[clue-tech] Re: Hello sidux?

[Collins Richey]

I'm taking the liberty of forwarding Manfred's questions and my
replies to CLUE since others may be interested.

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 9:53 PM, Manfred Meiser <mamei at netzero.net> wrote:
> Hi Collins,
>
>  Since you got me a little bit interested in sidux, and I also read some positive critics about it, I thought I just may download a version of it. There are several versions available like "lite", "full", i386, AMD64. What can you recommend and how mature is the AMD64 version. Will everything work? I had some problems before with a AMD64-Ubuntu version and stayed away from it since.
>
>  I'm considering a complete makeover of my computer, is there a installation preference before or after Ubuntu, can I use the same (separate) home partition??
>
>  There was some talk about taking over old home partitions and I didn't know there could be any problems. I guess I was lucky so far and I didn't run in any problems yet. The way I will do it now is that I keep a external backup copy of home (what you should have anyway) and when doing a new install copy the "visible" files and folders into the new home directory. Do you see any problem with that?
>
>  Otherwise, I guess I have to get used to the KDE desktop. :)
>
>  Thanks, for any help and see you maybe at the CLUE meeting.
>

I've been running Sidux since October 2007, and I can recommend it
without reservations for a certain class of Linux users, namely those
who can put up a continual DEVELOPMENT release and who prefer the
Debian way. Here are the basics.

1. Sidux is based on Debian sid. There are basically four divisions in
Debian land - stable(which is exactly that), testing (newer packages
on the way to becoming the next stable), sid (leading and sometimes
bleeding edge packages), and experimental (truly bleeding edge
packages).

2. Sidux is a KDE-only distro. No support is offered for Gnome,
although you can certainly install the Gnome packages, if you choose..
There is an alternative light weight window manager (I've forgotten
which one) supplied as a standard choice, and some users are
experimenting with other window managers like xfce.

3. Sidux is available for i386 and 64-bit architectures - not as many
choices as pure Debian. I have only i386 experience, but many users
are running 64-bit. As with any 64-bit distro, the benefits are few
(large memory space and intensive database applications may run
better) and the drawbacks are many (browser plugins in particular,
more limited choices for wireless). I'm sure sidux 64-bit works as
well (certainly no worse) than any other distro.

4. Sidux was formed and maintained by a group of (mostly) German
Debian developers, many of whom migrated from the Kanotix distro.
Sidux has an excelent manual, a wiki, and a forum. Unlike Ubuntu,
developers are fully engaged with users and participate in the forum.

5. Sidux (like Debian testing and sid) is a rolling release - install
once and upgrade forever and CONTINUOUSLY. You must update your system
at the very least every month or so. I update weekly, and there are
typically 50-100 updated packages every week. The sidux developers and
testers are very good about holding back packages that enter sid but
that have major flaws.

6. Because of the more stringent dependency requirements of sid
packages, updating via gui package managers and aptitude are not
permitted. The only permitted methods are apt-get update followed by
apt-get dist-upgrade. Users are warned not to try gui updates and/or
apt-get update (!!!), since experience has shown that these methods
may lead to a broken system in sid.

7. Sidux (unlike Debian in general and Ubuntu) has reverted to the
standard SYS-V runlevels 0-6, with gui in runlevel 5, non-gui in
run-level 3. One of the primary developers has created a standard
maintenance script 'smxi' that makes it (mostly) brain-dead simple to
update your system. The basic flow of that script is as follows:

* Insure that you are in runlevel 3 (updates not permitted with X active)
* apt-get update
* check for upgrades to 'smxi' itself and restart if script changed.
* search for and update critical packages needed for the kernel
* offer to upgrade the kernel (optional) if a new standard version is
available.If kernel is upgraded, ATI and/or nVidia modules disabled,
and you must rebuild them below.
* if kernel upgraded, recommend reboot and start again in runlevel 3
* check for any troublesome packages that need to be held.
* check for upgrades to libc6 and other packages that really need to go first
* perform apt-get dist-upgrade.
* check for need to rebuild fonts (X upgraded, etc)
* numerous options to upgrade proprietary packages (ATI, nVidia,
wireless, virtual machines, etc.)
* offer to resume in runlevel 5.

All of this takes 15-20 minutes typically.

8. Installation is available only from a LiveCD/DVD. There are lite
(fewer packages) and full versions both for i386 and 64-bit.
Installation takes only about 20 minutes. Like many distros,
installation is only possible to formatted partitions - empty
partitions will not appear in the choices. If you have other bootable
systems (Linux or WIndows), all of them will be made bootable in the
grub menu.lst generated by the installer.

9. If upgrading from another system, it's advisable to backup your
permanent home partition data, create a new home directory, and
restore your non-hidden files to that directory. Unless of course you
do as I do and maintain a permanent common partition that is symlinked
into the home directory.

10. Since sidux is a rolling release, timing is important. The latest
"release" Nyx (sidux uses greek names) is in final testing now. A
"release" is really only a cutoff point to build LiveCD/DVD images. If
you start from a "release" several months after a cutoff point, you
may need to upgrade upwards of 800 packages!!! My system, after weekly
upgrades, is already at the equivalent level of Nyx, and I have no
need to reinstall. So, within the next few weeks would be a
recommended time for installing sidux, if you are interested.

11. Sidux works as well or better than any other distro for wireless
users. There is a Sidux script 'Ceni' for configuring wireless and
wired connections, and the 'smxi' package takes care of painlessly
updating any proprietary stuff needed for wireless.

12. I've only encountered two serious problems in 6 months. Right
after I put up my first sidux system, was a major release point for
xorg, and X didn't work for a day or two. Actually, I failed to read
the recommendation NOT to upgrade. Nowadays, 'smxi' automatically
holds troublesome packages like this within a few hours of bad news
reports. Later on, I had to reboot to a prior kernel, because nVidia
support was lagging behind. Like any Debian system, a new kernel
install leaves prior kernels in place, so it's a no risk operation. Of
late, the standard Firefox 2 offerings (Debian has forked this as
iceweasel) have become unstable (segfaults and hangs), and so I'm
running swiftfox (based on the latest Firefox 3 beta). This close to
release 3, mozilla is probably not putting much effort into fixing
Firefox 2.

If any of you have ever worked with gentoo, you will notice the
similarity in the friendly "we're all in this together" attitude of
both developers and users. Most sidux users are very experienced with
Linux, but numerous noobs have jumped on board, and they are welcomed,
and they seem to love sidux. If you like to keep current with German,
visit the German forums.

One final note. You can;t discuss products like mplayer on the sidux
forums. There will be intercepted and uniformly converted to
**MULTIMEDIA**. Apparently there are some kooky German laws that
forbid discussion of any product with full DVD support. You can
certainly install mplayer and any codecs you want, and you can even
discuss the matter on IRC, but not on the forums.

See you on the sidux forum where my moniker is 'hoodwink'.

Enjoy,

-- 
Collins Richey
 If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
 of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.