Slax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. For blatant advertising that would require a fundamental rewrite to become encyclopedic, use {{db-spam}} to mark for speedy deletion. (February 2010) |
 |
|
|---|---|
 Slax Standard Edition 6.0.7 |
|
| Company / developer | Tomáš Matějíček |
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Latest stable release | v 6.1.2 / August 4, 2009 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic |
| License | Various |
| Website | www.slax.org |
Slax is a LiveCD Linux distribution based on Slackware and is currently being developed by Tomáš Matějíček. The latest Slax version is 6.1.2, which was released on August 2009.
The developer stated that work on Slax 7 will begin once a stable kernel (probably version 2.6.33) is released with LZMA support in squashFS.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Features
One of the primary features of Slax is easy customization. Additional software can be added and removed, using Slackware packages and Slax modules. Also the user can modify the CD image or to the Slax USB drive installation, to customize the distribution to his needs or likings. Slackware packages can be converted to Slax modules with the tgz2lzm command.
The Slax homepage offers a software repository for downloading user created modules and uploading new ones.[2] In Slax, modules could be easily added to the distribution, without requiring the use of package managers (like in other Linux distributions), by double clicking the module file to activate the module.
Slax modules are compressed read-only files (SquashFS file system images that are compressed with a LZMA compressor). The various modules are stacked together to build the complete Slax root directory. A supplemental writable layer (a tmpfs file system) is put on the top of the stack to implement the write functionality.
The stackable file system of choice changed between Slax versions 5 (UnionFS) and 6 (AuFS), as did the module file name extension (changed from .mo to .lzm).
[edit] Versions
[edit] Slax 6
Slax 6 is offered in a single version, and completely relies on modules (additional packages) for extra features. From version 6, modules were based on LZMA compression, a very efficient mode of compression. Some compatibility was provided between the obsolete .mo modules of the Slax 5 version and the more recent .lzm modules of version 6. However, as there has been some changes of Linux kernel version in sub-versions of Slax 6 (as of October 2009, we were at Slax 6.1.2), the .mo modules of Slax 5 would be now obsolete for the current version. Each module or package should be compiled for compatibility with the Linux kernel in use.
[edit] Slax 5
There were five official editions of Slax 5:
- Slax Standard is the standard edition for normal personal use.
- Slax KillBill includes Wine, DOSBox and QEMU to run DOS and Microsoft Windows applications.
- Slax Server supplies additional Internet functionality and comes with pre-configured DNS, DHCP, Samba, HTTP, FTP, MySQL, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, SSH and other server applications.
- Slax Popcorn is a minimalistic edition focused on browsing and multimedia playback. It features Mozilla Firefox as the default web browser and the lightweight Xfce as a desktop environment instead of KDE.
- Slax Frodo is a "bare bones" edition, providing only a full-featured text-only environment, particularly focused on computers with small amounts of RAM.
Fluxbox is an option in all editions except Frodo.
The Slax 5 editions could not be found at the official Slax site, but they can be downloaded from the ftp.cc.uoc site[3].
The Slax releases before Slax 3 were known as "Slackware-Live".[4][5]
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Slax modules, Official Slax module repository
- ^ http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/slax/
- ^ "Slax - News". DistroWatch. http://distrowatch.com/index.php?distribution=slax. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ SLAX-6.x - changelog.txt, ftp://ftp.slax.org/SLAX-6.x/changelog.txt, retrieved 2010-01-31
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Slax at DistroWatch
- Unofficial Slax Wiki
- Unofficial Slax 6.x.x module list
- Customizing Slax Configurations
|
|||||
|
|||||
