16

November
2017

Slax 9 has been released

I am happy to announce that after a month of development, the next generation Slax Linux has been released. Proper release announcement will follow in few hours, I'm kinda busy at the moment :)

User comments
Martin B. 2017-11-16 12:12

Downloaded! Will try at home. Thank you so much for new version!

Manlio Bovecchi 2017-11-16 12:14

Based on Debian... Stable? Testing? Sid?

naEX 2017-11-16 12:34

so fast... so damn fast! :D in default settings it is ideal as browser linux distro :P only IPXE version cant get to work with VirtualBox stuck on (Live Kit done, starting Slax... error loading shared libraries...)
please update distrowatch.com :)

Aritra Hazra 2017-11-16 13:32

Tried to change resolution from 800x600 to 1024x768 from GUI, viewport still remains 800x600 (cornered at top left).
Changing it from
# xrandr --output <OUTPUT> --mode 1024x768
works as expected

lucbertz 2017-11-16 13:38

At now it is more a kiosk distro than a desktop distro.
I hope a more complete version will be released, at least with the possibility to build modules from debian packages.
Anyway you've done a really pleasant work.

Rodrigo Régio de Araujo 2017-11-16 13:42

I want to report a trouble with the new Slax, with me it didn't read the slax folder, and ask to reboot.
I was using the older version normaly on same external hard drive. The first slax logo appears but after choose the run slax it stops.

Sorry about my english and GO SLAX!

Alexandru-Ionut Chiuta 2017-11-16 14:17

Testing the brand new Slax from DVD on various computers. Amazing speed and very functional, even with a limited number of software included by default!

As a suggestion, some bookmarks with links to relevant web apps in various categories may be useful if included by default in the web browser start-page or bookmarks toolbar.

Also, I noticed that the internet works only by cable, the Wi-Fi is not detected and it seems that there is no applet included to manage wireless connections (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc).

Enjoying SLAX and wishing you all the best!

jcsoh 2017-11-16 14:25

How come no one ask the most obvious question?

Whatever happened to Slax 8!

Paljo Sampor 2017-11-16 14:31

no wifi :(
looks ok.
waiting for additional sotware to test it on old mashines.

nice work

LJX 7000 2017-11-16 14:45

no wifi, no nothing setup stuff??? wtf??? shouldn it be called debx now??? remove the slax name please.

Tomas M 2017-11-16 15:04

Wifi is not fully supported yet, I don't have much devices here to test. But you should be able to get it working the same way as like in Debian, so try installing some packages with apt. And feel free to report which packages were needed for you to make it work :)

Regarding Slax name, well, several people already suggested that it should be renamed. I don't care, really.

Slax 8 was never released, the number skipped :) I do not plan any own versioning, Slax will keep the version number of the base distro (this time, Debian 9.2.1)

LJX 7000 2017-11-16 15:17

Ok, sorry for a-hole message earlier. Works fine, only thing that makes my beaten up laptop (broken keyboard) boot is slax. I hope that the oss thing is now easy to remove, slax 7 sounds dont work in browser beacuse of oss output driver or something like that. mp3 files play ok vith smplayer, because there is a setting that allows u to change output driver from oss to alsa.. or something like that.

luko 2017-11-16 16:42

Hi Tomas, at the first good work, thx. i feel simpilicity from new slax! i understand that you want keep 210MB mini cd format.

what about modules ? are there any plan for add basic gui script to cd for build modules? nothing for hard thinking like gcc, or make,but only only something like 'dir2sb', and there is gtk-dialog app http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/language/gtkdialog/gtkde02-GtkdialogExamples/single/

and second there is very nice app its web launcher ICE Launcher its SSB laucnher its cooperate with Chromium browser! how it works? its gui app with this app you can automaticaly create symlinks to web url pages and save it as *.desktop. this app can obtain a icon from web page, this would be nice for XLAUNCH something like support for add web shortcuts for people who have and only use internet not real apps. :D

https://peppermintos.com/2010/07/peppermint-ice-faster-lighter-aiming-for-the-clouds/

https://launchpad.net/~peppermintos/+archive/ubuntu/release/+packages

https://launchpad.net/~peppermintos/+archive/ubuntu/release/+files/ice_5.0.1.tar.gz



greeeatings from slovakia, by luko

Rodrigo Régio de Araujo 2017-11-16 19:22

I tried again with the 64 and 32 bits and i had the same trouble with it. Anyone can help me? I am having trouble on readding the slax data (/slax). Thanks for all help and good job for all involved.

Alexandru-Ionut Chiuta 2017-11-16 20:38

<a href="https://linuxpanda.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/things-to-do-after-installing-debian-stretch/">Things to do after installing with persistence the new Slax based on Debian 9.2.1 “Stretch”</a>, using a cable internet connection and the Terminal:

1. Update the Source List by adding add “contrib” & “non-free” repositories near your location

2. Install the Package Manager and related tools (synaptic package manager, apt-xapian-index, gdebi, gksu) & use them to find and install Applications

3. Install the Firmware Package

4. Install WiFi drivers & GUI to manage network connections & Install the Firewall

5. Install display drivers for your Graphic Card

6. Install Extra Fonts

7. Install Multimedia codecs & Extra Multimedia codecs

I plan to test all these in the next few days, hope it will work well :)

Jan Med 2017-11-17 12:29

Hi Tomas M
I have problem to start slax from flash disk with NTFS file system. I'm not a IT or Linux professional. But I think the problem is somewhere in live kit which doesn't mount NTFS file systems. So that is why live kit didn't found data.

Robert Wolter 2017-11-18 19:03

Hello Tomas,

I like small Linux distros so I tried slax-64bit-9.2.1.iso

I followed the instructions to make a usb stick bootable and booted it. But at the boot promt an error message occurred:
"failed to load com32 file /slax/boot/vesamenu.c32"

It turned out that this file was outdated, so I replaced it and three others as well.
I "borrowed" them from Antergos' /usr/lib/syslinux/bios:
vesamenu.c32
libcom32.c32
menu.c32
libutil.c32
and copied them to /slax/boot

After this changes the stick booted well.

Cheers, Robert

Tomas M 2017-11-18 19:36

Hi Robert, thank you very much for information. Can you confirm that after you copy replace back the original vesamenu and other c32 files (as provided in Slax), it again refuses to boot? I would like to be sure that it is really caused by these files. Also, slax never used libutil.c32, libcom32.c32, etc, ... you sure those are needed? Thank you

Robert Wolter 2017-11-18 21:35

Hello Tomas,
I will check this tomorrow. I just took the info from here:
http://www.ajopaul.com/2014/10/21/linux-usb-boot-disk-error-failed-to-load-com32-file-menu-c32/
Cheers, Robert

Robert Wolter 2017-11-19 15:44

Hello Tomas,

I just verified that all 4 files are needed to enable the boot process.

If I excluded libutil.c32, an additional error message occurred:
unable to load libutil.c32

If i excluded libcom32.c32, another error message occurred:
unable to load libcom32.c32

Only if I copied all 4 files from Antergos to the/slax/boot directory, the stick booted without problems.

Cheers, Robert

daryl kuchay 2017-11-19 17:43

Its great that you revived this project and again with attention to size and low hardware requirements. That being said I have 586 hardware that is not capable of booting a pae kernel. Is there a 586-kernel.sb that I could swap out on the usb stick?

Pavel Bohmat 2017-11-19 19:31

Need slax buildscript deb2sb & dir2sb and add in menu F2 mc work with modules (unpack, create).

Howto update 04-chromium.sb to 62.0.3202.89? man?

Pavel Bohmat 2017-11-20 02:41

Remove your extensions from the module 04-chromium.sb!!!

Tomas M 2017-11-20 05:15

@Robert, what I wanted to do is if you now put the old vesamenu.c32 from current Slax release to your USB disk, and remove the other .c32 files, does it still boot, or not? Thank you

ワイル 明 2017-11-20 07:01

Thank you so much for new version!

Robert Wolter 2017-11-20 19:50

Hello Tomas,
No, it doesn't boot with the old vesamenu.c32 alone. It only works with the method I described. Strange enough, I get different error messages when installing the boot stick on Ubuntu 16.04, Fedora 26 and Debian 9.
Can't you just create a bootable ISO? It would things much easier.
Cheers, Robert

Tomas M 2017-11-24 17:19

ISO is already bootable. You mean to create isohybrid ISO which can be put on USB stick using dd ? I think that does make the USB disk read-only, so makes no sense to me.

lucbertz 2017-11-24 19:17

A solution could be to:
- make a bootable USB drive with external tools or other distro (also using GRUB2 instead of syslinux);
- copy slax files in this USB drive;
- configure the boot loader.

There are more urgent problems to me, like preinstalled firmware packages and NTFS and ext4 boot support.

jhezzy 2017-11-25 13:09

Thank You Tomas! Slax is Back! Currently downloading....

José Manuel Andrade Pereira 2017-12-10 19:28

My God, what a disaster ... this new version is simpler than the previous one, which has happened here, everything has been removed!

where is the file manager?

Dylan van den Bosch 2018-01-29 12:01

Do dig slax, and wi-fi connection just worked out of the box for me, but I see the GUI Software Console is now gone.

Would love to use slax for OTG web-development, so does someone know: How might I install VSCode and NodeJs on slax?