Review: Zenwalk 6.0, A Sprint And A Stumble

THE first real connection I made at an emotional level with a Linux distribution was with Zenwalk, back in its version 2.0 days, and it was that connection which persuaded me to make my first (modest) cash donation to an Open Source project.

Why did Zenwalk strike such a chord? Hard to say, but it was something about the spirit of the project and its determination to forge its own path which appealed to me, that and the approachability of its main man, Jean-Philippe Guillemin (aka Hyperion).

'Its own path' included a custom-built package management system, Netpkg, the emerging XFCE desktop environment (faster and lighter memory footprint than KDE and GNOME), and a Slackware foundation.

That final point about Slackware is equally hard to rationalise: Why does anyone love a distribution that evolves at a glacial pace, traditionally has been bloody hard to install and configure, and refuses to bow to current trends?

Maybe it's exactly because of all those things, and more - there's something appealing about doing things the hard way then basking in a self-satisfied glow when everything works just how you want it; that's why so many people love Arch Linux too.

Anyway, I'm waffling, back to Zenwalk and its latest incarnation, version 6.0.

So many major changes went into version 6.0 that the Zenwalk team skipped some version numbers and went straight from 5.4 beta 1 to a full 6.0.

Foremost among those changes are:

Integration of the new XFCE 4.6

Replacement of Gnome Office with a lightweight, optimized version of Openoffice 3.0.1

Kernel 2.6.28.7 with gspca (supports many USB webcams)

Wicd becomes the main network configuration tool - and it works a treat, as I'll explain

New Netpkg with orphan dependencies and "offline operation" support

New Zenpanel with integrated Disk Manager, Wifi and Wired Network Manager

Faster boot via tuned init scripts

A simplified installer

There are other, less structural changes, such as replacing MPlayer (it's still in the repository) with Totem movie player, introducing the excellent Exaile jukebox player and some nice, professional-looking artwork.

Let me tackle the things which leapt out at me when I installed Zenwalk on my old Compaq Presario desktop system (700MHz AMD Duron, 512MB RAM, Sitecom WL113 USB wi-fi adaptor, DVD drive, Compaq CRT monitor).

Zenwalk has always been a fast distribution with low system requirements so I had no qualms about using the old Compaq, and I was proved to be right as 6.0 ran perfectly well and rapidly on it.

The new installation routine is still very reminiscent of the old Slackware ncurses-style install, but it's definitely faster, what with no package selection to trouble you, and especially if you do what I did and hand over the whole HDD to Zenwalk.

Zenwalk still uses Lilo to handle your boot requirements - I have grave reservations about Lilo and wonder why Zenwalk is one of so few distributions still favouring it over GRUB.

Post-install stuff includes checking some licence boxes - for GNU, Adobe, and Intel firmware - adding root and user details, and a brief wait while X configuration takes you to a graphical login, then you/re into the nice new Zenwalk 6.0 desktop.From here my first task was to get wicd to handle my wireless network connection: The Sitecom adaptor I was using contains a zd1211 chipset which is more often than not these days recognised by pretty much every distribution and Zenwalk was no exception, which pleased me immensely.There's a well-worn Linux forum debate about which is better at handling networking, wicd or Network Manager. I'm on the fence with this one: I think they both do a perfectly good job and neither has ever given me any serious problems.

Zenwalk is one of those distributions which takes the one-tool-per-task route when it comes to selecting applications, which I prefer to having menu stuffed with programs I'll never use.

Among the major items in 6.0 are:

Media - Brasero; Exaile; ISO master; Totem
Office - OpenOffice.org 3.0 (tailored ot only include Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw - the other elements are on the repo); Orage; Xsane
Graphics - Evince; GIMP; gThumb
Network - Icedove; Iceweasel; Pidgin; Transmission; gFTP
Development - Geany; Hex Editor
General - Thunar; Mousepad; xTerm

Also in the menu are Systen Tools for handling Cups Webconf, Default Printer, Grsync backup tool, Htop, LSHW, Ndiswrapper config, Netpkg and Network Manager. I really like the new Zenwalk Control Panel where a lot of the 'big ticket' system administration is handled.The last time I reviewed Zenwalk (http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com/2008/06/getting-to-grips-with-netpkg-in-zenwalk.html) I was somewhat critical of Netpkg, Zenwalk's package management tool. I said at the time:

"It does its job supremely well.. but it's not yet supremely easy to use."

The thing that concerned me the most was that, although the updated version contained useful pop-up messages which told the user what each section of Netpkg did, there was little guidance on the order in which each section was to be used and so new users might find themselves stumbling around loading mirrors they didn't need and checking boxes willy nilly just to get some packages to display.

Well, I have to say that Netpkg in version 6.0 seems to be an improvement. For example, when you first launch it a pop-up tells you that there is no database loaded and asks you to select a mirror from the drop-down menu at the top of the window (TIP If you want stable, select ANY of the 'current' mirrors - they all have the same packages).It's then just a case of clicking on one of the four checkboxes on the right - Not Installed; Installed; Modified; Orphans - to display what is/isn't on your system.

Once you've found the package you want from the much simpler, categorised sections, you click the Install icon and then get a pop-up window in which Netpkg tells you that package's dependencies, and asks you if you just want to install the package or its dependencies as well - I still find this odd; why wouldn't you want its dependencies?

As you can see from the screenshots below, I installed the Conky desktop monitoring tool (which didn't get its own menu icon added but ran fine from the Run Command tool) and Frozen Bubble (which did get its own launch icon, under a new Games section).The next time you relaunch Netpkg you will also get an alert, warning you to refresh your mirror to include any new packages that might have been added - that's a nice touch.

Zenwalk handles multimedia pretty well out of the box - MP3s, CDs, YouTube, Apple trailers and .AVI movies all played without a hitch, but I got a "source plugin required" error message from Totem when I tried to watch a commercial DVD.USB sticks are automounted and their contents displayed in Thunar and there's a nice onscreen display warning you when it's safe/not safe to remove them.

XFCE 4.6 seems to be a very nice, stable desktop environment with all the easy configuration/tweaking options even the most demanding user could ever want and I like Zenwalk's implementation of it, with cool themes and nice wallpapers.

So generally, by this stage, I've got a lovely warm feeling about Zenwalk 6.0 - it comes with great software, a fast installation routine even new users could handle, an improved package manager and a fast, stable desktop environment.

And then I rebooted and it all went horribly pear-shaped. Pear-shaped as in:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS Unable to mount root FS on unknown block

Normally, when getting this error message, I would expect the bootloader configuration file to be corrupted in some way - ie not properly pointing to the required boot files - and I would use a live CD, such as GParted Magic, to access the installed system, mount its root partition and manually edit the lilo.conf file to make sure everything was correct.

In this instance, however, GParted Magic repeatedly failed to mount the Zenwalk root partition (/dev/sda1) on the correct mountpoint (/media/sda1), so I have been unable to use the system ever since.

This troubles me, mostly re-confirming my dislike of Lilo as a choice of bootloader, but also because up until this point I was really enjoying Zenwalk 6.0, and this glitch has spoiled that sense of enjoyment.

I have posted a topic on the Zenwalk forum about the problem and, as of writing, am still awaiting any suggestions.

FOOTNOTE: It's only fair that I point out that, within just a couple of hours of me posting my query on the Zenwalk forum, Hyperion had gone to the trouble of recompiling the latest kernel and making it available for downloading.

While I haven't yet had time to try out his solution (I'm posting this from my work - don't tell the boss!), I'm not a bit surprised by this amazingly quick response from JP, who always seems to go the extra yard to make sure Zenwalk users get the best possible service.

If that's not enough to tempt you to try Zenwalk 6.0, I don't know what is.

Finally, here are some useful links regarding packages, kernel upgrades, kernel panics etc that I found on the Zenwalk Wiki:

How to upgrade the kernel with Netpkg

How to safely upgrade from Zenwalk 5.2 to 6.0

Guide to Zenwalk package management