antiX-forum

ok.....Why in the world can't I change that file? Everytime I try to do it I get the in use error.....can't save or save as or anything......I've tried leafpad and site.....I just can't get it to change here.....


I don't have the options in synaptic to add the unstable......

You need to edit the file as root user.

Easiest way is to open terminal, (sux is better for gui apps)
sux
[root password]
leafpad /etc/apt/sources.list

make the changes and save.

Edit: Make sure you close synaptic too.

OK that got it. Wow a couple hundred upgrades...man I do honestly believe it's even a tiche faster than it was. (maybe cause I want it to be). Anyway had a typo on my end that caused a bit of a delay / must be in there in front of etc Seems good so far. I did notice that wvdial was held back. I don't use that at this time. All seems ok so far. Gonna get this on my 600 mhz machine too I think. I put Mepis on there but honestly this just flies. I"ll keep everyone posted. Thanks Anti and Erie.....you're the best

Current sources.list

kb9klc@mepis1:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# See sources.list(5) for more information

# This file should be edited through synaptic

# MEPIS improvements, overrides and updates--the MEPIS magic
##deb ftp://ftp.mepis.com/mepis/ mepis-7.0 main

# DEBIAN ##deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
##deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
##deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

# MPLAYER
## deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ stable main
## deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ testing main

####
### Debian Sid/Unstable ####
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org unstable main

Here's what I did to get upgraded to debian unstable, and it all went without any problems of any kind....which is lucky because I just blundered in without reading any docs or threads as I was just playing around having cloned my previous Zenwalk install in case I wanted to switch back easily.

Installed Antix m7 latest version

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade with default sources.list unchanged

added extra apps/DE as required

enabled all repos and added debian unstable deb and src

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

(everything went smoothly, the first apt-get upgrade had taken care of almost everything)

Then commented out all repos except the unstable ones.

I now have Antix running Debian Unstable and had no conflicts or dependency errors along the way. I had one lock up of X yesterday while playing a 3D game (cube) but I found the same on some other distros using the latest X so I believe this is a X server /new intel driver issue rather than any problem with Antix in particular and I'll probably try to go back to a testing version of X and intel driver. I'm incredibly impressed with Antix and its speed and low resource use. I've added a few extras like wicd for easy wireless connectivity on my laptop and I've also installed Xfce so I can easily switch between fluxbox and something a little more familiar/shiny for anyone else who uses my machine. Xfce is also extremely fast on this set up, barely needing any more RAM to boot than fluxbox....and massively less than Xubuntu or Zenwalk 5.0. This has been a real eye opener for me. My 3 or 4 year old 1.6GHz Centrino laptop (Asus M5N) has become a seriously fast computer with cpu freq scaling, proper power management, perfect suspend to RAM (even reconnects to wireless on unsuspend) and every application I could ever need. Wow! Anticapitalista I think you really hit the sweet spot with the default set up.

Glad you like antiX Julian67. That is a very nice testimony of antiX on your box.
I have tried to make antiX as flexible as possible, ranging from those who are beginners to experienced users of linux, but also to whether to use stable, testing or bleeding-edge unstable. In this sense, antiX has wandered away from Mepis 7, though the Etch/Testing default should still be as solid and stable.

Here's a tip for lazy people like me who want automatic update notifications. Probably this is only relevant for other shameless persons who take a super light distro as a base and then load it up with a stack of Gnome and Mono apps. If you're running antiX with fluxbox or icewm as intended this is not for you!

The regular way to get update notifications in Gnome is via the update-notifier, which is installed by default in Gnome based distros and appears in the tray to let you know about updates as they become available. It's available from the Debian repos. If you install it in antiX (and I assume Mepis) it fails after notifying, but before doing anything useful, because it needs to parse a file /usr/share/python-apt/templates/MEPIS.info which doesn't exist. However in the templates folder are Debian.info (and Ubuntu.info). All that's needed is to copy or rename Debian.info to MEPIS.info and the update notifier will work fine. My set up is based on testing and unstable repos being enabled and Mepis and stable repos being disabled and it works for me.

I'd like to go with a more moderate balance of stability and cutting-edge (i.e. option #3), but I'm curious why I need to comment out the MEPIS repo's after the initial dist-upgrade. With all my other debian-based distributions I "aptitude dist-upgrade" regularly. Is there a particular reason why this would not be ideal with a rather vanilla installation of antiX?

VCSkier wrote:I'd like to go with a more moderate balance of stability and cutting-edge (i.e. option #3), but I'm curious why I need to comment out the MEPIS repo's after the initial dist-upgrade. With all my other debian-based distributions I "aptitude dist-upgrade" regularly. Is there a particular reason why this would not be ideal with a rather vanilla installation of antiX?

I believe it's because of the way the apt-preferences are set. If you look at the file /etc/apt/preferences you can see how different repositories are handled by apt. If the same package (but different versions) is available from different repositories then the Mepis one is preferred. Mepis is mostly built on Debian Etch (stable) so if you're trying to install new stuff/versions from testing or unstable you'll run into conflicts as apt tries to do as it's told and and keep the original Etch/Mepis packages, which of course will prevent many newer dependencies being installed. So the easiest way to get around this is to comment the Mepis repo. You could also read the documentation for apt preferences and edit that file appropriately and keep the Mepis repo enabled, though this is possibly pointless as chances are it will never be used again unless you need to get a newer patched Mepis kernel (as happened recently) or you perhaps change your graphics card and need to install nvidia or ATI drivers.

Well hello Gents. I just and I do mean just finished installing my version of Antix 7.01. Well I can only say WOW! This is one heck of a system!! I am in the process of updating it to 7.02 on dial up.....looks like it is gonna be a loooong day. Great system, installed smoothly, no muss no fuss. My next goal will be to whittle away at the programs I do not use on a regular basis. The fewer files the fewer problems. Antix is indeed a keeper.

Glad you got antiX up and running Rebel and on dial-up too!

Have fun, and if you need help with slimming down antiX, just post.