Branching Out With Salix OS

SMALL but perfectly formed... no, not me, this new Linux distribution I've been playing around with (though I am, by modern standards, fairly short at 5ft 9ins!).

Salix OS 13.0 made its debut on the Distrowatch Weekly 'New Distros' list recently and immediately caught my attention because of its natty desktop featuring a silhouetted bonsai tree.

Anyone who read my last post about Zenwalk 6.2 will know by now that the team behind Salix were formerly part of J.P Guillemin's team of developers, but have now branched out on their own project.

So, from the Salix homepage:

Salix is a linux distribution based on Slackware that is simple, fast and easy to use. Salix is also fully backwards compatible with Slackware, so Slackware users can benefit from Salix repositories, which they can use as an "extra" quality source of software for their favourite distribution. Like a bonsai, Salix is small, light and the product of infinite care.

The name 'Salix' intrigued me - hey, I'm the curious kind - so I'll go out on a limb (limb...geddit?) and posit that the name may have something to do with willow trees.

Salix weighs in at a healthily slim 511MB and comes with three installation options:

Full: Everything that is included in the ISO is installed, including Xfce desktop environment, Firefox, Claws email client, a complete OpenOffice.org office suite, a Java Runtime Environment, Totem media player and Exaile music manager, gslapt package manager and several other applications.

Basic: Only installs Xfce desktop environment plus Firefox and gslapt. Ideal for advanced users who would like to install their own choice of applications.

Core: Only the minimum essentials for a console system to start are included - there is no graphical environment. For experienced users only, who want customise their installation.

That'll be the full version for me, thank you, and as I'm down to my old Compaq desktop PC for testing and reviewing, I was banking on Salix's Slackware heritage and lightweight, Xfce desktop environment to get the best out of the old girl (900MHz Duron processor, 512MB RAM, 10GB HDD, 19inch Relisys LCD, DVD drive).

If you've installed Slackware or Zenwalk, then installing Salix will seem very familiar - it's text-based and utterly straightforward, especially if you go with the 'Install everything and set up the HDD automatically' option, which I happily did.

And what a quick installation it turned out to be - somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes on a machine that's powered by two hamsters running 'round an old wire wheel. Honest.

The post-install configuration routine is equally familiar to Slackware/Zenwalk fans and within just a few more minutes you're dropped into the rather pleasant looking Salix login screen, which uses the same image as the desktop wallpaper.Equally pleasing to me was the fact that my wired ethernet connection was automatically up and running - I love it when that happens.

Like its Zenwalk cousin, Salix follows the 'one app per task' routine when it comes to its software selection. Here's a quick, though not complete, run-through:

Development: Geany
Graphics: GIMP, Ristretto, XSane
Media: Asunder, Exaile, Totem, Xfburn
Network: Claws, Firefox, Pidgin, Transmission, Wicd, gFTP
Office: OpenOffice.org 3.1, Orage, ePDFviewer

Gslapt handles your package management, Thunar manages your files and there's Ndiswrapper on board in case you have problems with wi-fi setup.

And then.. hang on, what's this? In the main menu there's an entry to 'Install multimedia codecs'... intriguing and, bearing in mind my next task was to run through my usual post-install multimedia tests, definitely worth investigating.

What this link does first is throw up a brief warning about the legality of installing said codecs - if you're happy, click OK and off it goes installing... something or other.

At no point before, during or after the installation does Salix tell you what it has just installed, so let me enlighten you - it's the full set of gstreamer multimedia codecs, plus their dependencies.

How do people know they're happy with the legality of the installation if they don't know what's being installed? This is something the developers need to address for the next version of Salix.

That said, the installation certainly did the trick because Salix sailed through my multimedia tests with just one fail - on the Apple movie trailers website (a common thorn in my side).

Other than that I was able to play MP3s and an audio CD in Exaile, AVI movies and a commerical DVD in Totem, and YouTube and BBC iPlayer videos in Firefox. Plus, my USB memory stick and external HDD were both automounted and Thunar displayed their contents.Managing your Salix system requires a little more knowledge than some of the more newbie-friendly distros: There's no Salix control panel, for example, so you have to rely on the Xfce-based system/settings tools.

And then there's Gslapt which, while being perfectly capable of installing and uninstalling software, isn't exactly the most sophisticated package manager out there, presenting just an alphabetical list of applications rather than a categorised list to choose from.In the week or so I've been running Salix I've had a couple of issues which, I suspect, are more to do with the age of this PC than anything being wrong with Salix.

The first problem is that when shutting the system down, it freezes at the console message 'System Halted' but doesn't actually shut down. I'm pretty sure this is an issue with ACPI and that it's just a question of editing the LILO boot menu to turn off ACPI.

The other issue relates to my mouse cursor - when it's motionless, it's fine, but as soon as I move it it flickers repeatedly. This, I suspect, has something to do with the vesa driver which was selected by default during the installation.

I posted queries on both of these issues on the Salix user forum and received prompt, helpful replies from developers gapan and thenktor, so kudos to them for their hands-on approach.

I'm genuinely impressed by Salix, although I have to admit that it doesn't seem greatly different to Zenwalk in either use or construction.

Someone commented on my Zenwalk 6.2 review that one area where it differs is in its approach to the source code for its packages. Here's what gapan said on the subject:

The full sources for the Salix ISO release are included in our sources DVD ISO: https://sourceforge.net/projects/salix/files/13.0/salix-13.0-source-dvd.iso/download

The sources repository in http://download.salixos.org/i486/13.0/source/ offers all sources that are available as binary packages from the salix repositories. bash, the kernel etc are in fact not available from the Salix repositories as binary packages so it would make no sense to offer their sources there.

So, everything we distribute as binaries is also distributed as full source code in the same way: If a binary is in the ISO, you'll find its source in the sources DVD ISO. If a binary is in our repository, you'll find its source in our repository.

Salix OS homepage and downloads: http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Zenwalk And Open Sores: Life Goes On

IT is always distressing to learn of discord among people you regard highly.

So, I was concerned when I learned of a split in the ranks of the team of developers responsible for one of my favourite Linux distributions, Zenwalk.

That distribution's latest release, version 6.2, is freshly installed on my old test machine, and I recently was working my way through my regular review routine when I read on Distrowatch about a new distribution called Salix OS.

Salix - like Zenwalk, a Slackware-based distro - is the creation of a small team of developers who were previously part of the Zenwalk project, but who left following a difference of opinion with its leader, Jean-Philippe Guillemin, aka Hyperion.

If you wish to know more about the people behind Salix, their biographies are here.

It is not my place to speculate or pass judgement, but if you wish to know more about what drove a wedge between these passionate developers you may find this thread of some help. Draw your own conclusions.

While it is a shame that ill-feeling was created by this dispute, something valuable has at least come out of it - a new distribution for the Linux/Open Source community. I shall be taking a look at Salix at some point in the not-too-distant future, and would welcome the views of anyone who has already tried it.

As that forum post I mentioned earlier makes clear, Jean-Philippe is looking for help in keeping Zenwalk moving forward, so if you are skilled, motivated and interested enough, please drop him a line.

But what of Zenwalk 6.2?

Well, it is business as usual - in the best possible sense - with some important tweaks and improvements.

Here's what JP said on Distrowatch when announcing the release of Zenwalk 6.2:

Zenwalk 6.2 is mostly new code (nearly all packages have been updated), and the base system has been slightly modified (EXT4, kernel 2.6.30.5). The switch to LZMA for package compression has reduced the overall size of the ISO image (490MB) while allowing us to provide more applications and drivers.

You will notice that our installer is getting simpler with each new version: As usual, our goal is to create the easiest GNU/Linux installer. From now, the user doesn't have to perform any hardware selection: Any part of the computer's hardware is automatically detected, the installer will just ask for a few approvals.

Here's a summary of the important changes :

- Kernel 2.6.30.5
- LZMA compression for packages
- EXT4 as main filesystem
- The new XFCE 4.6.1
- Openoffice 3.1.0 (fast optimized version)
- New Netpkg featuring a refined interface, rollback support and instant install with dependencies control
- A complete set of HP printers drivers are included
- Faster boot (tuned init scripts)
- bus auto-detection in the installer (will choose appropriate kernel depending on the architecture, sata, pata, scsi)

Zenwalk is one of those Linux distros with a reputation for working well - and quickly - on old hardware, which is just as well because the only machine I have left, after burning out three PCs doing these reviews, is a Compaq Presario with a 900MHz Duron processor, a 10GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, a dodgy DVD drive - AND A FLOPPY DISK DRIVE!

In the past I've had to struggle with USB wi-fi adaptors to get the old girl online, but after my most recent PC blow-out I managed to salvage an ethernet nework adaptor, so for the first time the Compaq is hard-wired to the outside world via broadband.

Installing Zenwalk, with its ncurses-based, old-school routine, is pretty straightforward and rarely, if ever, goes wrong - it certainly went exceptionally smoothly on the Compaq and the old girl was automagically connected to the web as soon as I logged in to the desktop.
Zenwalk uses the Xfce desktop environment, which I like for its speed and stability - I can't imagine how badly the Compaq would cope with something like KDE 4!

I also like Zenwalk's sensible philosophy of only having one tool per task, and generally speaking the tools chosen by the developers are perfectly capable ones. Here's a quick run-down of the main packages included by default:

Media: Brasero; Exaile; ISO Master; Totem; CD Player
Office: OpenOffice.org 3.1; Orage
Graphics: Gimp; Evince; gThumb; Xsane
Internet: Iceweasel; Icedove; Pidgin; Transmission; gFTP

You also get Geany, Thunar, Mousepad, xTerm, Grsync, Htop and LSHW, Ndiswrapper, Cups webconf, Firestarter, the Zenwalk Control Panel and netpkg, the software installer.

So, time to whizz through some essential, initial tests. Here's the stuff that worked a treat with little or no manual tweaking (relax - it's pretty much everything!):

*External HDD plugged in, detected and content displayed and accessible via Thunar

*USB memory stick - exactly the same

*MP3 music files - played in Exaile

*AVI video files - played in Totem

*Audio CD - played, with full track listing, in CD Player
*YouTube videos - played via Iceweasel plugin (very choppy, but that's more to do with old PC)

*BBC iPlayer streams - same as above

*Digital camera - connected via USB, detected and images previewed
It was no surprise that I wasn't able to play the commercial DVD I always use for these reviews, but there's an excellent and effective guide on the Zenwalk wiki on how to install the necessary lib files - find it here.

Of course, installing the required lib files requires one to load up Netpkg, Zenwalk's custom-built and ever-improving package management tool.

The process of using Netpkg has been honed to the point where it's really very simple: Load a mirror (all the 'current' ones contain the same packages), do a search for the package you require, click install and it grabs the package and its dependencies, installs it and plops a package icon in the relevant bit of your Xfce menu. As that annoying meerkat says in the TV ad, 'Simples'.

Netpkg may not be the prettiest looking piece of software out there but it's highly functional and effective, plus Zenwalk has been around for long enough now for its package repository to be extensive.

I really hope that JP and the guys who left Zenwalk to set up Salix OS eventually reach a point where they can let bygones be bygones - they may be there already for all I know - and I wish both camps every success.

As far as Zenwalk is concerned, version 6.2 cements its place as one of the most highly-respected and well-liked distributions. As for Salix OS, well, we shall see.

Review: SUSE Studio

EVER wondered what it would be like to create your own Linux distribution?

I certainly have, but a lack of programming skill and technical cowardice have prevented me from doing little more than dreaming about the day Red Devil Linux boots up on my PC.. until now.

Thanks to an exciting - and free - new service from SUSE, called SUSE Studio, someone like me, with just a hobbyist's knowledge of the inner-workings of a Linux operating system, can create their own installable Live CD-based distribution.

SUSE Studio is in beta stage, and is currently only accessible if you have received an invite - to get one, just sign up and keep your fingers crossed (mine took about a week to come through).

I should be honest up-front and admit that, while I respect SUSE as a distribution, I'm not its greatest fan; more specifically, I dislike its control centre YAST. YAST works perfectly well, but I find it too monolothic for my simple tastes.

Nonetheless, kudos to SUSE for offering this excellent service to the Linux community.

Anyway, back to my experience of using SUSE Studio. The whole build process is done in your Firefox web browser, via SUSE Studio's homepage.The studio works on a system of templates. You choose a product on which to base your distro from openSUSE 11.1, SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.

Then you must decide which desktop environment you're going to have. The options include:

Just Enough OS
GNOME desktop
KDE desktop (versions 3 and 4)
Minimal X with IceWM

At this stage you're asked to give your re-spin a name (I went for a Gnome/openSUSE 11.1-based distro called Red Devil Linux) and then the real meat of the customising process begins via the handy tabbed interface.

The software tab allows you to pick and choose what applications you want, and you can even add your own repositories for those awkward (read patent-encumbered or esoteric) packages which aren't included in the extensive openSUSE repositories.

I should say at this point that it's no good hoping that, because you've chosen Gnome, for example, that all those useful little Gnome tools you rely on will also be included - this is a base install and if you don't specify it, it won't be there.

Further, if you're already an RPM package user and you want to upload your own applications, then SUSE Studio allows that, too.

With your packages selected - keep an eye on the sidebar which tells you the size of your distro - you then proceed to configuring your distro.

The Configuration tab is split into sub-sections: General (networking, timezone, users); Personalise (boot screen images, logos); Startup (runlevel, EULA); Server (MySQL database); Desktop (auto-logon, auto-start programs); Storage and Memory (VM size, swap size) and Scripts.

You can spend as little or as much time as you like here, tweaking settings and configuring everything according to your tastes, requirements or experience level.And that brings us, rather swiftly, to the (rather slow) Build process, where you must decide, before the build starts, what format your creation will take - live CD, VMware virtual machine, Xen virtual machine or disk image.

If you plan on installing your distro to a hard drive, I recommend the live CD option which creates an ISO file you then burn to a CD.

Now, you might worry, never having done this before, whether your creation will fly or flop, creating a mountain of wasted CDRs. But worry not, because SUSE Studio has a most useful test Drive facility which allows you to run your new distro in your web browser window first, just to check out any potential glitches.

This really is a wonderful feature of SUSE Studio - it's like using VMware or VirtualBox online, in a web browser. I discovered at this stage that my baby threw up a couple of error messages during the boot sequence:

Error 1 - 'Could not update ICE Authority file /var/lib/gdm/.ICEauthority

Error 2 - ' There is a problem with the configuration server (/usr/lib/GConf/2/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)

Not knowing exactly what either of these might mean, I clicked 'OK' twice and the boot proceeded to my shiny, new Red Devil Linux login screen - unless you specify otherwise during the creation process, the login is 'tux' and the password is 'linux'.Given the limitations imposed by running a virtual OS over a network and through a web browser, I was surprised at how well Red Devil Linux ran and was soon satisfied enough to download the ISO to my desktop machine.

Let me just jump back a few steps here to point out the neat way that SUSE Studio saved me from a lot of hassle. I had reached the build stage, having carefully selected all the applications and features I required, and was about to start the build when I noticed a tip highlighted in the sidebar telling me that, as I had chosen to create a live CD, I should add the Yast live installer package to enable me to install the system to hard drives - now that's effective hand-holding for you.

So, there I was with my ISO burned to a CD and my creation ready to run on an old Compaq test machine I keep for gathering dust - the sense of anticipation was almost unbearable!

And if you're expecting me to report that everything went perfectly, well, then you're going to be a little bit disappointed. But only a very little bit.

The live CD ran fine on the old Compaq and installed perfectly to the meagre, 10GB HDD and I now have Red Devil Linux version 1.0.0 running - surprisingly quickly, I might add - on a machine that only has 512MB of RAM and an AMD Duron, yes, DURON, processor running at just 700MHz.
(Apologies for the above picture - guess who forgot to include a screenshot utility in his Linux distribution!)

The audio setup seems a bit flaky - the volume settings refuse to stay at the same level, causing some ear-splitting boot sounds - and the one big problem I have yet to overcome is getting online.

The Compaq doesn't have a wired ethernet adapter, and the USB Sitecom wi-fi adapter I usually use with it requires a firmware update before it can be configured.

But these are both fairly minor issues which, given a bit more time, I will fix.

As an overall experience, I will say that SUSE Studio far exceeded my expectations and the resulting distribution works extremely well. Any deficiencies it has as a working system are largely down to my own poor choices or lack of knowledge.

SUSE Studio is a wonderful service that's great fun to use. If you are not happy with your first effort at creating a distro, then you can go back and try again - the Studio provides you with 15GB of storage space, but does warn that old appliances might be cleared from the system after a certain length of time just to keep things workable.

As to who exactly it's aimed at, I'd have to say it's perfect for those with a good few years of Linux use under their belts, but is probably not suitable for the total newcomer.

SUSE are to be applauded for providing the Linux community with such a service, though I do wonder how they will handle the inevitable flood of interest and subsequent network strain once the product comes out of its beta stage and becomes available to the general computer-using public - assuming that is the intention, of course.

Further, wouldn't it be great SUSE Studio's success - and it deserves to succeed - prompted similar efforts from the likes of Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian?

The RealD Deal

I HAVE seen the future - and I almost pinched its nose.

It wasn't just me reaching out a hand to touch the characters looming out of the screen in Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs in 3D - everyone was doing it, and I'm really not surprised.

You see that, for me, is part of the magic of going to the movies, that readiness with which we abandon our common sense and become enveloped in the experience.

It happens daily in places like Disney World and Universal Studios, and in those amazing Imax cinemas which show films of such staggering scale, they take your breath away.

But on this particular occasion the experience was happening in our local Odeon cinema.

And this time my children and I were wearing glasses which, while looking like they were borrowed from Buddy Holly, were far removed from the old 3D cardboard specs with one green and one red lens.

Welcome to the world of RealD. Unlike the analog 3D movies shown in Imax cinemas, RealD is a digital technology which uses a high-resolution, cinema-grade video projector to produce stereoscopic images.

RealD was developed by Lenny Lipton - he's the man who wrote the lyrics to Puff The Magic Dragon! - and it uses circularly polarised light to produce stereoscopic images.

The projector alternately projects the right-eye frame and left-eye frame, and circularly polarises these frames, clockwise for the right eye and counterclockwise for the left eye.

A push-pull electro-optical modulator called a ZScreen is placed immediately in front of the projector lens to switch polarisation and the glasses worn by the audience make sure each eye sees only "its own" picture, even if the head is tilted to the side.

The result of all this optical legerdemain is a pin-sharp, vibrant 3D image that seems to extend behind and in front of the screen itself - it's cinematic magic.

The first film released using this format was 2005's Chicken Little and there have been plenty more since - Monster House, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Meet The Robinsons, Beowulf and, in January this year, My Bloody Valentine, the first horror and R-rated RealD movie.

Two years ago DreamWorks Animation announced that beginning with the 2009 release of Monsters vs. Aliens, all their features would be released in 3D. Disney Feature Animation followed suit in April 2008, starting with the release of Bolt (possibly one of the most boring, forgettable, overly-long animated films of recent years).

Other upcoming releases include 3D conversions of all Pixar's Toy Story films; Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol; and a Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland.

But what of Ice Age 3? Well, my kids are confirmed fans of the series and the third instalment offers a lot more of the same in terms of storylines and character development.Some dramatic changes are occurring in the lives of Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth and Diego the sabre-toothed tiger.

Manny is preoccupied with a pregnant partner, Diego’s having a midlife crisis, and Sid's feeling left out.

Following a minor tiff, Sid wanders off, falls through the ice and discovers three dinosaur eggs which he adopts – until big mama Rex appears to reclaim her babies and takes Sid with them.

In a nod to ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, the rest unfolds in a Cretaceous underworld where the odd bunch – aided by a cocky new weasel character called Buck (wonderfully voice-acted by Simon Pegg) – attempt a rescue.

Some critics have targeted Simon Pegg's over-the-top, cheeky chappie character but I thought it added some badly-needed zest to a series that is starting to look a little long in the sabre-tooth.

What I can definitely do without, however, is the character of Scrat - who's still chasing that damned acorn!

The film's makers have attempted to freshen up Scrat's role by introducing a love interest for him but I felt this whole side-story just got in the way and smacked of unnecessary padding - even if my kids do love him.

The real star of this film, however, is the RealD technology, because it's used in a way that is occasionally - but not too often - dazzling but more often in a really clever, subtle way.

Once the initial, hand-waving thrill has worn off, you quickly get used to seeing the landscapes beautifully rendered with real depth.

With this level of technological skill becoming more readily available, one can only imagine what action movie makers and sci-fi specialists will soon be able to do.

AND this just in...

In related news, satellite broadcaster Sky has confirmed plans to launch the UK’s first 3D TV channel in 2010.

The channel will offer a broad selection of 3D content, including movies, entertainment and sport.

All content will be captured using HD cameras and broadcast over the firm’s existing HD infrastructure, making use of existing Sky+ HD set-top boxes.

To see a 3D image, you will need to buy a 3D-ready TV and wear polarising glasses.

Sky will demonstrate the technology at the Edinburgh Television festival in Scotland in September.

Review: antiX M8.2 'Tȟašúŋke Witkó'

THASUNKE What-ko?

I know, I know - every time there is a new release of the antiX Linux distribution, I have to scurry off to Wikipedia to find out a bit about who, or what, it is named after.

The fact that the prime mover behind this Mepis Linux/Debian Testing off-shoot goes by the internet name of 'anticapitalista' (he is a Brit, earning a living as a teacher in Thessaloniki, Greece) explains a bit about the distro's nickname, but I will explain the rest.

Tȟašúŋke Witkó is the Oglala Lakota name for the native American more commonly known as 'Crazy Horse', one of the main leaders of the tribes who fought the white man at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

This is the third antiX release I have reviewed - see my articles on 'Toussaint Louverture' here and 'Vetevendosje' here - I skipped the more recent 'Intifada' release, which was the first based on Mepis 8.

antiX is billed as a fast, lightweight Linux distro which is ideal for use on older hardware. It includes two window managers - IceWM (the default) and the excellent Fluxbox - plus the facility for using an iconified desktop through the Rox-Filer application.

Now, I would like to start with a warning: When you first run the live CD of antiX 8.2, make sure that, once the boot screen has loaded, you quickly hit the F2 key to select your language, then the F3 key to select the correct resolution for your display.

If you do not do this, then go on to install antiX to your hard drive, you will be stuck with the default 1024x768 desktop, and will be faced with some fiddling to correct your oversight.

Once you have set that resolution via F3, it will 'carry over' to your installed system.

antiX is one of the most well-documented Linux distros out there and I encourage you to do a fair bit of reading before you think about installing - there are links in the IceWM main menu, under 'Help', to excellent manuals on IceWM itself, Fluxbox, Rox-Filer, antiX and various manual pages.It is not that you need to do the research for the installation - it is one of the simplest around (with one caveat, of which more soon) - but the window managers that antiX uses are not yet mainstream like, say, KDE and GNOME, and therefore a little time spent reading can be time saved later.

Now, that installer. If you have used the Mepis installer, the antiX version is even easier to use and quicker.

There is, however, one slight glitch - and I have read another antiX 8.2 review where the user had the same issue.

If you select the option to install using the whole of your disk, the installer refuses and bounces you back to the partitioning screen with little in the way of an indication as to what has gone wrong or what to do next.

The answer is to manually partition your drive yourself using the GParted tool provided, then do a custom install on the new partitions.

With that sorted, the install completes in near-record breaking time and, a quick reboot later, you are looking at the Slim X display login screen, where you either accept the default IceWM or click on 'Session' and select Fluxbox.

Either way, the antiX 8.2 desktop is a nice looking place to be - that scenic view with menacing dark clouds is very much to my taste but it is very easy to change things if you prefer a different look - just select another theme/wallpaper combo from Menu>Settings>Themes.

antiX is certainly a very responsive distribution; my 80GB Seagate test HDD is hooked up to a Pentium 4, 3.4GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, and an Nvidia 9500GT Super graphics card with 512MB of RAM - and antiX positively flies on it.

But before I cover the other good stuff - and there is plenty - I would like to list the few niggles I have so far with 8.2.

1. PCManFM - there are two file managers included, Rox and PCManFM. I really dislike Rox so I was pleased to see PCManFM included, but in 8.2 it appears to be very buggy, freezing repeatedly. I eventually replaced it with Thunar.

2. Using USB memory sticks - in most distros these days it is just a simple matter of plugging your memory stick into a USB slot and the file manager loads to show you its contents, but this is not the case in antiX 8.2.

Usually, in distros with either PCManFM or Thunar, it is possible to simply click on a detected drive's icon in the file manager's filesystem sidebar and have it mounted and the contents displayed, but this returned an error message in antiX.

It is possible to mount the disk manually using the Control Centre>Disks tool but this is a very cumbersome way of tackling a routine task, and anyway, even when I tried this I was denied write-to access because I did not have the necessary permission rights.Further, I was then told that antiX was unable to unmount the drive with a right-click command because "The volume is not mounted", when I knew full well that it was because I had just done it via the Control Centre!For those wishing to use their USB sticks with antiX, here is how to get around this problem - if you do not mind adding a little weight to antiX by pulling in a few dependencies.

Firstly, replace PCManFM with Thunar from the repository using the Synaptic Package Manager (don't forget to refresh the package database first), and also install 'volman-thunar'.

Then launch a terminal, log in as root, and issue the following two commands:

chown root $(which ntfs-3g)
chmod 4755 $(which ntfs-3g)

This grants you, the user, access rights to the volume and its mount point. There may well be better ways - tell me if you know any - but this definitely worked for me.

Now, I have my USB drives loading and accessible in the filesystem sidebar of Thunar and accessing them is simply a matter of clicking on them, and unmounting them is done by right-clicking and selecting 'Unmount'.I should also add that this has meant I am also able to use the multi-card reader in my PC. Sony memory sticks and SD cards now appear as drives in Thunar, one click mounts them and displays the content.

3. Even though I had selected UK English for my keyboard during the install, I had American English. This is easily fixed via Control Centre>X Window>Keyboard Layout, and a reboot.

4. I cannot get the Control Centre>Hardware>Setup Printer tool to detect my USB Epson DX6000 multi-function printer. I checked, and CUPS is installed and running.

Now, in case you think I do not like antiX, let me cover the good stuff.

Firstly, multimedia, which antiX handles with aplomb: AVI movies play in MPlayer, MP3s play in Xmms, iPlayer and YouTube play with the included Flash 10.0 via the Iceweasel browser, Apple movie trailers play via the MPlayer plugin, commercial DVDs play in Gnome MPlayer and music CDs play in Xmms.That is very impressive and puts many other, larger distros to shame. I have also been able to mount the other hard drive on my machine and copy music files from my library into antiX without the slightest difficulty.

As my test machine has a wired ethernet connection - which was up from the outset without my intervention - I cannot comment on antiX as a wireless distro, except to say that Wicd is included to handle wi-fi connections.

As far as antiX's other packages go, there are simply too many to list here - check out the release notes for the highlights (and 430MB ISO downloads) here.

It is possible that some people might be put off trying antiX by those two window managers I mentioned earlier, but that would be a terrible shame because this is a good distro.

It is true that IceWM and Fluxbox require the user to edit configuration files to change their settings - I know for sure that there are GUI utilities to achieve this in Fluxbox but my knowledge of IceWM utilities is more limited - but this editing process is nowhere near as scary as you may think.

antiX even includes a short-cut for the IceWM settings which all load on a tabbed interface in Geany.And I know that antiX team member OU812 has done an awful lot of work on making IceWM look both pretty and functional for antiX users, and on the excellent tabbed Control Centre, so kudos to him.

antiX's speed certainly makes it a serious contender for older machines and, while I have not tried this personally yet, possibly for low-powered netbooks too.

Of course, there is nothing whatsoever stopping you running antiX on a blazing fast machine as well, and the choices of software included - and available from the Mepis repository - cover pretty much every computing requirement.

All in all, this distro is well worth investing some time in, even with the few problems I mention above.

To finish, here are some antiX quick tips, shamelessly cribbed from the distro's home page:

# Login as 'demo', password = 'demo'.
# For root access, password = 'root'. Please do not login as root. It is totally unnecessary.
# Use 'sux' rather than 'su' when opening GUI apps as root in a terminal.
# Sudo is not configured by default. antiX is not Ubuntu!
# antiX can also boot from an .iso file on a hard-drive. Boot from iso on hard-disk This is very fast.
# antiX can also be installed as a livecd to usb. Using a live-usb-cd is very fast.

The antiX forum is here.

And a lot of the information on the Mepis wiki is relevant to antiX as well.

ADDENDUM

Anticapitalista has been in touch to try to help me resolve the issues I had with PCManFM, as there have been no reports of other antiX users suffering the same problems I experienced. Check out the comments on this article.

Fedora 11, Meet The RPM Fusion Website

SO, there I was, having installed Fedora 11 on a dusty old Compaq Presario - 700MHz AMD Duron processor, 10GB HDD! - and things had gone relatively smoothly, if glacially slowly.

Even the Sitecom WL113 USB wi-fi adaptor I use on the old Compaq (it has no NIC) had been automagically detected and my network was picked up without any fuss, but then it usually is on most distros with a modern kernel containing the modules for the Sitecom's zd1211 chipset.

And now, this being Fedora and me having grown tired of looking at the admittedly pretty desktop, I now faced having to sort out the old Fedora multimedia codecs issue.In a previous post I explained how to use the terminal and the unofficial RPM Fusion repositories to get full multimedia functionality in Fedora.

But this time round, things are a bit different.

I'd encourage anyone having installed Fedora to proceed immediately, by way of Firefox, to http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration.

As the screenshot below shows, there it's a simple matter of selecting which version of Fedora you're using then, a lightning quick download later, launching Add/Remove Software (Package Kit) to install the new repository links and update your software sources list to include RPM Fusion and all its codec loveliness.Don't forget to refresh the Package Kit database before you try to install anything and, well, that's it really - it couldn't be much easier.

Another nice new feature in Fedora 11 is the rather oddly named Palimpsest Disk Utility, although it has given me some cause concern, as it seems there are some bad sectors on my disk.No matter, the disk in the Compaq was carved from a block of granite by a hairy man with body odour and wild hair, so I'm kind of expecting it to go t**s up sometime soon.

And anyway, Fedora has needed a decent disk management utility for a while now so I was pleased to see Palimpsest in the menu (a palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book that has been scraped off and used again, in case you were wondering).

One thing that's not so good about Fedora 11 comes early on when, having successfully installed the OS to your HDD, you have to manually remove the CD/DVD from your drive before rebooting into your new system - a bit of a faff and something many other distros now handle automatically.

It's early days yet for me and Fedora 11 and, to be honest, it doesn't seem yet like there have been many seismic changes since I reviewed Fedora 10 (I said it's early days - don't shout at me, Fedora fans!), so I'm not planning on a full-blown article, but I thought the couple of issues mentioned above warranted flagging up.

sidux 2009-02: A Playground For The Adventurous

KIDS these days have amazing play facilities filled with intricate log-and-cable structures designed to test their nerve and athleticism.

Our local park has one such structure, a succession of thick ropes strung like a spider's web over a metal pyramid which attracts kids like, well, flies.

In my 1960s childhood we had a wood full of climbable trees, a shallow stream, lots of rhododendron bushes and bugs.

Back then, swings were made from sticks and real ropes that were guaranteed to take the skin off the inside of your thighs, not like those slippery, bright nylon affairs you get today.

I fell out of more trees than I care to remember - perhaps there's a cause-effect link there somewhere - and quickly learned to leave a box of matches in a dry place, so I could dry out after the inevitable mad chase through the stream.

Ah, happy days.

Now considerably older and annoyingly less mobile (the mind's still willing but the body's weak), I get different, more bloodless thrills sat at a desk, testing Linux operating systems.

You may be wondering what this misty-eyed, nostalgic amble through the woodlands of my past has to do with sidux 2009-02. Well, trees.. branches.. do you see where I'm going yet?

OK, let me explain. sidux 2009-02 is a live Linux CD based on the Debian Linux distribution and, as anyone who spends time in the GNU/Linux world knows, Debian has several branches.

I'm not going to explain Debian's structure/naming conventions, as there's a perfectly good explanation here.

Suffice it to say that sidux 2009-02 is based on sid, the unstable branch of Debian.

Now, the advantage of basing your distribution on Debian's unstable branch is that you are always up-to-date with the latest in GNU/Linux software, but if it breaks, well, that's the disadvantage.

And before we go any further, the lower-case 's' in sidux is correct - that's how the sidux developers spell it and, despite the journalist in me objecting strongly, I'll go along.

This is how the development team describe 2009-02 in their extensive release notes.

"sidux is a full-featured Debian sid-based live CD with a special focus on hard disk installations, a clean upgrade path within sid and additional hardware and software support. The ISO is completely based on Debian sid, enriched and stabilized with sidux's own packages and scripts."

2009-02 is available in two 'flavours' - a whopping DVD download featuring the latest KDE 4.2 desktop environment and a smaller, CD-sized download which uses the lightweight, and faster, Xfce desktop.

Initially I tried the DVD/KDE version but after two failed DVD burns (at minimum speed and following the sidux guidelines, incidentally) I switched my attention to the Xfce edition.

There's nothing spectacularly different about the sidux live CD - it loads reasonably quickly, it works reasonably quickly - but if you plan on using the Xfce version as one of those Linux toolbox live CDs, ready to tackle any computing task anywhere, I'd look for one that has more applications because sidux comes pretty light on the apps front.

For example, under Graphics you get an image viewer and Xsane, under Multimedia there's Brasero, gxine, a sound mixer and TVTime (of which, more later), while the Office section has just Abiword, Gnumeric and Orage. All told, it's a fairly meagre offering.

The focus of my review, however, was to be sidux as an installed system, so I knew I could add the necessary applications later.

Before I report on my install experience, a quick word on the documentation that comes with sidux - it's really rather good. There are desktop links to the excellent sidux manual and IRC channel, and via the website you can find a vibrant community forum.Anyway, to my installation. I was using the second partition on my Fujitsu-Siemens PC - 3.4GHz P4 with 1GB RAM, 512MB Nvidia graphics, 2xDVD/DVDRW, 19inch 1280x1024 LCD - alongside CrunchBang Linux.

You access the installer gui via a desktop link. I wouldn't normally spend much time discussing an installation but there are a couple of interesting issues raised by the sidux installer that warrant a mention.

The first is the section dealing with partitioning your hard drive, where the user is presented with a screen offering GParted and various partition choices: It's simply not clear enough at this stage how the user should progress and, while an experienced user will already know whether their partition is properly prepared to accept a Linux distro, a new user would be confused. So, clearer guidance here, please.On a more positive note, I liked the fact that at the outset the installer informs the user if any firmware updates are required for their hardware, and even issues the commands required in a terminal to get them - a nice touch.Also during the install, there's a message saying that sidux only contains 'dfsg free software' (Debian Free Software Guidelines) and that to get full functionality you will have to add the sid 'contrib' and 'non-free' software repositories to your apt sources.list later.

Again, no big deal for a Linux veteran, but a real obstacle for a new user. Plus, this hardly makes sidux "full-featured" as the release notes proclaim and anyone who has used Debian will know at this stage that there is a fair bit of work to be done post-install before they arrive at anything approaching full functionality.

When installing two Linux distros on the same machine I usually leave my CrunchBang GRUB boot menu intact and have the new distro's GRUB installed into its own root partition.Then it's just a simple matter of using a live CD - I always use GParted Magic - to copy the new distro's menu.lst entry into my CrunchBang GRUB menu.lst - this method is slightly long-winded but it avoids any problems with partition identities etc, and so it proved with the sidux install.

So, here I am at my new sidux 2009-02 Xfce desktop - with a minor tweak/tidy - and doesn't it look nice? That pretty Xfce desktop takes about 3 SECONDS to load once you hit the 'enter' button on the login screen - Windows, eat your heart out!Now, my first post-install task was to edit the repository list from which sidux draws its software and updates (experienced users can skip this bit).

To do this, it's necessary to launch your text editor - in this case, Mousepad - as root, so launch a terminal, enter 'su' then input your root password, then the following command:

mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list

That then launches the repository sources list in Mousepad, to which I added the bold elements below to give me access to contributors' packages, non-free software and the codecs required to play multimedia files:

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb http://debian-multimedia.org/ sid main

Then, you need to enter the following command in your terminal, still as root, to synchronise your package database with the repositories:

apt-get update

With that done, you're ready to start installing the software you need, and in sidux 2009-02 that's quite a lot. Your needs will differ, so to quickly summarise what I've installed so far, I started with the package manager, Synaptic (the sidux manual recommends Debian Package Search, so why not include it by default?), then added vlc, Mplayer and its Mozilla plugin, libdvdcss2, win32codecs and Kaffeine (plus a pile of dependencies).

You might be wondering why I bothered with Kaffeine, and it's because the included TVTime TV Viewer simply refused to run, whereas Kaffeine always works beautifully with my Terratec DVB-T TV adaptor, giving me a full range of Freeview channels and digital radio.sidux is what's called a "rolling release" distribution which means there's no real need to periodically wipe your disk and install a new version - all that's required is to first exit X by issuing an 'init 3' command in a terminal, then run 'apt-get update' and 'apt-get dist-upgrade' on a regular basis to keep things current.

This latter point brings me to the best comparison I can give for sidux, and it's with Arch Linux. Both are what I'd call niche distros, requiring a level of knowledge and experience that mean they're not really suited to anyone new to Linux.

But if you have the required experience and the time needed to tailor a system to perfectly suit your needs and your hardware, then sidux, like Arch, can be a very nice place to be.

My final experience with sidux also illustrates the flip-side of going out on a limb with packages from Debian's unstable branch: While installing Claws-mail via Synaptic, my PC froze solid, requiring a hard reboot.

So, that's sidux 2009-02: Bags of fun to be had for the adventurous, but if you haven't got a head for heights, you might be better off looking elsewhere.