Today we try out Salix

Community Blog
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I'm going to try out something again that I have not used in a very long time.

Salix Linux.

If you're unfamiliar it is a slackware based OS. It runs on 486, 686, and X64 systems (Pentium 2 effeciency to now essentially). If you know my past stories of growing up with linux you'll know that when I was, oh, maybe 5 my dad brought home a slackware machine that had NO DE. The black nothingness was both creepy and calming all at the same time.

When I got my first pentium M laptop I didn't know too much (I was maybe 13?) but when I really got on linux Salix was my first go, I think, but it could have been similarly named. I had a slackware OS either way. Now you may ask "Why not just install slackware by hand?" Hmmm, well short answer is fuck you I don't want to. Long answer is I don't feel like taking a day or two to read up documentation, then another week to test out hardware, then another few days to get a hang of it. Fuck that.

So I'm going to give this a go tomorrow and post back what I find. I hope that this will run well on my pentium M lappy. ;-;

Also let me know after I am done with this thread if I should do more stuff like this! "Whats this OS like? How does that work?" I feel like I'm doing some of the low end linux projects that no one wants to do on the tek :U so any help I can do to just have it done with is better than not having any of it.

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Heres the album if you don't want commentary
http://imgur.com/a/fp36B

So, again, Salix is a Slackware based Distro. I haven't used slack in forever so I will have bumps as we go on this adventure. Today we're just going to cover my install adventures.

So heres our candidate.


I've talked about this machine before plenty of times. If you want to look it up for more BG go ahead. My issue was PAE. As a pentium M is a pentium 3 with some stuff thrown in from pentium 4's, you would think they would keep it on.

Nope.

Its there, but you have to force PAE. Slack / Salix has specific images as it turns out.


Well shit... Lets try?

mmmno.

Tab?

huh, lets google.

I'm lost.

AHA. Also as it turns out I can get a fluxbox version! I love me some fluxbox but I HATE having to configure it. Spoiler: I like how its set up here. More on that later.

DD it. I need a huge.s image. PLZ NO SMP!!!!

There we go :P

Alright it works. Good.

I did auto-partitioning and it did XFS automatically. These people are smart.

I wanted to note that while it was building packages the screen flickered. Don't worry about that if you are referencing this for your install.

Do some magic

WOOT

LiLO is pretty >.>

Just for note it booted in like 27 seconds? I think busybox based OS's work better on Pentium M's and 3's. If you have a Pentium 4 SystemD is ok.

Its so pretty. Also.

If you get the reference, then you understand that this OS is badass :P

Oh my god its beautiful.

Just the tiny shitty bar.

WICD...... Well alright.

This looks pretty OK as well. Organized nicely. I can change that when I want to.

Not well focused, but the terminal is OK. Not flashy or anything, but the font is the same default as in xterm. I'll be changing that around.

Firefox? Seems kinda big.... Not midori? Seems odd.

Apparently I can't get to google, check the connections, WICD giving me the problems it did all those years ago.

It kept saying it was connected but it was fucky the whole time. I think the wifi card I have is wonky. Probably needs to be replaced.

Fuck. Need to update it!

slackpkg --update

And it didn't work. TO IRC!!!

Oh.... Well thats underwhelming.

And the wiki isn't all too impressive.


Found the package manager eventually.

I'll figure it out at some point, but I have it going!!!!

Edit 1:

I found out how to use the package manager. spi seems to be the main manager and slapt is a secondary tool? Interesting setup....

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I will say, I still like Slack. Simple, builds packages, is probably the most customizeable linux. Tis great.

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OMG...still LILO? XD though Slackware finally moved to Grub so i expected Salix to have it too, Because LILO takes ages to start.

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Actually LILO is pretty snappy :I I always liked it more.

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me too but its just soo much slower compare to grub. (atleast in my experiences on old laptops).
So i just gave in to love grub.

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Yeah but its easier to modify in my opinion. Straightforward.

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Thats true, i just don't understand the hassle in Grub 1+2. It's a big puzzle of finding the right stuff all over the OS. Just to modify one entry. I understand it now how to use buts it's just like why so much difficulty.

But does Slack now install Grub as default or is it a choose you can make now? Last Slack i used was 13.37.

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Technically its always been a choice, its just part of the process you do yourself. For Salix you get LILO on 486 and 686. I'm guessing x86-COMMON and x64 give you grub.

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but since you trying out Salix. Please try to figure out for me why it exists. I never understood close based on slackware distro's. They just always look way too the same but just less/terrible documented then Slackware.

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Salix and similar Slacks / slackware itself exist for linux users of olde. The ones who have always been here and know what they are doing. Where arch has good docs and a fuck you if you can't read attitude, slack just wants to be left alone. Its more community based, just as it was in 94/5 when it came out. If you have questions about stuff then you go to irc or usenet. Otherwise, hope you know how to actually use linux.

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Not what i mean. I know why Slackware is there, but i never understood the Linux versions like Salix, I forgot the other ones. Slackware has a good philosophy. I still love it for that, but Salix just doesn't seam to add anything. (so far my experience and view on it.)

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salix adds some modifications to boot times on 486 and 686 kernels from what I can tell. It takes out the fluff for pentium 2's up to pentium M's and replaces the stuff that those chips just cannot do with extra security. On the AMD side its the same. K6-2 to K7. It also keeps pm-utils and busybox, which in my opinion work better on everything. SystomD is what really slows a linux system down. SD should be in like haiku or react or BSD. Not linux, something where its actually handy to have.

All I can say is that this pentium M is keeping salix. I can watch youtube videos, play deus ex, whatever I want to do on this machine, all without windows XP. Its because I don't have systemD bogging shit down, too. XP is the crutch of machines like this, thats why salix exists.

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Ah ok, Never knew that bout Salix, good to know!

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Its just what I have spotted in the boot up sequence.

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Where I am currently

image.jpeg1561x1164 635 KB

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I hadn't thought about this until now, but Salix is just a simpler installer for Slackware.

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Yeah they all are. Thats why i asked couple posts ago what the difference was?
also enjoy this image.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

But Salix just doesn't add anything to the table except easy install?

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different packagemanager

I haven't been through all of it yet lol