 7.0.5 with the same result.
Try older version
http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/slax/Slax-7.x/7.0.4/slax-Turkish-7.0.4-i486.iso
I do not understand what is wrong with the turkish version every time! If you recreate the ISO it's just fine. It's a mystery.
Pistal: I tried the older versions(7.0,7.2,7.4) but didn't work.
Thomas M: I will try english 32 bit iso. Hope it will work
Ok got the missing asm folder with help of correct kernel source from slax dev ftp . Now able to build a running Nvidia driver and other modules.
Also mount command has no NFS support though kernel does have modules built in...mount for elsewhere proved working.
Strange problem with rendering and oxygen theme library with Nvidia...fine without..in case anyone tries...and KDE (XFCE does not?) tries to force nouveau ... cause unknown.
Just for reference.
> deactivation of Slax module now removes the module file, unless you deactivate it with the real filename as argument - then it is kept
Did I understand this correctly?
If I have module /slax/modules/opera.sb on my usb flash and I do "slax deactivate opera" then file /slax/modules/opera.sb will be erased from existence?
If so, the this is not what I am expecting from "deactivate" function. "deactivate" != "annihilate". Does this behaviour will be inherited by 7.0.5?
Actually if you do 'slax activate opera' it automatically downloads the opera module and activates it. So 'slax deactivate opera' will delete the file, assuming if you are deactivating then you do not want it in the system any longer. It's like uninstalling.
Yet if you wish to keep the opera module file, just use slax deactivate /mnt/live/memory/modules/opera.sb ... this will deactivate it but will preserve the file.
> Actually if you do 'slax activate opera' it automatically downloads the opera module and activates it.
Yes, but no. I have a ton(~50) of pre-downloaded modules in my /slax/modules, all of them I need in that or this cases. But not simultaneously. So for all unneeded for now modules I usually shall do "slax deactivate", but I certainly shall need them in nearest future.
> Yet if you wish to keep the opera module file, just use slax deactivate /mnt/live/memory/modules/opera.sb ... this will deactivate it but will preserve the file.
Hm, lets me explain why I cannot accept this behaviour:
My most often used command "slax deactivate /path/to/module/name.sb" which must keep module file is longest and less comfortable than my never used command which will delete module file "slax deactivate modulename". I find this wrong, don't I?
Permanent deleting of modules is slax maintenance task and can(or even must) be done offline. While running seriously pre-configured slax build, there are will non any need to delete modules permanently, I think.
I have an Intel Centrino Advanced N6200 AGN wireless card in a fujitsu T900s lifebook and i can't seem to get Slax 7.08 to recognize it. What am i doing wrong
Thanks,
Brian
Greetings,
I've made my own custom slax-based distro using 7.0.0 in the past. While it works flawelessly on my test cases, broader test results show an incompatibility with some ADM Vision or NVidia-based chipset (yeah, nvidia -.-"). Changes log shows (7.0.4) that you have made improvement over graphics detection, in which X will try to fallback to VESA mode whenever it's unable to load required graphic drivers.
The thing is, I've made huge modification on many files (initramfs, rc-scripts, etc), stripped modules, and added other modules as well. Stripping and adding files to the modules will be an easy one since i've tracked the changes, but how about the rc-scripts and initramfs, especially initramfs? Will I be able to use my own initramfs on the latest slax build, and still have the advantages over the patches provided by the recent version?
Thx in advance
hi, tomas,
we plan to use slax as our software development os, now we need your help to add a tool to crypt our data on disk partition, cryptsetup, can you help me to add it to slax website as a module?
cryptsetup : crypt our disk partition use luks method, please see it on fedora or ubuntu linux.
useage:
cryptsetup luksCreate /dev/sda2
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 crypt2
mount /dev/mapper/crypt2 /mnt
...
cryptsetup luksClose /dev/mapper/crypt2
thanks very much.
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Thanks for the updated Slax.
One thing - is it wise to restrict the start up script in /run/ to activate and deactivate.sh. If multiple bundles are activated the it stems that the deactivate.sh script will be overwritten by the last bundles /run/deactivate.sh script. So deactivating the 1st sb, will end up running the last sb's deactivate script.
Eg:
slax activate mod1.sb -> generate 1st /run/activate.sh and 1st /run/deactivate.sh
slax activate mod2.sb -> generate 2nd /run/activate.sh and 2nd /run/deactivate.sh
slax activate mod3.sb -> generate 3rd /run/activate.sh and 3rd /run/deactivate.sh
So by now /run will have overwritten the 1st 2 activate.sh with mod3.sb's activate.sh and deactivate.sh
so I do:
slax deactivate mod2.sb
it would be running mod3.sb's deactivate script right?
Pardon me if I have interpreted it wrongly.
This also means there will permanently be a /run directory in the root tree.
I actually think it would be better to stick to the old behavior where users can define their own scripts and script names inside of /etc/rc.d/init.d
Just my 2 cents worth.