Wolvix Hunter 1.0.5 Review

I was drawn to Wolvix by a review of an earlier version on Tuxmachines, where the reviewer raved about its multimedia capabilities.
As installing codecs and plugins has always been one of my least favourite admin tasks, I thought I'd try Wolvix Hunter 1.0.5, which claimed to come with all the usual suspects pre-installed.
Wolvix Hunter is a live CD running on a 2.6.16 kernel and is a remarkable piece of work.
It uses the Xfce desktop environment, like its close cousin Zenwalk (both are Slackware based, although Wolvix draws mostly from the SLAX live CD).
Unlike Zenwalk, Wolvix includes the stable, but less well endowed Xfce 4.2, which lacks some configuration options (there's Fluxbox available too, but I'm not a fan).
Even so, in a live CD environment Wolvix married to Xfce provides a lightning fast working environment.
I should point out that if you wish to use the included Nvidia or ATI drivers, you have to enter a short cheatcode - in my case 'Wolvix load=geforce' - before the live CD boots.
Strangely, you are not taken to a graphical login; rather, Wolvix leaves you at the console from where you must enter the root login 'root' and password 'toor', then after carrying out any necessary X configuration, you 'startx'.
Once you get to the desktop, it's a nice surprise to find Conky configured and running by default.
A dip into the Wolvix menu reveals plenty more: Games and emulators by the bucket-load, tons of networking tools, some basic office apps, a plentiful selection of multimedia tools - I won't list them all, you can check for yourselves at www.wolvix.org.
Most of what I would call key packages were here: Firefox, Evolution, Abiword, gFTP, Bit Torrent, Gnomebaker, Gimp, Audacious, MPlayer.
What's more, when I launched Firefox and surfed to the Apple movie trailers website, the MPlayer plugin played all the trailers flawlessly, plus I could listen to BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts by simply clicking 'Play' (I've spent many hours working on other distros just to achieve this last one!).
Wolvix seems to be a one-man-and-his-pal operation: Wolven, the main contributor, has been helped by Oithona, who provided the superb Wolvix Control Panel.
WCP is where you go to configure your X setup - and it just works fantastically well.
I used it to reconfigure X to accept a 1280x1024 resolution instead of the default 1024x768, without a glitch.
Some other observations on the live CD: I had no problems accessing the Windows XP and Zenwalk partitions installed on my HD and was able to drag files from them into Wolvix - I was even able to play MP3s from within my Windows partition using Wolvix's Audacious player (should that even be possible?!).
Wolvix offers two file managers: Xfe and Emelfm2. Personally, I don't much like either, although I did get used to using the latter and even came to enjoy its dual-pane functionality.
Otherwise, they're both too dated for my tastes; I prefer the more modern but still streamlined Thunar, as used by Zenwalk, or Rox-filer.
As far as this live CD version goes I'd have to say it's near perfect for my needs: It has all the right apps without the overkill you get in Knoppix, is quick, stable and everything 'just works'... a class act.
So much so, I decided I wanted me some of this for good...

(My new Wolvix HD install)

WCP is also what you use to install Wolvix to the hard drive.
Now, if you check out my entries on the Wolvix forum you'll see I made what's commonly known here in Scotland as "an arse" of my initial install, largely through being too tired and in too much of a hurry.
Once I'd calmed down, taken a pill and thought about what I was doing, I ran the install from the live CD and dropped Wolvix onto a partition alongside PCLinuxOS.
Now, one minus point I must raise here: WCP's install routine doesn't allow you to install its Grub bootloader to your target partition - it's the MBR or nothing.
Previously, I'd been chainloading this partition from PCLinuxOS's Grub bootloader but obviously this option was now out.
I soldiered on, deciding I'd tackle this boot issue later, even though I'd never actually done things this way before (thanks to the guys on the Wolvix forum for getting me through this!).
I won't pretend my HD install went smoothly - I had several problems along the way, pretty much all of my own making.
Still, I got there in the end: A full Wolvix Hunter 1.0.5 install with the Nvidia driver, 1280x1024 resolution, sound and network configured by default, and the whole thing running like a cheetah on amphetamines.
I still had some minor issues to fix - no screensavers installed, GSlapt seemed a bit hit-and-miss, no user setup as part of the install routine, user shutdown not allowed by default (you fix this in the Xfce 'Settings/Sessions and Startup Settings' option), system time incorrect - but these were really quite trivial things.
If I've any message for Wolven and Oithona it's this: Be proud of your work, you've achieved something remarkable with Wolvix.
I know, having communicated with him via the forum, that Wolven is open to constructive criticisms, so I'll add that when he's preparing his next release he ought to go for a more modern file manager, allow graphical logins by default and add the option for a root partition bootloader install.
I can't help thinking that if Wolven and Oithona get some more hands-on programming help, Wolvix will make impressive strides, taking it into the same realm as Zenwalk (which has a much larger team and community behind it)
Fantastic job guys.