New Slax old KDE and a surprise

I'm going to release another version of Slax in few days. There will be some small chanegs, like kernel upgrade from 2.6.27.8 to 2.6.27.27, and some bigger ones. KDE will remain unchanged (version 3.5.x)

Regarding the mentioned kernel upgrade, I am not interested in newest kernels nowadays since I am not willing to switch to the newest squashfs yet. As you perhaps know, squashfs 4.0 is in mainline kernel and as far as I understand it, it doesn't support older versions of the filesystem (please tell me if I am wrong). Due to that, all Slax modules would stop working, which is something unneeded in the phase of Slax 6.x. (That will be the destiny of Slax 7)

The surprise I mentioned is very interesting (at least I hope it is). There are two new features. I can tell you just the first one, and I'll keep the second one secret yet. So the first one is, FireFox 3.5. is going to be included in base Slax. It will be packaged with Chromium visual theme and will understand the slik:/ protocol. For those who prefer Konqueror, no problem, FireFox will be in a separated module, so it's very easy to remove it away.

The second feature will be something brand new but yet many years old :) So, stay tuned, I hope you'll like it :)

[1] Ivo wrote 2 years ago:

I'm very curious if this second feature will be an installer!

I hope this release is ready as soon as possible!

[2] vonbiber wrote 2 years ago:

FireFox 3.5

I heard there was a bug with the first release of
firefox3.5 and possibly a fix in the current slackware
tree

looking forward to the next release
you've done a great job, man!

[4] Pertrecho wrote 2 years ago:

Could it be possible that we are getting Frodo and Pop-Corn versions of Slax 6? (Please?).
On the other hand: why not Opera? In my opinion it is the best browser and FireFox it's too much hyped.

[5] Danijel wrote 2 years ago:

Hey man, great work. Anyway, I'm linux newbie and I use Slax from my USB and it's great. However it would be really nice if you could put some basic apps in next default release. I can't figure out how to add following features:

* Hardware Drivers Option -like on Ubuntu everyone needs this
* Add/Remove Programs -also needed for newbies like me
* Software Sources
* Synaptic Package Manager -or some alternative would really be great.

I don't think that would take to much space.
Please consider this in next release, We beg you.

[6] piszczyk^3 wrote 2 years ago:

`something brand new but yet many years old'
We need more clues :D
Also watch out to avoid Opera-like story to happen again. They pretended to `Reinvent the Web'; they reinvented the wheel, instead.

[8] WhooooooooooooA wrote 2 years ago:

Tomas,

If you will include Firefox 3.5, please consider removing that one, it is full of bugs :(, put firefox 3.5.1 if you can and please do.

Something brand new but many years old, that could very well be an idea, or a program or something that "does not exist", but can be created? Well inquriring minds want to know.

[9] Ivo wrote 2 years ago:

"online module builder"
That's a great idea! It can be _VERY_ easily implemented with src2pkg!

[10] WhooooooooooooA wrote 2 years ago:

@Ivo

would that take the fun out of compiling from source and/or using slaxbuilds/slackbuilds to build packages :(

But it would make life alot easier for many users?

Cheers!

WhoooooooooooooooA

[11] vonbiber wrote 2 years ago:

while I was building some modules I noticed that there
were some development tools missing in slax.
These tools are required
I built individual modules for these and bundled them
into 007-devel.lzm (and added into it gc, a garbage
collector)

These tools are:
autoconf automake bison flex ed libtool
plus the readline headers and static libraries

how about adding these into 006-devel.lzm in the next
release?

[12] WHO_CARES_WHAT_THE_BIBLE_SAYS_ABOUT_MARRIAGE wrote 2 years ago:

This is better than the Bible Stories :)

@vonbiber,

I say that while your idea is great, it will make slax bigger :(, and I had to build bison and flex on my own and made modules for them, other than that. It is Tomas' decision.

I would like, but I know it is out of my hands is Slax compiled with gcc 4.4 or 4.5 snapshot. IT will make slax snappier, faster and more efficient :), only exception are the new kernels with the vulnerabilities :(

I care about Slax, but not what the BIBLE sys about marrigae.

[13] vonbiber wrote 2 years ago:

@who_cares_etc

It does really matter to me one way or another.
I have written the necessary slaxbuilds and the
bundle script. But I thought some people would
like them to be installed.
By the way some of the modules are quite small (less
than 100K).
Here's the size of all the lzm I built:

2.6M 007_devel.lzm
712K autoconf-2.63.lzm
528K automake-1.10.1.lzm
312K bison-2.3.lzm
56K ed-1.2.lzm
256K flex-2.5.35.lzm
224K gc-7.1.lzm
472K libtool-1.5.26.lzm
112K readline_staticlibs_n_headers.lzm

But I do like Tomas' idea of keeping it small
I saw some offshots of slax which I really didn't like
(too bloated for my taste)

[14] tsixe_ton_seod_ doG_doG _uoy_rof_llik_uoy_dluow wrote 2 years ago:

@vonniber

I like your idea, but if the programs were indispensible then Tomas would have already included them already :)

If Tomas includes them, then Slax would get Bigger and would not meet requirements for Slax :(

[15] Ricardo wrote 2 years ago:

Poor Thomas, just like a parent surrounded by demanding children.

[16] vonbiber wrote 2 years ago:

It does really matter to me one way or another.

oops, I meant:

It does NOT really matter to me one way or another.

[17] kaiomatico wrote 2 years ago:

Tomas, you are doing everything right :)

and i cannot understand the flaming about the security hole in firefox 3.5 , scince i think you are smart enough too know this and you really meant FF 3.5.1 =P

but scince i also have a computer with not much ram, i also would like to have opera and not the bloated firefox as default, but my suggestion to solve this problem:

make a seperat module in the base folder with firefox, so everyone can replace it with his fav. browser... like conquerer module or firefox module or simply opera or even links2 module :o

just my 2 cents ;)

[18] jcsoh wrote 2 years ago:

@ kaiomatico

"make a seperat module in the base folder with firefox, so everyone can replace it with his fav. browser."

Tomas alread stated
"For those who prefer Konqueror, no problem, FireFox will be in a separated module, so it's very easy to remove it away."

[19] kaiomatico wrote 2 years ago:

@ jcsoh

sorry now i feel kinda stupid that i not read the article enough concentrated

ok now that sounds very good :) thx

[21] Ivo wrote 2 years ago:

Tamerlan311:
that has nothing to do with the thing Tomas has in mind. He doesn't want to use newer kernel because he wants to avoid SqashFS 4.0, because Squashfs 4.0 is not compatible to Squashfs 3.0, which is used for Slax's modules. So if he updates the kernel, the current modules will be unusable.

[22] kaiomatico wrote 2 years ago:

@ Ivo

correct me if i am wrong, but he is at least upgrading the 2.7.x kernel, so at least the driver modules need to get compiled new, don't they?

[23] Ivo wrote 2 years ago:

Not exactly. The reason he keeps the 2.6.27 kernel is to to keep SquashFS 3.0, because 4.0 is not backwards compatible, and the current .lzm modules won't work.

[24] kaiomatico wrote 2 years ago:

i understood that :) and it is completely logical to me and makes sense, but scince the 2.7.x kernel is going to be changed from 2.6.27.8 to 2.6.27.27 the driver modules need to get compiled new, don't they?

we will leave the squashfs problem besides scince i think everyone knows the problem with upgrading now ;) o_O

ty ;>

[25] Ivo wrote 2 years ago:

Kernel modules are shipped in the kernel source, so when kernel is upgraded, all Tomas has to do is to chance the number in the build script (build.sh), upgrade the patches (which is not needed in this case), download the new source and run the script. The script actually unpacks the kernel, patches it, compiles it, and then compiles the kernel modules, compiles aufs/squashfs (which *MUST* be 3.0, I told you why!!!)/so on/, and packages it all into a package called linux.

[29] Lintush wrote 2 years ago:

Good to hear about Firefox and really waiting to see the secret.............

Thanks Tomas.

[30] And the surprise is ..... wrote 2 years ago:

.... the new KDE 4.3... YYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS

Thx Tomas.

Even if I am joking here it is a real pleasure to use SLAX each day. And I always promote it all around my friends who are looking my so easy distro.

Best regards and with pleasure to see the surprise.

Miguipda ;-)

[31] minexew wrote 2 years ago:

@ Pertrecho, kaiomatico

I think that the reason why Tomas chose Firefox and not Opera is that FF is a open-source/free software (I prefer Opera, still)

[32] Zlatko - Aurel wrote 2 years ago:

Hi Tomas...
I'm Zlatko from Cratia and i relly need instraller for Slax.
That is order man!!!
I always says that are two good linux distros Slax & Puppy.
Puppy have installer but for god sake Slax dont have one
good.
So man i think that is really time for instaler....
Installer,instaler....
And one more thing:
Please do you can configure KDE 3.5 that looks like windowsXP
on slax start - i think that on this way slax will get more
funs and users

all best...
Zlatko - author of Aurel Basic

PS. Add module for Gambas or Free Basic to...

New Slax, old KDE and a surprise