03

January
2013

Slax 7.0.3 with PXE support released

A new version of Slax Linux is available for download. This release adds several new features and fixes few bugs as well. Probably the most interesting feature is PXE boot support and improved X autodetection.

PXE feature description:

All modern computers nowadays support PXE, which allows booting of an operating system over network interface independently of data storage devices (like hard disks). Slax fully supports PXE booting now. How to do that? One computer will act as a server, so just boot Slax on it from CD or USB and make sure to have the appropriate boot menu option "Act as PXE server" checked. Slax on the server computer will provide DHCP, TFTP and HTTP services to enable PXE booting for other computers in your network. Now turn on all the other computers (clients) and make sure to select PXE boot in BIOS boot menu of all these computers. All the clients will autodiscover Slax PXE server and will load all needed data from it. Slax will start on all clients over network.

Raw changelog for Slax 7.0.3 follows:

  • - added PDF file with Slax documentation
  • - added PXE server and client support
  • - added dnsmasq, added httpd support to busybox
  • - improved X autodetection by calling X -configure if default configuration fails
  • - added xev, a tool to list code of pressed key, so user can easily remap it with xmodmap
  • - bashrc file has been fixed to properly show current directory on command prompt
  • - fixed cleanup of 'slax' script (remove temporary files from /tmp using trap)
  • - fixed buildscipt checks to allow required bundles with + and _ characters in name
  • - fixed deb2sb (and deb2txz) script to support lzma-compressed DEB packages
  • - run kbuildsycoca4 on module activation to update KDE menu
  • - include mc.sh in bashrc so mc remembers last directory
  • Big thanks to Manfred M. (http://www.fluxflux.net/) for suggestions!
  • Enjoy the new Slax release, and feel free to submit your comments.

    User comments
    Radim 2013-01-03 00:59

    Downloading now! Eager to test PXE in school class room

    Daniel Janko 2013-01-03 01:26

    Dobrý den,
    Jsem linuxový amatér, mé začátky a jediné zkušenosti jsou s Mandrivou (4 roky). Ta žel zkolabovala a její odnož Mageia mi dělala problémy.
    Velmi se mi líbí SLAX jako takový, že je opravdu jednoduchý a funkční.
    Z CD se mi to podařilo bezproblémově nabootovat a vše běželo. Jen wifi se mi nepodařilo rozběhnout, přes kabel již nebyl problém.
    A tak mám dotazy :
    1 - Je někde či bude fórum pro SLAX v češtině ?
    2 - Rád bych SLAX provozoval na svém starším NB > jak instalovat na HDD ?
    3 - je někde návod jak zprovoznit wifi ?
    4 - Jestli jsem dobře pochopil tak "repozitář" je v plánu a brzké době se objeví větší množství programů (balíčků) aby systém byl ucelenější a komplexnější ?

    Děkuji za odpověď.

    lukas 2013-01-03 03:00

    Daniel:Me pro wifi stacilo pridat soubor kernel-firmware.sb do /slax/modules (muzes stahnout tady: http://www.slax.org/cs/modules.php?category=drivers ). Jestli si toto udelal a nepomohl, tak sry.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 03:47

    I suppose the PXE is built into the Linux live kit now if we use it to create our own distro?

    Tomas M 2013-01-03 04:48

    Yes it is (the client side, not the server side). I've just pushed out a new tag v1.7 for Linux Live kit. Yet remember that by default there are no network drivers packed inside the default initramfs, so your livekit-based distro will be missing drivers for network card. In Slax, there is /sbin/pxe script which just creates a new initramfs by reusing files from /mnt/live and by using kernel modules for ethernet cards from /lib/modules/ ... so it will send over network a different initramfs image (full of network drivers) than the initial one Slax booted with.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 05:30

    Hmmm so then how do we make a server side distro with linux live kit like we used to with the old linux live scripts? If I understand you correctly, the linux live kit distros are not the same as slax distros?

    Also in

    http://ftp.slax.org/Slax-7.x-development/sources/Slax-7.0-sources/kernel/

    I've noticed you've removed the aufs patches?

    aufs3-kbuild.patch
    aufs3-base.patch
    aufs3-proc_map.patch
    aufs3-standalone.patch
    aufs.dirty-fix.patch

    Are the not needed anymore? Or are they all available from git? I was concerned that the aufs.dirty-fix.patch was not available from git.

    sedrata 2013-01-03 05:32

    how i can install wine

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 05:54

    I have poked around the rc scripts and /sbin/pxe. The linux live kit distro only needs the /sbin/pxe to enable it to act as a server?

    Also you used gz to build the initrfs.img with /sbin/pxe but you used xz in the live kit previously. Any reason for the change?

    jcsoh 2013-01-03 06:00

    @ sedrata
    On wine (32 bits / 64bits) in slax 7
    http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=83631

    Tomas M 2013-01-03 06:10

    Regarding kernel sources, everything related to aufs / squashfs is in the additions.tar.gz archive, which can be found at FTP at the same directory like the kernel sources. AUFS dirty patch was provided by Junjiro Okajima (aufs author) for Slax 7 release before he fixed a bug in official aufs release. It is no longer needed now since the bugfix has been ported to official aufs.

    Regarding PXE functionality, yes /sbin/pxe is the script you need to run on any livekit-based distro to turn it into a PXE server. I will explain the idea how it works in a blog post.

    dirka 2013-01-03 06:14

    How is it with wifi support?

    I've tried 7.0.2 on two different laptops with different cards (3 & 5 years old) and in both cases slax failed to recognize wifi. It worked out of box with similar sized live distro porteus. I'm finding this quite a fail for live distro :/ ... is there some more info on what to do with wifi, ideally how this would work out-of-box for in advance unknown hw?

    thanks & cheers

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 06:22

    On Slax 7.0.3, I compiled b43-cutter to extract the b43 firmware from the broadcom driver and I created a slax bundle for this b43 firmware.

    If I activate the module and I do:

    rmmod b43; modprobe b43

    slax crashes with the error "Fixing recursive fault but reboot required".

    If I boot up with the sb in the modules directory, the wireless is detected with no crash.

    Very curious behaviour. Just to note, when I did the same thing on Slax 7.0.0 there was no issues when I do modprobe b43. I wonder if there is anything with the 3.6.11 kernel that is causing this?

    Tomas M 2013-01-03 06:29

    If I remember correctly I had some discussion with Manfred (Quax) regarding broadcom drivers and the conclusion was that if certain modules are present by default in Slax then it makes some troubles. I don't fully remember the details but I think it is this case - Slax 7.0 doesn't have the broadcom driver for SoftMac, while Slax 7.0.3 has, including some related kernel settings which had to be checked in order to even see the SoftMac entry. Maybe this is somehow related.

    Mark, I noticed you're maintaining your own repository for Slax Bundles. Is there any chance you could share your work with others by uploading buildscripts to Slax repository? Thank you

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 06:29

    @Dirka, it depends on the card you have.

    For slax, the drivers are there, but the firmware is missing. A lot of the cards require proprietary firmware that while free to use, cannot be distributed. You have to install the firmware later.

    So far I have used a variety of cards, intel, broadcom, realtek, atheros, etc and even my super old Cisco Aironet and Orinoco silver/gold PCMCIA wireless cards work fine. The broadcomm and intel cards required firmware, but the drivers were present in slax. You can get the slax bundles for the firmware using another machine and include it into your the slax/modules folder in the usb stick so they are present at the next boot up.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 06:35

    @Tomas, I recompiled my kernel 3.6.9 with the softmac driver and also had the b43 drivers and there was no problems like these crashes so I'm not so sure the analysis of the problem is correct.

    I have no problems sharing my work, but I didn't make any buildscripts for my slax bundles, I just compiled, makepkg and txz2sb. If there were any compilation problems, I fixed them on the spot. Others I just downloaded the txz packages from packages.slackware.com and txz2sb.

    I'm actually running around quite a bit with multiple projects on hand (work has started again after my long Dec holidays), so I don't have the time to create nice buildscripts for the stuff I did, but when I have the time I will sit down and try to complete the buildscripts for all the packages, but I don't know when that will be. Even the last few days I've hardly had time to even log into slax.org to check out whats happening.

    My apologies in advanced if I am unable to get the buildscripts out quickly.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 06:45

    When I have some time I'll look at the broadcom issue in more detail and see if I can fix it. Now all together I am looking at:

    1) bootsplash for slax 7
    (the patches from http://www.uli-eckhardt.de/bootsplash/index.en.shtml work with minimal tweaking and I can include the bootsplash images and conf in the initrfs.img, but once KMS is activated, the bootsplash images are wiped out. Setting kernel parameter "nomodset" fixes this, but some machines can't configure X correctly and get the wrong resolution without KMS)

    2) using back initrd.gz instead of initrfs.img for slax 7
    (easier to use bootsplash with initrd.gz - so far my attempts to use initrd.gz instead of initrfs.img always lead to slax kernel panic)

    3) broadcomm crash issue when module is called on the fly with firmware present
    (issues described above)

    Martin 2013-01-03 06:56

    @ Daniel
    There isn't any czech forum and it probably never will. In the forum of the old Slax there was a rule, that every comment must be in english, so everyone understands and everyone could help you. I think we sould keep this rule and respect the non-czech users.
    Installation on HDD should be the same as on USB keyring, at least if you are going to install it as the only system on your ntb - download the zipped Slax, unzip it to your HDD, run the bootinst.* script and restart.

    Manfred 2013-01-03 07:02

    @Tomas:

    > If I remember correctly I had some discussion with Manfred (Quax)
    > regarding broadcom drivers

    No, we discussed usb-uas, Realtek and ene_usb cardreader needed to
    boot Slax7 v7.0 on an Acer AO751h from the internal cardreader and the
    kernel oopses when those drivers are compiled into the kernel.

    This night I've tested the Realtek cardreader driver compiled into the
    3.6.11 kernel from Slax7 v7.0.2 and there are no more kernel oopses.

    I will test few days more and post the results.

    @Mark/Broadcom:

    I am using the free but proprietary Brodcom-STA driver with FluxFlux.

    Manfred

    Tomas M 2013-01-03 07:15

    Ah, I see, so I remembered incorrectly, sorry for the confusion and thank you for clarification :)

    dirka 2013-01-03 07:34

    Mark, thanks but I still don't get what should I do - also I don't see any wifi modules on the site.

    In particular I have laptops with Intel 5100 AGN and BCM 4322 - can you tell me how to make those work?

    Ideally Tomas or someone could prepare how-to descibing this, how to make this work for various card (still don't understand, why it could not be included out-of-box when porteus does).

    thanks guys

    Mufeed Ali 2013-01-03 07:37

    @Tomas M:
    Slax Software Center Removed?
    Why is that so?

    Prcek 2013-01-03 08:17

    dirka: Download the module kernel-firmware from this site (section Modules) and put it in the /slax/modules directory. When Slax boots, it activates the modules in that directory and your wifi should work.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 08:37

    @Dirka

    The intel card and the bcm4322 need firmware. The new slax seems to have all the necessary firmware required for the 5100 and the softmac bcm43XX. Actually the softmac drivers for the bcm card were already in for version 7.0.2.

    As to why Porteus includes them and Slax does not, I can't answer. In terms of distribution, its legally correct not to distribute the firmware with the distro. If other distros breach this fact, its at their own legal risk. As users we may not see the risk, we only see the inconvenience, but the distro creator bears the legal risk if the chipset company decides to take action.

    dirka 2013-01-03 09:35

    Mark and Prcek, thanks.

    It works with Intel now after getting kernel-firmware, doesn't with broadcom despite module was loaded correctly (no wlan interface).

    Cloud 2013-01-03 12:11

    I also confirm the same issue with my BCM4322 card. Same steps with same results as dirka.

    Slaxeee 2013-01-03 18:24

    I've tried a fresh install of 7.03 486 32bits.

    I encounter a strange phenomenon after KDE loading.
    Turning Gear keeps a back screen during almost 30s, then desktop appears and every thing seems running fine.

    I noticed nothing special in var/log/messages except that :
    slax kernel: usb 2-1: reset high-speed USB device

    Does anyone encounter that ?
    Is there a way to easy debug KDE at starting point ?

    7.01 runs ok.

    Maybe the way Xorg hardware detection is newly implemented could explain that too.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-03 20:51

    @Dirka, Cloud

    I assume the module that was loaded was the b43 driver kernel module.

    Can you guys get the b43 firmware module from here:

    http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/b43firmware.sb

    Put it into your slax/modules directory and reboot and see if the broadcom BCM4322 comes up?

    hello 2013-01-03 21:08

    Can you start focusing on module?

    Tomas M 2013-01-03 21:42

    @Mufeed Ali: software center is not removed. Why do you think so?

    Mufeed Ali 2013-01-03 22:16

    @Tomas M: It's not on the desktop! I tried in KDE menu too.

    Matt 2013-01-03 22:23

    How can I update to this latest version without reinstalling?

    Tomas M 2013-01-03 22:37

    @Mufeed Ali: what version and language of Slax are you using?
    @Matt: I initially thought that I will be able to make a diffbundles which let you upgrade to the newest version easily, but I discovered it is a lot of extra work for me, so it is not possible at the moment (yet)

    jcsoh 2013-01-03 22:46

    @Mufeed Ali: software center is not removed. Why do you think so?
    @Tomas M: It's not on the desktop! I tried in KDE menu too.

    Is there a text file where the software centre icon used to be. While testing modules on numerous ocasions, slax 7 icon (software centre & the documentation icons on n the Desktop & the Terminal/Console icon on the bottom task bar) will turn into text file .

    Then I have to go back and test modules one by one to find out which one is the cause.

    Mufeed Ali 2013-01-03 23:17

    @Tomas M: Slax 7.0.3 English(US)

    Shantanu Gadgil 2013-01-03 23:55

    Is it possible to server Slax 7.0.3+ over PXE using an *existing* PXE server?

    If yes, what parameters would be required on the boot command-line?

    I already have a dnsmasq+apache setup which can server the modules once the kernel+initrfs are sent using TFTP.

    Regards,
    Shantanu Gadgil

    Tomas M 2013-01-04 00:17

    Yes it is possible to use existing PXE server, I've just updated the other blog post. Please try and report your result. Thank you

    http://www.slax.org/en/blog/20662-How-PXE-boot-works-in-Slax.html

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 01:08

    @Matt,

    Plug your usb stick into your windows or linux machine.

    1) copy out your slax/rootcopy and slax/modules directory from the usb to some place safe

    2) delete the slax/ folder from the usb

    3) unzip the contents of the slax 7.0.3 zip file you downloaded into the usb - you will have a new slax/ directory in the usb

    4) move your rootcopy and modules folders back into the new slax directory of the usb

    5) this may not be necessary, but you can run slax/boot/bootinst.bat (or slax/boot/bootinst.sh) again.

    Of course you can just unzip the slax 7.0.3 zip file you downloaded into the usb and let it overwrite the necessary files which will leave all your modules and rootcopy stuff untouched, just don't format the usb. If you want to format the usb, then follow the steps above.

    Liquid Snake 2013-01-04 02:24

    Tomas, I just overrited version 7.0.1 with 7.0.3. When I do not press any key in boot, the system starts to boot, but fails at loading modules. It says: "incorrect parameters".

    When I press any key, for the menu to open, and press [ENTER], boot goes correctly and everything works fine. What might be wrong?

    I had changed the syslinux.cfg and thought it was my mistake. So, I put the original syslinux.cfg again and the problem persists. That means that my changes to syslinux.cfg were not the cause.

    Slaxeee 2013-01-04 02:35

    @Liquid Snake
    Did you run bootinst again ?

    Liquid Snake 2013-01-04 02:49

    Sorry, gice. It was something wrong in changes.dat. Slax does not have any bug here. Sorry. I solved it deleting changes.dat.

    One good new is that Tomas fixed the bootinst,bat, which was not working in the own Slax.

    Slaxeee 2013-01-04 03:06

    I'm coming back with my first post ( KDE slow startup ).

    It seems my SD Card reader and/or SDCard is the cause.
    I have to investigate much more to confirm, using another one.
    Running from a hard stick is better.

    Slaxeee 2013-01-04 03:07

    It's a bit curious because i've tried Porteus on this SDCard and works like a charm ( but with TDE not KDE4 )

    dirka 2013-01-04 05:48

    Mark, yes, it is b43 driver ... I've tried with your package and it's better now, but doesn't work, yet - card is recognized and fw loaded

    b43-phy0: Broadcom 4322 WLAN found (core revision 16)
    Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
    Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
    Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
    b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)

    and wlan0 exists

    wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 00:21:00:63:ed:0c txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)

    but it does not connect, I guess it should have also running flag like - <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> any idea?

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 07:29

    @Dirka

    Most curious. My 4312 starts up like yours and connects without issue.

    Are you able to list available SSIDs?

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 07:43

    @Dirka,

    Confirmed, no "RUNNING" flag at all:

    --------------
    root@slax:~# dmesg |grep b43
    b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
    Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
    Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
    Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
    b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)

    root@slax:~# ifconfig wlan0
    wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 00:21:00:3c:5e:9e txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
    RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
    RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
    TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
    TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
    --------------

    I can see available SSIDs using the network tool widget and connect to them without problem. After connecting:

    root@slax:~# ifconfig wlan0
    wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    inet 192.168.1.50 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
    inet6 fe80::221:ff:fe2b:4f5a prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
    ether 00:21:00:2b:4f:5a txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
    RX packets 3245 bytes 3218302 (3.0 MiB)
    RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
    TX packets 2499 bytes 403597 (394.1 KiB)
    TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

    root@slax:~# uname -a
    Linux slax 3.6.11 #1 SMP Fri Dec 21 22:57:14 AKST 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5750 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
    root@slax:~# more /etc/slax-version
    Slax 7.0.3 64bit
    root@slax:~# more /etc/slackware-version
    Slackware 14.0

    Might want to check your wireless AP/router's settings.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 07:45

    Forgot to mention, you need to be connected before the "RUNNING" flag comes up. As in associated to the AP and obtained an IP address from the DHCP server.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 08:08

    @Tomas,

    Just noticed, for firefox, when I download something, and I select "Open containing folder" nothing happens. Seems to be the same issue all the way back to Slax 7.0.0.

    dirka 2013-01-04 08:28

    Ok, it looks like the broadcom driver is quite crap.

    I could connect for some time when disabled entirely encryption on AP. With WPA2 on, just connects and the dies.

    Anyway, thanks for the all the support Mark, not Slax issue anymore.

    Tomas M 2013-01-04 08:45

    @Mark, do you have a knowledge of what firmware files are needed for the broadcom driver? It seems this problem is very common so it is probably worth to add the firmware directly to Slax, even if that makes it bigger.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 09:07

    @Tomas

    The b43 driver requires different firmware from the brcm drivers. From what I see, you already have the soft and full mac drivers for the brcm driver in slax 7.0.3, but the b43 firmware is completely missing. If you look at the module I indicated in my post above, you'll see all I did was to pack /lib/firmware/b43/* into a slax bundle.

    Expanded, the firmware takes up 1.1M, but compressed as a bundle its only 164K.

    I can't say if its _legal_ to distribute the firmware with slax though, because its extracted from the broadcom proprietary driver.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 09:08

    @Dirka,

    Glad to be of help.

    The broadcom b43 driver is performing pretty well on my side though. Maybe you ought to reset your router?

    Tomas M 2013-01-04 09:13

    I can't see b43 in /lib/firmware. I thought that the firmware you added was from kernel-firmware package, but this is not there.

    s0u4t3u 2013-01-04 09:21

    Thanks, Tomas!


    --[

    I hope, one day, Slax with Lua language embedded. It's tiny and powerful.

    -- Size: 244 kb.
    -- Source: <http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.2.1.tar.gz>

    --]

    Very well done job!

    Linux slax 3.6.11 #1 SMP Fri Dec 21 22:57:14 AKST 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
    Slax 7.0.3 64bit

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 09:22

    @Tomas,

    Its not. its extracted using the b43fwcutter. See here:

    http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

    Extracting the relevant portions:

    -------------------------
    wget http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-017.tar.bz2
    tar xjf b43-fwcutter-017.tar.bz2
    cd b43-fwcutter-017
    make
    sudo make install
    cd ..
    export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
    wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
    tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
    sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
    -------------------------

    hiru28 2013-01-04 10:16

    in 7.0.3 .desktop files open with text editor. shortcuts not working pls help

    Matt 2013-01-04 12:18

    @Tomas thanks for the update
    @Mark De Silva thanks for the help, will do that

    baldyeti 2013-01-04 13:24

    On this nvidia Geforce 9300 system, the new xorg startup is not working. 7.0RC3 was working fine, I upgraded as I was curious to try PXE-boot, but the startup ends up in a flickering screen, trying and looping to configure xorg. I downloaded 7.02 which works fine; It seems the new method is not a gain everywhere.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-04 16:57

    As I understand from my testing, if an xorg.conf is present in /etc/X11, X will use that to configure the screen.

    If you boot to 7.0.3 and the screen is all crazy, press CTRL-ALT-F2 and you should get to the console. Login as root (passwd toor) and cd /etc/X11 and remove the xorg.conf - see if that helps.

    remus 2013-01-04 20:14

    Works well but I need skype.

    Tomas M 2013-01-04 22:14

    The x configuration in 7.0.3 is THE SAME like in 7.0 or 7.0.2. The only change is that there is just a background process started, which watches xorg log file in /var/log/, and if (and only if) it finds "Fatal server error" string in the log file, then it runs X -configure to retry the autodetection.

    baldyeti 2013-01-05 03:21

    @Tomas: not sure what happened yesterday but today it works. Perhaps the system needed a cold boot, or something. Sorry for the false alarm. 703 works for me on G9300(IGP), 9400GT and GT220M(laptop) - all nvidia with LCD, all nicely supported by nouveau.

    Perhaps I had a "fatal error" yesterday, and then it keeps retrying so hard I could not login at the console...

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-05 04:13

    @Remus

    Are you running 32bit or 64bit?

    evasive gyron 2013-01-05 09:09

    Please consider some modification for next release:
    - moving kde-games to separate SlaxBundle or maybe separate modules;
    - pidgin to separate SlaxBundle just like firefox;
    - klipper to 05-kapps.sb;
    - KolourPaint and KColorChooser to 05-kappimg.sb or even separate modules;
    - KRDC and Krfb to 05-kappnet.sb;
    - replace konqueror with rekonq or add webkit engine for konqueror.
    This separation would greatly improve the ability to customize default distribution.

    remus 2013-01-05 09:45

    I running 64bit only. And the romanian keyboard is not working, has no effect.

    Thiago Silvino 2013-01-05 09:56

    @Tomas M, I just submitted a Slaxbuild script to generate an yakuake bundle I hope that it works.

    Thiago Silvino 2013-01-05 11:30

    Team, I wanna add a note regarding the template.Slackbuild script. If your statements to configure and compile the source fails, the template script will not stop processing. It will continue and it will generate an empty bundle. So make sure that the resulting bundle is not empty and check the files in the directory "package-<number>-sb-target-dir" to make sure that it performed the install process correctly.

    PS: I will add this note in the post regarding the buildscripts as well. @Thomas M, we need a forum :)

    Regards,

    tdmsilvino

    Thiago Silvino 2013-01-05 11:34

    @Tomas M, I just gave up adding the same note in a different blog post as it will make duplicate entries. Could you please add that note in the documentation regarding the Slaxbuild script? This way we can make sure that everyone trying to make a Slaxbuild will read that note.

    Regards,

    tdmsilvino

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-05 14:25

    @Remus, try this then:

    http://security.irdu.nus.edu.sg/backtrack/S7Mirror/Modules/64Bit/skype_static-4.1.0.20-x86_64-3sl.sb

    Tomas M 2013-01-05 19:04

    @Thiago Silvino: thanks for suggestion. I could make modifications to the build script library so it refuses to make an empty bundle. Yet that doesn't solve everything, since if the 'make install' part fails in the middle then there will be some files but the software won't be fully functional.

    It is up to the module creator to test the buildscript on a fresh Slax to assure it works properly before uploading it to Slax server. Let's assume that if a person uploads his buildscript to Slax server then he was clever enough to test it and thus the result of the build is exactly as the person intended.

    Maybe I should add 'set -e' at the beginning to make the buildscript terminate on error, that would probably be the best solution.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-05 19:58

    If I wanted a quick fix to that I'd force the build script to have the actual executable (or one of the main executables or libraries, etc) that is built by the make identified at the variable section and to check for that in the bundle after the completion of the script:

    TESTFILE='usr/bin/mybundlefile'
    ....
    ....
    if [ -z "`unsquashfs -l <bundlename>.sb | grep $TESTFILE`" ]; then
    echo "$TESTFILE not built, possible error in compilation
    fi

    I'm sure there are some possible cases where this may fail, but it should cover most especially with the -e in place.

    Just my 2 cents worth.

    Thiago Silvino 2013-01-06 12:10

    @Thomas M, set -e would be great, we just need to be careful to clean up the environment if the first attempt fails. Let's say we activated two modules to compile the software and the "make" command fails. When we try again the "slax activate" command will return with an error status and it would stop the script. We would have to deactivate and remove the two modules first before the new attempt.

    One question: how long does it take for the server to generate the bundles? How do we know that it built the bundle successfully?

    I uploaded the yakuake buildscript yesterday, it show up in slax info, but it doesn't show up in slax search.

    remus 2013-01-06 12:25

    Skype works well! Thank you! I need shortcuts for desktop and start menu. And I need LibreOffice.

    remus 2013-01-06 12:30

    LibreOffice in Romanian of course.

    Tomas M 2013-01-06 20:33

    The server will start building of modules immediately. If you wait so long, most probably it failed. I have to modify the system to email you with the result, so you know where is the problem so you could fix it and update your buildscript.

    evasive gyron 2013-01-06 20:48

    Tomas M.
    I am experiencing same thing with my jwm buildscript.
    It build successfully locally, but doesn't show up on modules section on web page.

    Tomas M 2013-01-06 21:00

    I just checked it and it seems there was something in the queue which took eternity to complete. I've canceled it. Your buildscripts are now processed. I've also added some information to 'slax info' command so you can use it to see if your buildscript has modules generated or if the processing failed. Thank you all for making buildscripts for Slax! :)

    evasive gyron 2013-01-06 21:50

    Tomas M. Thanks for response.
    Just a thought, creating buildscripts for software currently buildin in main.sb's.
    Would you consider removing that software to make base distribution even lighter?

    Tomas M 2013-01-07 01:59

    @evasive gyron: I don't understand your request, sorry.

    jcsoh 2013-01-07 02:19

    @ Tomas M

    I believe what evasive gyron meant was to suggest that for some of the applications included in slax base bundle , for eg in kdeapp.sb , would you consider removing them , and make then available as in slax module repository instead, so that the base slax is lighter.

    evasive gyron 2013-01-07 04:19

    @ jcsoh this is exactly what i meant. Thanks ))
    @ Tomas M. Sorry that I made so cryptic post.

    jcsoh 2013-01-07 05:13

    Been Malaysian , we are non native speaker of English and at times our "poor english standard" is refered to as "Manglish" which stand for "Mangled English" .

    Been multi racial we also tends to localised english to our native tougue , so we have malaynised english , chinesenised english , indianised english etc.

    So our brain have been trained to understand and interpret "various non standard flavours of english".

    So you sentence was totally understanderable to me ! :)

    Tomas M 2013-01-07 05:14

    Some people think we should remove KDE games. Some other people will think we should remove entire KDE desktop and put it just online as a module. Some other people will even think that removing everything but the core module will be ideal. I can keep removing stuff, then the Slax itself will be ideal tiny base for further extension, but would be unusable at all.

    Somebody suggested a similar idea which I prefer more, to put some of the software into separate modules. For example, kde games could be separate module, pidgin too, and so on. This way all the software would be still part of official Slax release, but could be removed more easily by users who don't like it. I think I'll go that way, because I want to keep that software in Slax, and yet I wish to make it easy for people to remove the software if they don't need it.

    jcsoh 2013-01-07 05:31

    "Somebody suggested a similar idea which I prefer more, to put some of the software into separate modules."

    I agree with you . This issue had also pop up in slax 6 and then you had accommodate users by separating koffice to accommodate openoffice users.

    I recalled you highlighted that slax need a certain basic programmes notwitstanding that users can easily add them later via modules. You gave an example of a new user downloading slax and then try to open a pdf file or play a movie . If slax can't do this , the user may just throw aside slax as a crappy distro which doesn't work out of the box.

    Separating applications in bundles allow a balance between the two ie the need for slax to work out of the box for common task , and at the same time allows regulars users to pick and choose their preferred applications.

    The only concern isthat if there are too many modules , slax especially with copy2ram takes noticeably longer to load.

    Lukas Nemec 2013-01-07 06:31

    Super awesome new version of slax, now it works (beta versions resulted in kernel panic for some reason on boot). Only question is, why is my Atheros AR9271 wifi not working ...

    for some reason it is not listed in lspci nor lsusb ... anyone has some suggestions?

    Lukas Nemec 2013-01-07 06:38

    Oh, sry about my previous post, I downloaded kernel-firmware and now it works perfectly :)

    Lukas Nemec 2013-01-07 06:49

    Sorry about posting it here, but just to let you know, there seems to be some trouble with wifi password saving, for the session it works just fine, but after reboot (not sure if X restart will do the same), the connection manager says some stuff I don't know what exactly, but when you retype the password again, it works fine, so password saving I guess is somehow broken .. I use default save to file unencrypted..

    evasive gyron 2013-01-07 06:59

    @ Tomas M.
    "Somebody suggested a similar idea which I prefer more, to put some of the software into separate modules."
    Actually I've mentioned this :)
    Also it would be cool if 01-core.sb gets separated into:
    00-kernel.sb (kernel)
    01-base.sb (slax magic and essential utilities)
    02-console.sb (console apps like mc, htop, iftop and etc)
    and 02-xorg.sb into:
    03-xorg_base.sb (just basic fonts and vesa driver)
    04-xorg_drv.sb (additional drivers)
    05-blackbox.sb

    evasive gyron 2013-01-07 07:01

    @ jcsoh
    "The only concern isthat if there are too many modules , slax especially with copy2ram takes noticeably longer to load."
    Simple combine and re-compress *.sb script could easily fix that problem.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-07 12:29

    Recombining the modules would defeat the purpose and as can been seen here on the blog, most users are not the type to create their own modules, not even for their own use. They just want to download and insert.

    I have about 200+ modules on my Slax7 and copy2ram takes more than a minute to complete on an i7, 8GB RAM machine. There are that many modules because a lot are individually required for certain modules to work and they overlap. The beauty of Slax is the ability to load modules as you need them for applications as you need them. If you keep combining then that is lost. It goes back to the old Slax issue of people creating modules with libraries so it works as a stand alone module, but another module may have the need for the same libraries and thus you have library duplication if you use both modules together. It doesn't matter at the final start up, but in terms of the size of the distro, it does get larger.

    That being said, I too agree with the individual app per module concept (kdegames -> kdegames.sb, pidgin -> pidgin.sb, etc). The ability to avoid duplication of components of each sb is the actual challenge.

    jcsoh 2013-01-07 13:24

    "Recombining the modules"

    What we need is for some one to create such a bundle /script . The merger can be done on our own personal installation. For eg I use sane+xsane and ImageMagick . This comes with a whole bunch of dependencies , and I don't want to have to activate them one by one to use . I rather create a merge single bundle for each ie one for sane+xsane and one for Imagemagick.

    Eg of such a module in Slax 6
    Slax Module Tools Uploaded by jayflood (Now Porteus 32 bits developer)
    http://old.slax.org/modules.php?action=detail&id=3316

    jcsoh 2013-01-07 13:30

    I stop using copy2ram with slax 7 as it is noticeably slower to load on a Pentium D machine.

    Due to missing utilitys /functions like ability to right click a bundle and choose extract here , or right click a directory and choose make , I haven't extracted , stripped (usually I get rid of manuals , locale , man etc) and merged any bundles yet.

    Hint : Experts . We are waiting for your "make life easy " utilities....

    Prcek 2013-01-07 21:20

    I was thinking about loading a lot of modules during startup - what if you want to use your fine tuned Slax with lots of modules on some old computer with small RAM? There should be option to boot Slax only with the basic modules (like after fresh install), and the modules from directory /slax/modules would not be activated during this startup. Because now it activates the basic modules and the content of the directory /slax/modules. If I put the modules away, it would be very annoying to activate a lot of modules by hand after KDE starts.

    jcsoh 2013-01-07 21:28

    In slax 6 there is a noload cheatcode . If you were to name the modules that you do not want to load on some computer say with 01_filenamexxx,
    Then you can use the cheat code noload 01_*.* so that all modules with 01 in front of theiir names won;t be loaded. This cheatcode is missing in slax 7.

    "t would be very annoying to activate a lot of modules by hand after KDE starts."
    That's why I highlighted Jflood slax mod tools .Among the thing it can do is to activate an entire folder.

    Eg of such a module in Slax 6
    Slax Module Tools Uploaded by jayflood (Now Porteus 32 bits developer)
    http://old.slax.org/modules.php?action=detail&id=3316

    Tomas M 2013-01-07 22:00

    So I tried to separate some of the software and from my point of view it is not worth. KDE games in Slax are only 1.6MB, that is about 0.5% of entire Slax size. Pidgin is 2.6MB, that is around 1.5% of Slax size. Actually any package itself will be such small on its own, the problem are the dependencies, which can't be separated. For example pidgin depends on the dbus* stuff, gstreamer, and many others. I'm more inclined to leave it as it is now.

    evasive gyron 2013-01-07 22:58

    @Tomas M
    You can split core.sb into main and opt dependecnies, and when make ffox+pidgin+dep.sb

    evasive gyron 2013-01-07 23:16

    @Tomas M
    Can you provide slax-build-7.0.3.tar.xz in source tree directory, and for the upcomming version?

    Prcek 2013-01-08 23:51

    - run kbuildsycoca4 on module activation to update KDE menu

    I have some modules in the directory /slax/modules and they are activated automatically upon startup. But there is no icon in the KDE menu. The icon then appears when I run the kbuildsycoca4 command manually. Maybe the kbuildsycoca4 command isn't executed during automated activation of modules?

    Tomas M 2013-01-09 05:13

    @Prcek: you're right, it is not executing kbuildsycoca4 during startup. Yet it shouldn't need to be, and it is a mystery for me that you don't see the menu entries until you run kbuildsycoca4.

    Prcek 2013-01-09 05:40

    Well I see them now, after the first run of kbuildsycoca4. Every other reboot is fine and the menu entry is there. It wasn't there after the first reboot. I just downloaded the .sb files and put them in /slax/modules, but did not activate them. They were first activated during the boot process.

    jcsoh 2013-01-10 19:23

    @ Tomas

    Is there any legal restriction on the distribution or rar (rarlinux) , unrar and p7zip . If not can they be included as the rar /7 zip format is quite common (especially rar).

    jcsoh 2013-01-10 19:23

    @ Tomas

    Is there any legal restriction on the distribution or rar (rarlinux) , unrar and p7zip . If not can they be included as the rar /7 zip format is quite common (especially rar).

    pistal 2013-01-10 19:58

    @jcsoh
    RAR is a proprietary archive file format (Wiki).

    jcsoh 2013-01-10 20:28

    I was expecting rarlinux which I assumed is an open source implementation of rar.

    The same thing with p7zip which is supposed to be unix port of 7zip.

    Tomas M 2013-01-12 03:36

    As far as I know rar is only provided as closed-source software. Even unrar is closed source. If you know where to download at least unrar sources, I am happy to include it in Slax. But I'm not sure about the closed-source binaries.

    jcsoh 2013-01-12 04:05

    "only provided as closed-source software."
    I know rar is closed sourced but I am under the impression "unrar" is allowed on the basis that if someone have a legal copy of rar the the recepient must have a mean to "unrar" to open it. It is still close source but distributable ?.(of course alternatively they can make a self extracting package)

    Isn't it the same with window zip and unzip ?

    Ok that aside , but why are they (unrar) freely hosted:-
    http://slackfind.net/en/packages/search/?name=rar&distversion=
    http://www.slacky.eu/asche/pkgs/index.php?sear=unrar&ver=16

    Or unrar can be hosted but not included in the package ?

    Somewhat Reticent 2013-01-12 04:37

    Would razor-qt de save space over kde?

    Tomas M 2013-01-12 04:43

    The unrar binary can be included in Slax. By 'closed source' I mean it is provided as binary only, where you can't compile any source codes, you have to simply use the precompiled binaries and you have to trust their creators. And you can never be sure what the binaries are going to do, since you don't know the source codes.

    Tomas M 2013-01-12 04:44

    @Somewhat Reticent: Would razor-qt provide the same look and feel and the same features like KDE? You answered your own question.

    Tomas M 2013-01-12 05:20

    Ah, I found unrar sources. Good! so I'll include unrar in Slax, so you can extract RAR archives either by commandline or by ARK.

    jcsoh 2013-01-12 05:36

    What about p7zip.
    The source code is also available.
    http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

    The format is less common than rar.

    jarovm 2013-01-17 07:04

    I am not a programmer, but the user. I'm used slax 7.0.3 for 2 weeks. I am very pleased with this system, but interferes the lack of support printer. at The collection of module could not suitable for slax7, and I do not have enough experience to build it. Has anyone done this?
    PS: please forgive me for machine translation.

    jcsoh 2013-01-17 19:28

    @ javorm

    Printer support is already available:-
    slax7-printpack_sp1.1: (available at http://mirror.fluxflux.net/index.php?dir=bundles)

    Slax7 printing fixes with configuration gui (system-config-printer)

    jarovm 2013-01-20 06:58

    @jcsoh Unfortunately, this is not working. I tried on version 7.0.3. and 7.0.4. At first i'm posted "slax7-printpack_sp1.1" to folder "modules". After the failure, I moved the file to the folder "Slax" - the result is the same.After clicking the "print" is proposed to save the file of PDF or Poststsript . Printer in this window are not shown.
    Please tell me what I'm doing wrong?

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-20 08:04

    Bug in zram 3.6.5 already corrected and included in mainstream?

    Compiling 3.7.3 with broadcom f/smac drivers and bootsplash now.

    Mark De Silva 2013-01-20 18:06

    Compiled kernel and headers but can't compile the aufs-utils.

    jcsoh 2013-01-20 23:38

    @ jarovm 2013-01-20 06:58

    I am not sure what print button you mean , but the printingpack merely provide print support . You still need to install printer as normal.
    For eg in Openoffice / LibreOffice , even if we sucessfully instaa printer , selecting print or testprinting gives no out put (nothing is actually printed).
    But with the printingpack , the printer actually prints.

    The printpack is only providing the necessary printing libraries files etc , you still need to:-
    (a) Check if your printer can even print in linux.
    (b) If yes , how to set it up. In my case I need to download the correct printer ppd files and select it during installation)
    (c) Do and complete the installation.
    (d) In the software concern is you default printer (that you had selected earlier selected) (Some software still set their own default). You may need to change the selected printer.

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