MLED - the Microlinux Enterprise Desktop - a complete Xfce-based desktop

kikinovak · 11-30-2015, 12:11 PM

Just to be clear. Here's what Microlinux provides:

More than 200 extra desktop packages for Slackware 14.1 32-bit and 64-bit.
50 extra server packages for Slackware 14.0 32-bit and 64-bit.
50 extra server packages for Slackware 14.1 32-bit and 64-bit.
Sets of tagfiles for desktop and server use.
Preconfigured user profiles for console mode and Xfce.
Preconfigured slackpkg+ packages for desktop and server use.
A couple of helper scripts to trim your system and clean your menu entries.

Here's what Microlinux does not provide:

A separate installation ISO
A separate installer
Automated scripts to configure your system

For those folks who want a dead-easy installation by only answering a few questions in a GUI installer, I recommend the latest openSUSE Leap 42.1. It's based on SUSE Enterprise Linux, with a nice graphical installer and a variety of desktops to choose from. It comes in several languages, and the graphical installer as well as the various YaST modules allow you to configure your system by never (ever) opening a terminal window. And yes, I'm serious. My cousin who works as a Linux sysadmin guru for a multinational firm has Leap running on his workstation, and he's a happy camper with it. That's what I would use if I weren't running MLED.

Cheers,

Niki

kikinovak · 11-30-2015, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

I fail to grasp why or how taking a Slackware as a basis then adding, removing and modifying packages and providing various customizations does not make it a derivative or spin-off

I'll let you ponder that, but can we please discuss the differences between augustinian and byzantine theology in a different place?

myre75 · 11-30-2015, 01:20 PM

MLED is KISS : you spend one hour to install Slackware with a MLED. And after, no more install. You won't gaim any time with a separate ISO.

MLED is perfect like this.

moesasji · 11-30-2015, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikinovak

I recommend the latest openSUSE Leap 42.1. It's based on SUSE Enterprise Linux, with a nice graphical installer and a variety of desktops to choose from. It comes in several languages, and the graphical installer as well as the various YaST modules allow you to configure your system by never (ever) opening a terminal window. And yes, I'm serious. My cousin who works as a Linux sysadmin guru for a multinational firm has Leap running on his workstation, and he's a happy camper with it. That's what I would use if I weren't running MLED.

I made that mistake needing something else than Slackware 14.1 on a new machine and installed OpenSuse Leap on it. To your credit: that machine is going back to MLED as soon as I'm happy with MLED 14.2 on my test-machine!

Leap might be way easier to install, but for me it has too many random an unfixable issues compared to Slackware that are hard for users to cope with. This might just be bugs in the (too new?) KDE version they use in OpenSuse though, but it is simply not worth the headaches as I have no-one complaining when they use MLED.

btw) I have hit a bigger hurdle with testing MLED 14.2 as wireless refuses to connect for me...not yet sure whether it is current itself that causes the issue though. I get the attached popup-message when trying to connect to wireless on two different locations, so it must be my machine not the router. This is using Networkmanager and I have not yet figured out how to debug this one. Hints welcome.

kikinovak · 11-30-2015, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moesasji

I made that mistake needing something else than Slackware 14.1 on a new machine and installed OpenSuse Leap on it. To your credit: that machine is going back to MLED as soon as I'm happy with MLED 14.2 on my test-machine!

Leap might be way easier to install, but for me it has too many random an unfixable issues compared to Slackware that are hard for users to cope with. This might just be bugs in the (too new?) KDE version they use in OpenSuse though, but it is simply not worth the headaches as I have no-one complaining when they use MLED.

btw) I have hit a bigger hurdle with testing MLED 14.2 as wireless refuses to connect for me...not yet sure whether it is current itself that causes the issue though. I get the attached popup-message when trying to connect to wireless on two different locations, so it must be my machine not the router. This is using Networkmanager and I have not yet figured out how to debug this one. Hints welcome.

Don't forget that MLED 14.2 is not yet out. The stuff in the repos is at best pre-alpha (though usable). Is your -current install up to date? Did you install all the recently added packages? Is aaa_elflibs up to date? Etc.

gegechris99 · 11-30-2015, 04:04 PM

@kikinovak

I have a bit of catch-up to do on this new MLED thread so I'm sorry for the long post.

There is some chatter around MLED and I believe that's because people care about it

First of all, I'd like to thank you again for your great work on MLED. My family laptop (for my wife and children) is MLED with the occasional additional packages (ex: klavaro compiled from SBo). My wife's quick adoption of MLED (she very occasionally used Slackware on my laptop before) is testament to the rock-solid base of Slackware but also to your strong focus on the user experience (choice of quality software, nice customizing).

Now here are my 2 cents regarding the latest discussion:

Dedicated MLED website:
Great idea to put all info about MLED in one central place. I didn't go to every corner but may I suggest to add a way to subscribe to a changelog RSS feed directly on the "ChangeLogs" section rather than having to grasp the .rss file in the "File Tree"

MLED 14.2 (a.k.a MLED current):
Personally, that's not my cup of tea. As Slackware current is still a rather moving target, I'm wondering if you're not putting too much effort too early. I would have understood if Slackware current had reach RC status and was focused on bug correction. But you may have decided that it's worthwhile to start to prepare now for MLED 14.2 and I respect that.

Offline installation guide:
Thanks for the guide. I may have a need in the future for an offline installation of MLED. My parents don't have an internet subscription and I have there an old machine with Zenwalk 2.4. MLED would be a much-needed upgrade. But summer when I visit them is still a long way off so I hope to be able to install MLED 14.2 - the stable one

ISO:
As Didier Spaier mentioned in post #58, I'm not sure, based on your target audience, if your time would be well spent on buidling an ISO that would basically replace the installation of packages by "TAG" by a full installation (your list of Slackware packages + MLED packages). To make a complete installation, one would still need to do the other non-trivial steps like disk partitioning, lilo installation, etc...
My own experience: I have installed MLED on several machines and don't use it. My wife and children use MLED and could'nt care less about how it was installed.

As I see it, you should stay focused on your business objectives knowing that MLED cannot be everything to everybody. You are, of course, very open-minded in asking for ways to improve the MLED experience but, at the same time, you are able to say "sorry MLED is not for this or that".

Keep on the good work

moesasji · 11-30-2015, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikinovak

Don't forget that MLED 14.2 is not yet out. The stuff in the repos is at best pre-alpha (though usable). Is your -current install up to date? Did you install all the recently added packages? Is aaa_elflibs up to date? Etc.

Yes I'm fully aware of all those things, but that doesn't scare me that much. In the end it is Slackware Current with those packages added that I would typically end up installing.

To answer: This install was using a fully up-to-date current (up to the 25th of November) freshly installed yesterday.

btw) don't forget to add sbopkg...that one is missing at the moment.

keithpeter · 11-30-2015, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moesasji

btw) I have hit a bigger hurdle with testing MLED 14.2 as wireless refuses to connect for me...not yet sure whether it is current itself that causes the issue though. I get the attached popup-message when trying to connect to wireless on two different locations, so it must be my machine not the router. This is using Networkmanager and I have not yet figured out how to debug this one. Hints welcome.

Yup I've been getting that error message with MLED 14.2 on top of Slackware current for some ten days now. I'll update tomorrow and see if it is still there. My kludgy work around is to launch nm-applet from a terminal window as root.

Good luck with the theology all.

keithpeter · 11-30-2015, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gegechris99

@kikinovak
Offline installation guide:
Thanks for the guide. I may have a need in the future for an offline installation of MLED. My parents don't have an internet subscription and I have there an old machine with Zenwalk 2.4. MLED would be a much-needed upgrade. But summer when I visit them is still a long way off so I hope to be able to install MLED 14.2 - the stable one

Respectful suggestion: do online installation with all the bells and whistles onto a new hard drive in your machine then transfer hard drive to your parents machine, either by swapping the actual drive or by dd-ing new install onto target drive.

moesasji · 11-30-2015, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keithpeter

Yup I've been getting that error message with MLED 14.2 on top of Slackware current for some ten days now. I'll update tomorrow and see if it is still there. My kludgy work around is to launch nm-applet from a terminal window as root.

That it appeared 10 days ago makes it look like an issue introduced with the switch to eudev as that would affect session management I guess. I'll post the question in a separate topic.

ivandi · 11-30-2015, 08:44 PM

FWIW here is the script I use to create a Slackware-current install iso that includes my SlackMATE project on top of it. It allows me to use my tags during Slackware install and then run a simple install.sh to add/replace some packages.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

SLACK_DIR=/home/Slackware/slackware64-current
SLACKMATE=/home/SlackMATE

ISO_OUT=/home/VM/ISO/slackware64-slackmate-install-dvd.iso

mkisofs -o $ISO_OUT \
    -R -J \
    -V "Slackware64 + SlackMATE DVD" \
    -hide-rr-moved -hide-joliet-trans-tbl \
    -v -d -N -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
    -sort $SLACK_DIR/isolinux/iso.sort \
    -b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
    -c isolinux/isolinux.boot \
    -preparer "SlackMATE" \
    -publisher "The Slackware Linux Project - http://www.slackware.com/" \
    -A "Slackware64 + SlackMATE DVD $(date +%F)" \
    -x $SLACK_DIR/testing \
    -x $SLACK_DIR/source \
    -x $SLACK_DIR/extra/source \
    -eltorito-alt-boot -no-emul-boot -eltorito-platform 0xEF -eltorito-boot isolinux/efiboot.img \
    -graft-points \
    $SLACK_DIR \
    SlackMATE=$SLACKMATE

isohybrid -u $ISO_OUT

Cheers

kikinovak · 11-30-2015, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gegechris99

Dedicated MLED website:
Great idea to put all info about MLED in one central place. I didn't go to every corner but may I suggest to add a way to subscribe to a changelog RSS feed directly on the "ChangeLogs" section rather than having to grasp the .rss file in the "File Tree"

Thanks for your detailed post, gegechris99. Here you go (french version).

Cheers,

Niki

kikinovak · 11-30-2015, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gegechris99

ISO:
As Didier Spaier mentioned in post #58, I'm not sure, based on your target audience, if your time would be well spent on buidling an ISO that would basically replace the installation of packages by "TAG" by a full installation (your list of Slackware packages + MLED packages). To make a complete installation, one would still need to do the other non-trivial steps like disk partitioning, lilo installation, etc...
My own experience: I have installed MLED on several machines and don't use it. My wife and children use MLED and could'nt care less about how it was installed.

I know how to make my own installation ISO, but I won't do it, for a host of reasons. MLED is meant as an add-on and not as a replacement. As far as I'm concerned, providing my own installation ISO would feel a bit like stepping on Slackware's toes, and I don't want to do that, the more so since I hate reinventing the wheel, and there's already way too many distributions out there.

Slackware's installation ISO works great for MLED, and since it already sports an empty /tag directory, let's use it for tagfiles instead of eating up gigabytes of wasted bandwidth by uploading my own redundant DVD ISO.

Frankly, there's absolutely no comfort to be gained from that procedure. All that voodoo would just spare users a couple of commands to type. In my home country, we call that "to carry the church around the cross".

Niki

a4z · 12-01-2015, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikinovak

This solution already exists.

yes, this is also an excellent distributions, I know.
you could of course also have used Salix or Vector as an example, which would be closer but might that have made your answer less nerdy?

I do no understand your ISO Faq implicit implies that Slackware does not give you a complete out-of-the-box desktop experience because for me a fully install of Slackware with KDE desktop gives a wonderful and very complete out-of-the-box desktop experience. Maybe its missing mention Xfce explicit?

keithpeter · 12-01-2015, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moesasji

That it appeared 10 days ago makes it look like an issue introduced with the switch to eudev as that would affect session management I guess. I'll post the question in a separate topic.

@moesasji : I meant to say 'I noticed this error when I first installed the testing version of MLED (14.2) 10 days ago' so I can't exclude the possibility that it was there all along, apologies for mis-communication.

Theology: I see MLED as providing a full and convenient configuration of Xfce4 for those of us who prefer that as the main GUI.