 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 900, 18 January 2021 |
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Welcome to our 900th edition and this year's 3rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
There are a lot of different approaches to setting up an operating system. Some distribution developers aim for user friendliness, some try to provide a lot of software out of the box, others focus on one specific set of tasks their operating system will make easier. This week we explore a type of distribution that tries to have a small number of more easily understood components. This category of distribution is referred to as a keep-it-simple (KIS) distribution and they strive to avoid under the hood complexity while often leaving the user to perform tasks manually. We talk about two distributions, CRUX and NuTyX, in this category in our Feature Story. In our News section we talk about Fedora experimenting with more compressed RAM (zRAM) while the Debian developers discuss how to best handle packages with a lot of small dependencies. We also report on progress happening around the FreeBSD project and that openSUSE 15.1 is nearing the end of its supported life. In our Questions and Answers column we explore alternatives to running administrative tasks while logged into the root account. How do you approach system administrative tasks? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we welcome the Mabox Linux distribution, a Manjaro-based rolling release operating system, to our database. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: CRUX 3.6.1, NuTyX 20.12.0
- News: Fedora doubles down on zRAM, Debian developers discuss bundling dependencies, openSUSE 15.1 nearing its end of life, FreeBSD publishes status report
- Questions and answers: Alternatives to running commands as the root user
- Released last week: Alpine Linux 3.13.0, KaOS 2021.01, GhostBSD 21.01.15
- Torrent corner: Alpine, ArcoLinux, Bluestar, CloudReady, GhostBSD, KaOS, KDE neon, Raspberry Pi OS, Zeroshell
- Opinion poll: Method for performing administrative tasks
- New additions: Mabox Linux
- New distributions: Salient OS, Sana OS, Storm OS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (16MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
CRUX 3.6.1
Coming into the new year I decided I wanted to simplify things a bit and explore a distribution that didn't have as many features and distractions. I decided to kick off my week with CRUX, an independent distribution with a keep it simple (KIS) approach. CRUX runs on x86_64 computers exclusively and the latest version, 3.6, appears to be focused almost entirely on package upgrades rather than new features.
CRUX runs the classic SysV init software on top of version 5.4 of the Linux kernel. Shortly after CRUX 3.6 was released the project published a minor update to fix a package issue. According to the documentation it is recommended that people do not attempt to upgrade to CRUX 3.6.1 from an earlier version:
Important libraries have been updated to new major versions which are not ABI compatible with the old versions. We strongly advise against manually updating to CRUX 3.6 via ports, since these changes will temporarily break the system.
Since CRUX is a distribution that requires some manual work and does not provide any hand holding, I recommend reading the project's handbook which explains some key elements of the operating system and how to set it up.
I downloaded the 3.6.1 install medium which is 819MB in size. Booting from this image brings up a text console where we are automatically logged in as the root user. The live medium is quite light, consuming just 40MB of RAM. The usual, basic command line tools are included on the image, but there are no manual pages. There are also no welcome messages or instructions for using or installing the distribution.
Installing
Luckily the CRUX website has documentation which explains how to install the operating system. The steps include manually formatting partitions, generating locale data, compiling the kernel, and installing a boot loader.
The installation steps are performed from the command line and are generally performed manually. To begin we should use either the fdisk or cfdisk console partition manager to divide the hard drive. Then we format and mount a partition which will act as the root filesystem. We then run the setup command that opens a series of text-based menus and select the location of our new root partition. We are asked to select which package groups we want with the options being Core, Optional, and X.Org. These software groups are not described, but I believe Core includes low-level userland utilities and X.Org provides graphical software. I am not sure what is featured in the Optional group.
We are then asked to select which boot loader (LILO, GRUB, GRUB-efi, or syslinux) we want. I decided to stick with GRUB. Some packages are then copied to the hard drive partition. The CRUX setup script then reported it had completed successfully, however it seemed to be locked up and would not proceed when I pressed the OK button. With a little experimenting I found it was necessary to scroll to the bottom of the installer's log output that is shown on the screen before the OK button would work and return me to the console.
From there we are expected to manually update the configuration file for background services, generate a locale, and tweak the network settings by editing another configuration file. We then adjust the kernel configuration and compile a new kernel from its source code. Compiling the kernel can take several minutes and, once it has been installed, the documentation says we should configure and install a boot loader.
Here I ran into trouble. I was using a DOS/BIOS style disk layout. The CRUX documentation says to edit the LILO configuration file (/etc/lilo.conf) and then run the lilo command when using DOS layouts. However, there is no /etc/lilo.conf file and no program called lilo, either on the hard drive partition or on the install medium. There are instructions for installing GRUB on UEFI-enabled systems and I tried both the steps for this and for installing GRUB on a BIOS system. In both cases, once I had finished the installation steps and rebooted, the system failed to load. My machine would launch and display the GRUB rescue prompt, but there were no boot options. Despite going through the install steps again, I found the GRUB configuration file, while generated, was not populated with the freshly installed CRUX kernel. This, along with the references to the unavailable LILO boot loader suggests to me the documentation is out of date and missing a step or two.
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NuTyX 20.12.0
Since CRUX was not working out for me, I switched gears and the next day downloaded another keep it simple distribution, this time grabbing a copy of NuTyX. This distribution is built upon Linux From Scratch and uses a custom package manager called cards. The NuTyX project is a rarity in that it is one of the few distributions which allow users to select their preferred init software at boot time. SysV init, systemd, or RuNyX (a modified version of runit) can be selected at boot time. The distribution is available in several editions for x86_64 machines. The desktop editions offered are KDE, LXDE, MATE, and Xfce. I decided to try the Xfce edition, which is a 986MB download.
Booting from the NuTyX image brings up a menu offering to launch a live desktop environment or start the system installer. Both options also give us the choice of loading the operating system into RAM or running it from the live medium.
The live session brings up a series of text-based menus. The first one shows us a list of countries, sorted by language and I suppose we are expected to select where we live. We are next shown a list of keyboard layout codes which do not appear to be sorted in any particular order. Next we can choose our network card from a list and pick whether to automatically set up networking. The following screens ask us to set the system clock and make up a username and password for ourselves. These steps seem like part of an installation, but they are just configuring the live desktop.
NuTyX 20.12.0 -- Adjusting the Xfce panel through the settings panel
(full image size: 104kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
At the end we are presented with a graphical login screen where we can sign into the account we just created. The session runs the Xfce desktop. A panel is placed across the stop of the screen and holds the application menu, task switcher, and system tray. There is a launcher dock at the bottom of the screen and a series of icons on the desktop which open the Thunar file manager in various locations. Audio is muted by default and, after a little exploring, I concluded there doesn't seem to be any way to launch the installer from within the live environment.
Installing
Since the live desktop was working well, I decided to reboot my computer and launch the installer from NuTyX's boot menu. The installer shows us a series of text-based screens that begin by asking which country we live in. The installer then warns NuTyX should be set up entirely on one partition. Choosing to proceed then causes NuTyX to be installed to the hard drive.
I want to make it clear here I was not asked to partition the disk. I was not asked which partition to use. There was no confirmation before NuTyX wiped my previous operating system and placed itself on the first partition of my hard drive. According to the documentation there are at least three menus we need to navigate to launch a partition manager and format the disk, but these did not appear during my trial. In fact none of the top-level menus displayed in the documentation appeared at any time during the install process.
After it copies files to the hard drive the installer asks if it may install a boot loader. Then the system appeared to be shutting down. A series of errors saying the xdm file does not exist were shown, along with errors about trying to perform actions on a read-only filesystem. Then the distribution appeared to halt without powering off the computer.
First impressions
I was sceptical about NuTyX starting after seeing the series of errors on the live image, but it did bring up a boot menu. Here we are shown three boot options: RuNyX, SysV, and systemd. These are the three init options. Picking one brings up a second screen asking if we wish to boot in Quiet or Verbose mode. A third menu then appears and asks if we want to launch the LTS version or Latest version. This last screen refers to which kernel the distribution will use. If we don't pick any options, the system will pick RuNyX and boots the LTS kernel in Quiet mode.
The first time the newly installed copy of NuTyX boots, it brings up a series of screens asking us for our keyboard layout, which network card to use, and what we want to use for a username/password combination. These are the same screens shown on the live medium and they appear just the first time we boot into the locally installed copy of the operating system.
We are then shown a graphical login screen where we can sign into the Xfce desktop. As with the live image, the desktop has a few launchers for the Thunder file manager on it and the volume is muted.
NuTyX 20.12.0 -- Running Thunar with a dark theme
(full image size: 72kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Hardware
I began my test with NuTyX in a VirtualBox virtual machine. I was glad I did this as it avoided wiping out my computer's hard drive during the install process. NuTyX performed well in the virtual environment, the Xfce desktop was very responsive, and the system booted quickly. The desktop did not resize dynamically with the VirtualBox window, but started off with a high resolution anyway. I could also adjust the desktop resolution in the Xfce settings panel.
When I switched over to running NuTyX on my workstation, the operating system booted quickly, ran smoothly, and detected all of my hardware. Xfce was once again unusually fast and I was able to get on-line, watch videos, and listen to music without any problems.
The distribution is quite light, using between 215MB and 235MB of RAM. The amount varied a little at each boot, even with the same init software running in the background. The distribution is relatively small on disk, using just 2.7GB of space, plus any swap partition it can find. This is unusually small and I believe it is because the distribution ships with a minimal number of applications.
I tested the distribution and booted it in both Legacy BIOS and UEFI environments. When running in BIOS mode, everything worked as expected. This was also mostly true of the UEFI environment, with one key exception. When booting the live medium in UEFI mode there is a large white "watermark" design that is displayed on the boot menu. This blots out a lot of the text for the boot options. As a result, I did not realize I was booting into install mode rather than the live desktop mode as the first configuration screen or two are the same and I couldn't read all of the boot menu options. As a result, I came to within a hair of accidentally formatting my hard drive prematurely as NuTyX's installer does not ask before it starts wiping and copying files to the drive. When I booted in BIOS mode there was no water mark and the Live and Install boot options were displayed clearly.
Applications
The Xfce edition of NuTyX ships with the Firefox web browser, the Ristretto image viewer, and Parole media player. The distribution includes codecs for watching videos and playing audio files. The Xfburn disc burning software is included along with the Orage Calendar application. There is a bulk renaming tool, a text editor, and the Xfce settings panel. Each of these programs worked well. There are not many applications included by default, but what is present worked without any glitches. I especially like Xfce's settings panel as it is fairly easy to navigate and makes adjusting most aspects of the desktop straight forward.
NuTyX 20.12.0 -- Running the Firefox browser and Parole media player
(full image size: 277kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
As I mentioned before, we have our choice of three init packages and two Linux kernels, one that is cutting edge (version 5.9) and one which a long-term support release (version 4.19 in this case).
Software management
NuTyX ships with a graphical software manager called flcards which acts as a front-end to the cards package manager. The front-end features a very simple layout with two tabs and two buttons. The tabs are called Packages and Collections. The Collections tab shows available desktop environments we can install. These include LXDE, LXQt, KDE Plasma, GNOME, MATE, and Xfce. The Packages tab displays a long list of all available packages in the distribution's repositories in alphabetical order. To the side is a search box where we can type part of a package's name to filter down the list of packages shown. To install or remove a package we can right-click on it and select an action (remove, install, or cancel). The two buttons in the package manager window refresh our package data from the remote repositories and trigger any actions we have queued.
NuTyX 20.12.0 -- Managing packages through flcards
(full image size: 127kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Next to some packages we find a check mark and I was curious about these at first. Instinct told me this should indicate whether a package was installed or whether it could be updated. However, it appeared as though some software without a check next to it was already available on the system and this confused me for a minute. With a little poking around I discovered my instincts were correct, the check mark indicates software that is already on the system. What had confused me is NuTyX uses the Busybox userland software and some of the functionality of Busybox is duplicated by other packages. For example, wget is available by default through Busybox, but another wget package is available in the repositories and not installed. Installing it will place a second wget instance on the operating system and give the package its check mark.
While the flcards front-end worked for installing new software, every time I installed a new package it would complete successfully and then the package manager would crash as soon as I selected a second package to install. This happened every time I used the graphical front-end.
I want to say that flcards looks quite crude, but it is simple (in a nice way) and very fast. I liked the lack of clutter, even if I gritted my teeth each time it crashed after performing a queued action.
The flcards application does not appear to have a method or upgrading existing packages. For this task I turned to the command line cards program. The cards package manager has straight forward syntax and worked quickly. I tended to use it only for upgrades, but it was pleasant to use and I like how straight forward its usage documentation is.
NuTyX 20.12.0 -- Learning how to use the cards package manager
(full image size: 283kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Other observations
The NuTyX distribution provides the expected command line functionality, mostly through Busybox, however it does not include manual pages. This makes the system leaner, but it meant documentation and usage tips had to be looked up on-line.
Earlier I mentioned there are three init implementations we can select from at boot time. The default RuNyX software, which is a modified version of runit, works well. It is super fast and light. The distribution also boots cleanly on systemd, though its shutdown time seems slower. When I tried the SysV init boot option the system failed to load and displayed a series of errors about encountering a read-only filesystem. This surprised me as it looks as though NuTyX's live disc is running SysV init and boots the system successfully on the live media, but not when the distribution is installed on the hard drive.
Conclusions
While CRUX provided me with a lot of work without any benefit this week, I did enjoy my time with NuTyX. The distribution, for all its faults (and there are some important ones), has a simple, lightweight charm to it. There is virtually nothing extra, nothing distracting me, no resource-wasting status panels or pop-ups. The NuTyX distribution is not for newcomers, it expects a good deal of experience. But what I liked was NuTyX hits a sweet spot between including useful, friendly tools, and trimming the fat. There are graphical web browsers, a front-end for package management, and a system installer to help us get up and running. Otherwise we are left to our own devices and encouraged to set up just what we need. NuTyX is pleasantly light and fast.
However, as I said, there are problems. The dual combination of having a UEFI boot menu that is partially obscured, combined with a system installer which jumps right to formatting and taking over the primary partition is not good. Really not good. Wiping an operating system without warning is a big problem and the fact this behaviour does not match the documentation is an even bigger problem because the documentation indicates this will not happen without going through multiple configuration steps and a warning.
There were some other smaller issues. Having the package manager crash after each installation was an annoying speed bump in fetching new applications. There are fewer applications available to NuTyX users than what some other distributions provide. NuTyX offers about 1,700 packages at the time of writing up against about 59,000 in Debian, for example. I did not always find what I was looking for in the repositories, though most big-name items were available.
Finally, the lack of local manual pages was an unwelcome surprise. I've occasionally said distributions should either be easy to figure out due to friendly interfaces or have excellent documentation. Ideally we should have both, but it is a bad sign when we have neither.
For an expert Linux user who wants a lot of options (especially when it comes to kernel and init packages) NuTyX is an attractive choice once it is up and running. However, the current version has some bugs which need to get sorted out before I would recommend trying to install it.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card, Ralink RT5390R PCIe Wireless card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
NuTyX has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8/10 from 11 review(s).
Have you used NuTyX? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora doubles down on zRAM, Debian developers discuss bundling dependencies, openSUSE 15.1 nearing its end of life, FreeBSD publishes status report
The Fedora distribution introduced running zRAM in memory to provide compressed swap space in Fedora 33. At the time the memory space set aside for compressed swap was a fraction of the system's total memory size, but now the developers are considering expanding the amount of memory which can be used for zRAM. "When ZRAM was enabled by default in Fedora 33, the size of the device (before compression) was limited to fraction 0.5 of RAM or 4 GiB, whichever is less. The reason to limit the fraction to less than 1.0 is that with only incompressible data in memory, whole RAM would be filled by the "compressed" pages, leaving no RAM for normal use. But this concern seems to have been overblown, and there have been no reports of compressed swap taking up too much memory. In real use, we will have at least a few hundred MiB of code in memory, which compresses quite well, so some compression will occur even when working with incompressible data." Ben Cotton has published an overview of this proposed change with more details.
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The Debian team is revisiting a debate on how to manage the dependencies of packages which are typically downloaded during the software build process. The Debian guidelines prevent downloading third-party software during the build of a package, however this is a popular approach among the developers of some scripting languages. This raises the question of how Debian can best address these situations. Should Debian relax its packaging guidelines, create new packages for many rarely-used dependencies, or bundle these multiple dependencies together into one big package? LWN shares details of the on-going discussion: "Many application projects, particularly those written in languages like JavaScript, PHP, and Go, tend to have a rather large pile of dependencies. These projects typically simply download specific versions of the needed dependencies at build time. This works well for fast-moving projects using collections of fast-moving libraries and frameworks, but it works rather less well for traditional Linux distributions. So distribution projects have been trying to figure out how best to incorporate these types of applications."
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openSUSE version 15.1 will soon be reaching the end of its supported life. openSUSE 15.1 "Leap" will no longer receive updates after January 31, 2021. Upgrading to version 15.2 is recommended by the developers. Version 15 SP1 of SUSE Linux Enterprise also reaches the end of its normal supported life at the end of January.
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The FreeBSD project has published a status report which includes an overview of what the operating system's developers are working on. In particularly there has been a lot of effort put into improving ZFS compression, PF firewall performance, and upstreaming fixes from other organizations. "NetApp has started an effort to upstream bug fixes and other improvements from the ONTAP code line into FreeBSD. These changes benefit the FreeBSD community by providing many fixes that NetApp has made over the past few years, while allowing NetApp to reduce the number of customizations needed when bringing in the latest FreeBSD changes back into the ONTAP tree. NetApp has partnered with Klara to facilitate this project, to help identify interesting and useful changes to send upstream, to rework and generalize those changes as required to make them suitable for upstreaming, and to shepherd them through the FreeBSD code review process. During the fourth quarter, Klara has made 40 upstream fixes in the FreeBSD kernel in various subsystems including geom, dev, amd64, net, kern, netinet, and several other areas of the tree on behalf of NetApp. NetApp intends to continue to sponsor this effort throughout 2021." Further information can be found in the project's Quarterly Status Report.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Alternatives to running commands as the root user
Lock-it-down asks: People typically say using the root user is not recommended. But how do you actually upgrade programs, run services, edit config files without root? I've heard sudo is a good alternative, but doesn't it simply run everything as though you're root?
DistroWatch answers: There is a general guideline when it comes to computer security which recommends using the least amount of privilege or access necessary to accomplish a goal. The idea is that any access you have to a computer system can be exploited and the fewer components you can access or modify the less damage you can do if you either make a mistake or someone compromises your account. This wisdom, which is generally practical advice, often gets shared as "don't run programs as the root user" or "don't sign into the root account". This is because the root user can typically do just about anything on a Linux or BSD system. Which means you are always one keystroke, mouse click, or web browser exploit away from having your system and all its files compromised if you are signed into the root account.
I happen to agree that signing into the root account directly and using it as your regular user account is not a good idea. It's convenient, certainly, but I make too many typing mistakes and slips of the mouse to ever feel comfortable running as the root user all the time.
There are a few ways you can avoid signing into the root account for common day-to-day tasks while still making use of the root user's ability to install software, edit the system's configuration, or run background services. One of these is to use the su command in a virtual terminal to temporarily become a privileged user, like root. With su you can basically sign into root just for that one terminal session and then exit the shell when you are done. This is slightly safer than running everything as root as it limits the potential damage we can do to one terminal session.
The more common approach to performing administrative tasks these days is to use a tool like sudo or doas. These utilities allow a regular user account to temporarily act as another user (typically root) to perform one specific command at a time. Technically, in this case, you are performing tasks as root, but only one task at a time and (hopefully) typing "sudo" in front of each command will act as a reminder to be cautious.
One nice thing about both sudo and doas is they allow the administrator to grant access to specific commands for specific users. In situations where a person can login as root directly or use su they can perform any task they like as the root user. However, with sudo and doas we can specify the exact commands any user can run. This means we can allow anyone on the system to, for example, install updates or set up a printer while reserving the ability to set the system clock or install new software for just one person. This gives us fine-tuned control over access.
In short, you are correct. The sudo command generally does run commands as the root user. However, it can be used to fine-tune and place limits on user accounts. Tools like sudo and doas also offer benefits such as logging what commands people try to run with elevated access and providing a cleaner environment to avoid session-based exploits.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Alpine Linux 3.13.0
Alpine Linux is a community developed, lightweight operating system designed for routers, firewalls, VPNs, VoIP boxes and servers. The project's latest version, Alpine Linux 3.13.0, introduces official cloud images, the option of running PHP 8.0, and Node.js is compiled for better performance. "New features and noteworthy new packages: Official cloud images. Introduction of ifupdown-ng, a replacement for busybox ifupdown. Improved wifi support in setup scripts. PHP 8.0 is available now (next to PHP 7.4). Node.js (LTS) is compiled with -O2 instead of -Os which noticeably improves performance. It can also use full ICU data if new package icu-data is installed alongside. Initial support for cloud-init. Significant updates: Linux 5.10.7, musl 1.2, Busybox 1.32.1, GCC 10.2.1, Git 2.30.0. Knot DNS 3.0.3, MariaDB 10.5.8, Node.js 14.15.4, Nextcloud 20.0.4, PostgreSQL 13.1, QEMU 5.2.0" Further details are available in the release announcement.
KaOS 2021.01
KaOS is a desktop Linux distribution that features the latest version of the KDE Plasma desktop environment. The distribution's latest snapshot ships with some components of Qt 6 in preparation for more applications and the Plasma desktop eventually migrating from Qt 5. "For the many changes in this release, a few stand out. This is a first ISO that ships with Qt 6. Not that Plasma is ready for Qt 6, but some are (Poppler, Strawberry, Qsynth, Qtkeychain for example), so to get this distribution in good shape for the eventual Qt 6 move, any that can be built with Qt 6 are done so now. The KDE Applications release 20.12 saw the addition of almost a dozen new applications, some just moved from standalone releases to now a monthly release, but the addition of Itinerary (an app that provides you with all the information you need while on the road) and Spectacle using Kimageannotator for annotation tool are good improvements. There has been a search for quite some time for a good GUI to handle Systemd services, the used systemd-kcm has not been maintained for years. This replacement is now found and included in the ISO, Stacer (it can also be used as a system clean-up tool and handle startup applications)." The release announcement has further details.
GhostBSD 21.01.15
GhostBSD is a desktop-oriented operating system based on FreeBSD. The project has released a new snapshot which reduces its memory footprint on live media. This release also removes the guided partitioning option which would take over an entire disk with a UFS partition. "I am happy to announce the availability of the new ISO 21.01.15. This new ISO comes with a clean-up of packages that include removing LibreOffice and Telegram from the default selection. We did this to bring the zfs RW live file systems to run without problem on 4GB of ram machine. We also removed the UFS full disk option from the installer. Users can still use custom partitions to setup UFS partition, but we discourage it. We also fixed the Next button's restriction in the custom partition related to some bug that people reported. We also fix the missing default locale setup and added the default setup for Linux Steam, not to forget this ISO includes kernel, userland and numerous application updates." The release notes offer further details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,301
- Total data uploaded: 35.8TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Method for performing administrative tasks
In our Questions and Answers column this week we talked about various methods for performing system administration tasks. A person can login as root, switch between user accounts with su, or use a fine-grained permission tools such as sudo or doas. We would like to know which approach you use on your main computer.
You can see the results of our previous poll on whether Linux supports all of your hardware in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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I perform admin tasks using...
| doas: | 38 (2%) |
| root account directly: | 125 (7%) |
| su: | 304 (17%) |
| sudo: | 1209 (70%) |
| Another approach: | 33 (2%) |
| I do not perform admin tasks: | 29 (2%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Mabox Linux
Mabox is a Manjaro-based rolling release distribution. Mabox Linux features the Openbox window manager as its default interface and provides a welcome screen with access to utilities which add additional software to the operating system.
Mabox Linux 20.10 -- Running the Openbox window manager
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Salient OS. Salient OS is an Arch-based rolling release distribution. The project is available in KDE Plasma and Xfce editions and ships with gaming and multimedia applications pre-installed.
- Sana OS. Sana OS is a desktop-oriented GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian's Testing branch. It uses GNOME as the default desktop. Sana OS provides users with the a Persian environment and utilities like Persian calendar and fonts.
- Storm OS. Storm OS is an Arch-based Linux distribution featuring the Xfce desktop and using the Calamares system installer.
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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, 25 January 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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1 • congratulations on the milestone (by itsa me mario on 2021-01-18 02:12:01 GMT from New Zealand)
Congratulations on Issue No 900 of the Distrowatch Weekly. May there be many more.
2 • Admin tasks (by DaveW on 2021-01-18 02:34:49 GMT from United States)
I occasionally use su to do admin things, but use sudo a large majority of the time. Only having to enter the password for the first such command helps ease the pain of typing sudo multiple times.
3 • Admin approaches (by TheTKS on 2021-01-18 02:54:09 GMT from Canada)
Voted Another approach, because it depends on the job. I am the only actual user of Linuxes and OpenBSD on my computers that have Admin user, a regular user with some elevated permissions, and on on some a regular user with only default permissions (not even sudo.) Yeah, that many “users” aren’t actually needed when it’s just me using the computers - I set up extra users for testing or for different usages.
For one or a few tasks in a short time, sudo or doas. If I have several tasks that will take me awhile, but I will finish in one sitting, then su (or su -l or su -, as called for.) Signing in directly as root user, rarely, except when using a Puppy, in which you are root by default (unless I want to switch to a limited permission user.)
TKS
4 • Nice stuff! (by Al on 2021-01-18 03:07:42 GMT from United States)
That;s 900 issues of great stuff. A nice way to start the week.
5 • Rooting about... (by Friar Tux on 2021-01-18 03:36:18 GMT from Canada)
It's sudo for me, and yes, I have definitely bricked my laptop with 'fat finger syndrome' running as root. I don't mind the few extra steps required to run sudo. Learned my lesson early in my Linux years.
6 • to su or su - (by pengxuin on 2021-01-18 04:10:23 GMT from New Zealand)
I understand they are different in that one works on the real root directory where the risk of unexpected side effects such as root ownership of user files is reduced.
However, as it is your system, carry on regardless.
sudo or su / su -, all carry risk, how much you are prepared to carry is up to you.
I prefer to to have a root (su -) terminal opened by me after login, on a separate virtual desktop, for when I need it, but out of the way so I don't mistakenly use it for mundane user issues.
7 • Installers for simple distros (by Simon on 2021-01-18 04:10:25 GMT from New Zealand)
It's a pity that projects like Crux don't take the time to develop convenient installers. I understand the advantages of an idiot filter (i.e. they make it clear that the project is for "experienced Linux uesrs" and yet that wouldn't stop hundreds of people clogging their discussions with annoying beginner questions if they made it easier for beginners to get up and running)...however, it's not only idiots who are deterred by long manual installation procedures. Jesse lost interest, and I probably would have too at that point, given that (a) it had already taken up a lot more time than it needed to (an installer can automate most of that work), and (b) the sloppy documentation suggested it might not be worth the effort in the end anyway.
Nice simple distros like Crux (the handful that attempt to stay true to UNIX principles) already come at a cost in terms of time: even for an expert user, it takes a lot longer to edit a bunch of upstream configs carefully from documentation/experience than to click on an option from a GUI menu. I can understand the fully manual approach to installation with distros like Gentoo and LFS where learning is explicitly the point of the process, and the documentation is excellent accordingly. For other distros though, where it's simply a case of "if you're an experienced user then obviously you can set up the filesystems, unpack the distro archives, build the kernel and configure /etc yourself" (and their lack of care with the documentation shows that all this is not intended to be a learning exercise for newbies), I really think they should just script all that drudgery...at least with an old-fashioned text-based installer like Slackware's. It would save people from wasting time doing exactly the kind of boring repetitive stuff (and it is boring and repetitive for experienced users who've done it a hundred times before) that computers exist to spare us from doing. Otherwise, it looks like the unfriendly idiot filter...or just plain old laziness.
8 • Administrative tasks (by Bobbie Sellers on 2021-01-18 05:20:41 GMT from United States)
Actually I use tools like Synaptic and sometime start them with "su -" to work
on tasks that might be characterized as administrative.
Using as I do PCLinuxOS and having started on Mandriva in 2006 I am
accustomed to using the graphical root tool Computer Control Center.
It is not available in the root desktop though.
In the past I used CCC to tune my User Privileges but lately I find
it unnecessary to accomplish my admin tasks minor as they are.
bliss -“Nearly any fool can use a computer. Many do.” After all here I am...
9 • Happy 900 DW! (by Andy Prough on 2021-01-18 05:29:03 GMT from United States)
Big congrats to Jesse and Ladislav and Bruce. It's not easy making the GNU/Linux news interesting every week, but you guys have really come through for us readers. And it's really paid off for the readers. I learned about my current distro from DW, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that...
10 • Crux (by David on 2021-01-18 05:46:38 GMT from United States)
Jesse,
I've never been able to make Grub2 work on Crux. Lilo installed and worked flawlessly on Crux 3.5 on my laptop (with bios). I've got Crux 3.6 on my desktop machine. That machine has a grub-legacy boot partition, so maybe I got lucky, not having to install a boot loader with 3.6.
But you can boot Crux with the rescue option if the bootloader, the kernel build or something else goes haywire. If they forgot to put Lilo on the 3.6.1 iso, you could probably build it from ports, while in rescue mode. But I don't blame you for giving up at that point.
11 • admin tasks - sudo vs root, etc. (by Simon Wainscott-Plaistowe on 2021-01-18 07:24:28 GMT from New Zealand)
I answered "another approach" because I don't use any one method exclusively. My approach is to use sudo for quick tasks & su if I'm doing something a bit more involved. Sometimes I'll log in as root, but only rarely.
12 • Another approach: (by Someguy on 2021-01-18 08:24:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
Maybe misunderstood the question? Mostly, I want to shift files/directories/etc from one internal location to another or to another logged-in disc/card/etc. To do this I right-click and select 'open as root', transfer material and close rooted location pronto. Not had problems so far. But I also use sudo and, sometimes su - for simpler/routie ops.
13 • SU vs SUDO (by Alexandru on 2021-01-18 08:45:22 GMT from Austria)
Actually both approaches are equivalent:
sudo = su -c ""
su && = sudo su &&
The only difference is SU asks for root password while SUDO asks for user's password and only works if the user is in sudoers group.
The real difference I ever seen is approached by Solaris / OpenIndiana, where there is no black / white (i.e. user / root) user privileges. There are fine tuned, multi level and scope granulated privileges for many different system accounts. Each account has acces gratend only to certain resources that are relevant to its task. For example I was wandered how it is possible in to install new software without root password.
However, this approach usually very difficult to implement and configure to fulfill real user needs in administrative area.
14 • SU vs SODU (by Alexandru on 2021-01-18 08:47:16 GMT from Austria)
sudo command = su -c "command"
su $$ command = sudo su && command
15 • Errata: Crux is using BSD-Style not SysV (by luca on 2021-01-18 09:07:15 GMT from Switzerland)
From CRUX handbook:
The initialization scripts used in CRUX follow the BSD-style (as opposed to the SysV-style).
16 • Documentation and time (by Any on 2021-01-18 09:08:24 GMT from Spain)
I am curious and like testing new things, but I do not want to spend hours reading some project's documentation just to try it for 1 or 2 hours and then forget it. Investing much time only to get things working is worth in a job, but then who would like to use a product of this type in a business environment?
17 • su (by Gary W on 2021-01-18 09:15:47 GMT from Australia)
I open a terminal tab and 'su -' as soon as I boot. Use this for all my admin activities. Occasionally I will 'sudo' in another tab if the root tab is busy.
18 • init (by Jesse on 2021-01-18 11:13:08 GMT from Canada)
@15: "The initialization scripts used in CRUX follow the BSD-style (as opposed to the SysV-style). "
I'm not sure why you think that is an error. CRUX runs SysV init. Its init scripts are organized in a BSD-style. Slackware does something similar where its init follows a BSD-like style, but its init software is SysV init.
19 • Crux (by Dan on 2021-01-18 12:14:06 GMT from United States)
The only thing in distros like Crux, Gentoo, etc is bragging rights. There is probably nothing in advanced distros that isn't in the simple ones, except headaches.
20 • KAOS/GHOSTBSD. Distro in news (by kkshethin on 2021-01-18 12:30:53 GMT from India)
KAOS new ISO has weird fonts in menu and does not install. If installed by using pre-partition, view font problem still remains.
GHOSTBSD ISO has no installer. Does not boot in UEFI.
21 • Wiped Drive (by pfbruce1 on 2021-01-18 13:04:44 GMT from United States)
Many years ago I installed Slitaz which immediately wiped my hard drive.
I have not tried it since.
Thanks for the warning on Nutyx. I will add it to my avoid list.
pfb
22 • Poll Question (by Tired Frux on 2021-01-18 13:41:50 GMT from France)
Ahem, dear nix vets, the instructions are for newbs that may read this, NOT you. ;)
I love root accounts but rarely use them, just nice to know they are there if all else fails. So I 'su' (I voted 'su') from this custom Xfce Desktop launcher (right click and create first, then open later with a lite text editor like mousepad, paste this, you will need the appropriate icon themes installed for them to appear)...
Root Terminal (do not paste these comment section titles):
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Root Terminal
Comment=Run terminal emulator as root
Type=Application
Exec=x-terminal-emulator -e su -
Categories=System;TerminalEmulator;
Icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/32x32/apps/gksu-root-terminal.png
Path=
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false
For schizz and giggles, Thunar as root (same process as above to make it)
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Thunar As Root
Comment=Admin file manager
Exec=pkexec thunar %f /
Icon=folder-saved-search
Path=
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false
23 • administrative tasks (by Adondequiera on 2021-01-18 13:45:16 GMT from United States)
I use *su -* because that was the recommended way in Fedora Core 3, the first distribution I put much effort in. Distros that won't allow *su -* I work around by using *sudo su -*
24 • Crux (by Semiarticulate on 2021-01-18 15:05:41 GMT from United States)
I would very much like to use Crux. It seems akin to Slackware, without having to install the kitchen sink, which appeals to me. Being that it is manually configured is great, but the lack of documentation makes it an exercise in frustration. It's a shame.
25 • admin tasks (by Otis on 2021-01-18 15:38:55 GMT from United States)
I just go as super user when updating this Artix distro in terminal (daily). Sudo is there, but su lets me leave the terminal open for as long as I need with super user access as things come in and I look around at root/deep files for changes, etc.
26 • Newcomers in waiting list (by papavlos on 2021-01-18 16:13:16 GMT from Poland)
Another new distributions based on distributions... Such a waste of effort...
What are their key differences and not-yet-existing-anywhere features? An Arch derivative with Desktop Environment? The base Arch has all of them. Graphical installer? You have already a dozen of ready Arch derivatives with graphical installers and environments.
Someone has ambitions? Let him or her sign-in and enhance an existing distro. Or, a software package... Instead of a new just-a-bit-different distro, just to have one's name as The Chief Chef on the main page... Pity...
27 • Weekly Torrents section (by Herlock Sholmes on 2021-01-18 16:54:12 GMT from United States)
On your "Weekly Torrents" section, you list an SHA256 checksum for KDE Neon, however, the people that put out the KDE Neon iso themselves refuse to post any checksums, instead, unfortunately, restricting the user to verify their ISOs vio gpg.
So, where do these KDE Neon checksums come from on your "Weekly Torrents" section? Have they been verified to be legitimate?
Thanks
28 • "the new boss is the same as the old boss..." (by tom joad on 2021-01-18 16:55:21 GMT from Netherlands)
@26
Yeah, buddy. I been down that road. I was happy, too, distro hopping banging around trying this and that. And I found stuff I liked and a whole lotta stuff I quickly walked away from. I did MX for a while before it got white hot. And it is good but I moved on to Mint cinnamon and have settled down.
But what Papavlos stated is true. We need more totally new and interesting and useful here in linux land. Changing the spices in a pot of chili doesn't make a "new" chili. It might make better chili or really bad chili but in the end you still have chili.
I had hopes that LFS and BLFS would make inroads into new and interesting. Guess not, at least not yet I had hope there would be a big push into something like TAILS too. Online security is a big and growing issue these days. But not much shook out there either. And TAILS, sadly, is being developed at a glacial pace too.
Another area is MS software. I know, I know. But a lot of those games kick a**! I shopped for a new video card last week end. I can tell those MS games are driving the video card business CRAZY! I saw $1900.00 video card. Are you mad? Yes, and those bad boys are selling. Not to mention that a good number here run both systems for whatever reason, ie, MS and Liinux. Being able to run MS workware would be a help.
Yeah, its is time to shake out the cob webs. Maybe take some of the best we have, re-spin it and mix it with some NEW. Let's see what would shakes out...
That's my two cents for the week...
29 • checksums (by Jesse on 2021-01-18 17:02:40 GMT from Canada)
@27: "So, where do these KDE Neon checksums come from on your "Weekly Torrents" section? Have they been verified to be legitimate?"
The checksums we publish are the checksums of the ISO files we are seeding. This allows you to check them against your download to confirm the files were not corrupted during transfer.
30 • Admin tasks: pkexec (by David on 2021-01-18 17:33:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
I use PCLinuxOS, which doesn't use sudo. It does have menu entries (at least in the Xfce version) for running both the file manager and text editor as root. These use something which was new to me: pkexec. Unlike other tools, it launches just one application in root mode, and so reduces the chance of accidents.
31 • @28 tom joad: (by dragonmouth on 2021-01-18 17:45:26 GMT from United States)
"But what Papavlos stated is true."
Of course it is but the majority of the Linux community does not see it that way. The members would much rather see a balkanization into hundreds of mediocre distros with little to distinguish them from each other, than a few dozen well-developed, well-supported distros with innovative features. You've perhaps heard about the proposition that if you let an infinite number of monkeys bang away on an infinite number of typewriters, they will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. The currently prevailing idea in Linux is that if you let an infinite number of coders create infinite number of distros, eventually a superior distro will be created.
"I had hopes that LFS and BLFS would make inroads into new and interesting."
Ahh, but using LFS and BLFS to create a distro requires real work. Using the Chinese Menu or Erector Set approach currently in vogue is much easier and faster, although much less imaginative and/or creative.
Quality vs. quantity of distros is the same type of unresolvable argument as MS vs. Linux, AMD vs. Intel or ATI vs Nvidia. I think the most recent reiteration of this discussion on this forum was only 3 or 4 weeks ago.
32 • pv (by mandatory on 2021-01-18 17:47:20 GMT from United States)
Is it just me or does 'pv image.file > /dev/sdx' not work with sudo
33 • Admin tasks (by Cheker on 2021-01-18 18:02:16 GMT from Portugal)
I use a combination of doas and sudo to do maintenance on my GNU+Linux systems. I have doas setup to let me check and install updates without inputting password. It doesn't work with everything though, I'm guessing something's not 100% right regarding its privilege. But then, neither does sudo, sometimes I really have to bust out su, but this is usually if I'm modifying some kernel parameter and this obviously doesn't happen every day.
34 • NuTyX + CRUX (by ntj on 2021-01-18 18:08:38 GMT from Germany)
One reason I wouldn't use NuTyX is that they neither provide digital signatures nor checksums for their installation images. I have complained about this in the past, to no avail. If you ask me, that's just irresponsible. Users (newcomers and experts alike) should be provided with a way to verify any downloaded image before they use it. What's more, they should be told to always do that and they should be given useful instructions on how to do it. Finally, those instructions (or a link pointing to them) should be right on the download page.
If you can't do that, maybe don't waste your time publishing a Linux distribution (or any non-trivial piece of software in general, for that matter).
CRUX is slightly better in that repsect, at least providing MD5 sums to verify an image's integrity and telling people to do that. Still not good enough, though.
As with Slackware, running CRUX, for me, meant running half a source-based system, using their Ports System to compile things they don't offer as binary packages. This was time-consuming and made software management more cumbersome, in particular because CRUX's ports collection is a decentralized mess.
On the positive side, the maintainers of some CRUX port repositories sign their ports.
Also, CRUX does have a nice website, and their Handbook has the potential for being a really good resource. If only anyone really cared… The last time I sent them some fixes, they needed a year to get them in, missed some of what I had sent them and introduced at least one new error in the process.
It seems to me that a lot of independent open-source software projects are broken in similar ways. (NetBSD, anyone?) I have no idea what to do about that. Maybe lots of money would help.
35 • @32 sudo pv (by Marco on 2021-01-18 18:26:37 GMT from United States)
Do you want pv to run with elevated privileges or the entire statement?
If you are trying:
sudo pv image.file > /dev/sdx
could you try:
sudo bash -c 'pv image.file > /dev/sdx'
36 • @20 (by Jyrki on 2021-01-18 20:12:14 GMT from Czechia)
Yeah, this GhostBSD iso is not with installer. I tried XFCE version and it did even boot.
As for system admin, thanks to OpenBSD I got used to doas and I use it everwhere. But I don't understand why it got linuxized in Artix, where there is vidoas command that edit doas.conf file.
37 • Monkey business (by Friar Tux on 2021-01-18 20:13:28 GMT from Canada)
@31 (dragonmouth) My question, sir, would be, "Are those monkeys happy, and are the typewriters smoothly?" If that's the case, let them type away to their hearts' content. The same goes for Linux devs. If they're happy pumping out distros in whatever state, then, by all means, let them. I thought the Linux ideology was to take the free code, modify it to your heart's content and share it back into the hive. At least, that's what I keep hearing. I think all this complaining is like everyone complaining about all the coffee shops selling the same old coffee made from coffee beans. No one is selling coffee that's different (not coffee?).
38 • init (by Luca on 2021-01-18 20:48:50 GMT from Switzerland)
@18 It's depends:
« @15: "The initialization scripts used in CRUX follow the BSD-style (as opposed to the SysV-style). "
I'm not sure why you think that is an error. CRUX runs SysV init. Its init scripts are organized in a BSD-style. Slackware does something similar where its init follows a BSD-like style, but its init software is SysV init. »
"Slackware Linux uses the BSD-style file layout for its system initialization files." [http://www.slackware.com/config/init.php]
Slackware uses BSD-style and has System V Compatibility:
Since version 7.0, Slackware includes System V init compatibility. Many other Linux distributions make use of this style instead of the BSD style. Basically each runlevel is given a subdirectory for init scripts, whereas BSD style gives one init script to each runlevel.
The rc.sysvinit script will search for any System V init scripts you have in /etc/rc.d and run them, if the runlevel is appropriate. This is useful for certain commercial software packages that install System V init scripts and scripts for BSD style init.
39 • KDE Neon checksums (from Neon website) (by Daniel on 2021-01-18 20:52:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
@27 The 'people who put out KDE Neon' do post SHA256 checksums. For example you can find those for the current User iso at https://files.kde.org/neon/images/user/20210114-0946/
40 • init (by Jesse on 2021-01-18 21:24:14 GMT from Canada)
@38: "Slackware uses BSD-style and has System V Compatibility:"
This may seem like a splitting of hairs, but I'd like to make a correction here. Slackware runs SysV init. It doesn't have System V Compatibility, it is literally running the SysV init software. Slackware's -current branch includes SysV init 2.98, to be specific.
The configuration files SysV init uses on Slackware are arranged in a BSD-like style. Slackware doesn't use the BSD init software. That's a common misconception because of the way the Slackware documentation is worded.
SysV init is very small and flexible and will run just about anything you throw at it in any configuration which is why Debian's old SysV configuration, Fedora's and Slackware's could be so different all while using the same underlying init program.
41 • Salient OS (by Mike on 2021-01-18 22:05:05 GMT from United States)
I see that Salient OS has been added to the waiting list. I've been using it daily for a couple of months now and it's a good solid distro. Now, there is certainly no lack of decent Arch based distros available, but Salient is as good as any and better than many with a rich menu of programs and great support for gaming with Lutris and Steam, and now with Wine 6.0 released, it's even better. Timeshift with timeshift-autosnap installed works great also. It's well worth running a live USB to check it out.
42 • High Risk Admin (by Dr. Dave on 2021-01-18 22:32:37 GMT from United States)
I only use gksu!!
43 • @41 (by Jyrki on 2021-01-18 22:40:42 GMT from Czechia)
is it systemd distro? If yes, it's not go for me. I am very happy with Artix, but it would be nice to have more systemd arch-based options.
44 • @37 (&31) (by Simon on 2021-01-18 22:41:17 GMT from New Zealand)
I like the coffee analogy there. I couldn't agree more that change is not progress. The reason people don't insist that every new cafe serves up some new-tasting beverage as "coffee" is that they can actually tell when a drink is no longer coffee and so you can't profit from their ignorance by passing off the latest cup of brown goo as "new improved" coffee. Unfortunately, the reason so many users do insist that GNU/Linux distributions keep "innovating" in stupid ways is that they're largely ex-Windows users and so they actually have no idea what the principles of a UNIX-like operating system are or how a UNIX-like OS is meant to taste, so have no idea when they're swallowing the brown goo instead. On the whole, the more a distro changes things to work like a proprietary OS, the more they praise this as "improvement".
Dumbed down by the likes of Apple marketing campaigns, they've got it into their heads that they're missing out if they're running "yesterday's" software...no matter that it actually becomes more and more bug-free and refined in other ways the less it changes, they desperately need to see change ("oo look, the panel's over here now...oo, something popped up automatically over here...wow, clearly folks have been working on this stuff!") or they feel like they're missing out on something.
Give me a good coffee, made by a trained barista who's spent time coming to know and understand the tradition before attempting to "innovate" it. Keep your marketing-driven cup of mud spat out by some glittering million-dollar coffee machine with all its empty Steve-Jobs-inspired "25% more flavour than last year's coffee!" drivel.
45 • Crux - lazy review (by Gerard Lally on 2021-01-19 00:41:46 GMT from Ireland)
Disappointing that you didn't bother to prepare properly for a full Crux review, considering there aren't many reviews out there.
46 • Arch Spins (by Mark on 2021-01-19 01:03:32 GMT from Canada)
Lots of new Arch linux flavors. Still waiting for one with a package manager that forgives my infrequent updates. If I wait too long, pacman/pamac stalls in a dependency mess (all or nothing upgrades).
Debian's Synaptic lets me update selectively, when needed. If it warns of trouble for a big update, I will make smaller update package selections, where there are no warnings. After a few iterations of this, everything is updated without problems.
47 • @46 Arch vs Debian updates (by Hoos on 2021-01-19 07:30:28 GMT from Singapore)
Seems rather unreasonable to compare a fast rolling distro like Arch with a fixed release distro like Debian with 5 year support.
The latter is on the same base and core packages/libraries for 5 years, so of course you can selectively update a few packages only, since everything, including updates, remains on the same base.
The former rolls everything, including base and core elements, all the time. If you update infrequently, the amount of changes that have taken place in the meanwhile is huge and you may have to work a little to resolve any conflicts. And obviously updating only selected packages will cause issues longterm in a rolling distro since everything is rolling and depending on everything else to be moving forward at the same rate.
The plus side to this is having the latest packages all the time.
Users should choose a distro that fits their preferences.
A middle-ground would be more gently rolling distros like Solus or PCLinuxOS. From my experience, they update user-facing apps actively while holding back changes to base/core for some time, until a substantial portion of the base/core changes have settled. Then there is one big update to bring everything up to date.
PCLinuxOS even uses Synaptic.
48 • su or sudo (by bigblack on 2021-01-19 09:15:03 GMT from United States)
I use both, for those tasks often performed I have passwordless sudo commands, and for everything else su.
49 • @45 (by Andy Prough on 2021-01-19 17:16:54 GMT from United States)
> Disappointing that you didn't bother to prepare properly for a full Crux review, considering there aren't many reviews out there.
What would you have him do? He read the documentation and changelogs. If there's no accurately documented way to successfully install a boot loader then the review should reflect that, which it did.
50 • Crux review (by Otis on 2021-01-19 17:22:23 GMT from United States)
@45 @49 yes all I could find aside from docs and changelogs on Crux are other reviews.
51 • @42 gksu (by Frying Trux on 2021-01-19 17:22:39 GMT from Germany)
It's getting deprecated, slowly but surely, I run a testing level Debian based distro, see @22.
@ Phil J. Fry Tux, I am just pandemic insane and goofy, nothing personal. :)
52 • More CRUX reviews (by barnabyh on 2021-01-19 21:06:10 GMT from Ireland)
There are a few more that are not linked on DW currently. You may not know these yet. They are old though, Crux 2.7 and 2.8.
https://agentoss.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/a-fast-and-lightweight-linux-desktop-with-crux-linux-2-7-i686/
https://all-things-linux.blogspot.com/2012/12/crux-inspiration-behind-arch-linux.html
53 • @52 (by Cynic on 2021-01-20 04:17:01 GMT from Ghana)
Also a good review of Crux! I like the comparison to Slackware/SlackBuilds as it's what I'm more familiar with. Crux and Slack certainly have some similarities but it seems; just as many differences.
Is there a way to contact you via the blog to respond/comment/suggest an article?
54 • Response to Cynic, 53 (by barnabyh on 2021-01-20 13:36:28 GMT from Sweden)
Thank you Cynic. You're certainly right about Slackware and Crux. I stopped posting contact details due to time constraints. Some posts have the ability to comment enabled but it's all moderated as most of what I'm getting there is spam and I often don't check these for weeks so it may seem like the comment wasn't posted.
I am linking an address above. You and anybody else here is welcome to write to me and save it as it will still be in use for a while, meaning probably at least for another year. But articles are quite infrequent now.
55 • display management and distro partitions gone wild (by jay on 2021-01-22 04:30:30 GMT from United States)
I'd like to say it'd be nice if a display manager supported many distros of the same family, instead of simply many window managers. I dont see why this cant happen or be made to happen. So like, say if lightdm supported an array of *distro-wm combos* say, Debian PPA supporting downstream: MX-KDE/fluxbox/LXDE, Ubuntu/Gnome/Budgie, Linux Mint-Mate,Cinnamon,xfce, LMDE,Xubuntu, etc and upon login you can choose among them *as long as filesystem* is same, i.e. ext4 not brtfs/zfs and encryption/volume issues are supported. Similarly, all the arch's under one display manager, all the Gentoo family, etc. Right now one chooses a WM (1 choice), why not give two choices per entry? i think the harddisk can collapse many commonalities. where they differ, distro-specific encryption and symlinks can cleverly hide the sub-filesystems from other distros . any thoughts?
56 • packages (by jay on 2021-01-22 05:04:19 GMT from United States)
another thought , linux-firmware package is utterly huge, over 100 MB already. can it be split into a few pieces? not everyone has high speed net.
Number of Comments: 56
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| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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 | 
Source Mage GNU/Linux
Sourcemage is a source-based GNU/Linux distribution based on a Sorcery metaphor of 'casting' and 'dispelling' programs, which we refer to as 'spells'.
Status: Dormant
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| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Questions and answers: Examining RAM consumption, support for older processors |
| Tips and tricks: Dealing with low-memory performance |
| Questions and answers: An update in the Secure Boot saga |
| Tips and tricks: OpenSSH, pipes and file transfers |
| Tips and tricks: Play nicely, drop secure shell sessions cleanly, check init's name |
| Tips and tricks: Making snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD |
| Tips and tricks: Find common words in text, find high memory processs, cd short-cuts, pushd & popd, record desktop |
| Questions and answers: The status of GNU's Hurd kernel |
| Questions and answers: ARM devices, tablets and Linux distributions |
| Tips and tricks: Reverting to older kernel under Ubuntu |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
| 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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