SBLinux.org

I downloaded & installed Sidux 2008-01 KdeLite to an older Celeron 400 Mhz/ 256 MB system just a couple of days ago. The installation is pretty simple & straight forward and the os is suprisingly fast on the old computer. I added the repositories suggested in the release notes and did an update / dist-upgrade using smxi (first time). I downloaded a few packages (openoffice.org, bibletime, leafpad, and opera) and all has gone well except for one problem: neither firefox nor iceweasel will install because of dependency problems I haven't been able to resolve thus far. I feel sure that success is forth coming, eventually. All-in-all, Sidux looks promising imho. You can check it out here http://www.sidux.com

Thanks for the suggestion, Morux.

I've been considering trying out Sidux for about a year. In fact I actually did have it installed for about a day or so early last summer. A group of us were doing some research for Warren Woodford, the developer of Mepis, prior to his work on Mepis 7.0. It turns out I actually evaluated PCLinuxOS and someone else took Sidux, so my experience was very brief.

I do recall getting the impression that the basic installation left me with a rather rough KDE that needed a lot of work done before it was up to what I was used to. Does that seem to be the case with the latest release?

I know of a number of people who like Sidux. I realize it hasn't been going very long, but there are some talented people working on it, and I imagine they are making it better all the time.

I'd be interested to hear more of your experiences in configuring it, as you spend some time getting to know the system. I do plan on looking into another Sidux install at some time not too far away, and I'm sure there are others who might also benefit from any tips, suggestions or caveats you want to pass along.


And "Welcome to SBLinux Forum!"

Hi SilverBear,
Thanks for your interest in my Sidux (mis) adventure. I'm afraid that I will disappoint you concerning configuration(s) because I really didn't have to do much. Once installed, I used smxi and allowed it to pretty much configure everything for me. I had already used Gparted's live cd to prepare my hard drive and had created four partitions: /root, /home, swap and, in keeping with your article here (nice article by the way), http://sblinux.org/pages/symlink-home.html a separate partition for data storage.

The only advice I can offer at this point is.....
1) set the screen resolution at the grub menu with the cheat code "screen=<res>." For example: "screen=1024x768" (w/o quotes, of course). Once entered it does not have to be repeated.
2) be sure to choose mountpoints for your other drives under the partitioning tab of the
installation gui. Sidux will handle the /root partition by default but will not install /home to a separate partition unless you tell it to do so.

I have had no trouble at all with kde. In fact, I am really impressed with how smooth and fast it works on my older system. It will set no land speed records but even heavy packages like openoffice perform well.

I definitely think it's a keeper.

PS
Thanks for the Welcome!

Hey, morux:
Actually, as it happens, Sidux came into my life faster than I'd planned.

I was running essentially a dual-boot system on my Toshiba portable: the original WinXP and Mepis 6.5.

I was planning on using it to be my internet documentation viewer while I was doing installation and config on my newly refurbished home network server. But Mepis 6.5 all of a sudden couldn't do internet! It showed a local IPA assigned from my router, but I could not even log into the router, let alone get onto the internet. ????

So I decided to just scrap Mep6.5 and install something newer as my primary Linux OS on that machine. I went with Mandriva 2008 Spring, and I thought it was beautiful. Installation was easy, and my wireless and widescreen LCD display [1280x800] configured automatically [or with one click in the case of the wifi]. Great!

But by the time I got around to installing the KSensors, I found it was running dangerously hot. Even installing the mandriva laptop kernel instead of the standard desktop kernel only helped 2-4 degrees.

So I installed Sidux. Not as easy to install and config as Mandriva, but not bad at all. I like it a lot more than when I first tried it about a year ago. Much more polished look and feel. And the default fonts look good, which they certainly did not on whichever 2007 release I had tried on my desktop machine.

It runs a bit cooler than the Mandriva, and so far seems fast and smooth. The only problem I had, really, is that at install time you only get the GRUB bootloader offered. I have never figured out why, but this Toshiba Satellite will not boot anything with GRUB. I can only use LILO. When I primarily used Mep6.5, I also had a PCLOS Big Daddy install on there, whose LILO I was using to boot WinXP, Mepis or [rarely] the PCLOS.

So, since I'd scrapped all the old partitions and repartitioned, I needed a LILO. I wound up putting Arch Linux on as my #3 OS. So far I haven't got that fully set up, but it gave me LILO, and that's how I'm booting into Sidux.

Long story, but happy result, so far.

I did use your tip about adding the screen res into the LiveCD boot options, and that worked quite well. Thanks!


SB

Hello SilverBear,
Your experience with the Toshiba Satellite and Grub is interesting. I did some Googling on it but did not find anything that mimics your experience. I did find one post that cautions Satellite users against installing Grub to the MBR but, since it did not elaborate, I can only speculate as to the reasoning behind the caution (probably just the age-old argument). One of the really good things about Linux (as you have demonstrated) is that if you're willing to invest the time and effort you can most often find a work-around.

Sidux is alive and well on my old machine. The Iceweasel issue I described earlier has been resolved. The problem turned out to be with the libhunspell version. I added to the sources.list, updated, downloaded & installed Iceweasel and all is well. By the way, for the sake of those who might not know, /etc/apt/sources.list does not work in Sidux. Use, rather, /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list or /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sidux.list.

Here's my current sources.list.......

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

# Unstable
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

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

# Experimental
# deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free

# Free University Berlin/ Institute of Computer Science, Germany
# deb http://ftp.spline.de/pub/sidux/debian/ sid main contrib non-free fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.spline.de/pub/sidux/debian/ sid main contrib non-free fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free

Thanks

Hi folks,
Just an update on my Sidux adventure. I have put it to the test over the last couple of weeks. Nothing scientific, just everyday use which, for me, consists primarily of word processing and internet research / surfing. Everything seems to work well and, as stated earlier, surprisingly fast for my older system. I did encounter some problems earlier, though.

For some reason, after a day or two, Sidux would become slow and sluggish (as if files or the file system itself had become corrupted). I uninstalled / reinstalled a couple of times only to have the same thing happen. I then discovered some residual root files from an earlier linux debian install still on one of the partitions and I'm thinking that Sidux became confused as to which files to use. Either that or the Sidux install was over top of the residual files which I thought had been erased during the format. So, I reinstalled again, being careful to erase all linux data on the HD using, not the gparted live cd I had been using, but the gparted function embedded on the Sidux live cd. Thus far, the problem has not resurfaced.

All in all, I am impressed with Sidux and very well pleased with its day to day operation. What I would pass on to anyone starting out with Sidux is to make sure to properly prepare the HD (ie., erase / format) and check it out before installing. It does not automatically erase / format anything as many other linux distros do. In addition, I recommend using the gparted utility that comes on the Sidux cd.

Also, this time around, I have not used smxi or metapackages. I have simply installed the packages I need (apt-get install) and use -- nothing else. It works very well.

How are the rest of you doing with Sidux?

Thanks.

Hello.

I really like sidux. And what I like is that since I installed nyx there have been no problems (except the know debian Sid ones, that get fixed in a day or three).
I get fed up reading reviews about eye-candy, compiz, installation, etc and the reviewer not bothering to see how the WOW distro performs 6 months later.
sidux still performs as well as it was 6 months ago (in fact I still have chaos on a partition that is working as installed almost a year later). IMO this is the real test of a distro, and no doubt why my favourites are antiX (enuff said), sidux, Debian and Arch.

anticapitalista wrote:I get fed up reading reviews about eye-candy, compiz, installation, etc and the reviewer not bothering to see how the WOW distro performs 6 months later...... IMO this is the real test of a distro....

Well said!

Morux, Also am trying out 2008-01 and like it so far. I have not done any updates and noticed yesterday on Distrowatch that 2008-02 is now released. I have not done any upgrades in Sidux yet and wonder if it will update from 2008-01 to 2008-02 without a new install?. I figure it probably will but will look around and see if there is a post about it on the site. If anyone knows please post the info. I downloaded the 2008-02 iso but would prefer a upgrade to a new install. Take care all, cowonjolt
P.S., Thanks for the sources list & update info; it will spare some of us a headache.

anticapitalista wrote:Hello.

I really like sidux. And what I like is that since I installed nyx there have been no problems (except the know debian Sid ones, that get fixed in a day or three).
I get fed up reading reviews about eye-candy, compiz, installation, etc and the reviewer not bothering to see how the WOW distro performs 6 months later.
sidux still performs as well as it was 6 months ago (in fact I still have chaos on a partition that is working as installed almost a year later). IMO this is the real test of a distro, and no doubt why my favourites are antiX (enuff said), sidux, Debian and Arch.

Fancy meeting you here, but given our pal Silver Bear and his interests in SimplyMEPIS, I am not totally surprised that you ended up here. I totally agree with your comments. No surprise, we see eye to eye on many things as far as distros are concerned!

For a really good discussion on sidux, do check the USALUG in the discussion section at The USALUG Index. To guide you a bit more specifically, check out the Distribution discussion section, and within there, search the two or three most recent pages to find discussions on sidux. You will find that over time, my personal favorites have been sidux, AntiX, and SimplyMEPIS. I still have SimplyMEPIS 6.0, 6.5, and 7.0 installed on my Dell Dimension 4100 - and I have AntiX 7.0 as well. On my Lenovo I have AntiX M7.2. But I have at least one instance of sidux on all four of my home systems.

To me, sidux is perfect for me. It is not a system to coddle the newbie, though a newbie who was willing to read, study, and learn could almost certainly handle it. Not every command has some fancy GUI around it, though some do. What sidux does is tame the wild, unruly Debian Sid beast, and turn it into the top cutting edge system. If you want to mess around with AntiX, our buddy provides commented out entries for Sid and sidux in his apt source configuration.

I love AntiX as a great one-two combination. AntiX is really fast and works very well on my old Dell. Though not racer fast, I suspect it would tame that old 400 MHz system. You can tame it better with sidux, too, if you are willing to part with fat desktop managers. Go to XFCE instead of KDE to get a lighter desktop - sidux now "supports" that configuration - I always just installed it myself. Now with sidux you can get the sidux themes with a bit less work. If you want something even faster, then try sidux configured similarly to AntiX - with either Fluxbox, IceWM, or JWM. The latter two are probably more comfortable for "newbies" since Fluxbox uses a lot of right click menus. Otherwise none of them is particularly difficult to use.

Anyway, if you go over to the USALUG you can see me endlessly write about sidux and AntiX, my two current favorites, and to my long love of SimplyMEPIS. I think that 6.0 was my favorite release - I ran it during 6.0, 6.5, and into 7.0 before I went more with sidux. Actually I started using sidux heavily last year, but when 2007-04-5 came out, I went to sidux as my primary distro. Interestingly enough, I have not completely left the MEPIS realm. I am running 7.0 tonight because I knew that all I would be doing tonight is a bit of Email. Speaking of Email and browsing, through most of my 6.0-7.0 days I used Firefox and Thunderbird. I have gone back from whence I came, and I use either Seamonkey (or Iceape, as named in the Debian world) instead of the FF/Th combo. The Netscape Suite and the Mozilla Suite were the environments I used for years, and I slowly moved over to the stand alone versions when all distros adopted them. Some of my friends, though, maintained the Seamonkey project had better quality control and fewer leaks, so I tried it and definitely found that to be the case. So I have been running primarily the old Mozilla Suite in a much nicer current 1.1.9-5 arrangement, and it is excellent.

I don't always find Seamonkey in repositories, but Iceape is always in true Debian based systems. Even if it is not in your Debian repository, if you have some oddball distro, you can download the .deb and use dpkg -i iceape-version-foo.deb and install it. But I am digressing too far off the path - (Please don't drag any replies down that hole unless our leader approves. Probably better discussed as its own separate topic).

Back on topic, anticapitalista, your favorites match mine. I do not get into Arch all that much, but if I start twiddling more, I will undoubtedly pick it up more again. Day to day, I find sidux as easy to maintain as anything and I get a cutting edge system with very little effort. I boot AntiX when I want to get in, read Email, and logout. I boot SimplyMEPIS when I am going to be doing mainly browsing, forum reading, and some Email, but possibly some light text editing. If I am going to be on for hours, or even days or weeks, it will definitely be sidux, because it can do all of the things that the other systems do, but it is richer in the default selection and availability of software. I liked SimplyMEPIS 6.0 the most of the versions because over time I had customized that particular release with all of the stuff I tend to use. It was for that reason more than any other that I used to use that specific release. Now the same is true with sidux. The fact that I can use sidux for my every day use is testimony to the fact that sidux is like Debian Sid on steroids and mood stabilizers!

Hi masinick!

Glad to see you here.
I'm just sticking my administrative snout into the thread to suggest that since a lot of us here seem to use & like sidux, maybe I should start up a sidux forum section so we can compare tips & tricks.

What say ye all?

SilverBear wrote:Hi masinick!

Glad to see you here.
I'm just sticking my administrative snout into the thread to suggest that since a lot of us here seem to use & like sidux, maybe I should start up a sidux forum section so we can compare tips & tricks.

What say ye all?

I would be all for that! If anyone has a question that you guys can't answer and I do not see it, feel free to PM me or Email me. I can be reached by Email - masinick At Yahoo Dot Com - (of course in Email format - just trying to reduce the number of spam bots that attack me so I can have more time to actually discuss real systems!

Tonight I am on another of my favorite systems, AntiX 7.5 Test 1, which our friend Anticapitalista has put out and asked us to test. In the kit he has a few extra wallpaper images, a few of which are really nice. He has updated the packages and he is introducing a new Control Center that is quite nice.

AntiX also adds smxi from sidux and as usual, includes commented out entries to add Debian Sid and sidux repositories, so I thought it would be well worth mentioning here.

These features are separate from MEPIS but quite similar in the ease in which they operate. I recommend trying it out. You can find out the details either on the MEPISlovers forum in the AntiX section or you can also find it on the AntiX forum itself.

cowonjolt wrote:Morux, Also am trying out 2008-01 and like it so far. I have not done any updates and noticed yesterday on Distrowatch that 2008-02 is now released. I have not done any upgrades in Sidux yet and wonder if it will update from 2008-01 to 2008-02 without a new install?. I figure it probably will but will look around and see if there is a post about it on the site. If anyone knows please post the info. I downloaded the 2008-02 iso but would prefer a upgrade to a new install. Take care all, cowonjolt
P.S., Thanks for the sources list & update info; it will spare some of us a headache.

cowonjolt,
Sorry for the delay in responding -- I've been away for a while. You've probably already discovered that sidux is a rolling release distro that does not require a reinstall to update. This is from http://wapedia.mobi/en/Sidux

wapedia wrote:Once sidux is installed, it can be kept up-to-date with updates from the Debian Sid and sidux repositories. Due to the fact that these "unstable" software packages could cause an unstable system, a special tool - smxi has been developed to prevent sidux from getting damaged during updates. The special part of this tool is not only updating parts of the system or all of it, but selectively upgrading on a daily list of upgradable packages. This applies especially to so called dist-upgrades, which not only update the installed programs, but the whole system. This way it is not necessary to do a reinstallation to have the newest, most up-to-date release.

I like sidux quite a bit, as well. It's still a learning process for me but it has become my primary os replacing an old "friend."
Again, sorry for the delay.
Regards

You do not need to keep installing new releases with sidux. On the system I am using now, my Dell Latitude D600 laptop, my every day system, I have sidux 2007-04.5 "Christmas" edition installed. It is just as current - actually more so, since I just ran smxi and updated both the kernel and the packages this morning - as my other systems. Small differences are that each version does have slightly different default graphics - the boot menu graphics, the wallpapers, and so forth. If you are interested in different graphics, those are very easy to get from the sidux site, or anywhere that you can get wallpaper, for that matter. The system identification is also different, but those are the extent of the differences. You can have, as I do right now, an older release that has the very newest software, possibly even newer than your 2008-02 system, unless you have updated that at the same time or you've updated it more often.

So the current state of the functional software is based on how often and when you update, not based on the release. That is what rolling upgrades do for you.

It is nice to have copies of recent releases just in case you have an unplanned failure. Then when you have to reinstall there are fewer packages to change, but no reason at all that you could not just install and old version and upgrade - the choice is yours.

Note that sidux-2008-03 is now released. If you do not already have a sidux installed, you can get a KDE lite edition, a XFCE lite edition, or a more complete edition. I recommend installing the XFCE edition first, especially if you have a broadband network. XFCE is fast, but reasonable in function so that you can actually use it for quite a few things. If you do want more functions, you can add a "XFCE Full" configuration, a "KDE Full" configuration and a "KDE Extras" configuration. From there, you will have most of what you need, and it will be an easy matter to search, find and install the extra applications you want.

Do try starting out with XFCE lite. You may end up not needing anything else.