 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 336, 11 January 2010 |
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Welcome to this year's second issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Linux distributions come in many flavours; some include thousands of packages on a half a dozen of DVDs, while others fit on a 30 MB media. SliTaz GNU/Linux falls into the latter category. But despite its small size, it is a highly versatile and modern distribution, featuring the latest Linux kernel and many extra applications in its online repositories. Read our first-look review to find out more. In the news section, Debian project leader hints at a possible release date of the project's next version, Slackware removes the last vestiges of the old IDE/ATA system from its current kernels, BSD Magazine transforms itself into an free online publication, and Foresight Linux promises to re-activate the development of its GNOME-centric distribution. Other topics covered in this issue include release roadmap for Mandriva Linux 2010.1, a comparative review of several netbook-oriented distributions, and a quick tip on restoring the GRUB bootloader in case of trouble. Happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: Examining SliTaz GNU/Linux
- News: Debian "Squeeze" release hints and installer changes, Slackware "Current" kernel updates, Mandriva community editions, BSD Magazine changes, future of Foresight Linux, UNR vs Moblin
- Questions and answers: Restoring GRUB
- Released last week: Toorox 01.2010
- Upcoming releases: Pardus Linux 2009.1, Mandriva Linux 2010.1 roadmap
- New distributions: FortMacTux, Linvo GNU/Linux, LPS-Public, NexentaStor, sipXecs, Tango GNU/Linux
- Reader comments
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (34MB) and MP3 (35MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Examining SliTaz GNU/Linux
 When it was suggested to me that I review SliTaz GNU/Linux, my first reaction was less than enthusiastic: SliTaz, the one with the spider icon? I wasn't sure if I was in for a creepy horror film experience or something cooked up by a developer who had read too many Marvel comic books. I decided to take a look at the project's website and see what it had to offer and I was pleasantly surprised. Not just by the project's claim to fit a modern desktop into a 30 MB image, though that in itself is impressive; not just the professional, friendly look, which is delightfully easy to navigate; not just by the wide variety of supported languages, there are six; but by the clear communication presented there. There is no fluff or cryptic messages on SliTaz's website. It's all clean, direct information which explains what the project is about on a level that both hardcore Linux veterans and newcomers will understand.
The project offers up several flavours of their distribution, including a "Stable" live CD, which weighs in at about 30 MB. There's a development snapshot, called "Cooking", which is also a live CD image of about 30 MB. In addition, the SliTaz developers offer a method to create a custom CD. For my test drive of this distribution, I grabbed the latest "Cooking", version 20091104, and burned it to a CD.
My test machines included a generic desktop, with a 2.5 GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM and I also tried SliTaz on my LG laptop, which runs at 1.5 GHz and also boasts 2 GB of RAM. To see how this tiny distribution would run with more limited resources, I created a virtual machine and varied the amount of memory between 64 MB and 512 MB.
First boot and software selection
The SliTaz live CD starts off with a fairly standard boot menu and, if left alone, will start the live image. Before getting to the desktop, the user is asked to select their preferred language, keyboard layout and screen resolution. Brief seconds later, a desktop is displayed. The black spider icon sits in the middle of a red desktop, reminding me of a certain super hero costume. In the top left-hand corner, there are three icons for accessing the user's home directory, an application launcher for a text editor and an icon which leads to documentation. The documentation icon launches a local web page, which links to other documents on the project's site. These documents continue in the helpful, to-the-point form which I mentioned previously. Also on the desktop are the application menu and shortcuts to a file browser, virtual terminal and a re-branded Firefox 3.5. In the bottom-right corner, there are controls for adjusting the volume and handling the system's network connections. There's a display for tracking CPU usage, a package manager icon and the ever popular clock.
Despite its small size, SliTaz GNU/Linux includes nearly 200 software packages.
(full image size: 151kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
The application menu is a treasure trove of software and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many applications could be squeezed into a 30 MB image - there are exactly 190 packages in total. The application menu contains a number of categories, including a Documentation section, which links to various help files. There is a Graphics group, which allows the user to take screen shots, view images and perform simple image editing. The Multimedia section doesn't have any video player, but it does have an audio player and a CD ripping tool. The Office section is light, with a note-taking application and some links to third-party websites. The Preferences category contains applications to change the system's look and feel and the user's password.
There is a Utilities sub-menu, which holds a CD/DVD burning application, a calculator, a program for searching for files, an archive manager and a virtual console. Last, but far from least, is the System Tools section. Here we have applications for configuring the network connection, a program for hardware detection and links to the package manager and the system installer. Also in the Tools group is GParted, for handling disk partitions; a useful program called System Information and the central configuration tool, called the Control Box. The System Information application looks especially polished and offers a quick way to discover information about the system's hardware and attached devices. The Control Box is an easy way to change most of SliTaz's settings. The Control Box isn't pretty and the organization takes a little getting used to. But it is a powerful tool and it gets the job done. I was able to manage my boot configuration, create user accounts and tweak the network settings from this central location.
SliTaz GNU/Linux offers many popular software applications for the web.
(full image size: 122kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
System installation and hardware support
After playing with SliTaz as a live CD for a while, I decided to install it to my local hard drive. The installer starts by asking if the user would like to begin a fresh install or upgrade from a previous version. As this was my first time using SliTaz, I began a fresh install. The installer requires that the drive be already partitioned. Fortunately, the operating system comes with a copy of GParted, which makes creating and adjusting partitions an easy, though manual, process. Once a partition is selected, the installer offers to format it. The user is then asked to create a name for the machine and the installer copies the required packages to the local drive. The last step of the process is to choose whether to install a fresh copy of the GRUB boot loader. The installer then offers to reboot the machine. I would like to point out that the installer does not reset the root password, nor does it create a password for the regular user account. These functions can be done post-install if the user wishes.
Though SliTaz is designed for computers with low-specification hardware, it comes with a modern Linux kernel. This means SliTaz has a similar level of support for devices that you expect to find in larger distributions. And, for the most part, my devices were handled very well. On both my desktop and laptop, the network connection was detected and enabled. My laptop's Intel wireless card was picked up and used without any manual configuring. Sound worked on both of my machines without any tinkering, though my laptop's volume was set very low. I have a Novatel USB mobile modem for my laptop, which was picked up, but not enabled. There doesn't seem to be any way to get the modem working through the system's Control Box, but a determined user could get it working from the command line.
Plugging in USB devices, such as Flash drives or a camera, causes the device to appear in the file browser and devices can be mounted with a mouse click. I was also happy to find that SliTaz comes with NTFS support, which means it can be used to rescue data from Windows partitions. My only concern with my hardware was related to my video card. When SliTaz first boots, it asks the user to pick a desired screen resolution. This is fine, except that the list of available resolutions includes settings which aren't supported. This may cause some users to pick the highest (default) setting and then wonder why their screen goes blank. I found that SliTaz generally used between 80 MB and 120 MB of memory, depending on what I was doing. Because the installer doesn't create a swap partition, this means users should have around 128 MB of RAM in their machine if they're going to run SliTaz.
Package management and security
The package manager for SliTaz is an interest beast and is unique to this distribution. There are two front-ends for package management, one is command line driven and the other is a nice graphical interface. The command line interface is called tazpkg and works in a similar manner to apt-get or yum in other distributions. The tazpkg program comes with a wide range of options for downloading, installing, listing, finding and removing software. It also has some other fun features, such as displaying lists of known bugs in the available packages and displaying a dependency tree. The GUI version of the package manager has the same basic functionality, but with a simple point-and-click interface. Packages can be listed based on whether they're installed or available to be installed. Adding and removing a package is as easy as double-clicking the item and confirming the desired action. The graphical tool works smoothly and I encountered no problems with it.
Regardless of which interface is used, the tools are quick and powerful, resolving dependencies and prompting before doing anything permanent to the system. One drawback I ran into is that SliTaz supplies about 2,000 software packages. This is a good number for a mini distribution, but it falls short compared to larger projects. So while you're likely to find popular programs, such as AbiWord, Apache, instant messaging clients or the GNU Compiler Collection, less popular software isn't likely to be on offer. At first it seemed as though there weren't any packages for KDE or OpenOffice.org. However, a package search for "office" turned up a program called get-OpenOfffice3, which will try to install the large office suite. The get program kindly warns that the install process will take some time. For those who want to see what software is available in SliTaz before they download the distribution, there is a helpful web page which allows the user to search for software by name or by category.
SliTaz GNU/Linux - package management and desktop configuration
(full image size: 134kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
Security on this distribution is a mixed bag and I get the impression it's designed to be used more as a live CD than a locally installed operating system. The installer leaves the root password as the default, "root", and the regular user account, "tux", is left without a password. These passwords can be set post-install by using the user manager or the command line, but it strikes me as something which should be handled, or at least mentioned, during the install. The home directories of users are left open to be read by all other users on the system, which is also a bit lax. On the other hand, no network services are running on SliTaz by default. From what I have seen thus far, the project's software packages receive regular updates and it's trivially easy to install these fresh packages.
Conclusions
During my time with SliTaz, I had the chance to exchange e-mails with one of the developers, Christophe Lincoln, and he had some interesting things to say about the project. He mentioned that SliTaz is already entering freeze and the development team will be doing testing and fixing bugs from now through to their next release in March. He also mentioned that SliTaz is being used in some organizations and the project is getting a lot of useful feedback. From what I've seen so far, I think their next version will be well worth trying out. It's already stable and I've encountered no show-stopping issues.
There is a difference between what a system is and how it feels and that distinction is very noticeable in SliTaz. Through much of my test run with this distribution I kept searching my mind for other, similar operating systems so I could make a comparison. Take, for example, SliTaz's amazingly small image size of 30 MB. It's smaller even than the last release of DSL. But, aside from the unbelievable speed, the two systems don't feel anything alike. Where DSL was packed with useful applications, it didn't have the same smooth, modern look that SliTaz carries. This distribution lets the user create their own flavours, allowing for further customization. In fact, one of the flavours of SliTaz runs in less than 64 MB of RAM. In this respect, the distro reminds me of Puppy. But again, that's where the similarities come to a halt.
It seems that SliTaz is very much a unique creation. This isn't to say that it's odd or that the controls are strange; I was able to pick up this distro and use it without any problems or relearning. But it's not a knock-off; it's not following in someone else's footsteps. While it's targeted at older machines, it will also service as a system rescue tool or a traveling live CD. It's a flexible operating system with enough of a personality to not get lost in the crowd. People who try this distro, whether to breathe life into an old PC or for curiosity's sake, are in for a treat.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Debian "Squeeze" release hints and installer changes, Slackware "Current" kernel updates, Mandriva community editions, BSD Magazine changes, future of Foresight Linux, UNR vs Moblin
 Let's start this week's news section with a Debian-related news bit that was widely circulated on a number of Spanish-language web sites, but which wasn't picked up elsewhere. According to Software Libre en Venezuela (story in Spanish), Steve McIntyre, the current Debian project leader, wants the upcoming release of Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 "Squeeze" to happen before the next annual DebConf which will take place in New York in August 2010. This means that if McIntyre's wish is granted (a very big if), the new Debian release could be out in June or July this year. However, Debian still maintains its age-old "release-when-ready" policy, so any prediction as to when the next release might eventually arrive remains uncertain. Nevertheless, it's good to see some deadlines, vague as they might be; this way we are at least guaranteed some serious Debian bug-squashing sessions in the next few months.
On a related note, the Debian-Installer project has announced some interesting changes in their product. These include default installation of "recommended" packages, user-friendly improvements to language, country and locale settings, improved mirror selection, option to select UTC as time zone, support for ext4 file system during partitioning, and other small changes: "setting up RAID, LVM and crypto is simplified - it's no longer required to first set the correct usage for a partition; installed systems get console-setup (instead of console-tools plus console-data); [x86] installs grub-pc (GRUB 2) by default; [armel] support for Marvell's Kirkwood platform (QNAP TS-110, TS-119, TS-210, TS-219 TS-219P, Marvell SheevaPlug, Marvell OpenRD-Base and OpenRD-Client) and Intel Storage System SS4000-E; compatibility support for installing Lenny...."
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 Slackware Linux is a distribution that generally stays away from adopting any cutting-edge features for its base operating system. However, once a new technology has been sufficiently well-tested, it might be eventually accepted into the "Current" tree for testing. Such was the case last week when the last pieces of the old IDE/ATA system have been removed from the kernel: "New kernels... and this deserves a mention/warning: the last bits of the 'old' IDE/ATA system have been removed now. Everything should be using the libata-based drivers now, so if you have any drives that are currently running as /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, etc., when you reboot with these kernels all drives will be renamed as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. If you had any /dev/sd* already, they might get renamed. Adjustments may be required in /etc/lilo.conf, /etc/fstab, the initrd, and elsewhere. Good luck!" In case you are wondering, the default kernel in Slackware "Current" is the very latest - version 2.6.32.3.
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 Mandriva Linux is quickly becoming a popular base on which to build custom distributions. We have already mentioned some in a recent issue of DistroWatch Weekly, but that was just a tip of the iceberg. In his blog, Mandriva developer Fabrice Facorat provides a much more complete list of the various community-built Mandriva variants: "One 64 community - a 64-bit edition of the Mandriva One live CD with KDE and GNOME; LXDE live CD - the German community has release a Mandriva-based LXDE live CD, it can be used from a USB stick; One XFCE 2010 Live - a XFCE Mandriva-based live CD created and maintained by the Mandriva community; Skiper's Xfce 2010 - a fork of the XFCE Live Mandriva project which aims to integrate more testing features; MUD Netbook edition - a Mandriva-based Netbook edition featuring the Ubuntu Netbook user interface, it can be used as a live CD or dumped on an USB key...."
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 Launched in December 2007, the BSD Magazine is the only English-language print magazine with BSD focus on the market. Despite that, it has had trouble winning subscriptions from BSD users and has occasionally threatened to close down unless business improved. It didn't. However, instead of shutting down the magazine completely, the publisher, Poland's Software Press, has decided to transform it into a free online publication: "We are happy to announce that BSD Magazine is transforming into a free monthly online publication. The online edition of BSD Magazine will stay in the same quality and form. Please sign up to our newsletter at BSDMag.org and get every issue straight to your inbox. Also, you can now download any of the previous issues from our website. The first online issue -- 2/2010 -- is coming out in February 2010. Please spread the word about BSD Magazine."
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 The developers of Foresight Linux, an rPath-based distribution featuring the very latest of GNOME and GNOME-related technologies, used to provide us with regular releases, but we haven't heard from them since May last year. Is the distribution dead? Og Maciel, the Foresight Linux community manager, answers a concerned mailing list post written by one of the distribution's users. The reply is a definite "NO": "To answer the original question posted by Thilo, 'is Foresight Linux dead?', I can gladly say 'far from it!' I predict that the Foresight community will rally together in 2010 to get back to being the most 'GNOMEic' and bleeding-edge distribution out there! As the Foresight Community Manager I can honestly say that we have always been and will always be a niche distribution! We don’t have the man power that distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva or openSUSE have to provide the same level of documentation or user support. But I can guarantee one thing: Foresight is here to stay!"
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 Comparative reviews are a great way to find out the similarities and differences between distributions if one doesn't have the time to try them yourself. Last week, Tux Radar published a lengthy review comparing two netbook-oriented products -- Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) and Moblin -- and adding a thought or two on a few more, including Jolicloud, Slax and gOS: "Moblin is dramatically quicker at booting, even though the wireless connection is delayed, and you can see why Canonical has been watching Moblin development very closely, and why both distributions are promising further improvements. It's also noteworthy that the UNR desktop appears with a working wireless connection immediately, whereas we have to make for Moblin to make the same leap, which shows that UNR is performing certain tasks at the same time. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why Moblin is faster to the desktop?" A great read which should help you to choose the best netbook distro for your particular needs.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Restoring GRUB
Can't-boot-any-more asks: Distro hopping wiped out my GRUB. How can I reconstruct it?
DistroWatch answers: Sometimes when making changes to a hard drive, such as installing a new operating system, the disk's master boot record (MBR) will get wiped or corrupted. When that happens, GRUB will no longer function. This has the unfortunate side effect of preventing the user from being able to boot their operating system and, in those cases, it's important to be able to get the system up and running again, preferably without re-installing the operating system(s) from scratch.
The easiest way to get GRUB back on-line is with a live CD. It doesn't really matter which live CD, so long as it comes with a copy of GRUB. Place the live CD into the computer and boot from it. We're then going to venture into command-line territory. The next thing to do is run the "grub" command as root or, if you are running a live CD that uses sudo, run "sudo grub". This will start GRUB and provide us with a prompt.
grub>
We'll then find out where the GRUB files are located:
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
The find command will return a disk location for us. Probably "(hd0,0)" or "(hd0,1)". We now know where the GRUB files are stored. Next, we'll tell GRUB to use this location in the future. In the following step, type "root", followed by the location we were given above. In my case:
grub> root (hd0,1)
GRUB now knows where its files are located and we need to re-setup GRUB in the master boot record. To do this, we type:
grub> setup (hd0)
The above step should work for most people, who have GRUB installed in the MBR. For folks who have installed GRUB onto a partition, the "setup" command can be modified to include the partition number. The catch is, you need to know where you originally installed GRUB. In these cases, remember that GRUB starts counting partitions from zero, not one. So, for example, if GRUB was installed on the third partition of the first hard drive, the "setup" command will look like this:
grub> setup (hd0,2)
When we get back to the prompt again, we can quit GRUB:
grub> quit
And then reboot the computer. Remove the live CD from the drive and we should be back to normal.
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| Released Last Week |
Toorox 01.2010
Joern Lindau has released Toorox 01.2010, a Gentoo-based distribution and live DVD with the latest KDE 4, a graphical system installer, and advanced networking capabilities: "With the beginning of this new year it's time for a new release. With the release of Toorox 01.2010 you can get a 64-bit edition, too. It contains the 2.6.32 kernel and the KDE was updated to version 4.3.4. The Toorox installer is now able to set up your /home folder on another partition and you can install the bootloader into a single partition or a floppy disk. There's a new entry in Systemconfig - Mobile Broadband, where you can configure your mobile UMTS connection and bring it up. All packages for a PPTP VPN connection were included and you can configure it via NetworkManager and the nm applet. KFTPgrabber was replaced with gFTP and there is a new audio mixer - mixxx." See the full release announcement for further details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Mandriva Linux 2010.1
Following this week's first alpha release of Mandriva Linux 2010.1, the developers of the popular distribution have published a release roadmap leading to version 2010.1. It will arrive later than usual, with the expected release date set to 3 June 2010. Before that happens, there will be two more alpha releases, two beta ones and a release candidate in the middle of May. For further information please see the 2010.1 Development page on Mandriva Wiki.
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to waiting list
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 18 January 2010.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Debian Squeeze (by SG at 2010-01-11 09:23:23 GMT from United States)
Debian Squeeze must be released only when it's ready! After all, the target audience for debian are mostly people who need a stable system and they don't look for a time based release.
2 • Restore grub (by Bill at 2010-01-11 10:46:50 GMT from Canada)
The restore grub article should have included Grub2 (grub-pc) rescue commands also. A lot of distros are using grub 2 now even though it is not ready.
3 • Debian Squeeze (by Zahid on 2010-01-11 11:01:56 GMT from Bangladesh)
I also agree with the previous comment. We need a stable system rather hi-fi unstable OS.
4 • Slitaz persistence (by Bob at 2010-01-11 11:43:05 GMT from United States)
Was there a method for saving your settings on a thumb drive?
5 • No subject (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 11:49:12 GMT from Canada)
sidux and pardus both now working with unetbootin - netboks worldwide rejoice!
6 • Arch to replace Gentoo in top 10 ? (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 12:57:01 GMT from Canada)
@ Ladislav
Last week we had a discussion about replacing Gentoo by Arch in the top 10. I hope you will you made this change soon !
7 • suggestion for next donation (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 12:58:39 GMT from Canada)
Wicd is an open source wired and wireless network manager for Linux which aims to provide a simple interface to connect to networks with a wide variety of settings.
http://wicd.sourceforge.net
8 • Atom desktop (by merlin at 2010-01-11 13:06:40 GMT from Canada)
I built a homemade Atom deskop with Debian Squeeze and it boots in 23s with dhcp, 20s with static ip. Pretty good compared to the Moblin and UNR boot times I thought.
9 • @2: Grub2 restoration (by Jesse on 2010-01-11 13:31:45 GMT from Canada)
I thought about including similar instructions for grub2, however, I decided not to. The GRUB website declares that "we are still making incompatible changes from time to time." Which means any instructions given about grub2 could be out of date next week. I can't imagine why a distro would actually use grub2 before it's stable. Having a working (and stable) boot loader is essential to any system.
10 • Wicd and FortMacTux (by hotdiggettydog on 2010-01-11 13:35:52 GMT from Canada)
I agree with #7. Wicd is the best tool for managing internet connections wired or wireless but especially wireless. I wish more distros would use it as their default network manager.
Congrats to FortMacTux. Nice to see Northern Alberta represented.
11 • @9 Grub2 - why (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 13:45:28 GMT from France)
I believe they do it in order to put /boot on ext4. It is not worth it in my opinion tough. I don't know why they don't just put /boot on ext2/3... maybe they don't want to confuse newbies with partitions? Rather weak argument since newbies won't deal with partitions at all anyway.
12 • Grub2 (by Scott on 2010-01-11 13:56:15 GMT from United States)
Fedora, at least (and possibly others), have patched legacy grub so that it can boot ext4 partitions.
13 • GRUB2 and ext4 (by Jesse on 2010-01-11 14:19:33 GMT from Canada)
Scott is correct, Fedora (and I assume others) use the older version of grub and support booting from ext4. Which makes me wonder why moving to grub2 is on Fedora 13's feature list.
14 • Grub2 (by RayRay at 2010-01-11 14:36:09 GMT from United States)
Grub2 is a problem right now with multiboot installs.
I've had to use the supergrub disk to restore my previous install and rewrite the the information of the partition that was installed as grub2 to conform to the old grub.
The information is located at /boot/grub/grub.cfg .
It worked with my Debian Testing install.
Hopefully the developers of Grub2 can find a smoother transition between grubs, eventually Grub2 will be included on all future releases.
Right now it's time to either
1) work with it
2) or work around it.
What I mentioned is #2 a work around.
If I have time this week I'll try changing all my grubs to Grub2, which is the only way that it can be fixed, by reporting any bugs that are found.
15 • Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) Bring home Chicken Milk? (by Slo Ben on 2010-01-11 14:39:50 GMT from United States)
Jesse,
I can not ignore your ToDo list in NoteCase.
You need to bring home Chiken's Milk? The thought of Chicken's Milk gives my puke diarrhea.
http://distrowatch.com/images/screenshots/slitaz-20091104-misc.png
16 • GRUB (by Donnie on 2010-01-11 14:49:18 GMT from United States)
Good tip, but there's also another way.
Download a copy of SuperGRUB disk, and boot from it. It mostly automates the GRUB repair process.
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
And, by the way, I'd like to suggest this project for a future Distrowatch donation.
17 • @15: Chicken Milk (by Jesse on 2010-01-11 14:53:46 GMT from Canada)
Slo Ben,
The French term for Eggnog is "lait de poule". Which, if you translate it back into English means "milk of chicken". I did this review just before the holiday season, when "chicken milk" is popular in my home.
18 • Slackware kernel update (by Donnie on 2010-01-11 15:00:35 GMT from United States)
I have to admit, I got bit by the Slackware kernel update.
I installed the update on one of my old P-IV machines without reading the release notes, and didn't realize that the old IDE drivers had been removed. Then, I rebooted the machine without knowing to edit the linux.conf and fstab files first. Of course, it wouldn't mount the root partition.
I saw the "choose a root partition from sda-something" message, and figured out the problem. Unfortunately, trying to edit lilo.conf when booted from the SystemRescue CD didn't work. Every time I tried to run "lilo", I got the error message that the "map" file in the /boot directory was read-only. (Apparently, lilo was trying to write to the /boot directory on the CD. There's no lilo option for changing that.)
Anyway, I ended up doing a clean install, and when I updated, I did everything except for the kernel.
Lesson learned--Read Slackware release notes before updating to a new kernel.
19 • No subject (by Bu bu bakaki on 2010-01-11 15:03:58 GMT from United States)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
20 • SuperGRUB Disk Donation : +1 (by noob at 2010-01-11 15:18:55 GMT from Belgium)
This disk has actually saved my life : my wife threatened to kill me if the PC was not put back in working condition after a failed "distro hopping".
21 • BSD Mag (by Sam on 2010-01-11 15:33:01 GMT from United States)
I suppose that announcement of BSD magazine becoming a free online publication is the staff's way of putting their best face forward given the end of their print publication. Welcome to the post-Lehman publishing world. I really do wonder how many of our favorite Linux mags are headed in the same direction.
A few years ago our local Borders and Barnes & Noble stocked four Linux magazines with a smattering of special issues (Intro to Ubuntu, or Linux Format Open Office Starter Kit). Now? We seem to get every other issue of Linux Magazine, sometimes go months without a copy of Linux Format, and can see the same October issue of Linux Journal staring back from the shelf come January. Add to that the increasing price of Linux Format (so far, four lattes-worth pushing five), and I'd wonder how much of a future there is in the US for more than one or two print Linux mags.
22 • GRUB2 and stuff (by davemc on 2010-01-11 15:46:24 GMT from United States)
Karmic uses GRUB2 beta on all default installs. Fedora is behind the power curve in this case, probably because GRUB2 is not yet ready judging by all the tales of woe on the Ubuntu forums with it. Its worked like a champ for me as has ext4. Speaking of which, it is very sad indeed to see all the ext4 regressions being haphazardly thrown into the .32+ kernels. I guess they want to give folks a reason to use btrfs more, on top of all the additional features it provides such as snapshot, etc. Oh well, ext4 had its time in the spotlight and it did shine indeed for a while there.
Ladislav continues to ignore the KDE4 and GNOME3 development drama! Why?.. Seems to me that if you want to drama queen it up, then this is definitely a good topic to spend some time on. KDE4.3+ is now very stable and indeed, 4.3.4 is fantastic! I am seriously looking forward to 4.4 - just take a look at the video preview of it on kde.org. KDE has definitely cleared the finish line in winning back its former glory and even far surpassing it. Things just keep looking better and better for them. GNOME on the other hand seems hell bound determined to repeat the mistakes the KDE crowd made when they leaped into KDE4 and forced it upon the community to everyones shock and dismay. Some say open source developers never learn, others say they are way ahead on innovation, everyone loves the drama that inevitably follows the sometimes jarring and reckless speed of change. This is why we all our OS and our DE's. This is why we love DW.
23 • @15 (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 16:21:53 GMT from United States)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
24 • @23 (by Tyler Durden at 2010-01-11 16:58:02 GMT from Canada)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
25 • Top 10 list suggestion (by arch_user at 2010-01-11 17:04:51 GMT from Luxembourg)
@ Ladislav
concerning last week discussion, I would suggest to make 2 lists:
1. A "Top 10 of most POPULAR distros" list based on last years's satistics. So there will be no discussions if a distro is in or out. Statistics decide! The list would be updated on a yearly basis.
2. A "Major distros" list, where important distros from an historical, technical, ... point of view are listed. On one side, distros which are not so popular (anymore) but important are mentioned (like Gentoo, BSD, Solaris,...) and on the other side distros which were just a hype for a year but not so important are not listed.
The approach of 2 lisits would end with the mess of trying to put popularity and importance of distros on one list (which IMHO is nonsense).
26 • Bt4 final (by M1k at 2010-01-11 17:28:52 GMT from Italy)
Backtrack 4 final is out!!!
27 • re 25 - top ten list solution (by non_arch_user at 2010-01-11 17:29:27 GMT from Canada)
You already have the top 10 "most popular" list. it is located at the right side of the home page. You just change the selection in "Data Span" combo box and press "Refresh"
28 • @18 (by slack-fan on 2010-01-11 17:30:18 GMT from United States)
If you use a rescue CD to reinstall lilo into the MBR, you need to mount your drive to a directory and then chroot that directory. I always use the slack install media to do this, since it's quite useful for these types of quick rescue situations. So, for example if your root partition is /dev/sda1 you would
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/hd
cd /mnt/hd
mount -t proc /proc proc
chroot /mnt/hd
lilo
Simple, no need to reinstall.
Cheers
29 • @28 (by Donnie on 2010-01-11 17:44:33 GMT from United States)
Okay, there was my mistake. I didn't think to chroot.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep that in mind next time.
30 • Grub (by Bryan on 2010-01-11 17:53:10 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the advice about grub. It's so simple! I wonder why of all distros, ubuntu had to jump on the grub2 bandwagon. Switching from a stable grub1 to fairly unreliable grub2 seems like a really bad choice. Maybe they are just readying themselves for the 10.04 release...
31 • Debian Squeeze (by Afripilgrim on 2010-01-11 18:05:47 GMT from Senegal)
What separates Debian from many others is their policy and committment to Debian Free Software Guidelines. If you want a distro that works, install Debian. I'm running currently Lenny and Squeeze - both work without any problems. Squeeze should be released when it meet's Debian's criteria for release, which is well documented. It would be great to see that within the next six months or so.
32 • GRUB 2 (by Duhnonymous at 2010-01-11 18:14:49 GMT from United States)
People complain about "legacy" GRUB every bit as much if not more than they do about GRUB 2. People have really short memories.
The real problem with boot loaders is that PC BIOS is garbage, and GRUB has to work around it. If PCs used standard EFI or coreboot rather than whatever junk mobo makers felt like, GRUB 2 would be virtually fool-proof.
33 • top ten list (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 18:23:06 GMT from Canada)
There should be only one list of principal distributions. Arch should be part of them.
34 • #32 (by Notorik at 2010-01-11 18:27:23 GMT from United States)
No, people complain about GRUB 2 because they don't want to have to learn a whole new stupid bunch of scripting crap just to get something to boot. It is very easy to edit the .menulst file so why make things more complicated?
Nice review of Slitaz. I still find that on older machines Puppy or the now outdated DSL give a much better experience for some reason. Slitaz is a great little distro though and I wish it much success. I would like to see a review of one of my other favorite small distros, Austrumi.
35 • RE: 25 & 26 (by Landor at 2010-01-11 18:29:57 GMT from Canada)
#25
There's also a 10 major distributions list at the top of the page already.
Your theory is flawed. You'll still have a ranking system. Any kind of ranking system/poll/votes, etc..etc, all are suspect at best without any physical verification. To qualify them even more you need another gauge to benchmark them against. In political voting our world has seen the lengths individuals will go to, to win. It's human nature and easier on the internet. While you had good intentions page hits are the measure of the ranking system in place here and how would it change anything except how it's presented. You would still have individuals putting their morals behind them and pursuing "Distribution Glory" for their spot in next year's list.
I personally pay very little attention to the rankings here. I never have. I also believe it's mainly Desktop oriented which again shows just how inaccurate it is. I'd hazard a guess here that server and enterprise deployments far outweigh desktop usage for Linux, well, unless all the stats on market share are totally wrong. :)
#26
I'm off to download it right now! I've grown to appreciate Backtrack a lot! :)
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
36 • Grub2 needs another name (by RollMeAway at 2010-01-11 18:32:59 GMT from United States)
I see zero relationship between grub2 and grub 0.97.
Grub2 should have a new name to avoid much confusion.
I fail to see the point of grub2.
What exactly does it address that grub 0.97 doesn't?
Fedora patched 0.97 to work with ext4. Why abandon it?
37 • GRUB (by capricornus at 2010-01-11 18:35:29 GMT from Belgium)
"I can't imagine why a distro would actually use grub2 before it's stable". I made that remark and point much earlier. But Linuxmint admin's called it "badmouthing" and that was it. I had to understand the future. Well, I do like the future, but I still don't understand GRUB2. It messes with my MBR and my goodwill, and I like neither. Ubuntu and Mint should never have given in until a good Graphical Editor was available. Now, GRUB2 lives it own life and Mint8 has become MintW8.
38 • FLOSS Magazines (by rarsa on 2010-01-11 18:49:04 GMT from Canada)
The decline of FLOSS magazines can be read in many different ways so I won't do it here.
What I can say is that subscribing to a magazine is a win win situation for the publisher, the reader and FLOSS.
Some if the benefits I see are:
- You save a substantial amount of money over the cover price
- You receive the magazine it in a timely fashion and never miss an issue
- The publisher sells ad space based on circulation, subscriptions are the most relevant measure of circulation. This keeps it alive.
- FLOSS products and FLOSS supporting companies get a platform for advertising.
- Once you read the magazine you can "forget it" at a coffee shop or other public space and someone else who wouldn't otherwise know about FLOSS will benefit from it.
I don't see a downside. Really.
So subscribe to your favourite magazine. It is not too expensive.
39 • nice (by twodogs at 2010-01-11 20:05:13 GMT from United States)
very good DWW. I'm gonna play with SlitaZ!
40 • GRUB2: SuperGrub and Startup manager (by Vyacheslav on 2010-01-11 21:12:27 GMT from Latvia)
a) I used Supegrub CD not to recover Grub2 settings, but to boot in linux (and not to "grub rescue>" screen, than to reinstall grub-pc via Synaptic.
b) There is simple but functional Startup manager for Grub2. Try Synaptic finding 'startupmanager'. There are no so many settings like it was in version for Gub1, yet it is functional.
41 • Debian & SliTaz (by megadriver at 2010-01-11 21:15:08 GMT from Spain)
A pity Debian has decided to be "bloated" by default. Fortunately, that "feature" can still be turned off (for now).
SliTaZ is quite an impressive little distro. That spider icon still creeps me out, too.
42 • No subject (by What's my name? John Shaft ! at 2010-01-11 21:16:52 GMT from Lithuania)
Slitaz is effing awesome.My favorite lightweight distro.Thank you for this review,Jesse Smith
43 • RE: 7 (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 21:25:21 GMT from Canada)
+1 for wicd
I think wicd is the best because :
written in Python
installation requiring fewer dependencies than other network managers
can run from the terminal in a curses CLI or in a beautiful GTK+ graphical interface
well integrated with kde
44 • Grub2 (by Chen Xiao-Long on 2010-01-11 21:34:00 GMT from United States)
I saw your article on how to install Grub and I thought I would share how to reinstall Grub2:
1. Boot into a live CD with Grub2 (like Ubuntu 9.10, Fedora 12, Arch Linux, etc.).
2. Run:
su - (for consistency between distros)
mount /dev/sdaX /mnt
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
chroot /mnt
grub-install /dev/sda
exit
umount /mnt/dev
umount /mnt
exit
3. Reboot
45 • RE:41 (by Anonymous at 2010-01-11 21:36:29 GMT from Canada)
I was a big Debian fan before it began to be more bloated than all other distro.
I am now using ArchLinux and I am happy again. Other non-bloated distro I found good (but arch is better for me) :
CRUX
Gentoo (not sure now, but was good 5 years agon when I used it)
frugalware
Zenwalk Core Edition (other editions contain too much tings for me)
46 • @41, 45 Debian bloat (by Patrick on 2010-01-11 21:54:50 GMT from United States)
Huh? Suddenly there appear, out of the blue, two references to "Debian" being bloated and how it can be turned on/off.
Did I miss something? Is this a recent development? How do you turn it on/off?
Can you elaborate, please?
47 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-11 22:30:14 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #46
Patrick, relax. We don't have the "subjective" definition of bloat yet. As in one man's bloat is another man's "is that all I get?"
Top Tip, if you google "Debian bloat" you soon understand the term "subjective"...and then wished you had not bothered.
48 • @47 (by Patrick on 2010-01-11 23:04:55 GMT from United States)
Forest, I can't help but notice that lately most of your comments come down to "let's not discuss anything, because everything is subjective".
This forum would be pretty empty if we followed your advice.
I am relaxed (what made you think otherwise?). I would just like to know what the individuals that made the comments are talking about, to see if it is something I should worry about, or if their definition of bloat is something that doesn't bother me. To determine that, I need more information. So I asked the question. You okay with that?
49 • Ref: #16's link to SuperGrub disk.. (by Jon Iverson at 2010-01-11 23:16:04 GMT from United States)
Here's a good download link for SuperGrub disk.
http://prdownload.berlios.de/supergrub/super_grub_disk_0.9799.iso
50 • Bloated Debian? (by Barnabyh at 2010-01-11 23:20:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
It's probably a reference to this "These include default installation of "recommended" packages" further up (2nd paragraph on Squeeze/ Debian Installer announcements).
In any case, nothing can ever be more bloated than Novell's offerings, so I'm not particularly worried. I prefer a light desktop though, as lean as possible without sacrificing functionality.
51 • About "bloat" (by megadriver at 2010-01-12 11:15:26 GMT from Spain)
I wrote "bloated" (notice the quotes) intentionally. Even with the "recommended" packages features turned on, it can made to be _much_ lighter than most of the big distros.
Indeed, bloat is relative. For me bloat is "stuff (usually libraries) I'm certain I will never use, but I'm forced to install due to the way a certain software package was compiled/made".
By the way, "functionality" is also _quite_ a relative term (one man's "functionality" is other man's "bloat").
52 • #51 errata (by megadriver at 2010-01-12 11:25:07 GMT from Spain)
Oops. Hit the submit button too fast.
This is what I really wanted to say in the first paragraph, second phrase: 'Even with the "recommended packages" feature turned on, Debian can still be made to be _much_ lighter than most of the big distros.'
In #41 I was just lamenting that this is now the default. It can still be turned off, so no big deal (yet). I use Arch nowadays, but still have a certain affection for my first "real" distro, Debian.
53 • elive (by Michael J King on 2010-01-12 11:48:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
An updated version of elive came out last week and had only a note on distrowatch, there is another variatIon of this release that has really impressed me, that is the Elive Zeitgeist edition:
http://www.elivecd.org/Download/zeitgeist
(Zeitgeist version is free to download BTW)
I have been trying different distros for my thinkpad X23, which is running from an external cd drive, no hard drive, 384mb ram, I couldnt believe how nicely this ran, (I was using Puppy linux before,) Flash videos seem to work even better in this edition.
The zetgeist theme itself makes one of the nicest looking desktops I have seen.
Its also a nice change to be able to use my built in microphone as well!
I thought that a lot of work in fine tuning has gone on since the last time I used elive and I thought It deserved a mention!
54 • Donation Suggestion....Grub 2 (by merlin at 2010-01-12 12:57:08 GMT from Canada)
They obviously need it as it's unstable, yet mant distros are moving to it already! :-)
55 • Grub2...unstable??? (by KevinC at 2010-01-12 13:51:22 GMT from United States)
I don't get the comments of grub2 being unstable...yeah, it's more of a PITA to use than legacy grub, but I've done many installs of Karmic & have never had issue w/ grub2...always boots fine & detects other distros. This guide is quite useful in dealing w/ grub2:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html
Tho, the instructions to set up legacy grub to boot Karmic do not work for me. Grub2 is kind of a pain---I will admit that. You can use the above-mentioned guide's suggestions and make a custom menu, but if you make 10_linux and 30_os_prober non-executable, then it won't pick up any new installs & with a kernel update you have to redo your customizations all over. I have yet to see any explanation or reason why the devs decided to go with this new approach, which is way, way different than legacy. If anyone knows this please enlighten me.
56 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-12 15:25:49 GMT from United Kingdom)
Patrick in #48
My apologies if my comments read as downbeat.
A lot of stuff on this, or, any forum is repeated many times with a very slightly different slant...and each poster feels he or she had produced the definitive response to any possible question...we're all guilty of this.
Witness the Uxx vs Mint debate, who cares? If either or both works for you and satisfies your needs then great, job done; but the debate got kicked to death on how do you define a distro.
If you (or anyone) read of an alleged problem, bloat, say, then it is probably a good idea to google up the subject first...you might have missed something, who knows?
However, semantics is your most likely culprit...hyperbole is another.
The "relax" thing was that you were the only one to pick up on bloat, nobody was/is bothered...enough to mention it that is. And,the bloat thing was used to illustrate a different point anyway, ie default mode. (note, t-i-c, that is my subjective take on the comment btw)
Lastly, always keep in mind we're only talking about an OS, it's hardly a matter of life and death.
57 • @55: Grub2 (by Jesse on 2010-01-12 16:49:23 GMT from Canada)
KevinC, I think you're looking at grub2 as being stable in that it has worked for you and worked consistently, which is great. I refer to grub2 as being unstable because, according to the GRUB2 website, the code is still in early development and incompatibilities may still be introduced. In other words, the config file you use today with grub2 might not work with the grub2 of tomorrow.
And while it has worked fine for some people, it's been a train wreck for others. It's not really the GRUB team's fault, distributions shouldn't be shipping alpha quality code for something as important as a boot loader.
58 • SliTaz Instruction manual for life (by Mike S. on 2010-01-12 17:25:19 GMT from United States)
Hey, the Instruction manual for life (on picture of desktop in article) you'll want is the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, otherwise known as the Bible.
Nice distro.
59 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-12 18:17:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #58
Surely that should be for the "after" life.
60 • Re: 58 (by jake at 2010-01-12 19:49:44 GMT from United States)
Comment deleted (off-toppic).
61 • re:43 (by micro at 2010-01-12 20:09:15 GMT from United States)
"I think wicd is the best because :
written in Python
installation requiring fewer dependencies than other network managers"
Python is one really big dependency.
62 • #60 (by Barnabyh at 2010-01-12 20:24:03 GMT from United Kingdom)
Lighten up man, he was only trying to be helpful, and he didn't drone on for ages in an annoying manner (or should that be manor?).
63 • Reference #34 • (by Notorik) Editing grub.cfg (by Simple Minded at 2010-01-12 22:49:13 GMT from United States)
"No, people complain about GRUB 2 because they don't want to have to learn a whole new stupid bunch of scripting crap just to get something to boot. It is very easy to edit the .menulst file so why make things more complicated?"
Its very easy for me to edit grub,cfg also !!!
Some poeple beleve that nonsense about DO NOT EDIT, etc,etc,
I even forgot the sentence. I have my own copy of grub.cfg in my home dir just the way I want it. No script kiddie for me. I don't have to play around with all that nonsense. Ever here of KISS - keep it simple stupid.
Oh, I know all about when a new kernel updates the grub, When that happens, I just cp my grub.cfg back to /boot/grub/grub.cfg. All well and good. And I keep my grub.cfg very short. Only the essentials KISS again. An example, my grub,cfg:
default=2
gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
timeout=11
menu_color_normal=white/blue
menu_color_highlight=light-cyan/cyan
menuentry "Lucid" {
insmod ext2
root=(hd0,7)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 354c4429-0484-476d-b93a-0068853d3408
gfxpayload=1024x768
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=354c4429-0484-476d-b93a-0068853d3408 ro splash
initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry "Jaunty" {
insmod ext2
root=(hd0,9)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5d67fd00-0856-4ce1-b278-9acf3e926a5c
gfxpayload=1024x768
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=5d67fd00-0856-4ce1-b278-9acf3e926a5c ro splash
initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry "Windows" {
insmod ntfs
root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e2444e41444e1925
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Mint 8" {
insmod ext2
root=(hd0,8)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 50d01b44-c823-48a8-8dcf-f98b3c9778de
gfxpayload=1024x768
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=50d01b44-c823-48a8-8dcf-f98b3c9778de
initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry "Kubuntu 10.04" {
insmod ext2
root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 905df3ac-f6ff-4d3c-a5d5-50fc8e01f43a
gfxpayload=1024x768
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=905df3ac-f6ff-4d3c-a5d5-50fc8e01f43a ro splash
initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry "Kubuntu 9.10" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,11)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e5ab8bdc-50cc-4fbe-aecd-7a52fb024301
gfxpayload=1024x768
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=e5ab8bdc-50cc-4fbe-aecd-7a52fb024301 ro splash
initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry "pmagic" {
loopback loop (hd0,5)/pmagic-4.6.iso
gfxpayload=1024x768
linux (loop)/pmagic/bzImage findiso=/pmagic-4.6.iso root=/dev/ram0 noeject noprompt sleep=0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 loglevel=0 keymap=us
initrd (loop)/pmagic/initramfs
}
menuentry "Clonezilla live" {
loopback loop (hd0,5)/clonezilla-live-20091230-karmic.iso
linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live union=aufs ocs_live_keymap="NONE" ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" nolocales noprompt vga=773 ip=frommedia toram=filesystem.squashfs findiso=/clonezilla-live-20091230-karmic.iso
initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}
64 • Linux applications for manipulating mobile phones (by Jan at 2010-01-12 22:55:05 GMT from Netherlands)
Today I helped someone to find a way to back-up the information in his mobile phone.
It needed a proprietary software (Nokia PC-suite), under Windows.
Now that almost everyone has a mobile phone, I presume that there is a big interest in connecting the phone to a PC for backing-up and manipulating.
Are there general application for this (I googled for this, found a lot of items, however I had not the idea that it was usable for a noob linux user).
Thanks
65 • @63 KISS (by merlin at 2010-01-12 23:16:36 GMT from Canada)
No insult intended, but I don't call 7 Linux distributions plus Windows a "simple" setup. :-) That's pretty serious distrohopping territory. Maybe your should put your clonezilla and pmagic on a USB key and lose a few distros, then we'll talk.
66 • SliTaz+@58+?'s (by D1Knight at 2010-01-13 01:13:36 GMT from United States)
An excellent review of SliTaz. Thank you DWW. I am looking forward to the next official release of SliTaz in March.
@58-Yes and Amen.
Linux Mag-Does anyone know if Linux Identity is sold at Barnes & Noble?
DWW-Is there review planned for the release of 2010.02 OpenSolaris?
Have a great week everyone. Peace. :)
67 • tuxradar netbook distro comparison (by User at 2010-01-13 02:20:25 GMT from Greece)
From which:
"One thing we don't like about the latest release of UNR is the installation routine. Canonical has tried to make things easier by only distributing UNR 9.10 as an ISO image that needs to be burned on to a CD. But of course, netbooks don't have optical drives. To get around this, Canonical wants you to use its USB Creator application. We had little success getting this to work on a couple of Ubuntu-based distros, and had to resort to the Windows version that can be found in the root directory of the ISO - which means you need to mount it first, somehow. On Windows, you will also need Python 2.6 installed. By comparison, Moblin is provided as an IMG file, the same as UNR used to be, and this can be copied using dd on the command line. It takes a long time, and it's more technical than it should be, but because you have control of the block size with the bs argument (we used bs=1024), the writing process shouldn't fail. We'd love to see Canonical providing both packages."
At last someone mentioned the MAJOR regression in the way Canonical decided to distribute the 9.10 netbook images.
The 9.04 .img's were perfect. You could just dd them anywhere from anywhere.
Now you have to have an external CD-ROM or have Ubuntu already installed in the machine to use the USB creator (which is far from perfect & you have to use additional tools like (c)fdisk or gparted etc along with it ), or use unetbootin (meh) , or as the article says use Windows (meh^2).
Furthermore the ISOs are not hubrid and cannot be made hybrid.
I expect to see at least hybrid ISOs in the next release.
68 • Great DWW... (by Vukota at 2010-01-13 02:52:59 GMT from United States)
I see that we are starting New Year with with great DWWs...
Good to see "BSD Magazine" going on-line and free. I took a look at it and it looks great. I'll be reading it if they keep the current quality. Even though I was not fan of BSD due to the lack of Desktop support, I may look that way if "BSD Magazine" brings me a new angle on BSD ;-)
SliTaz - Article puzzled me to the point to try it out and keep it around.
GRUB article was nice, but short. Every one usually sooner or later has to deal with it.
69 • SliTaz Installation without CDROM or bootable USB (by Redondo at 2010-01-13 02:59:00 GMT from United States)
I visited their web and didn't find any info on how to install on a pc without CD rom or bootable USB.
I did notice they used a loop method if cd rom had problems.
What I have been able to do on other systems is remove the HD from pc in question and make it an attached usb drive and copy the needed files.
Another though since this is running in ram only, can I use the loop-back method as discribed above and then install it that way?
In the distanint past using pclos I installed on my desktop then put the HD back into mt pc in question an altered the video and sound. Will that work?
70 • Ref#69 SliTaz installation methods... (by Redondo at 2010-01-13 03:03:28 GMT from United States)
Answering my own question I found Installing by hand at the HD Installation Manual.
71 • #53 • elive (by Anonymous at 2010-01-13 03:10:59 GMT from Canada)
It came up with a beautiful desktop photo of the "blue marble". with a row of icons along the bottom of the screen
and then no response to any clicking or button pushing
But the loading process is very impressive
72 • Chromium OS Zero (by D1Knight at 2010-01-13 04:01:17 GMT from United States)
For anyone interested in Chromium OS Zero has arrived.
http://www.unixmen.com/news-today/706-chromium-os-zero-released-
The link was posted on www.raiden.net
73 • @53 by Michael J King (by Sean at 2010-01-13 10:02:26 GMT from United States)
Congratulations on running a successful Elive. We've tried it on several laptops and PCs and found it not functional in many areas.
After all, Elive is "unstable." Still. We think of it as a kit to fool around with, never as a working distro.
In Linux there is room for all sorts of things, isn't there. :)
74 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-13 10:59:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref comments on Elive, firstly #73,
Is there a common factor with your laptops and common to your PCs? As in procs or ram to name but two.
Ref #71, what specs?
Ref #53, thanks for specs.
No prizes for guessing why I ask.
75 • @72 Chromium OS Zero (by merlin at 2010-01-13 12:09:27 GMT from Canada)
I have a feeling Google will not like the name of that project.
76 • @66: OpenSolaris (by Jesse on 2010-01-13 13:37:39 GMT from Canada)
I plan to take the next release of OpenSolaris for a spin.
77 • @57 (by KevinC at 2010-01-13 14:05:51 GMT from United States)
Sry for the late reply...I work 12-14hr shifts & a lot of DW passes by while I'm @ work. I was under the impression that the grub2 shipped with Karmic was 1.97 Beta (iirc it states "beta" at the boot screen). I would doubt they change the config files to create a no boot situation---that would be a major faux pas. And as 63 stated one can simply make grub.cfg writable & edit it (just make a backup of it somewhere else. I was simply asking a question if there have been reports of grub2 hosing the mbr or something...I have not see this...but do not make the claim that it's not so--it has been fine for me on my boxes. I do prefer legacy grub to this newfangled (read convoluted) way of doing things. I'm far from an advocate of grub2...;>) I would like to know why the grub devs decided to go with this entirely different methodology and have yet to find a reasonable explanation---it seems to be a trend across the board in many operation systems (not just Linux)---change for change's sake.
78 • Chromium OS zero (by zygmunt on 2010-01-13 14:49:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
Slow from a USB stick at the moment, but it did function with Flash Player. Was very easy to download and dd to USB stick (of=/dev/sdX)
no partitions or formatting required. This typed on chromium OS.
79 • All Things GRUB (by kilgoretrout on 2010-01-13 18:57:41 GMT from United States)
Just a few GRUB observations.
GRUB legacy was in perpetual beta, i.e. it never reached the 1.0 milestone. It is no longer being developed by the grub devs who are devoting all their attention on GRUB2; the grub devs are only doing maintainace/bug fixes on legacy GRUB at this point. However, others are continuing development of GRUB legacy and adding new features(eg. booting from ext4). Every major distro that I've tried in the last year other than Ubuntu that uses GRUB is still using legacy GRUB and all have patched to allow booting from ext4. If someone knows of a distro where that's not true, feel free to post that info.
GRUB2 has been in development for over 5 years. It is a ground up rewrite of GRUB. According to the devs, the rewrite was needed in order to deal with the changing hardware scene and the new fiilesystems coming down the road. The legacy GRUB code base had become such a mess that a complete rewrite was needed to implement the needed changes. The current status of GRUB2 is stated as:"It is usable, but we are still making incompatible changes from time to time." That translates to me as "unstable" as others have noted.
For those complaining about GRUB2, I feel your pain and do not look forward to learning yet another bootloader with its own idiomatic configuration syntax, commands and workarounds. I also question the wisdom of using GRUB2 on a user friendly distro like Ubuntu. However, sooner of later, we'll all probably have to learn it.
80 • Restoring Grub (by Phillip Chandler on 2010-01-13 20:04:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
Your article was for the olg grub legacy, whereas the new grub2 (Ubuntu 9.10 onwards) is a whole new ballgame. Could you add the process for the new grub2 as well ?
Thanks
Phillip
81 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-13 22:24:18 GMT from United Kingdom)
How things can backfire.
Briefly, MS, aware of wholesale piracy in China decided to let it happen (well, how could they even hope to stop it?) with a view, expressed by the great man hisself, of "figgerin'" out how to get their dues at a later date.
Seems that is unlikely to happen. China have tested the MS offering over the years and decided not to bother with it anymore (my paraphrasing of course) in favour of their, amongst others of course, own home grown GNULinux OS nurtured by the "Rain Forest Wind Guangdong Computer Technology Company" no less:
The MS usage was a sort of "try before you buy" scheme which proved all too successful...for the consumers.
Item culled from Linux Magazine (so it has some provenance). See here:
http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7669/1.html
Btw, there is a nice unintended (?) gag in the copy to the effect that once the Chinese folk start using free software they are likely to continue doing so...er since when were a lot of them paying for MS anyway?
82 • Grub2 (by Jesse on 2010-01-13 22:40:36 GMT from Canada)
Phillip,
Rather than do a whole new article about grub2, I'm going to provide this link for people who are concerned about restoring grub2:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Grub2Testing
Scroll down to the section called "If you messed up". It provides pretty good instructions for rescuing the system after losing grub. I haven't tested this myself, but a Ubuntu user tells me it recovered his system.
83 • @75 Chromium OS Zero (by D1Knight at 2010-01-14 01:29:30 GMT from United States)
LOL :) Yes, over not a very positive sounding name. Tho, I am sure Google will come up with their own snappy name for the official release. Peace.:)
84 • @76 OpenSolaris (by D1Knight at 2010-01-14 01:33:29 GMT from United States)
Awesome! :) Hopefully that will be accompanied with a DWW review.
Congrats on the review of SliTaz, very clear and concise. Thank you. Peace. :)
85 • @78 Chromium OS Zero (by D1Knight at 2010-01-14 01:42:16 GMT from United States)
Cool, zygmunt. :) Thanks for sharing your experience of the OS, with us. I am glad to hear it is running/functioning for you (albeit a little slow). :) Peace.
86 • @75 Chromium OS Zero (Name Update?) (by D1Knight at 2010-01-14 04:02:03 GMT from United States)
OK, a closer look at the main web page http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/ and at the previous link I posted, it is quite plausible the naming scheme is based on the Coca-Cola soft drink name variations. ie-Coke Zero, Cherry Coke (previous release-Chromium OS Cherry) and Diet Coke.
I could be wrong. Please correct me if I am. Peace. :)
87 • Test Live CD from within Windows, easy method (by Jan at 2010-01-14 12:39:34 GMT from Netherlands)
Hello,
For Windows-systems testing Linux-Live-CD, here is a very easy method of testing without burning to CD or USB:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/try-linux-live-cds-without-burning-or-restarting-the-computer/
Have fun
88 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-14 13:26:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
MS unseated?
For those of you interested in GNULinux as an OS and not just as a fulfilling pastime or hobby, see here:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/69101.html
Surely folk realise it's going to be a migration thing, not some instant switch over.
Then there was
89 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-14 14:31:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
oops, cold hands...There was a further link to the "Best Buy" debacle.
I find it jawdropping a company can treat customers in such a manner (we still hear of similar in UK, unfortunately), despite there being solid legislation to prevent such.
Then, allegedly, he was manhandled out of the shop ( got to be human rights issues in there somewhere).
It simply illustrates the stupidity of MS, trying to hold onto custom by any means (as in using retailer proxies).
I would have thought any half competent ambulance chasing lawyer will sue for just about all the cash BB possesses.
90 • look like xp? (by RollMeAway at 2010-01-14 20:37:19 GMT from United States)
Desktop Linux Market Share Will Rise, Thanks to Microsoft
http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7669/1.html
Interesting reasoning for making ubuntu look like XP.
91 • Pardus 2009.1 on track (by Mark on 2010-01-15 01:11:39 GMT from United States)
Pisi just installed the final package upgrades updating my instalation from 2009.1RC to 2009.1. This is a very stable release in my experience. It's the first Linux on which I've actually enjoyed the KDE desktop as much as Gnome.
92 • Slitaz (by RollMeAway at 2010-01-15 18:10:46 GMT from United States)
Good review of Slitaz. Those who have brushed it off, really should reconsider.
Give it a try. You will be surprised.
One installation on a 2Ghz P4 boots in 7 seconds and shuts down just as quick.
I think Slitaz is an excellent candidate for a netbook. Anyone tried it on one?
At the low end, I have installed the "LowRam" version on an old fujitsu laptop limited
to 96 MB of ram. I swapped firefox out and use midori for a browser. Runs great.
Brought new life to a forgotten machine.
93 • Pardus upgrade (by RollMeAway at 2010-01-16 06:23:59 GMT from United States)
I can report that "pisi upgrade" from the cmdline upgraded a 2009 install to 2009.1 with zero problems as well.
It took 229 upgrades(434 MB).
New kernel, KDE4.3.4 among them.
Smooth and rebooted OK.
Didn't loose any configuration date.
Good show Pardus!
94 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-16 10:13:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref Pardus, intrigued by RMA's enthusiasm I found this stuff:
http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?hl=en&q=pardus...#
It is a "quite interesting" distro, definitely work a close(r) look. And, if you have a high end machine the visual effects (from the above link) are worth watching.
Discovered too that Pardus is an Anatolian leopard...(I wondered why they had a cat logo...)
95 • regarding SliTaz install (by Redondo at 2010-01-16 17:00:02 GMT from United States)
Don't have cdrom or usb. Used the handbook method of installing to HD.
It failed.
Was able to uncompress rootfs. Add the vmliniz line to grub boot, but errored out saying something to the effect couldn't read header.
I did exactly as described on handbook.
96 • Slitaz forums (by RollMeAway at 2010-01-16 18:26:10 GMT from United States)
http://forum.slitaz.org/index.php/categories/English-General/
Browse and search for your problem.
If not found post the details of your problem.
The forums are active and someone should be able to help you.
97 • #96 thanks (by Redondo at 2010-01-16 18:56:03 GMT from United States)
Rollmeaway, thanks. I wanted to avoid to signup for yet another forum.
I did search there forum several different ways.
98 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-16 20:00:16 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #95/96
If someone has probs with an install and someone does not then surely it would save a lot of messing about by stating what your hardware is? For all we know, hyperbolic t-i-c warning, Redondo might have been trying to install to his toaster...
We know, sort of, what machine RMA used, so, Redondo perhaps you could describe what kit you used?
Might be a useful tip/hint for others seeking to try Slitaz, if, as you describe, the forums did not provide an answer...for your particular set up, despite following the manual/handbook to the letter.
99 • #97 Forum signup (by zygmunt on 2010-01-16 21:34:54 GMT from United Kingdom)
Redondo brings up a very salient point about YAFC (yet Another Forum Signup). There must be a better way (anon?) of dealing with so many extraneous registrations. "Membership" is not often desired by the user. If people are unwilling to sign up, this may be a real stumbling block to linux penetration. How many Id/passwords combinations have I used once and since forgotten. PITA to recoup each time.
100 • Forum Signup (by Anonymous at 2010-01-17 00:03:36 GMT from United States)
Exactly!
I simply do not want to join anything by signup.
I like DW since to post here one does not need to be a member.
Some one can simply post a comment or question and be done.
No signup, no passwords, etc.
Ladislav, I congradulate you for this.
You make it easy to participate or get help with Linux.
I wish more sites were like this, easy to get along with.
As always, Thanks...
101 • ref#98 hardware unrelated (by Redondo at 2010-01-17 01:12:22 GMT from United States)
Hardware has very little to do with vmlinuz not co-operating.
All other distro work so far, pmagic, clonzilla, TinyCore, etc.
The problem lies in the compressed linux file.
I was just throwing this out in hopes that someone else having gone the same route might have an answer.
102 • Pardus (by Sertse at 2010-01-17 04:28:01 GMT from Australia)
Had a whiz of it, seems polished as ever. Running it on a P4, 512 ram machine is tolerable, but I'm too used to the instantouns of xfce etc...
103 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-17 10:54:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #101
You think?
I tried it a standard sff compaq business machine 2GHz P4, 1GB ram in live mode; it did the wifi thing, but nothing to excite overall.
Then, tried live mode on Dell opti 280, 3GHz P4, 2GB ram, found the wifi, then lost it, but despite that again nothing to excite ones senses, subjectively speaking of course.
I found this a bit of a disappointment having seen the demo stuff mentioned earlier.
104 • Lucid 10.04 a2 (by capricornus at 2010-01-17 12:58:42 GMT from Belgium)
Just reporting. I tried Lucid AMD64 on my impossible AMDx2-machine, I since long gave it up and used it mainly as a WinXP-pc, with an old screen, but whaaw, Lucid just did it. Everything worked (don't forget ia32!) and works as it should, a few minor crashes here and there without the whole falling apart or freezing. Perfect alpha. Except...
... for recognizing and joining the WinNetwork: my otherwise Linux-happy NAS can be reached through Firefox (http://192.168.0.4:5000), but not directly, even not after installing everything concerning SAMBA. And strangely enough, the Printer attached to the NAS (smb://xxx.DISKSTATION/usbprinter) does print (after 30' of waiting+swearing or so). Well, just reporting. I'm rather happy having tried and installed it. It can improve, and I'm eager to see the results.
105 • EEE PC 1005 BestBuy (by capricornus at 2010-01-17 13:06:15 GMT from Belgium)
After too many days of annoying jetlag, I tried UNR on my EEE PC that I bought in the chaotic BestBuy in Atlanta Perimeter (North of Atlanta). I must say that WInXP is running smoothly and switfly, I just can't believe that an Atom and a cheap piece of hardware can start so quickly and run so smoothly. I tried Mint7 and several dedicated stuff on both Pendrive's and HD, but the Atheros Linux-drivers are BS, and persistency on a Pendrive seems to be difficult. UNR is the best: everything works. Perfectly. Although Firefox seems to hesitate once in while, and the Atheros-card seems to hesitate too, but that's it. Perhaps ASUS should ask Atheros to do a serious job about Linux-drivers. But perhaps Atheros is bribed by ... M$?
106 • No subject (by forest at 2010-01-17 13:30:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref Lucid comments.
Defaulting to hobbyist mode, I had installed the first alpha to an older machine (compaq, as above) and "as usual" it booted up no problem. The second alpha, with a lot of d/l, loaded to hard drive and again ran without issue. This is run as in a desktop appears, wifi works.
The "special" video effects don't work, with a message to the effect they can't be enabled. This is "normal" on this machine with only 1GB ram with Ubuntu, but, with Knoppix the special FX, run off a usb stick plugged into the same machine, do.
As it happens I used this distro to d/l the Pardus and burn the CD and run same live...with so-so results.
Now, Lucid works satis for me on my machines...inevitably we will read of the opposite.
Hmm, could be hardware...
107 • 105....Ubuntu NBR (by KevinC at 2010-01-17 17:16:10 GMT from United States)
I've never really been fond of the NBR interfaces & it just seems slower to me. I just use Karmic on my 1002HA and customize to my liking (screeny):
[IMG]http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab187/kched1/Screenshot1.png[/IMG]
Usually setup Awn...tho I've played with Cairo and Docky on my desktops. I don't really get why Linux distros feel the need to change the entire desktop around...MS didn't play that game w/ XP or 7 & have had success. I much prefer the standard Gnome setup with some tweaking for the 1024 X 600 desktop. Maybe just old fashioned, but the NBR interfaces seem to just get in my way.
108 • EDIT... (by KevinC at 2010-01-17 22:03:18 GMT from United States)
Sry....bad link---here's direct link:
http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab187/kched1/Screenshot1.png
109 • Server functions (by Tom on 2010-01-18 00:57:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
Some months ago caitlyn Martin wrote an excellent article here about server functions that was written in a way hobbyists could understand, can anyone remember roughly when that was? I can't seem to find the article now :(
@64 jan Errr, yes there are a lot of apps for mobile phones but the linux ones tend to be able to cope witha range of different phones so you dont need to keep changing which app you use everytime you change phones. try doing a search in your package manager. Sorry this isn't very helpful! (rtfm :( )
Regards all from
Tom :)
110 • Pardus mirrors? Any whizzy ones? (by gnomic at 2010-01-18 03:37:17 GMT from New Zealand)
Anyone know of any Pardus mirrors which offer a reasonable d/l speed? Getting a trickle from the Pardus ftp link for the live CD on the Distrowatch page at present :-( - circa 18kB/s. tho' that may be partly due to this end. Can't find any alternates on the Pardus website, and those I found via web search don't have the latest version. I was getting a massive 30~40 KB/s yesterday - maybe that was before the onslaught of the hordes of hungry downloaders.
Number of Comments: 110
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
MidnightBSD
MidnightBSD is a FreeBSD-derived operating system. A critical goal of the project is to create an easy-to-use desktop environment with graphical ports management, and system configuration using GNUstep. The vast majority of the operating system will maintain a BSD license. MidnightBSD was forked from FreeBSD 6.1 beta.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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