My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Stable 1.0.0 release of liveslak

blueSW-64pxYesterday on the final day of my short holiday (of sorts) I prepped and released version 1.0.0 of my “liveslak” project. It is stable and the bugs that were reported (plus some more) have been taken care of.

The “1.0.0” marker is not the end of its development of course. It means that I consider the project production-ready.  It will be used to create Live Editions of Slackware 14.2 (64bit and 32bit) when that is released. There’s still some more ideas for liveslak that I want to implement and those will become available as 1.x releases.

For demonstration purposes I have generated a new set of ISO images using liveslak version 1.0.0. There are ISO images for a full Slackware (64bit and 32bit versions), 64bit Plasma5 and MATE variants and the 700MB small XFCE variant (also 64bit). They are based on Slackware-current dated “Thu May 12 01:50:21 UTC 2016“.

This weekend I will “re-write” the original blog post on Slackware Live because it is the page that has had the biggest hit rate for the past months. People reading that original article may think that this project is still immature and not usable. I will re-write it into a landing page for anyone who is interested in a Live Edition of Slackware, and copy the original text to a new article for reference purposes. All previous articles about the liveslak project aka “Slackware Live Edition” are accessible through this shortcut link by the way.

The changes between 0.9.0 and 1.0.0

Not much was changed actually:

  • I added a new “tweaks” boot option to tweak various aspects of the system. As documented in the Wiki, these are the currently implemented tweaks (multiple tweak values can be combined when comma-separated):
    • nga – no glamor 2D acceleration, avoids error “EGL_MESA_drm_image required”. Because we now have “tweaks=nga“, the old boot parameter “nga” which did the same thing has been removed.
    • tpb – enable TrackPoint scrolling while holding down middle mouse button (a TrackPoint is found on IBM/Lenovo laptops but not only there).
    • syn – start the syndaemon for better support of Synaptics touchpads.
    • ssh – start the SSH server (it is disabled by default). 
  • The SSH daemon is disabled by default now. The default login accounts and passwords of Slackware Live Edition are too easy to find out. Imagine what could happen if you booted Slackware Live on a public network like an internet café!
    Note that you can still enable the SSH daemon on boot: by providing the “tweaks=ssh” boot parameter.
  • The few bugs reported since 0.9.0 have been fixed and I found a few bugs and enhancements too, which have also been dealt with. Check out the commit log if you are interested.

Download the ISO images

The ISO variants of Slackware Live Edition are: SLACKWARE, XFCE, PLASMA5 and MATE. These ISO images (with MD5 checksum and GPG signature) were uploaded to the master server (bear) yesterday and should be available by now on the mirror servers.

Have fun! Eric

28 Comments

  1. cmyster

    Very well made sir, and many thanks!

  2. kjhambrick

    Eric —

    I’ve burnt slackware64-plasma5.iso to a 64GB USB

    Booted with parms: 3 tweaks=ssh

    Check this:

    Note the loop0 … loop20 mounts … Is this normal ?

    # df

    Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
    overlay 59531376 3194296 56320696 6% /
    none 3938848 0 3938848 0% /mnt/live
    /dev/loop0 13312 13312 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0000-slackware_boot-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop1 141312 141312 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_a-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop2 128000 128000 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_ap-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop3 277504 277504 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_d-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop4 41984 41984 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_e-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop5 8192 8192 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_f-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop6 99328 99328 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_k-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop7 259072 259072 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_l-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop8 98304 98304 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_n-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop9 90112 90112 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_t-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop10 6144 6144 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_tcl-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop11 111616 111616 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_x-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop12 244736 244736 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_xap-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop13 12288 12288 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_xfce-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop14 2048 2048 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0010-slackware_y-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop15 495616 495616 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0020-slackware_alien-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop16 181248 181248 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0020-slackware_kde4plasma5-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop17 863232 863232 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0020-slackware_plasma5-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop18 5120 5120 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0020-slackware_slackextra-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop19 1024 1024 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0030-slackware_slackpkg+-current-x86_64
    /dev/loop20 8192 8192 0 100% /mnt/live/modules/0099-slackware_zzzconf-current-x86_64
    overlay 1024 1024 0 100% /mnt/liveslakfs
    /dev/sdb3 59531376 3194296 56320696 6% /mnt/livemedia
    tmpfs 3938848 1112 3937736 1% /run
    devtmpfs 3928300 0 3928300 0% /dev
    tmpfs 3938848 0 3938848 0% /dev/shm
    cgroup_root 3938848 0 3938848 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    cgmfs 100 0 100 0% /run/cgmanager/fs
    tmpfs 3938848 8 3938840 1% /tmp
    tmpfs 3938848 0 3938848 0% /var/tmp

    Or did I screw something up ( again ) ?

    Thanks !

    — kjh

  3. kjhambrick

    p.s. Other than all the mounts, plasma 5 runs great !

    Thank you for liveslak Eric !

    — kjh

  4. alienbob

    kjhambrick – the loop devices are used to loop-mount the 21 squashfs modules which (overlayed) together comprise the root filesystem Live OS. You’ll notice that these loop mounts are filtered out of the “mount” command but I could not find a way to filter them out of the “df” command output.

    Perhaps time to read the “developer notes” section of the documentation to get to know more about the internals of liveslak?

  5. kjhambrick

    Thanks Eric.

    Absolutely so !

    After my ‘mis-adventures’ with 0.9.0, I realized I’ve got a long reading list: eudev, overlay mounts, loop mounting, etc, etc.

    I used to understand the internals pretty well but there is a lot of new since I first learned linux.

    I’ll re-read the liveslak documentation.

    I see it’s changed a lot !

    Thanks again Eric !

    — kjh

  6. Grog

    Well, looks like I’ve messed up again. I can’t find the instructions Alien wrote out to make the nvidia blob into an ‘.sxz’ that I can put in the ‘options’ directory on my usb stick.

    Does anyone remember the link or the instructions? Also to make sure, this 1.0.0 liveslak has kernel 4.4.9, correct?

  7. Michael

    Awesome! Crongrats and Kudos to the 1.0 release!

  8. kjhambrick

    grog —

    Here is a handy google search string for Eric’s Blog:

    site:alien.slackbook.org/blog slackware live grog nvidia blob .sxz

    The first link looks like the one.

    HTH.

    — kjh

  9. kjhambrick

    oops. Nope, the kernel is 4.4.10

  10. Niki Kovacs

    Great work, Eric. Thank you for your efforts and your outstanding work. I’d like to put in a request. This may be a bit problematic, as there has been some mild flamewar around the subject, though for different reasons. As far as I’m concerned, a 32-bit build of the Xfce Liveslak edition would be very welcome. Here’s why. My main use for a live system is for data retrieval after a crash on a client’s machine. Quite many of these machines are old 32-bit-only PC’s. Until now I’ve been using a 32-bit Slax Live CD, but I’d gladly switch for Liveslak.

    Cheers,

    Niki

  11. alienbob

    Niki, as with all the work I do, the scripts are the product and the binaries are the by-product… however convenient they are.
    A 32bit XFCE ISO is easy to create but I have not decided on what ISOs will be available in what variants after release of Slackware 14.2.

    Still the most pressing reason is disk space, not bandwidth. I had to cull all other Slackware releases from the ‘bear’ server in order to store all the live ISO images. And no, I am not migrating to a server with more disks at the moment.

    You can run:

    # ./make_slackware_live.sh -d XFCE -a i586 -z current

    and wait a bit… and you will have your 32bit ISO.

  12. Niki Kovacs

    Thanks very much, Eric! I’ll give that a spin.

  13. alienbob

    Just keep in mind that the script needs one thing in addition: a local mirror of the Slackware version/arch you are creating the ISO for. Slackware 14.1 and older won’t work, so you need to have a slackware-current (32bit) local repository. The parent directory of your local repository mirror can be supplied as a value to the “-s” parameter:

    # ./make_slackware_live.sh -d XFCE -a i586 -z current -s /path/to/parentdir/of/slackware-current

  14. ikke

    Only to say : thank you! Nice job!
    Will come back later withe questions …

  15. cin ary

    Liveslak iso will be in future installable ?

  16. alienbob

    cin ary – the liveslak ISO is already installable. And this has been possible for quite some time already. Where have you been?
    Boot the ISO, start “setup2hd”, follow the prompts, very much like a regular Slackware installation.

  17. cin ary

    Thank You very much for the Information. I do it. After installation give my Comment on liveslak.iso-v1.0.0

  18. cin ary

    Hi alienbob,
    There is a no command ”setup2hd”. So, I can not install it.

  19. alienbob

    cin ary – then you are using the small XFCE ISO image. That one contains a severely stripped version of Slackware to keep its size below 700 MB, and therefore it is not adequately equipped for a hard disk install.
    The setup2hd script is available in all the other Live ISO variants; just not in the small XFCE variant.

  20. alienbob

    Guess what Niki Kovacs… I just refreshed the XFCE Live ISO with the latest slackware -current content AND I added a 32bit variant of the ISO.
    On second thought, having a 32bit Slackware Live sounds like a good idea. I have used the non-SMP kernel too, to remain more compatible with older hardware.

  21. jean-etienne

    before make…sh -d XFCE be sure /tmp/..staging does not exist otherwise xfce iso size become last created iso+xfce

  22. alienbob

    jean-etienne – works as designed.
    Old files are not removed by default which makes it easier to do incremental development of the ISO.
    If you want to start “fresh” then add the “-f” parameter to the “make_slackware_live.sh” script, which will force the script to delete the complete work environment before generating new squashfs modules and a new ISO.

  23. cin ary

    Why Slaklive.iso installation script does not include? I need it!

  24. alienbob

    If you want to install Slackware Live to your hard disk cin ary, then download one of the bigger ISO files. I hate to repeat myself, XFCE image would become too big if I had to include the huge kernel.
    And “I need it?” well… you get this for free, right? If you want the installation script then by all means download it from the git repository and adapt it so that it works with the generic kernel.

  25. cin ary

    setup2hd script is only 14,9 KB. I can’t adapt it. Smaller or bigger, Xfce Slaklive.iso with setup2hd is more easy for the Hard Disc-installation.

  26. alienbob

    Like I said and I *really* hate to keep repeating myself… the setup2hd script requires that the package for the huge kernel is present. If you install from Slackware Live and the huge kernel does not get installed, your computer will not boot. Adding the huge kernel would increase the size of the XFCE image too much, unless I would remove other software packages and I am not willing to do that.

    If you want to install this stripped-down version of Slackware, download the mini installation ISO from here: http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackboot/mini/14.1/ for a network installation from a HTTP server.
    And then select only those packages that give you something that boots and has network (the a/ ap/ and n/ series would probably be enough). Or you can take your inspiration from the XFCE package lists at http://bear.alienbase.nl/cgit/liveslak/tree/pkglists/ .
    Once you have a bare bootable installation, use this content as a slackpkg template so that slackpkg will install everything that is part of the XFCE Live ISO: http://www.slackware.com/~alien/tools/minimalslack/live_xfcebase.template

  27. alienbob

    You could also consider an installation using custom tagfiles. The slackpkg template file can be converted to a set of custom tagfiles using this script: http://www.slackware.com/~alien/tools/template2tagfiles.sh

  28. mg

    What are the user id and password for slackware64-live?

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