Slax author's Blog (RSS)
23
February2013
Multiarch support for Slax
I think that getting flu may be good for something. For example you have to lie in bed all the time, since you do not have enough strength for anything else. And while lying, you can only cough and think. That is what I did. And besides all my pessimistic thoughts that I can't possibly survive this flu since it brings inexpressible pain and is so hugely devastating for my body, I had one more idea, more useful one. Ha Ha. :)
It all starts with the skype module. Microsoft, the current owner of skype, refuses to release 64bit version for Linux. I'm not sure if that is due to Microsoft programmers being so stupid, or rather thanks to some undisclosed secret internal policies, but it's how it is. Since Slax 64bit is a real 64bit system, it can run neither 32bit skype nor any other 32bit application. I think it is a pity. So I googled a bit and noticed that it is possible to include both 32bit and 64bit libraries in one system and make both 32bit and 64bit applications usable in 64bit Slax. The method is called multiarch and is widely used by many 64bit Linux distributions.
I prefer to ship the 64bit version of Slax just like it is, as a purely 64bit system. I have no plans for including multiarch in Slax at all. But I understand it may be useful for some users, so I made a module for it. You may try it for yourself, just slax activate multiarch-libs. It will essentially download a 20MB module file which will let you run Skype and many other 32bit applicaions in 64bit Slax. The module itself consists of preselected 32bit libraries, so if you find a software which doesn't work with multiarch-libs (complains about some other missing libraries), just feel free to use ldd to find out what libs are missing and mail me so I will include them in this module too.
User comments
Hello, use slax 7.0.5 from usb, and when I type a CD (not DVD) with music (audio), I can not hear, or even see the contents of the CD. however if I can listen to an mp3 from the usb,
may not ride the cd?
What's wrong?
Do I need any additional module?
thx
Just wanted to say that I love Slax 7.0.5. Slax 7 looks a lot more grown-up compared to version 6.
Autoloading NTFS partitions?
I read this:
http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=84253
http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1359
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=115610
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/23089
I restarted Slax and no mount partitions :(
Had the compat32 libs converted and inserted with Slax 7.0. The true multiarch requires changes to gcc as I recall - all in all too much hassle. MS is a jerk off - power to Linus T. for telling them (and the RH boss) off about their UEFI boot crap.
Multiarch-libs is good idea, but I need more. How to properly combine Slax i?86 and Slax x86_64 into one Slax PXE server? Task is to load Slax x86_64 on x86_64 capable clients, and Slax i?86 on x86_64 incapable clients. Any ideas(excluding MAC filtering)?
(and another question: how to hide certain modules from PXE server? It seems Slax scans all subdirectories of bootable device)
Hi Tomas,
Is it possible to have a 'recently added' section in the modules? Some time back I was searching for wine and did not get it. Till now I thought that wine module was not present at all until by chance I was browsing all modules and saw that wine is now present!
Recently added section may help in the future.
Thanks,
Jason
Congratitulations!
I just installed Slax on a USB Key and it took me approx. 10 minutes, configurations included, to get everything working perfectly.
I remember the old OS from Macintosh. You just had to copy it on a disk or partition and then boot on it. It's the first time I see another system so easy to install! You are genius!
Thanks
Marc
Hi Tomas,
Once I did ask you for a malayalam localization for slax.
You told It's not possible because there is no malayalam KDE Localization but now I found a KDE localization:
http://i18n.kde.org/team-infos.php?teamcode=ml
See that? Now, Please, make a Slax Malayalam Localization!
Thanks
Hello Thomas, I will take some time to test this new feature. I currently run the multilib on Slackware that Alien Bob provides.
Also today I was reading some news in Linux.com and I found one that may be of your interest. Google launched a new compression library name Zopfli.
http://www.zdnet.com/google-launches-zopfli-a-better-zip-compressor-for-static-content-7000012005/
https://code.google.com/p/zopfli/downloads/list
Could you check if it would help Slax in anyway?
Best regards,
Thiago Silvino
@Thiago Silvino
Some info about why/and how lzma is used.
http://www.squashfs-lzma.org
I didn't read everything but one can ask these questions:
- Can squashfs handle Zopfli?
- Is Zopfli supported (by default) by the Linux kernel?
@Thiago Silvino:
You must be kidding! ;)
Why should Tomas test an application which compresses 100-1000x slower than gzip? I myself wouldn't want to wait half an hour to compress a bundle...
It is meant to be used mainly for webservers.
What is the best way to update and upgrade Slax? by using slackpkg? slax [what option?] ?
Thanks.
@Manfred, I remember that Tomas had tested many methods (zip, gzip, lzma) and one of the key points to choose lzma was the decompression speed which is very fast. Also there are other points like lzma being supported by default in the Linux kernel, which I guess Zopfli may not be supported by default right now. But this is something that I found very interesting and maybe it could be helpful in the future.
@rygar
- For slax -base- system, just download and use the latest slax version.
- For the programs (modules) I don't know if there is/going to be an option to compare available modules by version..
@regarding updating slax & slax-modules
If the option is going to be in the module-center in slax, and/or on the website
Hello Tomas,
I have a really big problem
i downloaded certain file using slax, but i cannot copy that file to any other device, because slax doesnt "see" my hdd or other usb that i insert into mashine.
that file is really important to me.
is there a way to copy it to my hard drive or other usb flash drive?
Or a way to just copy it to root of the usb flash on which slax is installed, because i cannot see content of that device neither?
In earlier versions of slax all worked perfectly..
Best regards, Sipy
+update software center is not ready yet. I updated my Firefox to the new version by using slackpkg which is available on Slax. Isn't it better to download the tgz package and make a module? Just wondering what would be the best option at this moment. ...
I like slackpkg, however, it would try to compare Slax packages with the latest version of Slackware and this might be an issue. Am I right?
.Update software center relys on modules /bundles been upload by users and this happening at a slow rate.
Using binary tgz package from trusted ource will give access to a wider range of package.
The end result is the same .
@Thiago:
> I remember that Tomas had tested many methods (zip, gzip, lzma)
Beneath Bollywood being one of the two who convinced Tomas to use lzma
as compressor, i remember, too... ;)
> maybe it could be helpful in the future
It could, if Tomas would use it to compress the code for the Slax website.
Zopfli is meant to be used to compress web pages.
Manfred
@Sipy
You should (at least) see the USB-device that contains Slax.
easiest to check is to open a terminal and type "mount" (enter)
This will show all mounted devices and the full path to the directory they are mounted on.
Once you know that path & directory-name, you can copy your file(s) to a location in that directory (that represents your slax-usb-device)..
@ Sipy
As far as I know, you must manually mount the USB drive. I do it like this: I open the folder manager and pulse in the new USB drive. I can already paste files.
http://www.slax.org/modules/x86_64/2/2739-multiarch-libs.sb
Not Found
The requested URL /modules/x86_64/2/2739-multiarch-libs.sb was not found on this server.
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Finally its nice to see this... I've got compat32 for slackware packages and converted them to use with slax. I got small warning from them about fonts and utf8. Module is great and have no problems