How to get Ralink 2870 wireless USB adapter working in SalixOS/Slackware-13.1

This one has taken me quite a while to find out, with bits of information here and there. Two steps only:

Blacklist rt2800usb in your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, preferably with an explanatory comment to yourself why, or at least something like #My own blacklist starts here

blacklist rt2800usb

 Then at least one place recommends to add this line to the end of your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file

iwconfig wlan0 power off

I'm not really sure the second is required but had done it before blacklisting the module, and it works. Check for yourself if it works for you without the second entry.

That's it. Glad I finally finished a complete system upgrade without reinstalling. It's all 13.1 now and sound, video acceleration, wireless all work.

Take care. 

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Iceweasel & Icecat - what's the difference?

Spurred on by looking at Kongoni GNU/Linux I found myself curious and decided to investigate what, if indeed there is any, the difference is between Iceweasel, which appears to have existed first, and IceCat, which until reviewing above distribution I'd never heard of. That's probably because I prefer to use the original software, or if I don't agree I use something completely different. I remember Debian which I was using in the day switching to Iceweasel because of branding and issues with patches, so what was the deal again? Enough people seem to stumble over this so hopefully we can clear up the confusion.

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A look at the development of Kongoni GNU/Linux

This is just a reposting of the 'A week or two with Kongoni GNU/Linux' article published on Tuxmachines 18/07/2010. I wanted to take the opportunity to showcase a few more screenshots to illustrate the hard drive installer, still fairly basic, and the Ports Installation Gui (PIG) most of all. There are two shots showing it updating the tree and then rebuilding it. Also to show off IceCat now as the default browser. Is it replacing Iceweasel as the FOSS alternative or do they exist in parallel?

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Linux light - PCLinuxOS 2010.7 Openbox

Why go lean when you can go leaner?

Ok, there are smaller, leaner distributions out there like Tiny Core or these two if you prefer a system that's in many ways similar, but PCLinuxOS Openbox is pretty good while still providing a full set of applications for the consumer desktop, incl. flash, multimedia codecs, wireless. More on that later. I thought of that line while deciding whether to go for the Openbox or the Lxde version. I've had a look at both, but Lxde (short for the light weight desktop environment) is always the same set of apps and the panel strikes me as not quite as elegant. I like the flexibility of modularity and in this case dropped for the Openbox version with the Tint2 panel. Apart from this both spins are almost identical, and for those that don't know, the Lxde desktop is also using Openbox for window management.
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How to install ATI graphics driver in SalixOS

I'm not planning to copy the entire SalixOS user documentation or FAQ's, only what's of practical interest as it comes up. It just so happened that after years of not needing the proprietary ATI driver I decided to play a demo of a new game which definitely requires it.

So now that for once I'ld need the proprietary driver I'm informed on their website that my product, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, has moved to legacy support. The last driver 9.3 was released March 2009, and sure enough, my kernel is not supported anymore:

"Error: ./default_policy.sh does not support version"

Damn you AMD/ATI, six years ago I paid you £130,- and you want me to upgrade my perfectly good hardware?

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Linux light - Absolute Linux 13.1

Light weight Slackware derivatives Part 2 - Absolute Linux

Welcome to Part 2 of my loose series of reviews on light distros based on good old Slackware. After the first roundup in DWW #343 several readers expressed disappointment that Absolute Linux was not included and requested a review. So here we are. At the time it was all about comparing Xfce4 based distros. While we are waiting for both Wolvix and Vector Linux for a stable new release which I will eventually cover to conclude this series (both were more than a year old by the end of February 2010) I am going to take a look at the exciting blend that Absolute Linux is offering in its present incarnation, version 13.1.2.
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Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" in Freeze

This site is not a news or link aggregator but today I'll make an exception as earlier today news broke that the upcoming Debian 6.0 is now in feature freeze. Although not my main operating system any longer Debian is always one to watch for stability and the number of architectures it supports.

In consequence this means that no more new features will be added and
all work will now be concentrated on polishing Debian “Squeeze” to
achieve the quality Debian stable releases are known for.
The upcoming release will use Linux 2.6.32 as its default kernel
in the installer and on all Linux architectures.

I just wished they'ld have used a newer kernel to get the performance improvements.

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How to upgrade SalixOS 13.0 to 13.1

This is a short guide on how to upgrade your SalixOS to the latest version, 13.1. I'm mirroring the instructions here in case it gets lost in the mist of time and for my own perusal. Please note this was not written by me. All credits go to the SalixOS user documentation team.
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Chill-out games: Osmos and flOw

If you've had enough of First-person shooters, racing simulations and other high-octane gaming for a while and are looking for some peace and relaxation instead you might like this. I discovered Osmos thanks to this Debian guy's blog. As he says, it's not free software, but it's cross-platform and for only $10 you get the Mac, Windows and Linux versions. We'll probably never use the first two but hey. There's also a demo for each platform on the site.
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Sabayon 5.3 Xfce & LXDE - a few impressions

First of all let me say this is not intended to be a full review of Sabayon Linux. Sabayon is well known and had its fair share of reviews already, the most recent one I am aware of being very thorough and can be read here. This is more like a quick look and impressions of how the light weight desktop environments do on Sabayon SpinBase.
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Linux light - SalixOS 13.1 "LXDE"

After looking at SalixOS 13.0 in my comparison of light weight Slackware derivatives for the desktop I thought I should give 13.1 a full standalone review. This also, I'll admit from the start, because I'm very fond of it. Yes, I'm biased.
There's nothing better for me out there apart from Slackware proper, and SalixOS is the unaltered Slackware with a little custom art and a few helpful tools, like easy localization, setting the clock, for adding users, and truly one-click adding of multimedia codecs.
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