Anyone tried SLAX ?

IceMan · Post by **IceMan** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:14 pm

Hi,

For the last couple of days I've messed around with the SLAX live distro.

http://www.slax.org

It isn't perfect, but is SO simple to transfer the distro to a USB stick, there are also really cool How to's on their forum !

And it is based on slackware !!

it is so funny to show Your freinds, that it is possible to run Your operatingsystem from a USB-stick!

Here is my quickstartguide :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
once You have burned the distro to a CD:

In Slax:
just run the make_disk.sh <<mountpoint for Your USB stick>>

In windows: ?????
cddrive = E:\
USB stick = F:\

commandline from E:\ make_disk.bat F:\

What is even simpler is to "install" the diffrent packages. On the website
there is a link to the modules libary. In here just download the programs
You want, and copy them to the /modules/ folder on the usbsick

Nice programs to have:
Skype
Citrix Ica client
Firefox
Slax_Utilities (lets You save Your Configurations)
F-prot

Try it out !

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:49 pm

As a LiveCD, SLAX Is awesome, because it's so simple to make your own version.

I have my own version, TJAX, that I carry around with me, had all kinds of news feeds in Thunderbird, tons of bookmarks in Firefox, etc. etc.

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:15 pm

SLAX is great. It's real lightweight and fast, and doesn't have all the bloat that KNOPPIX has. It's also real easy to run extra software on it, and create your own custom version.

Jza · Post by **Jza** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:22 pm

I've tried it a minute ago and it was pretty good however when it comes to portability I preffer puppy linux. Gotta luv da pup!!!

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:46 am

Jza wrote:I've tried it a minute ago and it was pretty good however when it comes to portability I preffer puppy linux. Gotta luv da pup!!!

What's not portable about a live CD?

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:32 am

Probably a case of what parts of the OS you want to be portable. I've never tried Slax, but Puppy makes it so easy to save your settings back onto the same disc you originally burnt to, since the entire OS can be loaded into RAM, and to install on thumb drives where it's very easy to store your settings and programs. Not to mention that QemuPuppy allows you to use the same thumb drive to either load a Qemu session from within Windows or by using the usual live boot method. I've not tried another live distro that does these things as well or as easily as Puppy.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:01 am

Vogateer wrote:Probably a case of what parts of the OS you want to be portable. I've never tried Slax, but Puppy makes it so easy to save your settings back onto the same disc you originally burnt to, since the entire OS can be loaded into RAM, and to install on thumb drives where it's very easy to store your settings and programs. Not to mention that QemuPuppy allows you to use the same thumb drive to either load a Qemu session from within Windows or by using the usual live boot method. I've not tried another live distro that does these things as well or as easily as Puppy.

DSL does similar stuff with it's embedded version. You can carry around the whole OS plus your home directory on a USB key.

Knoppix will let you put an image on a USB key or the hard drive and save state to that. Not the same, but similar.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:10 am

That's right, I know Knoppix and PCLinuxOS let you save your settings to the USB key, I think they use UnionFS or something like that, which seems pretty brilliant to me. I didn't know about DSL's embedded version doing that, good to know, DSL seems to be a very good distro, too. LiveCDs just keep getting better.

The thing that really attracted me to Puppy recently was the Qemu version, not released by the official Puppy devs, but the Puppy guys do encourage people to make other versions. When I go to the Library, I want to be able to use Linux, and LiveCDs obviously aren't allowed. Having the option to load a Qemu session onto Windows from the USB key is a brilliant solution to running linux on a windows computer that doesn't allow booting from USB keys. I haven't looked around for others that do this, but I'm sure a few others will adopt similar methods.

[EDIT]A quick search just revealed that DSL offers the same thing. Ah, the choices linux offers us are beautiful.