Best Distro

Well I have tried numerous distros and have finally decided which one is the best, at least in my opinion. So far Ive had Fed 10 Xubuntu,Ubuntu Intrepid and Debian Lenny, Crunchbang, and Sickboys Kernel version of Ubuntu, ALL had issues that I couldnt quite live with until I installed Sidux.

This is the most amazingly fast Distro that I have tried so far and its running KDE 3.5, It installs within 13 minutes!!! :shock:

It uses the Sid repositories from Debian, and so therefore the absolute cutting edge packages are easily available via apt-get install.

ALL applications run with incredible speed even on the meagre 8gig ssd !! it comes with suspend to ram or disk already working and wifi. In fact wifi is so dependable using this Distro that I use the little machine to download my torrents with no drop outs and very fast speeds. The ath5k wifi module is already loaded into the kernel just use ceni to setup your password wpa and your on the net!

Set the cheatcode to vga=788 and dpi=96 and all aplications will fit superbly into the little 9 inch screen.
Mine is running openoffice 3, evolution for my organiser email and sync to palm treo. I have even got my tv usb stick working and can watch tv on the move using Kaffeine! handy as I work nights!

Sidux uses the acerhdf fan control software which is better than the acerfand as it prevents the fan doing loop i.e. constantly on then off then on etc.

Web-cam works with luvcview installed havent tested the internal mike but not bothered about that anyway.

To try Sidux download the iso files for either kde full kde light or xfce versions, then simply install to a usb stick follow the instructions for that on sidux.com, once thats done slot the usb stick in and select boot from usb, once its loaded up use the installer on the desktop of kde, from then on it will take no more than 13 minutes for the kde light to install.

Cant see me using any other distro from now on! in fact I am so pleased with sidux its now installed on my Toshiba laptop, which I removed Vista from and now have Virtualbox installed under sidux which has XP installed on simply so that I can use the Lexmark wireless printer on.

I am sure anyone trying sidux will not look back

 

Good to hear! These distributions are always making the previous years seem like ancient history.

 

Thanks djtilko,
I'll try the live next days!!

 

Sounds good ..... what boot up times are you getting with Sidux?
I've always found that boot up times are rather slow compared with Linpus (and I've yet to get a distro working with suspend to disk)

 

It is great to hear that sidux works well on this netbook.
Do you happen to know if the right card reader works when using Xd cards?

 

The right card reader works faultless with sd cards havent got any xd cards to try it with but would expect it to work. Boot time is under 30 seconds not as fast as Linpus but then Linpus is not carrying any where near the vast amount of packages and features that sidux is running for a start sidux is running KDE 3.5 and it does so with exceptional speed compared to the likes of Ubuntu and even Xubuntu that I found to be rather slow, with sidux everything seems to run so much faster with none of the bogging down that other distros seem to suffer from. And I have never seen a better or faster installer program than sidux its simply amazing that its up and running in 13 minutes!! you plug in the usb stick which is simply a usb live disk to try it out, and if your happy with it then select the install sidux icon on the desktop and 13 minutes later its surfing the web!

Anyone wondering if its worth it, well whats 13 minutes compared to over an hour or more installing Ubuntu and the like? If you dont like it you havent wasted ages installing and you can always go back to whatever distro but I doubt that anyone trying sidux will go back to be honest.

Just remember to use the cheatcodes vga=788 and dpi=96 you can enter these parameters during the install or edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

With these parameters set the screen will display programs like Evolution properly instead of not fitting everything onto the screen as with Ubuntu, and the fonts will be exactly the right size for the 8.9 inch screen.

Give it a whirl!!

 

Just tried the XFCE version as a live CD and am not having the same success with hardware.

After a quick look, cannot get wireless or LAN connection working. Network manager doesn't appear to be running???

Left card reader is working but not the right.

On shutdown, there are no options for hibernate or suspend.

Anyone else tried XFCE version with more success?
Pointers would be appreciated as I'm relatively new to Linux.

 

Im using the KDE version with no such problems card readers included can be simply plugged in or removed without mounting unmounting manually they are recognised immediately, the wireless is up and running before windows has finished loading even! use the program under internet section called ceni, select scan and it will list all the networks available then simply enter your wpa password and connect takes less than a minute, then after that it loads at boot time. As for hibernate and suspend go to menu, system, kpowersave, this puts an icon in the system tray on lower task bar right click the kpowersave icon to select how you want the system to enter into hibernate or suspend and thats it all you do after that is select log out then follow the list of options i.e shut down restart log out suspend to ram or suspend to disk!

XFCE I would imagine has the same facilities but are probably harder to get to, and personally for me XFCE isnt any faster than either KDE or Gnome in fact when I had Ubuntu installed I found Gnome to be much quicker. If you do a search you will find many others finding that XFCE just isnt as fast or light as they might like to think it carries quite a lot of bloat these days!!

Try the KDE version perhaps you will as me find out just how good it is!

 

Tried KDE lite version (latest one) and unfortunately the same problems persist as far as wireless and LAN connection. Network manager appears NOT to be running. (For every other installation that I've carried out using other hardware, the LAN connection has always been a dependable way of getting a network connection in every case.)

Don't understand why this is not working, other than the hardware on my AA1 SSD version is simply not being recognised by Sidux????

This is a great shame as my current distro takes over 2 mins to boot (Ubuntu based) and is actually quite painful to use - the net result is that I'm not really using the machine as it takes too long to start up and response time reminds me more of early Windows 95 days!!

I've been keeping an eye on Kuki, but suspect it could be some time before that distro is available for Mortals like myself. I really don't want to go back to Linpus, but may be forced to if I'm actually going to make use of my AA1.

 

After posting on the Sidux forum ...... you need to use 'Ceni' to configure any network connections ..... just going to try it out ....

What a pain ..... Ceni won't run with the screen resolution that the system defaults to with the Live CD. The screen resolution options do not appear to allow selection of a higher screen res. Looks like it is simply not possible to test out Sidux using the Live CD with a network connection.

There are a number of application I wish to check will run before committing to installing Sidux - 3G support, Skype (will the internal mic work??), Vinagre and Unison. It would have been good to try these with the Live CD ..... oh well.

 

madwoolything
you obviously did not read either of my earlier posts
once again here it is!

use the program under internet section called ceni, select scan and it will list all the networks available then simply enter your wpa password and connect takes less than a minute, then after that it loads at boot time.

 

And this from my very first post

Set the cheatcode to vga=788 and dpi=96 and all aplications will fit superbly into the little 9 inch screen.

Just enter vga=788 and dpi=96 at the boot up screen its all on the sidux instructions for usb install

Good luk

 

djtilko,
As this sounds a very promising distro and as you're clearly very enthusiastic about it, would you be able to write some simple instructions of each stage of install (with screen shots where appropriate) please? This would go a long way to encouraging the more cautious of us to have a go.
Cheers.
J.

 

This is a great idea ..... just sometimes a really obvious step to the experienced user can be a complete mystery to others ...... I appreciate that sometimes it can be very frustrating as 'its obvious isn't it!' but not always.

This cheatcode business using a live CD has me completely confused ..... I've posted in the Sidux forums ..... lots of comments and support but I still cannot figure it out. Without this step you cannot configure a network connection in Sidux as you need to start up an application called Ceni (screen size is too small). As an Ubuntu user, network manager normal just starts automatically and off you go!

 

Apologies ..... step by step with screen shots would help people like me who get confused by words!! Thanks

 

Ok people I will do my best to put up some screen shots and clarify the install, but it may take me a little while to get things together. For instance how to upload pictures to this site?

Sorry if I came acros a little demeaning it was not my intention to do that!

 

Ok first thing to stress is that we need access to either a usb cdrom burner, or a pc with cdrom burning capability We can not use Unetbootin for this process as sidux is not compatible with it.

Then we download the iso file from here ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/sidux ... x/release/ thats if your in the uk if your in a different country then select the one for your contry for kde light you will need this one ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/sidux ... 151242.iso

Use your favorite cd burning program to burn the iso to a cdrom

Load the cdrom and run it as a live disk on any pc this will be a slow process as it will load into ram at this stage you can sample sidux and test whether you like it or not on any pc with a cd rom drive wifi is extremely easy to setup click on the menu icon on the panel which is the first icon from the left then click internet then Ceni this will bring up a dialogue box showing your network connection i.e eth0 and wlan0 which is your atheros wireless lan so click on the atheros line then click scan this will bring up all the connections in your immediate area so click on yours then enter the security password for your network and bingo you are connected An icon will appear in the system tray called Knemo that will give stats on the connection

Ok if you decide you like sidux and want to install to a usb stick to try on the acer one then select menu-system-install-sidux-to-usb or click on the desktop icon sidux installer and when the screen comes up you will see the option to add cheatcodes just type in the box vga788 dpi=96 then wait a few minutes till the process is complete and you will have a bootable usb stick.

Remove the usb stick and slot into any usb slot on the Acer Aspire One

Boot the little laptop up and press f12 boot from usb which is still a live version and try the sidux system out on your little acer aspire one. the sidux ouranos boot screen will appear and will wait for your next command so in the box type in vga=788 dpi=96 if it is not already showing, then press enter and sidux will load up in live mode the fonts should be the correct size and you should see all programs comfortably on your screen Setup wifi again exactly as above using Ceni again. Then if after some more testing you decide to install to your hard drive just click on the desktop icon and follow the instructions to install to your hard drive which is the fastest install program I have ever used!! Once it is installed on the hard drive the speed and efficiency of this system will really fly.

OK so far? then we add the repos for us to install software of our choice such as openoffice 3 evolution kaffeine etc and also to install flashplugin-nonfree which will install adobe flashplayer 10 so we can watch youtube etc vids.

we need to add these repos

# unstable
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

# testing
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

# experimental
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free
and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sidux.list:
# sidux e.V., Germany
deb http://sidux.com/debian/ sid main contrib non-free fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free
#deb-src http://sidux.com/debian/ sid main contrib non-free fix.main fix.contrib fix.non-free

So lets fire up kate our text editor by doing alt-f2 and putting kdesu kate in the command line this will bring up a box asking for root password so enter that and kate will load up select file open and open /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sidux.list

Cut and paste the repos above complete and paste into sidux.list save the file then open /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list

and do the same with these repos from debian

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ sid main
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ sid main


#Hints for hardware with non-free needs:
#sidux contains only dfsg free software, so you'll probably want to add contrib/ non-free to your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list and ensure internet access.
# See sources.list(5) for more information, especially
# Remember that you can only use http, ftp or file URIs
# CDROMs are managed through the apt-cdrom tool.
# The /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory provides a way to add sources.list
# entries in separate files that end with sources.list file.

# unstable
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

# testing
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

# experimental
#deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free


Ok so far? now we can start adding to our distro first thing is to get it all up to date so to do this properly it should be done in runlevel 3 i.e no x windows running so as not to break anything. Select root terminal from the terminal sessions icon next to the menu icon on the panel enter your root password then type init 3

This will shut down windows and give you a command line prompt, enter apt-get update then enter apt-get dist-upgrade this will take a fair while to upgrade the system to current status when complete enter apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree openoffice evolution kaffeine vlc

If you want more programs just include them also!!

Sorry if this is a bit long-winded but Ive tried my best to not leave anything out. If anyone gets stuck let me know and I will help as much as I can.

It really is quite easy takes longer to explain than to actually do sorry for the lack of pictures but could not find a way of uploading any.

 

Brilliant and thanks for the instructions. I'm impressed with the responsiveness of sidux on my AA1.
I now have almost everything working (Skype, vinagre, unison plus all my firefox extensions in iceweasel) just trying to get 3G usb connection to work with umtsmon (package that seems to be recommended).

Umtsmon is finding my provider (t-mobile) but am unable to connect with error messages 'PPP did not provide any stdout' and '..... couldn't find any suitable secret password for it to do so'

I've tried using the Network Operator Wizard (odd but it does not ask me for my provider) but there is healthy signal displayed. When I try to connect then I get the above error message.

I've also tried creating a manual profile using APN 'general.t-mobile.uk' username 'user' Password 'pass' ....... details all confirmed with t-mobile but I get the same results.

I'm able to get a 3G connection in Windows and also with Linux Mint with no problem. Any ideas what is wrong with umtsmon in sidux? I've been searching for other solutions as I'm not finding much relevant info on umtsmon. Is there another package I could try?

Thanks for your help .....

 

I dont have a 3 g device so I have not had reason to set one up, however a quick search suggests using kppp from the Internet menu, perhaps worth a try http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/ ... connection

Alternatively do you remember what package was successful when you used linux Mint? if so install that package by typing apt-get install package name.

 

Thanks ..... tried kppp but did not work .... also installed gnome-network-manager ...... I'm sure this would not be recommended by sidux community and ...... also did not work.

Shame as this is a potential show stopper for me as I need to make use of 3g usb modem. I've posted in Sidux forum but am not expecting to get much further with this :cry:

Best distrot yet ..... lets hope someone who is using Sidux with a 3g usb web'n'walk reads one of my posts and has some ideas.