Slackel 7.0 "Live Openbox"

[djemos]

Slackel 7.0 Live Openbox has been released. Slackel is based on Slackware and Salix.

Includes the Linux kernel 4.4.38 and latest updates from Slackware's 'Current' tree.

The 64-bit iso image support booting on UEFI systems.
The 32-bit iso image support both i686 PAE SMP and i486, non-PAE capable systems.
Iso images are isohybrid
Iso images can be used as installation media.

Full multimedia support without having to install multimedia codecs while on live environment. Of course it is suggested to install multimedia codecs to your system after installation.
1. Persistent file encryption has been added after installation on USB.
2. medialabel="USB_LABEL_NAME" parameter added. .
Users who use a different program to create the live USB and this name the usb label differently than the default which is "LIVE" and/or also want to have many distributions on usb, can pass the parameter medialabel="YOUR_USB_LABEL_NAME". In this case slackel will be found and can boot.

Slackel 7.0 Openbox includes:
Browsers + internet:

• Midori-0.5.11
  Mozilla-Firefox-45.9.0esr (multilingual edition)
  Pidgin 2.12.0
  Transmission-2.92
  Wicd 1.7.4

Mail Clients:

• Sylpheed-3.5.1
  Mozilla-Thunderbird-45.8.0 (multilingual edition)

Ftp Clients:

• Gftp-2.0.19
  Filezilla-3.25.1

Multimedia:

• SMPlayer-17.4.0 movie player
  MPlayer-1.3_20170208
  Exaile-3.4.5 is the application to use for managing your music collection
  Asunder-2.7 Cd ripper
  Bracero-3.12.0 for writing CD/DVD's

Graphics:

• Gimp-2.8.20
  Viewnior-1.6
  Mtpaint 3.40
  Scrot-0.8

Office Applications:

• Abiword 3.0.1
  Gnumeric-1.12.27
  Libreoffice 5.2.6
  Libreoffice-help-el 5.2.6
  Libreoffice-l10n-el 5.2.6 (Packages for the rest languages are on slackel repositories)
  Libreoffice-extension-libregreek 1.0 for spell checking
  Libreoffice-extension-ancient-greek-dictionary 2.1.5 for ancient greek spell checking

Other Applications:

• Geany 1.30.1
  Leafpad-0.8.18.1
  PCManFm 1.2.5
  Openjre-8u121_b13
  Grub-2.02
  Grub-Scripts-0.0.7
  Fbpanel-6.1
  Lxpanel-0.9.3

On slackel repositories can be found Openjdk-8u121_b13, kplayer 0.7.2, kaffeine 1.3.1, k3b-2.0.3, vlc 2.2.4, gnome-mplayer 1.0.8 , radiotray-0.7.3, mixxx-2.0.0, gmpc 11.8.16, mpd 0.19.18, icecast 2.3.2, ices-mp3 0.4, ices-ogg, murmur 1.2.15, mumble 1.2.15, audacity-2.1.0, audacious-3.7.2, kdenlive-0.9.10, wxcam-1.1, games as (supertux4, supertux2, frozen bubble, extreme tux racer) educational software as gcompris, tuxtype, tuxpaint and many more. All these can be easily installed using gslapt.

Hard disk installation
The Slackel Live Installer (SLI) supports installation on different filesystems (btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, jfs, reiserfs, xfs). You can use a different partition for /home. You can find and add Windows partitions in grub.cfg. Note that if you use eLilo as your bootloader, you will not be able to boot Windows partitions.

Installation on EFI GPT partitions is also supported for 64bit iso. In this case you have to create a gpt partition table with GParted.
The following partitions should be created:
- the first partition has to be at least 300MB and use the FAT32 filesystem
- the second partition has to be a Linux partition of any type. NOTE: if you choose grub then the partition cannot be in xfs filesystem because system will not boot after installation, as grub does not support xfs properly. If you want to use xfs as your filesystem you must also use the eLilo boot loader.
- you can optionally add a third partition for /home
- and of course a swap partition
- Important! Before proceeding with the installation you must flag the first FAT32 partition as bootable. You can also do this using GParted.
When booting with 64bit iso efi partition is detected and if it is exist it is mounted to /boot/efi. So user can use the guefi graphical tool.

USB Installation (frugal install)
If you want to transfer the iso to a USB stick, make sure you read the respective instructions in this file:
http://www.slackel.gr/isos/slackel-live ... ON_USB.TXT

IMPORTANT:
1. Because of a bug in install_on_usb.sh script the size of EFI partition, in a ext3 formatted USB stick, is smaller than the real size is needed. So download this updated version of the install_on_usb.sh script and use it to complete the installation in usb.

2. For users want to use the GUI installer to install the iso on usb or want to use lilo as bootloader to hard disk installation, have to download and install this new version of slackware-live.

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sudo spkg -i slackware-live-0.5.3-noarch-5dj.txz

Or run these commands to do it without download the file.

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sudo slapt-get -u
sudo slapt-get -i slackware-live

And next can run the gui installer.

What is new
Persistent file encryption is supported. Running the above script you will be asked if you want to encrypt the persistent file.
Then just boot with persistent option from menus. System will understand that the persistent file is encrypted and ask to type the encrypt passphrase to unlock it.
You can use the persistent file "persistent" for /home encryption. You can use this feature by changing the parameter changes=persistent to home=persistent
You can rename the persistent file "persistent" to "whatever_you_like" and use it by changing the parameter changes=whatever_you_like or home=whatever_you_like
Tip: You can create a persistent file (its name is always persistent). Then rename it to e.g. home
Create again a persistent file for whole system. So you can boot with persistent option from menus to have persistent encryption for whole system or boot by changing the parameter changes=persistent to home=home to have only /home encryption.


(The root password for the live CD is “live”. Standard user login is “one” with password: "one") (no quotation marks).
For installation and for all work required administration privileges the super user "one" with password "one" is used.

Minimum system requirements:
* Pentium 2 or equivalent
* 256 MB (RAM)
* 1.5 GB HDD


You can download Slackel 7.0 Live Openbox iso images from the following links, using the Sourceforge servers.

Live iso images: Can be used also to install the system to hard disk.
Slackel 7.0 "Live Openbox" (32-bit)
(size: 1256 MB,
sha256 sha512 Signature PGP-KEY
Sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/slacke ... o/download
pkglist
torrent download sha256

Slackel64 7.0 "Live Openbox" (64-bit)
(size: 1257 MB, sha256 sha512 Signature PGP-KEY
Sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/slacke ... o/download
pkglist
torrent download sha256

slackel-openbox-7.0-1.jpg (226.81 KiB) Viewed 18404 times

slackel-openbox-7.0-2.jpg (218.46 KiB) Viewed 18404 times

slackel-openbox-7.0-3.jpg (240.11 KiB) Viewed 18404 times

[Papasot]

Great job as usual, djemos. Just a question though, what about users already running Slackel Openbox 6.x? I do package updates every week or so. I assume that already made my system essentially Slackel 7, with the exception of the kernel and glibc (which are excluded by default). Is this correct, or I am missing something?

[djemos]

Slackel is a "rolling distro". If it was installed once then can always have the latest programs.
I had installed slackel-openbox if i remember well version 5.0 after i bought a new lenovo laptop. In my desktop pc 384MB RAM , Pentium 2 , i had installed slackel 1.0 and just do pdates. Now is running slackel openbox 7.0. Also in another HP 2GB RAM laptop, i had installed slackel openbox 3.0.
I have upgraded to all versions to version 7.0 now.

When you upgrade glibc because sometimes system can break i do this.
sudo slapt-get -i -d glibc glibc-i18n glibc-profile
Then i go to init 1
sudo init 1
and for there i run
su
password for root
upgradepkg /var/slapt-get/slackware64/l/glibc*
then go to init 4
init 4
This way there is no way to break the system

About kernel sudo slapt-get -i kernel-huge etc
and sudo update-grub
Then reboot


A couple days ago i bought a HP ENVY 4520 All-in-One Printer for 54.90 €. I just open firefox and type http://localhost:631/admin
Printer scanner etc was setup at once. It is a wifi wireless printer scanner and copy machine.
In windows 10 i had to install the drivers and software included with the printer. In linux it was already there in hplip package.
For scanner i had to install xsane which i will include in next slackel versions.

[Papasot]

Slackel is a "rolling distro". If it was installed once then can always have the latest programs

That's what I assumed, I just wanted to be sure. Thank you for clarifying this.

Also, thank you for the instructions concerning upgrading the kernel and glibc (I think they deserve a dedicated, pinned post so that people can find them easily).

[djemos]

I have edit my previous message.
Do not install glibc-solibs package. It will break the system. It is not exist on slackel.
This is correct procedure.

sudo slapt-get -i -d glibc glibc-i18n glibc-profile
Then i go to init 1
sudo init 1
and for there i run
su
password for root
upgradepkg /var/slapt-get/slackware64/l/glibc*
then go to init 4
init 4

[Papasot]

Worked! However, I also needed to upgrade the following packages, other than the ones you mentioned:

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aaa_base
glibc-zoneinfo
zzz-settings-slackel-openbox

Upgrading aaa_base is essential. Before upgrading it, I had issues running gslapt (the window asking for password didn't pop-up), and even logging out Openbox didn't work (I had to exit X with Alt+Ctrl+Backspace). Both issues are related to user privileges, which were fixed after upgrading aaa_base.

After upgrading the packages above, I upgraded the following kernel packages:

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kernel-huge
kernel-huge-smp
kernel-modules
kernel-modules-smp
kernel-firmware
kernel-headers

(of course the smp packages are for upgrading 32-bit systems). This is what I got after upgrading the kernel:

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pap[~]$ uname -snrv
Linux slackel 4.9.27-smp #2 SMP Tue May 9 16:37:01 CDT 2017

So the kernel is now 4.9.27. I guess the one you mention in announcement (4.4.38) is a typo?

General remarks after upgrading:
(1) For some reason, update-grub added unexpected entries in the grub booting menu. Apart from the two usual entries ("Slackel 14.2" and "Advanced options of Slackel 14.2"), I now see two new ones, identical to the Slackel entries except that it says "Slackware" instead of "Slackel". It doesn't harm anything, but I wonder why they are there.
(2) In previous versions of Slackel, I added a wicd entry in ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh. This seems to be deprecated: system tray showed two wicd applets running, instead of one. I just deleted the wicd entry and it's all well. I suspect wicd was repackaged in Slackel 7, so that there is no need to add wicd in ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh.
(3) New version of Firefox works great. Previous one had a few issues with some websites, including Sourceforge.
(4) Slackel 7 comes with GCC 7.1.0. Now, that's great news! I wonder why you don't even mention that in announcement. Compared to the previous GCC included on Slackel, this one not only adds many features, but also the compiler is more strict. For programmers using GCC, that alone makes upgrading to Slackel 7 a must. I recompiled my own libraries and GCC 7.1.0 detected some useful warnings (for special cases), while previous compiler didn't.

In general, this is a great upgrade. Even on an old netbook with only 1 Gb of RAM and very limited resources in general, Slackel 7 Openbox runs flawlessly. Thank you again for your hard work on Slackel, djemos.

PS: I think the Slackel logo has been changed a little bit?

[djemos]

Worked! However, I also needed to upgrade the following packages, other than the ones you mentioned:
aaa_base
glibc-zoneinfo
zzz-settings-slackel-openbox

Yes. aaa_base, zzz-settings.* as also glibc.* packages are excluded in slapt-getrc.

So the kernel is now 4.9.27. I guess the one you mention in announcement (4.4.38) is a typo?

No. When slackel openbox 7.0 released kernel version was 4.4.38 in slackware current. Since then kernel upgraded to 4.9.26 and a couple of days in 4.9.27. Look at slackware current changelog file.

1) For some reason, update-grub added unexpected entries in the grub booting menu. Apart from the two usual entries ("Slackel 14.2" and "Advanced options of Slackel 14.2"), I now see two new ones, identical to the Slackel entries except that it says "Slackware" instead of "Slackel". It doesn't harm anything, but I wonder why they are there.

There are no Slackware entries here. This is strange. Maybe was from an very old Slackel version ? Look in ls -l /etc/grub.d/ for *.new files. If they exist, then copy the .new files over the previous. e.g. cp 10_linux.new 10_linux. And run update-grub.

After the kernel upgrade a new link added so grub pool all these. e.g. in my system it is now
vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-huge-4.9.27
vmlinuz-huge -> vmlinuz-huge-4.9.27
vmlinuz-huge-4.9.27
This happened after kernel upgrade. So can delete the vmlinuz-huge link and run update-grub.
There is also lsb-release installed which add the slackel (current) in grub.
Same in 32 bit can delete duplicate entries for kernel-huge-smp and kernel-huge

(2) In previous versions of Slackel, I added a wicd entry in ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh. This seems to be deprecated: system tray showed two wicd applets running, instead of one. I just deleted the wicd entry and it's all well. I suspect wicd was repackaged in Slackel 7, so that there is no need to add wicd in ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh.

Yes. There is no need for wicd entry in autostart.sh.

3) New version of Firefox works great. Previous one had a few issues with some websites, including Sourceforge.

Firefox version 45.9.0esr is working fine while versions over 50 have problems with flash-plugin. e.g. when clik on music note in slackel radio page it will play the sound. If i click again or close the tab and click again in music note it will not play the sound.

(4) Slackel 7 comes with GCC 7.1.0. Now, that's great news! I wonder why you don't even mention that in announcement. Compared to the previous GCC included on Slackel, this one not only adds many features, but also the compiler is more strict. For programmers using GCC, that alone makes upgrading to Slackel 7 a must. I recompiled my own libraries and GCC 7.1.0 detected some useful warnings (for special cases), while previous compiler didn't.

Slackel 7.0 iso comes with gcc-5.4.0. Since then gcc upgraded to 7.1.0 in slackware current.
Look in pkglist link in announcement for packages included in 7.0 Slackel version.

I am glad you like Slackel. Thank you for the reports.

[Papasot]

There are no Slackware entries here. This is strange. Maybe was from an very old Slackel version ? Look in ls -l /etc/grub.d/ for *.new files. If they exist, then copy the .new files over the previous. e.g. cp 10_linux.new 10_linux. And run update-grub.

After the kernel upgrade a new link added so grub pool all these. e.g. in my system it is now
vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-huge-4.9.27
vmlinuz-huge -> vmlinuz-huge-4.9.27
vmlinuz-huge-4.9.27
This happened after kernel upgrade. So can delete the vmlinuz-huge link and run update-grub.
There is also lsb-release installed which add the slackel (current) in grub.

I copied the *.new files over the previous ones, deleted the *,new files and the vmlinuz-huge (and vmlinuz-huge-smp) links in /boot. After updating the grub, the duplicate entries for Slackel were removed from the boot menu. However, the two "Slackware" entries are still there. Not sure if it is related, but update-grub also prints this warning:

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/lib/libdevmapper.so.1.02: version `DM_1_02_138' not found (required by lvs)

When slackel openbox 7.0 released kernel version was 4.4.38 in slackware current. Since then kernel upgraded to 4.9.26 and a couple of days in 4.9.27. Look at slackware current changelog file.
...
Slackel 7.0 iso comes with gcc-5.4.0. Since then gcc upgraded to 7.1.0 in slackware current.
Look in pkglist link in announcement for packages included in 7.0 Slackel version.

Lesson learned. Indeed, I didn't look at Slackware-Current change log ot pkglist for Slackel 7. Nevertheless, updating Slackel 7 for the first time should upgrade GCC to version 7.1.0, so essentially this is part of the system. Of course, the kernel is another story, since it is excluded by default.

[djemos]

/lib/libdevmapper.so.1.02: version `DM_1_02_138' not found (required by lvs)

Install lvm2 package (lvm2-2.02.170-i586-1.txz)
Also some new packages added in Slackware current look at ChangeLog.txt and other removed. e.g. slocate removed replaced by mlocate which added.

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a/mlocate-0.26-i586-1.txz:  Added.
  This replaces slocate as the system locate/updatedb utilities.
  In tests here, mlocate was about 20% faster than slocate at creating a
  new database.  When updating an existing database, it was many times
  faster.  On my machine, the nightly database update took about 5 minutes
  with slocate, but only a few seconds with mlocate.
  I might miss (slightly) the heavy drive activity at 04:40 that would let
  me know that it was time for bed.  ;-)
  Be sure to move the new /etc/updatedb.conf into place when installing
  this package.
a/slocate-3.1-i486-4.txz:  Removed.

Some xf86-video-* packages added
urw-core35-fonts-otf-20160712_79bcdfb_git-noarch-1.txz: Added.

[Papasot]

Install lvm2 package (lvm2-2.02.170-i586-1.txz)

lvm2 is already installed:

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pap[~]$ sudo slapt-get -i lvm2
Password: 
Reading Package Lists...Done
lvm2 is up to date.
0 upgraded, 0 reinstalled, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove, 0 not upgraded.

But anyway, the two "Slackware" entries in grub's boot menu are not really worth our time, I guess. I can always remove them by manually editing /boot/grub/grub.cfg. In any case, upgrading from Slackel 6 to Slackel 7 was way easier than what I was expecting, judging from other distributions I used in the past.

It should also be noted here that all the above concern upgrading from Slackel 6.x to Slackel 7. They have nothing to do with a fresh Slackel 7 installation, so they should not be posted in this thread. I apologize for that.