antiX-forum

antiX-base and antiX-full available for testing.

What I really want users to test is

1. New feature of being able to save changes to usb stick or hard drive ie persistent home and root.
2. New xorg for those with intel chip
3. insserv boot once installed
4. keyboard/language for non English users (live and installed)

1. Thanks to BitJam, antiX can work like Puppy linux ie if you run it live, install apps, save files to /home/demo these will be saved and on next boot you login to your 'new' antiX.
This is excellent when running the antiX-base in particular on a usb stick with a set partition for data. The antiX2usb script should set up a stick where you can boot the live iso and save to the antiXData partition (make sure antiXData is ext3). You will need to add a cheat at the boot/grub menu.
For saving root apps ie if you want to install anything the cheat is
rootfs=LABEL=antiXData
For saving /home
homefs=LABEL=antiXData

Of course you can have both.

If you want to use it like a frugal install on a hard drive than make sure the rootfs and homefs point to an ext3 partition eg rootfs=/dev/sda3 homefs=/dev/sda3 or better if you use labels to the partitions or even UUID eg rootfs=UUID=XXX or homefs=LABEL=Mylivehome.

Partitions to save to must be ext3.

2. Upgrading antiX-M8.2 causes problems for those with intel chips. These test releases use the latest xorg in Testing so could testers with intel report on this using live and installed.

3. antiX willl use the newer dependency boot which is faster and now in use in Debian Squeeze. Once installed, in a root terminal
dpkg-reconfigure sysv-rc

There should be no problems/erros in converting, though you might get some errors about LSB headers when upgrading or installing apps. This should not affect the new boot set up.

4. For those not using English, as live or installed, check that the language support from 8.2 is still working ie keyboard, toggle languageX with US, fluxbox/icewm menu etc. This is far from complete, but for most users it should be ok.

Post comments, issues, in this thread.

Oh, here is the link to the isos and md5sums.

http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Test%20re ... post-M8.2/


Have fun!

Added:
If you install to a usb stick using the antiX2usb script, make sure you stop halevt from running otherwise the data partition doesn't get created.
To stop halevt,
#/etc/init.d/halevt stop

When finished
#etc/init.d/halevt start

Edit: 12 Oct. ext 2 works as well as ext3 for rootfs and homefs

anti,

dl the iso and burned to cd, running now on my laptop

o@mepis1:~$ inxi -F
System: Host mepis1 Kernel 2.6.27-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M8.5 06 Oct 2009
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium M (UP) cache 2048 KB flags (sse2) bmips 3589.84 clocked at 1794.167 MHz
Graphics: Card Intel 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device X.Org 1.6.3.901 Res: 1024x768@85.0hz
GLX Renderer N/A GLX Version N/A Direct Rendering N/A
Audio: Card Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller driver Intel ICH at ports 1c00 18c0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.17
Network: Card-1 Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
Card-2 Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection driver ipw2200 v: 1.2.2kmprq
Disks: HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (-) 1: /dev/hda FUJITSU MHT2080AT PL 80.0GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 16M used: 142K (1%) ID:swap-1 size: 4.34GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
Info: Processes 79 Uptime 8 min Memory 141.1/993.2MB Client Shell inxi 1.1.13

Same issue on intel, boot with 1024x768 using f3, or normal boot, I have about 1 inch black bar on each side of display.
instead of a full screen. and screen is tiny.

update: booted with vga=normal quiet nosplash drvr=vesa aufs lean xtralean and used f3 to choose 1024x768, correct screen resolution now
update 10/13 booted with antiX vesa chose 1024x768 correct screen resolution and wicd works correctly, whereas lean gives wicd errors, can still use ceni to connect to wireless though.

cheers,
oldhoghead

1. i don't get how it works. i added the lines to the boot. after i copied a video on the demo home and rebooted nothing was in the antiXData partition. maybe i'm doing this wrong. "homefs=LABEL=antiXdata" should be "homefs=LABEL=antiXData"? because linux is case sensitive or not?
2. the performance is a little better because it doesn't use 100% of one of my core. but, at idle the cpu runs at 5-10% and if i move the pcmanfm window from left to right it goes up to 30-40%. icewasel uses 30-40% of the cpu at idle and if i play a youtube video it stays to 50-60%. this is a dual core 2 so 50% means about 100% of a core. and if i try to watch a movie on the hdd the entire system freezes.

Hey ICE-M,

When you boot up the live cd, and choose the persistant method, you must substitute your actual hd paramaters, for me it was

rootfs=/dev/hda3 homefs=/dev/hda3, which is a data partition on my laptop.

cheers,
oldhoghead

thanks oldhoghead, i was trying to use the data partition on the liveusb stick. i'll play around with it to see what comes up.

Firstly thanks for noting the error ice-m (now fixed)

If you install to a usb stick using the antiX2usb script, make sure you stop halevt from running otherwise the data partition doesn't get created.
To stop halevt,
#/etc/init.d/halevt stop

When finished
#etc/init.d/halevt start

I didn't test it yet, but I have two possible suggestions:
- if toggling window managers from the menu is not reccomended (it's because of software running in the backgroud, right?), then I think better to remove the links from the menu. It's a known procedure to logout to change wm session.
- removing the docs, more than saving space in the iso, could be critical for people with low storage space (old pc's, early netbooks). If its ok for you, anti, I think it would be positive to have an antiX-full docs iso as well.

1. I might just remove that toggle from the menus. Most times there isn't a problem, but sometimes, it causes a lock up.

2. All doc files have been removed (actually most have been removed, a few remain) from /usr/share/doc.
I have always been in 2 minds about those files in /usr/share/doc. One the one hand, they should be kept (useful info for at least a few apps as well as copyright notices that do not appear elsewhere), but on the other hand it saves over 50MB on a livecd! If all doc files were kept, antiX-full would be closer to 600MB in size.

I thought about saving the files in a compressed format, but that still adds about 35MB and also about making them available for download, but then what is the point?

What I meant (don't want to interrupt your chatting now ) is just that. For some people it's a must the iso without docs. But since its just the /usr/share/doc contents then you could offer an iso with full docs for anyone that has no space restriction (antiX will be the same after all).
We could see if the community would like that option.

Ok, but my question is.
What would users gain by having all the files kept in /usr/share/doc ?
Most of the stuff is useless and (much of) the useful stuff can be found online and/or in the man pages.

You know better, anti. I understand now.
I don't know if a manual is useful or useless if I don't have it (I mean I still like to have a look at what an app offers as help).
That is generically speaking. Again, you know much better, but you can understand now why I asked.

Regarding documents, some people like to have documentation physically contained on their system because they cannot always rely upon the Web. My suggestion to them is to get on the Web at least once (obviously they have to get on to download the ISO image). Perhaps clear, simple instructions either in the folder where the download is located or something prominent in an early display in the installation on where to get more information would be a good compromise; we have good documentation available in the forum here, good documentation on Web sites and in packages, but there may be a need for a way to quickly gain access to such things. I think we have some good stuff included as it is, but perhaps a bit more discussion about what the need is for additional documentation will assist us in refining what we have directly installed and help improve information that can help people find what they need.

For my own needs, I can find what I want on the 'net, either here or elsewhere.

Just getting to download the images today; downloading the base now; will download full as soon as that finishes, try them out in a Virtualbox instance and report anything interesting, and I will, at some point, install at least one of them to disk, certainly before release.

Glad to see the project on the move. I've been pretty dormant with distro testing lately; it'll be good to get back into it!
http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Test%20re ... post-M8.2/ will work, in case any of you have problems dealing with the space in the Test releases directory name. Alternatively, visit http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/, navigate to Test releases, then to post-M8.2, and finally select either the antiX-base.iso, the antiX-full.iso, or both. Hope a few of you want to help influence the next release and help anti test it out!

antiX full

Portuguese (BR) is ok, just two things can be fixed:

IceWM -
Ajuda > Documentação > Burner -cli / Queimador -cli
Escritório > Notas > PIM / GIP (Gestor de Informação Pessoal)

FluxBox -
Escritório > PIM / GIP (Gestor de Informação Pessoal)
Ajuda > Documentação > Burner -cli / Queimador -cli

Keyboard toggling is ok.

I see that we have Iceweasel 3.5.2, it's a nice browser. But I'll raise an issue: the options under Edit > Preferences are getting scarcer every new version. In this latest, one can't even reset the default 50MB reserved to cache without fiddling with about:config and it is a must to change that for people with few RAM.
Seamonkey 2.0 RC1 is here (what's new?) and uses the same code base as FF 3.5.3. Now Firefox/Iceweasel's extensions work in it. Also, SM is an Internet suite, so, as a hypotheses, if it would come with antiX it would replace Claws Mail as well (and IRC chat).
If I recall well, I couldn't set Claws Mail to two different gmail accounts while I could do it with Seamonkey.
Something to consider.

secipolla, I am a fan of the Seamonkey suite as well. We could benefit from an integrated Web browser, Email client, and IRC Chat client, and also the Web page composer capabilities found in Seamonkey. I have been using both the Seamonkey 2.0 and 2.1 Nightly Build images, and just recently Seamonkey brought 2.0 to Release Candidate state. I can tell you that even before that, it was every bit as stable as Firefox, arguably a bit more stable. Moreover, a Seamonkey instance with one tab and one Email client open consumes less memory that a standalone Firefox image, a LOT less than Firefox+Thunderbird, and arguably less than Firefox+Claws, and seems to be more capable, plus it also offers that integrated IRC client. Mozilla moved away from it several years ago, but the community kept it alive, and I'd argue that the only thing it may give up to Firefox is a SLIGHT amount of add on support - but it can even do some of that. I am a Seamonkey advocate for sure.

As far as antiX-base, I just finished trying it out in Virtualbox OSE and it loaded and ran the basics fine. Will give it a better run later and I will also try antiX-full; so far, so good.

I dl and tried antix-full from live cd on my desktop. It started up fine but the resolution was low (640x480) and only had one other resolution available (720x400). This had not happened with other versions of antiX. I also tried it in a Dell laptop and there the resolution was fine.

Following are the specs for the desktop, in case it helps figure out the resolution issue:

System: Host pedro-desktop Kernel 2.6.27-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M8.2 Tȟašúŋke Witkó - Crazy Horse 24 July 2009
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium 4 (UP) cache 512 KB flags (sse2) bmips 4775.98 clocked at 2386.552 MHz
Graphics: Card ATI RV350 AS [Radeon 9550] X.Org 1.4.2 Res: 1280x1024@60.0hz
GLX Renderer Mesa GLX Indirect GLX Version 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.0.4) Direct Rendering No
Audio: Card Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 driver EMU10K1_Audigy at port d8c0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.17
Network: Card Davicom 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet driver dmfe v: 1.36.4 at port dc00
Disks: HDD Total Size: 240.1GB (20.3% used) 1: /dev/hda WDC WD800BB-75CAA0 80.0GB
2: /dev/hdb WDC WD1600AAJB-00PVA0 160.0GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 11G used: 3.1G (31%) ID:/home size: 136G used: 43G (34%) ID:swap-1 size: 1.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
Info: Processes 72 Uptime 3 min Memory 107.5/502.1MB Client Shell inxi 1.1.13

I'll try the USB install and see how that works.

Pedro

P.S. Actually, I discovered an issue with the laptop livecd run. Even though wicd said it was connected, iceweasel would not load any pages. I think some one has already posted this problem.