This is an Unofficial FAQ for SLAX.
There have been a few problems that I have experienced that not only have been irratating to deal with but they have given me an insight to SLAX and its inner workings. I hope others will benefit from this FAQ and I hope its contents will be added to the Official FAQ.
Good News!! I have added a HowTo Index/FAQ List to the SLAX forums! Visit here for the "Official FAQ" and come back here for the work in progress "Unofficial" FAQ.
Q: How do I change the splash screen for SLAX?
A: Actually there are TWO spash screens you can change in SLAX. If you use syslinux as your bootloader, you can have a simple splash screen and then there is the Kernel Boot Spash Screen
For the syslinux splash screen you can do the following:
1) You need a picture.
2) You need ImageMagick
A) Convert your picture to imagemagick routines.
cd /tmp
convert /tmp/logo.gif /tmp/logo.ppm
B) Reduce the amount of colors in the picture's palette.
mogrify -colors 16 logo.ppm
ppmtolss16 < /tmp/logo.ppm > /tmp/splash.lss
Without using mogrify your picture may seem unviewable.
C) Copy the splash.lss file to the top directory of SLAX (the same place that /boot directory is) as well as the boot directory.
cp /tmp/splash.lss /mnt/sda1_removable
cp /tmp/splash.lss /mnt/sda1_removable/boot
| SLAX | |
SLAX is a fast, portable, flexible, small distribution of the Linux operating system which fits on a small (8mm) CD-ROM disc. It runs directly from the CD (or USB) without installing to Hard Drive. If there is a compatible swap partition on the system hard drive, SLAX can utilize that as well. SLAX is based on the Slackware Linux distribution, created from Linux Live scripts. SLAX uses the Unification File System (also known as Unionfs), which allows a read-only file system to act as a writable one by committing all changes to memory and it also uses the Squashfs, a compressed read-only file system allowing more packages to be offered without the risk of being changed.
With SLAX you have the ability to boot and work in your custom personalized Operating System whether you are at home, at school, or at work. You can now carry all the tools you need for personal communication, entertainment, and productivity, all on a CD or USB key. By using a LiveCD or write protected USB key, you can feel safe that your environment can't be maliciously changed.
When your computer boots from the SLAX boot media, the kernel and the rootdisk are loaded into RAM. All the other directories are mounted directly from the boot media. This setup accomplishes 2 things: first, maximizing the amount of RAM available to you to use and second, any undesirable changes are only written to memory.
· SLAX will easily install to almost any media: USB drives including USB Sticks, Zip, Hard Drive, CDRom, DVD Rom, it can even boot from a network.
· Booting from CD, SLAX can either load the OS core into memory and the remainder will run from CDRom. This is very useful since you may have 650MB of software on the CD you wish to run. Or you can boot totally into RAM, so that the CD drive can be used for other purposes such as playing music.
· Booting from CD, SLAX can save all your changes back to the CD, a Network File System, a network service, or to any media available for mounting.
· Since SLAX is a Linux Live derivative, it runs from memory and writes to Flash media don't happen unless they are your final changes. Since writes are minimized the life of the Flash device is greatly extended.
· SLAX will be extremely friendly for All people.
· SLAX is easy to configure.
· SLAX will boot up and run extraordinarily fast.
· SLAX can be configured to have ALL the applications and resources needed for daily use.
· SLAX just works, no hassles. That way you can spend your time being productive, not crashing or configuring.
· SLAX will breathe new life into old computers.
· SLAX is portable.
· SLAX is easily upgraded and enhanced to suit your need. New software is achieved by loading a package module.
Currently, you can obtain SLAX by:
· Download the ISO image via ftp, http, or Bittorrent and burn a CD or install it to a USB drive. To download the SLAX ISO the main site for all the SLAX and its special editions go here.
· If you have an ISO image of a previous version of SLAX, you can download a bsdiff file. This diff file can be applied to the older ISO and bring it up to the current version. This option is usually a good choice for people without a fast Internet connection.
· Purchasing a CD from the Linux Store. This option is a good option for people without a fast Internet connection.
The .iso file is the SLAX image that you burn to CD, the md5sum can be used to verify that the SLAX .iso file that you downloaded was not damaged or corrupted during the download.
SLAX was designed to run from a CDRom but that is not the only way it can run. It is also capable of running from a USB Key, a Hard Drive, a Network, and with an Emulator Image.
If you have a CDRom burner the preferred way to run SLAX is to burn the SLAX iso to a CD. Preferably you should burn the SLAX media as a multi-session CD which will allow for future saves to the CDRom. Then boot the computer directly off of the CDRom. If you don't have a CDRom burner, then you still have a few other options available to you to ejoy the SLAX experience.
Probably the quickest way to get running is to download an Emulator such as Qemu and boot straight from the ISO image. Check out the instructions for booting all the methods here
Creating a USB stick is quite straightforward and allows easy saving of settings and documents to it. The only tricky part of a USB stick is that not all Computers have USB boot capability and even if they do, it might still not work with your USB stick. The solution is very easy, a Bootloader CDRom- which can be put even on a BusinessCard CDRom. This of course requires you to have a CDRom burner.
This is a very straightforward setup but requires you to have a harddrive to install to. The setup is extremely fast and has many benefits.
This is the most complex to setup, but can be a great use especially in a smart home/appliance setup or in a Classroom environment.
[TBC]
In order to get support, you can get it on the Internet at http://www.slax.org/forum/
By joining the forum, you become an active member of the SLAX community and can get answers from many knowledgeable people or the developers.
Spread the word!!!
If you use and enjoy SLAX tell your friends about it. Burn them a copy of SLAX. Burn a few copies and give them out at a Linux LUG Meeting. You can even place the hyperlink http://slax.linux-live.org/ onto any of your own web pages.
Join the SLAX Forums
By joining the forum, you become an active member of the SLAX community. While there, you can report bugs, contribute suggestions, post fixes and improvements, create modules, or learn to be a SLAX evangelist.
Purchase SLAX logo merchandise
Another way how to support SLAX is by ordering stuff from cafepress store. SLAX creator will earn $10 for each item you buy, so don't be thrifty! ;) Shipping to US costs $4, international shipping is about $15. Delight yourself and support SLAX at the same time! Thank you.
Buy a postcard
SLAX itself is totally free and will always be available for free for everyone. If you enjoy and use SLAX please consider supporting it financially, buy a signed postcard with SLAX logo. Each postcard contains the author's signature, greeting message and the amount you bought it for. The shipping to your address is realized within 5 business days. You can buy a postcard for $500, $200, or $100.
Buy an item with a SLAX logo
Another way how to support SLAX is by ordering stuff from cafepress store. The SLAX Creator will earn $10 for each item you buy, so don't be thrifty! ;) Shipping to US costs $4, international shipping is about $15. Delight yourself and support SLAX at the same time! Thank you.
Purchase CD/USB Distribution
Purchase a Mini-ITX computer with SLAX pre-installed.
SLAX is not pretentious, nevertheless it requires some minimal hardware to run properly. It depends on what do you wish to use SLAX for, of course. The most important thing is memory. You need at least 32 MB of RAM to boot SLAX. More detailed description follows:
Medium
either IDE connected CDROM (to boot from the CD)
or USB FlashDisk (to boot from the mass storage device)
or maybe some harddisk (to boot SLAX from the disk)
BIOS
either non-emulation booting enabled (to boot from the CD)
or USB FlashDrive booting enabled (to boot from the mass storage device)
Memory
36 MB to boot slax.
96 MB to run Xwindow with fluxbox
144 MB to run Xwindow with KDE
328 MB to be able to use copy2ram cheatcode
Processor
i486 or better, Pentium or AMD are both OK.
Peripheral devices
some keyboard
PS/2 or USB connected mouse (required for Xwindow only)
serial (COM) mouse is not automatically recognized, but can be used
Harddisk
No harddisk is required
Features
The primary goal of SLAX is to provide a wide collection of useful software while keeping the cd's image small enough to be written to a 185 MB CD-R(W) medium (small 8 cm CD). SLAX boots directly from the CD or USB devices and it provides a full featured Linux operating system.
Modularity
With other Live Linux systems, you're stuck with the type and amount of applications the creator decided to include. With SLAX, you can customize the system to fit your needs, by adding additional software in the form of compressed modules. SLAX itself is very useful without any modules, but you can add a lot of own programs to make it even more suitable for your needs.
Speed
Other Live CDs contain all software in a single compressed file. If you run such a Live OS from CD-ROM, the CD drive has to seek back and forth really frequently, because different files are located on different locations of the CD medium. This makes the system notably slow.
With SLAX, all conformable parts of the filesystem are compressed to a standalone file, which doesn't contain anything else. For example, all files which belongs to Xwindow are packed in xwindow.mo, KOffice related stuff is in koffice.mo, etc. If you work with KOffice, you usually need only files from KOffice and nothing else; and hence all files from that part of the filesystem are separated from the rest of it, your CD drive has to seek only in a 10 MB area. This significantly improves the speed.
Other features
New SLAX 5 is the most inovative and promissing SLAX ever. It switched to 2.6 kernel line. Zisofs compression was replaced by SquashFS, which provides better compression ratio and higher read speed. Ovlfs (which was the most amazing and exciting feature specific only for SLAX) was replaced by unionFS. And finally, slax-installer GUI was created.
SLAX CD contains
- Linux kernel 2.6 offering excellent hardware support
- the newest ALSA sound drivers
- ndiswrapper for loading Windows drivers for WIFI cards
- madwifi drivers for native support for WIFI cards (Multiband Atheros)
- X11 (xorg) Xwindow system, supporting many gfx cards and wheel mice automatically
- KDE 3.4, an excellent desktop software
- webconfig feature allowing you to save your session data to slax' web
Click here for the full list of all installed packages
Boot parameters (also known as cheatcodes) are used to affect the boot process of SLAX. Some of them are common for all Linuxes, others are specific for SLAX only. You can use them to disable desired kind of hardware detection, to start SLAX from harddisk, to skip the login prompt and start GUI, etc.
Reboot your computer and wait several seconds until nice graphical slax logo appears. (it's there usually for less then 5 seconds only). You will see "boot: " prompt at that time, under the graphical logo (at the bottom of the screen). Start typing one of the following options immediately to be faster than the timeout, or press F1 for brief help.
boot: slax nohotplug
disable almost all hardware autodetection in the case of hangups. Your hardware won't be detected at all, you'll have to use "pcimodules" command after logging into SLAX and you'll have to try to modprobe all needed modules from the list manually
boot: slax nopcmcia
boot: slax noagp
boot: slax acpi=off
skip desired hardware detection in the case of hangups
boot: slax passwd=somepass
boot: slax passwd=ask
set root's password to "somepass", or ask (with =ask) for a new password during the boot, before starting slax (don't worry, the new password won't be shown at the login screen)
boot: slax copy2ram
boot: slax toram
copy all files (all required and optional modules) to RAM. You'll need at least 384MB of RAM to do this and boot SLAX properly. This will slow down the boot phase but it will speed up SLAX! Only the used modules are copied, see load and noload cheatcodes.
boot: slax changes=/dev/device
all changes you made in SLAX are kept in memory until you reboot. But with this boot parameter, you tell SLAX to use different device then memory for storing changes. You can, for example, format your disk partition /dev/hda1 with some Linux filesystem (eg. ext2) and then use changes=/dev/hda1 to store all changes to that disk. This way you won't loose your changes after reboot.
boot: slax ramsize=60%
all changes you made in SLAX are kept in memory. By default, SLAX never uses more than 60% of your RAM to save changes, downloaded files, etc. The rest of memory is never used to store files so it's available for running applications. You may use percentage value (for example ramsize=80%) or size in bytes (eg. ramsize=100M to use max 100MB).
boot: slax load=module
boot: slax load=module[1];module[n]
load optional modules from /optional/ directory on SLAX CD. You can use full module name (module.img) or you can skip the extension. Moreover it's possible to use asterisk (*) as a special character, so for example, using load=wine* will load all modules starting with 'wine', like 'wine-hq.mo', 'wine123.mo', etc.
boot: slax noload=module
boot: slax noload=module[1];module[n]
disable loading of any modules specified. This affects all the modules on SLAX CD, including /base and /modules, so using noload=*kde* will disable loading of all modules with 'kde' in the name. It is useful with copy2ram cheatcode, because any un-used module is not copied to ram.
boot: slax autoexec=...
boot: slax autoexec=startx
boot: slax autoexec=xconf;startx
Execute specified command(s) instead of SLAX login. In this example, skip slax login prompt and automatically start XWindow system. Use semicolon (;) as command separator.
boot: slax debug
enable debug mode (start bash several times during the boot). Hit Ctrl+D to continue booting
boot: slax floppy
enable floppy automounting during startup. This option also causes that settings saved by "configsave" command will be restored from the floppy diskette too.
slax noguest
disable guest user so he can't log in
boot: slax webconfig=passphrase
boot: slax webconfig=ask
enable SLAX webconfig feature, which allows you to save your modifications to SLAX website.
Read more at slax webconfig dedicated webpage
boot: memtest
test RAM with memtest (instead of starting SLAX)
This is a work in process...
Acknowledgement: I want to thank all the SLAX forum people and the SLAX website for supplying much of the information found here. Without it, this document would not have been possible.
Quick Guide to Setting up your Wireless Card on SLAX.Wireless Network Interfaces are a challenge for even the most savvy of Linux users. Wireless cards in general, no matter the operating system, can take DAYS to setup. The purpose of this guide is to reduce the amount of time it takes to configure the wireless adapter. There will be quite a few steps to take depending on your configuration.
Analyzing your wireless configuration.
Do you have an existing Wireless setup?
If you DON'T have existing hardware, do your research to assure that you can get it to work with Linux first. You can check on the Internet to see compatibility or you can check a verified list in the appendix of this document. The Access Point and Router are not really important from a Linux standpoint- it is important from the Wireless card compatibility standpoint.
If you DO have existing hardware, you will need to verify if your hardware works by checking the Internet or the Appendix at the end of this document.
Selecting Drivers
When selecting drivers, a Native Linux driver may already be available in the kernel. If it is, you are ready to configure your card. If it is NOT already available in the kernel, you should check to see if there is a SLAX module available. If there is not then you should proceed with an available ndiswrapper driver. This is because ndiswrapper setups are usually much simpler to implement since they don't require compiling a kernel module. Your last option is to compile a kernel module and that is something to be avoided if possible.
The Linux community is a very resilient group of people. They will write their own software and hardware drivers if need be. They will reverse engineer a companies product and create Linux compatibility when possible. With technology rapidly changing, and little vendor support, the Linux community tends to lag behind the bleeding edge for hardware support.
The creator's of ndiswrapper have created an abstraction layer to leverage the existing NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) wireless drivers for MS Windows. Though not completely optimal, this solution gives a faster turn around time for utilizing wireless network cards. Ndiswrapper not only addresses the lacking vendor support for Linux by supplying a viable solution, it gives vendors the opportunity to sell their product without developing a totally separate branch of driver code, as well as gives the Linux community more time to develop native network drivers which are faster and better integrated into Linux itself.
There are many native Linux wireless network drivers but the cards they are available for have tended to be the more expensive of the available cards. Laptops with built-in wireless adapters also tend to be a problem unless the chip set that they utilize are available in a standalone product. With Ndisdrivers and the fact that Windows drivers are always available, a laptop owner has a much better chance of utilizing their wireless hardware.
There are some pros and cons with ndiswrapper. Cons include: not all ndis drivers are supported with ndiswrapper; the stability of ndiswrapper, though getting better all the time, may cause some issues; ndiswrapper is not always easy to configure or figure out; you must have the tools to extract the Windows drivers from the Windows media. The pros are: that it allows wireless hardware without native Linux drivers to function using the Windows ndis drivers; it allows a user to not have to deal with compiling any kernel modules; ndiswrapper it is fairly straightforward to use once you figure it out and even easier if you use a separately available GUI.
Card Setup
There are three major aspects that you must consider with your wireless card set up:
1) The Wireless Adapter
2) The Wireless Adapter driver - kernel vs. ndiswrapper
3) Encryption
Other aspects include, protocols such as DHCP, SLAX module creation, and GUI interface for configuration and management.
Wireless Adapters
USB adapters
lsusb
PCI Card Adapters
lspci
PCCard adapters
Protocols
DHCP
WEP
WPA
Wireless Adapter Drivers
Kernel
NDISWrapper
Quick Configure Instructions:
mkdir -p /etc/ndiswrapper/driver_name cp driver_name.inf driver_name.sys /etc/ndiswrapper/driver_name ndiswrapper -i /etc/ndiswrapper/driver_name/driver_name.inf modprobe ndiswrapper iwconfig wlan0 essid My_ESSID iwconfig wlan0 key My_Encryption_Key iwconfig wlan0 channel My_Channel_WAP_is_set_to ifconfig wlan0 up dhcpcd -d wlan0 |
Setting up and Diagnosing Problems
Commands
lspcilsusb
Setup
modprobe
ndiswrapper
wlassistant
wifimanagern
disgtk
Configure
ifconfig
iwconfig
iwlist wlan0
route
Diagnose
ndiswrapper
ifconfig -a
iwconfig –a
iwlist wlan0
lsmod
ping
Sample Output
root@slax:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet Hwaddr 00:D0:59:37:23:4D
inet addr:192.168.1.5 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2d0:59ff:fe37:234d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:705 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:491 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1020128 (996.2 Kb) TX bytes 35933 (35.0 Kb)
Interrupt:11
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask 255.0.0.0
inet6addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:69 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
TX packets:69 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:5076 (4.9 Kb) TX bytes:5076 (4.9 Kb)
wlan0 link encap:Ethernet Hwaddr 00:0F:B5:4B:B1:3A
inet6 addr: fe80::20f:b5ff:fe4b:b13a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes 0 (0.0 b) Interrupt:11 Memory:22010000-22020000
root@slax:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions
eth0 no wireless extensions
sit0 no wireless extensions
wlan0 IEEE802.11b ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Sensitivity:-200dBm
RTS thr:2346 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive Retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
Wireless Card Configuration using Ndiswrapper
# Get the ndis drivers from where ever they are located. wget if they are
# on the web or just copy them from CDRom if you have them from the
# installation directory.
cd /tmp
wget ftp://ftp.wherever_the_drivers_are.com/wirelesscard_ndisdrivers.zip
unzip wirelesscard_ndisdrivers.zip
cd /tmp/wirelesscard_ndisdrivers
# Put the drivers someplace accessable
mkdir /etc/network/ndiswrapper/drivers/driver_name/
cp * /etc/network/ndiswrapper/drivers/driver_name/
Use ndiswrapper to initialize the cards
# Sometimes the card needs to load firmware and this is accomplished with a firmware_download.inf file
ndiswrapper -i /etc/network/ndiswrapper/drivers/driver_name/athfmwdl.inf
# Need to load the ndis driver ndiswrapper -i /etc/network/ndiswrapper/drivers/driver_name/NetA5AGU.inf
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper
# Use iwconfig to configure wireless interface settings
iwconfig wlan0 essid My_ESSID
iwconfig wlan0 key My_Encryption_Key
iwconfig wlan0 channel My_Channel_WAP_is_set_to
# Use ifconfig to initialize the interface itself
ifconfig wlan0 up
# Configure the IP information for the interface
# Use dhcp to setup the information for the card
dhcpcd -d wlan0
# Manually you can set it like this
ifconfig wlan0
route add -net default gw
Know working adapters and their method of configuration
Card Name | Method | Location of Driver |
D-Link DWL-G132 Rev A2 | ndiswrapper athfmwdl.inf, NetA5AGU.inf | ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Wireless/dwlg132/Driver/DWLG132_driver_102.zip |
Sitecom WL115v2 | kernel module | rt2x00.serialmonkey.com |
Broadcom 54G | ndiswrapper bcmwl5a | ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_1500/drivers/80211g.zip |
Belkin Pre-N F5D8010 Notebook card | ndiswrapper | Netgear driver on Toshiba M1 |
Asus wl-107g (PCMCIA, Ralink RT2500 chipset) ndiswrapper
Asus wl-138g (PCI, Marvell W8300 chipset) ndiswrapper
Linksys WPC11 v4 ndiswrapper net8180.inf
DWL-G650+ (pcmcia, D-Link) ndiswrapper
DWL-G650+ (pcmcia, D-Link) kernel module acx (you need to compile it)
MA521 (pcmcia, Netgear) ndiswrapper
NKRCB200B (pcmcia, Acer) ndiswrapper
WG111 (usb, Netgear) ndiswrapper
WG511 (pcmcia, Netgear) ndiswrapper
Ralink RT2500, ndiswrapper<>
Helpful Links
Helpful pages:
ndiswrapper home page
ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
ndiswrapper Installation Wiki page
ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Installation
ndiswrapper network drivers page
ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List
www.network-drivers.com home page
www.network-drivers.com/
KWiFiManager Docs
docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdenetwork/kwifimanager/index.html
Linux Magazine Article (PDF File)
www.linux-magazine.com/issue/52/KWiFiManager.pdf
KWiFiManager Home Page
kwifimanager.sourceforge.net/
KWiFi FAQ
kwifimanager.sourceforge.net/html/faq.html
WiFiRadar home page
wifi-radar.systemimager.org/
Linux.com article about WiFi Radar
www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/11/1354237
Misc Docs
http://www.utexas.edu/its/wireless/install/config_linux.html
July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 July 2007