Slax author's Blog (RSS)
29
September2012
Slax 7.0 graphics mode testing
After a week of work, Slax with Xorg (graphical desktop) is now available for testing. I've also included FireFox and necessary dependencies, so it is useful for some real task. Remember this is not final Slax, only Xorg desktop, so don't expect anything else. Right-click the empty desktop to start a menu, as seen on the screenshot below.
Please download, test, and report any problems. Thank you!
User comments
32 and 64 bit iso dont run for me in grub legacy frugal mode or under virtualbox. Both give me a chroot problem ...
Testing tar version now ...
Actually I just tested both ISO files and they work for me without any problem. Could you rewrite the error message or send a screenshot? Thank you
Same problem with tar 32 et 64 frugal and even usb flash drive with extlinux
Alway the same error message :
Live Kit done, starting slax
mknod: dev/console: No such file or directory
mknod: dev/null: No such file or directory
Fatal error occured -Can't find executable chroot command
Something went wrong ...
Please reboot ...
My grub legacy menu.lst command :
title Slax 7.0 32bit
root (hd0,7)
kernel /s732/slax/boot/vmlinuz vga=773 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw printk.time=0 slax.flags=xmode
initrd /s732/slax/boot/initrfs.img
same problem with tar iso 32 64 and even usb key with extlinux
never happens with previous version ... strange ...
Have you change the xz compression settings ?
Increasing the compression value ... more cpu consuming maybe ?
Ive 4GB of ram with 64bit atom dual core cpu
Tomas,
In md5.txt, you have the old (currently wrong) filenames:
slax-7.0-core-x86_64.iso
slax-7.0-core-x86_64.tar
listed, which should be replaced with the corrected ones with the relevant (old by now) date.
Also the file slax-7.0-core-20120925-i486.tar is not listed in md5.txt (I don't know if it is important to list them all, latest current and older files).
Suggestions:
_ Move older testing (superseded) versions to a subdirectory.
_ Relevant for both Core and Xorg (and for any other release):
The autoboot message is "too long" to read in 4 seconds (for newbies). Change its color and its text to be shorter, or otherwise add some additional seconds. The next suggested text is not perfect, but it achieves the goal of providing the relevant info in a very fast and direct way.
MENU AUTOBOOT [ESC] for options OR boot in # second{,s}
# menu color timeout_msg ADD HERE RELEVANT VALUES
# menu color timeout ADD HERE RELEVANT VALUES
_ The GUI (whichever used) needs an easy access so to be able to change screen resolution settings. If the user (newbie) just boots and the resolution is not adequate, the first setting to be (easy) changed must be screen resolution.
_ How much RAM each workspace needs? Maybe 4 workspaces as default are too many?
@em:
you sure you downloaded latest ISOs from the links above? There was similar problem with one of the ISOs last week due to my error, but this doesn't repeat for me any longer.
@Ady:
good idea with the screen resolution menu, added. Regarding md5sums, I don't care about it much, really, it's only informative. The main purpose is to verify the latest build only, so I guess I'll just remove the other md5sums from there. I can't move older testing versions to subdirectory, then I should update all links to it on this blog, that's too much uninteresting work :)
I remove all slax 7 versions.
Then redownload ftp.slax.org/Slax-7.x/testing/slax-7.0-xorg-2012-09-29-i486.iso at the begining of this post ...
Always the same problem on two differents machines.
Even tested with unetbootin that time ... and rebuild modules this way :
unsquashfs -f -d /root/Desktop/m *.sb
mksquashfs /root/Desktop/m/ *.sb -b 256K -comp xz -Xbcj x86 -noappend
Slax begin to load then ... error message chroot ...
nothing change ...
Maybe doomed :)
Im waiting next build.
ran the iso but it will not load firefox, any way of adding Network Manager or wicd I always use wireless here.
@em:
when you hit the error message, you have shell. Can you verify what is mounted by using 'mount' command? Can you check if /memory/bundles/001-core/usr/{,s}bin/chroot exists and is executable? Can you chroot manually to /memory/union ? Can you read files like 'vi /memory/union/bin/bash' ?
One more thing, em, try to recompress the bundles without -Xbcj x86 ... since that is the only difference since previous version.
Thanx for your help Tomas.
Ive made some news tests.
And with Intel graphic chipsets everything runs fine...
Its only a Nvidia integrated graphic chipset problem apparently...
I investigate more with nomodeset settings and blacklist nouveau
Maybe a nouveau / nvidia conflict
I have a similar problem with nvidia and Slackware 14.0.
On Slackware 14.0 with nomodeset kernel setting and blacklist nouveau everything its fine.
Im trying the same things on Slax 7 now :)
Thanx again for help!
Hi Tomas, great job :)
How about to create multi Slax Flavour/Edition "officially" like in previous version Frodo, KillBill, etc but now with multi Desktop Environment officially supported for example KDE4, XFCE, LDXE ?
Sorry to mention the competition but I was able to decompress the sb file with the Porteus tools. how do you build the iso?
>> how do you build the iso?
With the adjusted scripts he was using for Slax6.
You will find the scripts in the Slax7 development section on the Slax mirror.
Manfred
Ive find the chroot problem booting Slax 7!
Because ive a second old slax 6 directory on my drive. And slax 7 search for the first slax directory on drive ... :)
Slax 7 run fine now with all graphic chipset ...
Ive tested Xfce desktop with Slax 7 !
It run like a charm.
Really fast and much better than fluxbox ... :)
Ah! Good to know the reason! I was wondering, if Slax should rather search for some specific file (like before, it was livecd.sgn) but decided to look for just the directory 'slax'. I can see it wasn't ideal decision! :)
@WolfAlpha:
I was thinking about special editions of Slax as well. As far as I remember, people liked them a lot. But first there has to be some standard base, editions may be created later.
Tomas livecd.sgn or slax7.sgn is a much better solution than looking only for slax directory ... To avoid that ... :)
I will try it in few hours, I really appreciate your great work!
And btw, USB stick with slax from LinuxExpo April 2007 is still working and has already saved so much data :)
Marvellous work, Tomas! I am really impressed with the features you added to Slax 7!
I have already compiled my custom kernel, version 3.5.4, for Slax, based on make x86_64_defconfig. My kernel was not working because I did not activate these features:
* The initrd/initramfs and other things as an aufs branch, inside Filesystems - Miscelaneus Filesystems - AUFS;
* The devtmpfs, inside Device Drivers - Generic Drivers;
* Compressed RAM Block Device Support (the Zram support), inside Device Drivers - Staging.
I had already compiled squashfs, AUFS and FUSE, because of Porteus 1.0.
I compile most of the features into the kernel, avoiding the need of modules.
>> I compile most of the features into the kernel, avoiding the need of modules.
Imho you should think about doing this in general because you are loosing (at least partly) the ability to load the modules with parameters.
Manfred
I am a nooby at configuration of kernels. I do not use modprobe and I do not know where to place this command for loading modules at boot time.
Anyway, the most important is that the system works. And I can use the same kernel in Porteus 1.0 and Slax 7, because I did not use modules.
Why not just use slax.cfg in place of an .sgn file? One less file to worry about.
Sign in with Facebook
Sign in with Google
Sign in with Email
Looks fantastic Tomas. I'll be trying it out in a minute. You're hard work is immensely appreciated.