Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post here if you are a new Porteus member and you're looking for some help.
newbody
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Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#1 by newbody » 28 Oct 2011, 08:22

I am so mixed up about this. The good thing is that i have persistence with port
which many of the others don't give me in frugal install

One bad thing with Porteus out of the box is that Kplayer lacks codex for vmw
and for some mp4 too. apart from that it seems to work very good.

another issue is that Slax seems to not be a supported way to do Linux.
On LinuxQuestions the Slackware devs did not want to see it even as
something them want to touch.

To a noob that is not a good sign. Looks too much like distro war or something.

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Hamza
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#2 by Hamza » 28 Oct 2011, 10:31

Kplayer is installed and stripped for most unused codex, you just need to install its Kplayer codex

If you are using Porteus v1.0 32bit : Download and Install this

Small HOWTO :
  1. Download this file on your home directory
  2. Double-Click on it
  3. Wait some seconds to give to Porteus the time to install this package
  4. Enjoy!
This can be used only with normal installation - You need to run Porteus with changes cheatcodes activated.

How to know if Porteus saves the changes ?

Place a text file on your Desktop, and reboot Porteus.
If your text file appear after rebooting Porteus, Porteus saves your changes made on Porteus.
Otherwise, it doesn't saves the changes, and it run like Always Fresh Mode.

Ciao!
NjVFQzY2Rg==

newbody
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#3 by newbody » 28 Oct 2011, 10:45

Thanks have to test that one. I do trust it save changes.
I made a preference for Firefox and it kept it to next time
it saves the password for Porteus forum so that says it all :)

But it fail to save the Swedish keyboard.
I have to do setxkbmap se each time?

Oops while I am at it. I need to set the code for changing to 1024 x 768
now it is 800 x 600 which is a bit big even of working okay most of the time

Any cheat code like qwerty_sv_SE.UTF8 or similar? resolution 1024 x 768 code?
I will test your link to the mplayer codecs now I get back :)

Dl went well but the double click fails. It asks a lot of questions
about where and what application and I have no idea what to do.
I am too computer challenged to know what to do now. I have looked
at it using xarchiver but have no idea how to install it

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Ahau
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#4 by Ahau » 28 Oct 2011, 14:37

Hi newbody,

For the codecs, the file Hamza linked should download as a .txz file. This is a slackware package, and there are a couple of ways to install it. The way I would do it is this:

1) Download the file to your desktop
2) Right click on it, and select "convert txz to xzm" or something similar (I'm in windows right now and can't remember exactly what the menu item says). This will create a module on your desktop with the same name, except the file extension will be .xzm.
3)Move that module to your /mnt/sdXY/porteus/modules folder, and then double click on it to activate. After that, it will automatically be activated every time you start porteus. Activating the module will inject the codec files directly into your filesystem, so you shouldn't have to do anything else.

Please let us know if this doesn't work for you.

For the Swedish keyboard:
Future versions of Porteus (1.1 and greater) will include a new cheatcode, 'kmap=', which will allow you to set your keyboard map at startup. For version 1.0, you should be able to add 'setxkbmap se' to your rc.local file and it will automate this process for you (rc.local is a script that is run while the system is starting up, and you can add custom commands to it, just as if you were typing them into the command line). In your other thread, I think you were getting swedish language menus because you were using the 'lang=' cheatcode, which sets the language, not the keyboard. I would leave out the lang= cheatcode from your menu.lst

More on using rc.local here: http://porteus.org/info/docs/47-porteus ... local.html

For setting your screen resolution, does using 'autoexec=xconf;telinit~4' in your menu.lst not work anymore? I'm thinking of this thread:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... 6226#p6226
If xconf set it properly to 1024x768, there should be no trouble with keeping xconf in your menu.lst.

If this doesn't help, please show us what your menu.lst looks like now, and also post the output of the 'psinfo' command to pastebin.com, and we should be able to help with configuring the graphics for your specific machine.

Cheers!
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!

newbody
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#5 by newbody » 28 Oct 2011, 15:12

Thanks much to test. :) will be interesting but I most likely do it during the weekend and not today.

What about my question why Slax seems to be looked down upon by the Slackware guys.

And When I read in my typical sloppy style on internet I do get the impression that Slackware and especially
slax version are on their way out. Almost none care about them except a few enthusiasts? So them predict
it is a dying OS?

I don't say this to discourage you or anybody just try to get what is going on.

I love that Porteus can save on a frugal install. so practical very much appreciated indeed.

Yes it forced Swedish all over so I had to abandon that one.

My current attempt looks like this

title Porteus Port32-10 1.0 OS
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
kernel /port32-10/boot/vmlinuz rw from_dev=/dev/sda3 from_dir=/port32-10 changes=/mnt/sda3/port32-10/port32-10-save.dat
initrd /port32-10/boot/initrd.xz

I see now that I have promised myself to do this run xwmconfig or is it more likely exec xwmconfig
that way I can get 1024 x 768 ?

So much to do to get the codecs. Yes I will try but not now. I feel too overwhelmed now that it failed to
do a simple double click. I easily get sick and tired when things don't just work :)

Would you say that Porteus is one of the best small distros? Or is there some competition?
Which if any?

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brokenman
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#6 by brokenman » 29 Oct 2011, 22:29

I do get the impression that Slackware and especially slax version are on their way out.
Slax ...maybe. Slackware, never.

It was one of the first, and it will be one of the last. Slackware is what i would call almost pure linux. Most others have bastardized or morphed into something different entirely.
What about my question why Slax seems to be looked down upon by the Slackware guys.
I'd have to read what you read to say anything about this. It is most probably not a war, just Slackware not wanting to support questions about Slax in their own forums ... and understandably so.
Would you say that Porteus is one of the best small distros? Or is there some competition? Which if any?
Yes, Porteus is the best small distro. The experts say so. (but i may be a little biased).

'best' is such a relative term it is impossible to answer. It depends on your preference, situation and experience.
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.

newbody
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#7 by newbody » 30 Oct 2011, 07:25

Yes it could be me being too careless and them wanting to tell me to shape up.
But I did get the impression them was very negative. Maybe them just was Linux minded.

So if I get it. You don't see Porteus as Slax anymore. To you Porteus is Slackware only
having it's own forum and should not be talked about on the Slackware forum on LQ?

I am too naive to know what that means. If it is slackware then why don't them accept it?

I do like Porteus but as a noob Netrunner was easier to relate to being Ubuntu or rather Kubuntu
that makes it have a wider membership in that it is based on ubuntu and them don't look down
upon Netrunner I hope.

All these Don't step on my turf things in Linux. It is like religion to me. Everybody a fundy
only believing in their own Distro. Very human indeed still irritating.

Sorry me whining. I look into my problem with getting the codecs going later.
Have a Bike to take care of today Sunday. Not much of a bike but for the Winter.

Posted after 4 minutes 46 seconds:
Ahau thanks for all the info on how to get the codecs and Swedish keyboard going.
I also have to repair the assign of programs when one click on things. Now it has
4 program assign that should not be there and I see nowhere to delete these entries.

I guess there is some config file somewhere to edit but I maybe have to start a new thread about that one

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brokenman
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#8 by brokenman » 30 Oct 2011, 23:09

Personally i don't see Porteus as slax anymore. It has evolved into something else yet is still based on slackware. As for posting Porteus (or slax) related problems in a slackware forum ... i can understand why they get annoyed. Porteus is a completely 'stripped' version of slackware and if you go saying something doesn't work over there, they will tell you to install the full slackware, because whatever isn't working (to them) is most likely because the required file/s or deps are missing. Kind of like having a 'warranty void if seal is broken' sticker on hardware. You don't want to support some guy with fixing his machine, only to find out he has opened it, played around and removed some parts, and THAT is the reason it is broken.

Some linux users can be a little narky ... but i think you will find people around here very agreeable and helpful. We plan on growing.
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.

newbody
Black ninja
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Re: Why Porteus and not another linux?

Post#9 by newbody » 31 Oct 2011, 07:38

I get it. I can understand it too. I was very naive and being happy about having found Porteus
so I most likely was on a mission to save them from all the Slackware too strict regime something.

Broken? your seems very much at it so to me your not broken at all. Accomplished maybe. :)

Sooner or later I do something about Porteus. Apart from Puppy I do see Porteus as a very good
small disto. I mean it even save things in a file on my NTFS hdd. That is a feature I support for sure!

Edit. Ooops as AFAIK it is only Puppy and Porteus and now very late finally TinyCore also do that.
Only three out of some 100 on the DistroWatch list. All the others require that one have a linux partition
or make use of USB to save changes.

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