PorteuX

[peebee]

https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=10697

https://github.com/porteux/porteux/releases

PorteuX is a Linux distro based on Slackware, inspired by Slax and Porteus and available to the public for free. Its main goal is to be super fast, small, portable, modular and immutable (if the user wants so).

PorteuX is provided in 2 main versions based on Slackware 64-bit packages: stable and current/unstable. Current/unstable is the bleeding edge one and it's recommended for testing. After choosing which main version you want, you should choose which desktop environment you want and download the ISO accordingly:
. GNOME 42.9
. KDE 5.23.5 (or 5.27.3 in current)
. LXDE 0.10.1
. LXQt 1.2.0
. MATE 1.27
. Xfce 4.12
. Xfce 4.16
. Xfce 4.18

Default Username and Password
username: guest
password: guest

username: root
password: toor

LXDE version:

Screenshot from 2023-03-29 07-43-44.png (243.57 KiB) Viewed 2224 times

[bugnaw333]

It's not recommended to use any third-party ISO installer application,
such as Rufus or Etcher because the media storage will be set to
read-only mode, making it impossible to write any data, including
automatic save changes.

Holds true with Easy DD.

[mikeslr]

It's not recommended to use any third-party ISO installer application,
such as Rufus or Etcher because the media storage will be set to
read-only mode, making it impossible to write any data, including
automatic save changes.

Holds true with Easy DD.

But see here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 522#p40522 about how to use Rufus so as NOT to create READ-Only media.

Without getting into the messy details, from any Linux distro you should be able to create a bootable USB-Key using:
(a) Unetbootin -- but remember to edit the resulting syslinux.cfg, viewtopic.php?p=6801&sid=ff1ac814fad1b3 ... bf6d#p6801
(b) ISObooter, see https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 255#p65255 if the Distro offers the necessary tools; or
(c) clarity's favorites SuperGrub2 &/or Ventoy. Can often be used. But some ISOs --especially older one-- don't have the required structure/files. Worth trying especially if there are no other alternatives or you are trying out multiple distros.

[bugnaw333]

I tried Rufus 3.17 without the "trick" luckily only Firefox pass thru the module...

[porteux]

Thank you guys for testing PorteuX.

@bugnaw333, it's not clear what exactly happened in your case. Could you explain it a bit better?

[bugnaw333]

Since the following third party ISO installers won't work :
1. EasyDD
2. Balena Etcher
3. Rufus 3.17 (no trick)

The fat32 (boot) installer file will work trying on Windows 7.

The simplest way to do that is copying the ISO content to your media
storage and running the installer, which will just make the media
bootable (instructions below), not touching or removing your existing data.
1) Make sure the first partition is of type FAT32.
2) Copy /boot and /EFI folders onto the FAT32 partition.
3) The second partition can be any of the supported ones and it will
contain /porteux folder.

Thanks and best regards,
Reynaldo

[bugnaw333]

[porteux]

Oh, cool! Happy it's working now

What is your overall impression of the distro? Any suggestion?

Thanks!

[bugnaw333]

Good! and apps store is great! ...but still need to have a 100% support on Appimages without any additional requirements for it to work.

[peebee]

What is your overall impression of the distro? Any suggestion?

Thanks!

I guess my main downside observation, comparing it to the Puppy Linux experience, is the need to enter the root password for many activities.

The other interesting comparison is the size of the .iso compared with the included apps - LxPupSc64 which is probably the nearest comparator being based on Slackware Current is 358MB and includes a basic web browser etc.
PorteuX LXDE edition is 404MB but does not include a web browser. The difference is probably down to the amount of firmware included in the .iso ...... maybe? (only 20MB worth in LxPupSc)

Philosphy: Everybody needs a web browser but only a minority needs additional firmware support.....

[bugnaw333]

Philosphy: Everybody needs a web browser but only a minority needs additional firmware support.....

Totally agree with peebee.

[amethyst]

What is your overall impression of the distro? Any suggestion?

Thanks!

I guess my main downside observation, comparing it to the Puppy Linux experience, is the need to enter the root password for many activities.

The other interesting comparison is the size of the .iso compared with the included apps - LxPupSc64 which is probably the nearest comparator being based on Slackware Current is 358MB and includes a basic web browser etc.
PorteuX LXDE edition is 404MB but does not include a web browser. The difference is probably down to the amount of firmware included in the .iso ...... maybe? (only 20MB worth in LxPupSc)

Philosphy: Everybody needs a web browser but only a minority needs additional firmware support.....

Compression of distribution data? Will have to unpack the contents to compare apples with apples in order to compare the real uncompressed distribution sizes. Same applications, etc?

[peebee]

Philosphy: Everybody needs a web browser but only a minority needs additional firmware support.....

Totally agree with peebee.

A bit more counter philosophy - absence of firmware can stop a system booting whereas absence of a web browser doesn't affect initial booting ......

@amethyst - yes packing scheme may indeed affect distro size

[dimkr]

The main problem with less preinstalled firmware is not inability to boot (most PCs don't need any firmware for the boot device and the bus it's connected to) but inability to go online. If you can't browse the web or can't download a browser, a distro is useless. dpup has around 100 MB of firmware, but firmware is still much smaller than the latest versions of most full-featured browsers. This investment is worth it, because complaints about non-functional WiFi are gone.

If it's preinstalled firmware or a preinstalled browser, IMO firmware is the right choice.

[porteux]

@bugnaw333, AppImages can be really handy, but it's up to the person who builds each module to include what they think is needed. Most people pack AppImages using big distros like Ubuntu or Fedora, so when we try to use them in minimalist distros they simply don't work. What I don't understand is the fact that no other OS behaves like this: an application for Android doesn't ask you to install any dependency; an application for Windows most of the time doesn't require additional packages; the same for MacOS and iOS. All this dependency craziness on Linux forces each main distro to build (and to keep building!) everything, and in such way that most of the time things are not compatible with other distros. It's a freaking nightmare and such a waste of time and energy

@peebee, Puppy defaults to root user, that's why it doesn't ask for root password.

Regarding the ISO size, I think you're right: the firmware support in PorteuX provides a broader hardware support. Puppy's firmware module (LxPupSc64-23.01+2-T.iso) takes 19 MB while PorteuX's one takes 99 MB. Also, all PorteuX's modules use zstd compression, which is less optimized for size but it's much faster to decompress. A quick comparison:

puppy ISO (default): 346.2 MB
puppy ISO (zstd): 397.7 MB

On top of that, Puppy provides heaps of new packages, but also some old ones. For instance:
transmission 2.6 (2012)
gnome-mplayer 1.1.3 (2011)
evince 2.32 (2010)
geany 1.35 (2019)
light browser 48 (2016) -- so old that many sites don't work properly, including github

And it doesn't provide things like:
network manager applet
pulse audio mixer
libjson-glib
av1 video support

Apart from boot/shutdown speed, Puppy's performance is impressive! And the fact it can be created out of other distros not just Slackware is amazing!

One little thing that happened to me while testing: default xorg.conf didn't work with my Nvidia card -- I had to manually delete it to be able to run LXDE.

Finally, regarding the decision of not include a browser, I think you were clear in your last post: lack of firmware can prevent the system from accessing the internet. Also, browser is a very personal thing, so I guess instead of trying to guess which one the user will use, it's better to provide a way for them to decide.

[dimkr]

https://vanilla-dpup.github.io/ includes ~100 MB of firmware, PulseAudio/PipeWire, Noto fonts (+emoji), VA API drivers, a very full featured kernel (almost identical to Debian's) and even Firefox. All applications except ROX-Filer use GTK+ 3 and many are up to date (Transmission 4.0.2, etc') or git snapshots. The new versions in development even drop X.Org (and JWM and GTK +2) and this reduces size while improving performance even more.

But ... it's 750-950 MB (depending on base Debian version) with zstd.

IMO a small and minimal OS is a reasonable design choice as long as it's not too minimal (applications are not ancient, future-proof enough, working network). And small size is not an indicator of good performance or low consumption of resources other than disk space (xz trades disk space for CPU consumption), while disk space is easy and cheap to expand.

I think "official" Puppy is "small and crippled", not "small". I expect many users to adopt other small distros, with more practical approaches, either more modular or more "full-featured", like Puppy used to be years ago (when drivers needed less firmware, before PulseAudio, etc').

[amethyst]

https://vanilla-dpup.github.io/ includes ~100 MB of firmware, PulseAudio/PipeWire, Noto fonts (+emoji), VA API drivers, a very full featured kernel (almost identical to Debian's) and even Firefox. All applications except ROX-Filer use GTK+ 3 and many are up to date (Transmission 4.0.2, etc') or git snapshots. The new versions in development even drop X.Org (and JWM and GTK +2) and this reduces size while improving performance even more.

But ... it's 750-950 MB (depending on base Debian version) with zstd.

IMO a small and minimal OS is a reasonable design choice as long as it's not too minimal (applications are not ancient, future-proof enough, working network). And small size is not an indicator of good performance or low consumption of resources other than disk space (xz trades disk space for CPU consumption), while disk space is easy and cheap to expand.

I think "official" Puppy is "small and crippled", not "small". I expect many users to adopt other small distros, with more practical approaches, either more modular or more "full-featured", like Puppy used to be years ago (when drivers needed less firmware, before PulseAudio, etc').

How long will the apulse trick still work for browsers requiring pulseaudio but a Puppy don't have it. I guess what I want to know if a new Puppy can still use apulse (for primarily browser needs) without having pulseadio but ALSA? Bionic Pup (and the browsers needing pulseaudio) still works for me with alsa and apulse but no pulseaudio.

[dimkr]

PipeWire (PulseAudio's drop-in replacement) also implements screen capture, not only audio related things. You lose some functionality if you use apulse instead - for example, OBS can't do screen capture via PipeWire. Under X, screen capture will keep working via other screen capture methods (like xshm), but X is dying and PipeWire is pretty much must-have with Wayland and modern browsers.

Plus, PulseAudio or PipeWire are required for Bluetooth support, so using apulse means no Bluetooth audio.

Most major distros already switched to Wayland, so it won't be shocking if major browsers drop support for X and PipeWire becomes a hard dependency.

(By the way, Ubuntu 18.04 is EOL at the end of this month)

[amethyst]

PipeWire (PulseAudio's drop-in replacement) also implements screen capture, not only audio related things. You lose some functionality if you use apulse instead - for example, OBS can't do screen capture via PipeWire. Under X, screen capture will keep working via other screen capture methods (like xshm), but X is dying and PipeWire is pretty much must-have with Wayland and modern browsers.

Plus, PulseAudio or PipeWire are required for Bluetooth support, so using apulse means no Bluetooth audio.

Most major distros already switched to Wayland, so it won't be shocking if major browsers drop support for X and PipeWire becomes a hard dependency.

(By the way, Ubuntu 18.04 is EOL at the end of this month)

Thanks for the information. I'm really only concerned with sound when using a browser at this stage. I'll be using Bionic 32 until it becomes unusable for my specific needs and when major things don't work anymore. As for EOL. I still use Windows XP as well. To be fair, I'll probably change to the spanking new stuff when I get a new(er) machine (in 2030 maybe).

[porteux]

PorteuX 0.3 has been released!

• kernel is now being compiled with aggressive flags for even better performance

• all packages are now being compiled with -O3 flag

• fixed a bug where alt + shift + tab was not cycling backwards the opened applications

• fixed a bug where some cheatcodes were not working properly

• fixed an issue that was making the kernel consume more memory than it should

• fixed a bug where booting without a desktop environment was not loading openbox properly

• fixed a bug where using cheatcode to log in as root was not working

• GNOME updated to 44.0 (current only)

• LXQt updated to 1.3.0

• MATE updated to 1.27.1

• Kernel updated to 6.2.11

• Many packages updated in both stable and current

• Devel and crippled modules can now be downloaded from the app store

https://github.com/porteux/porteux/releases/tag/v0.3