GoblinX mini is the ultraportable edition of the Brazilian distro GoblinX (standard and premium are the other editions). It’s a LiveCD based on Slackware with Xfce in the desktop.
The mini latest version, 2.5, was released today, about three weeks after the last release candidate and, most appropriately, in Halloween.
The release notice offers no info on the kernel version, system requirements nor other usual bits one usually expects to find along with announcements, but given the name, the .iso images’ size (about 160 MB), the fact that this is based on Slackware and the presence of the Xfce desktop environment, I think it’s kind of safe to assume it can run with relatively low amounts of RAM memory and in old (but not too old processors… say, Pentium III).
Here’s the webpage with download links to GloblinX mini 2.5 as well as the GoblinX standard 2.00 which was released earlier these year, on April 30th.
GoblinX is not a terribly famous Linux distro but I like small distros –you can download them fast, burn them quickly and have a bunch of them sitting around in order to perform one or two special tricks and also have a look to many Linux kernel versions without the compilation, configuration and update hassle. So, I’ll have a look at this one and maybe report back.
October was a very generous month as far as the delivery of new releases Linux releases of every kind is concerned: big and small, old and new, desktop, service or maintenance use. Every party was represented.
Among the major players updated this last month were OpenSuse, Mandriva and the much anticipated Ubuntu which came along introducing Gobuntu, a new free-software-only family member.
The minidistro scene was just as busy with Puppy Linux 3.0 and Damn Small Linux 4.0 as well as high efficiency oriented distros for legacy hardware such as Absolute Linux 12.0.7, ZenWalk 4.8 and Mepis Antix 7.0.
Architecture oriented distros had a few field days of their own with Yoper Linux 3.0.1 released in the 32-bit front and Slam64 on the 64-bit.
And there was no shortage of brand new distros: Gobuntu, Granular Fireworks 2007.
The month was fraught with great Linux news. Quality, quantity, variety, there was something for every taste, even disappointments as it turned out that the countdown in the Fluxbuntu website as for site redesign instead of release.
But, alas, October is over and with no other major release in schedule for the near future (excepting one) all I can say is: I’m waiting for Fedora 8 to be released the next Nov. 8th.
The new Mepis Antix 7.0 Linux is an ultralight MEPIS, available today in its final version.
Antix 7.0, codename Lysistrata is based on MEPIS Linux 7.0, uses the same kernel version (2.6.22) but uses Fluxbox instead of KDE in order to make the load on the computer much lighter. The available apps in this distro are also chosen with high efficiency in mind so that Antix 7.0 can run in a a variety of legacy systems –according to the release announcement, this Linux runs in system as old as a Pentium II (but not on k5 or k6 processors) with as little RAM as 32 MB after installation.
The .iso image for download is 301 MB which you can get in the /released/antix directory from the MEPIS public mirrors. It’s an installation and LiveCD so you can just try it an play with it before commiting to it.
MEPIS is well known for making the transition from Windows to Linux quite agreeable and even if this particular MEPIS flavor may not do that trick because of the Fluxbox window manager I am always ready to welcome a new distro capable of bringing any of my old computers back from the dead with a LiveCD. Besides, LiveCD minidistros are a good way to try a bunch of different kernel versions without compiling it for yourself.
I bought the ENPWI-G2 WiFi Cardbus adapter knowing full well that it’s Realtek RTL8185 chipset is not the most Linux friendly piece of hardware in the world. The thing is the card is really cheap (about $15) and the chipset is also present in a bunch of other cheap cards so I wanted to see actually how hard it was going to be to get it up and running just because the whole Linux and WiFi thing kind of gets my attention.
To my suprise, having it fully funcional in Puppy Linux 3.0 was so straightforward that I’m not so sure it merits a write-up, but just in case, here it is.
So you grab your Puppy Linux 3.00 LiveCD and use it to boot up your computer with the ENPWI-G2 plugged into the Cardbus slot. You need to download the latest Windows drivers for the chipset (it wasn’t so straightforward as to just plug the thing in) from the Realtek web site. There are a few options, I used the ones dated 2007/7/26 –make sure you download the drivers for the RTL8185L chispet.
Once downloaded unpack them to your home directory, and use the ROX file manager to navigate into the WINXP folder. There already? Open up a terminal session in the WINXP directory (right click on the file manager’s window, then click on Window and Terminal Here).
In the terminal, install the Windows XP driver to NDISWrapper by typing
ndiswrapper -i net8185.inf
and then insert ndiswrapper into the kernel
modprobe ndiswrapper
and that’s it! Your card should be working now (the lower LED will be blinking) so that you can now go to the RutilT wireless network gadget included in Puppy Linux 3.0 and set up your wireless network link.
Afterwards.
I found the card to work well enough with Puppy Linux 3.00. All the basic tricks get done (connection to open access points and WEP) quickly so I thought that having it work in my Ubuntu Edgy would be just as simple. Boy, I was wrong!. More on that later.
Damn Small Linux, one of the best loved Linux mini distros delivers the new 4.0 release.
Among the new features are:
- Updated kernel 2.4.26 to 2.4.31.
- Icon and file manager supports drag-an-drop.
- Lots of bugs and usability issues fixed or improved.
- Easier to use wireless extensions.
- Many updated apps such as Xpdf, Nano-tiny and others.
According to the official Damn Small Linux webpage this version can run on a 486DX with 16MB RAM –how’s that for backward compatibility? It can fully upload itself into RAM in machines with 128 MB RAM for increased speed.
Damn Small Linux 4.0 is available as a 50MB bootable .iso image for download from this mirrors. If you’d like to suppor the project you can also buy it on a CD or pre installed in a USB flash drive so you can carry your Linux around and use it as a LiveUSB.
