New Install... Switching from Mepis 7

Posts: 4
abbas
Joined: 24 Nov 2008
#1
Hi.

Firstly, I am a huge fan of Mepis 7. Baisically, for my Sony Vaio FX805 laptop, it runs everything perfectly including suspend to disk! Anyway, recently after a spate of updates, its gone rather slow, so I decided to switch to AntiX.

Boy am i impressed! AntiX feels faster... In fact, it even has my 8MB accelerator working! I get about 250fps on glxgears.

However, a few issues I was hoping someone could help me with.

1. I did a fresh install and did an update via synaptic and it switch my window to ICEWM. Its nice but FB is faster. How can I remove ICEWM and keep just FB?
2. I set the volume up, but mixer does not load? Also, on DIVX/DVD, the movies will play but no sound? (I have installed livedbvs or whatever its called).
3. How can I setup suspend2disk?

All in all, a fantasticly fast distro. Well done Anti!

Regards.
Abbas.
anticapitalista
Posts: 5,959
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
#2
Hi abbas

1. You need to edit the /home/username/.xinitrc file
The bit that shows the * should write
*
exec startfluxbox

You will need to logout and back in for it to stay.

2. You might need to use alsamixer to get the sound working.
Control Centre->Hardware->Configure Sound System

3. I don't know, but I'm sure others will post to help.

Have fun with antiX!
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#3
Welcome, abbas! Unfortunately I do not have the answers to your particular questions. I hope someone else here does. Also our friends at MEPIS Lovers are often knowledgeable and help as well.

One way or the other, I hope everything is answered to your complete satisfaction and that antiX works great for you!
Posts: 4
abbas
Joined: 24 Nov 2008
#4
masinick

__{{emoticon}}__

Thanks!

Its going great! Just tweaking bits and pieces for my taste.... Its a shame its not as easy to follow/configure like MEPIS.... but its a lot more fun, cos its blooming fast!

anticapitalista
You have done a fantastic job with this distro. It REALLY has boosted my laptops speed, and once I figure out the suspend to disk lark, I should be able to add all my office apps and what not!

I tried editing the .xinitrc file but that still loaded ICEWM... so I did the next best thing.... uninstall it! Did the trick.

Thanks for the sound, it enabled but, but for some reason it was not enabled at startup. Also, the mixer would not load, but I remember that it loaded on ICEWM. So I edited the menu file (it wasnt removed when I uninstalled ICEWM), found the mixer item and added it to the menu bar for Fluxbox! Also, the stupid thing was on mute and you have to press < to enable it!!

Now I just need/want to get rid of the blue debian wallpaper that pops up on login and then is removed once fluxbox loads... any ideas?

Thank you very much!
Abbas.
anticapitalista
Posts: 5,959
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
#5
If you still have /usr/share/slim/themes/antiX

Edit /etc/slim.conf to
current_theme antiX

If not, then use the Change slim background in the control centre (actually you should be able to do this with or without antiX in /usr/share/slim/themes)
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#6
I will say, abbas, that antiX, in its current form, is more for tweakers and those who appreciate or need either the speed or the lighter resource consumption that comes with antiX. As you have noticed, it does come at some price, though the team works hard to minimize that cost and come up with ever easier approaches to take. I know that there are some system configuration tools in the latest software, that, while admitedly, do require some manual editing of configuration files, in one such setup, the Geany Text Editor comes up, and in multiple tabs there are several of the configuration files to modify the setup. One example of this is in the modification of the default IceWM toolbar, menu, theme... It is not something that a clueless person could handle, but conversely, it does not take a genius to figure out what is going on either. I think that antiX strikes a reasonable balance, but I would admit that it is still not quite for the first time newbie, unless that newbie does not behave like a typical consumer, but instead behaves like someone willing to do a bit of work to come up with an extremely useful tool. For such a person, antiX is perfect!
abbas
Joined: 24 Nov 2008
#7
__{{emoticon}}__

Thanks for the tip, the conf files did the trick!

I love to find out stuff on my own accord and like to get dirty. The problem is that I am from a Windows background. I have been using Windows for soo long that I instantly know how to fix stuff simply because I know where most if not all of the files site. Also, I program in VB so I know how programs interact with the system.

Coming to Linux, I have yet to stick to a distro as I cant find one that really works well for my laptop. I do need to buy a new computer, but unfortunately, I have other financial commitments, plus, this laptop and I go a long way!

I think what would be nice is a kinda"Systems Manual", with maybe the following for sections:

> System Files location and their usage
> Hardware layer and calling/using them
> Typical program install - files that may be generated and where they will get stored. Kinda like on Windows you know it will install to /Program Files, with DLLs in /windows/system32 and ini files in /windows
> Common libraries and calling them (i.e. how the distro deals with Paths) - Used for development work

I wonder how many newbies would find that useful... I am sure, if there was one for MEPIS or antiX, it would reduce the number of people posting daft questions (like me)...

Anyway, I should probably stat to find the 7.5 install CD. I just installed Virtualbox via Synaptic and then rebooted to receive a nice Kernal Panic! Oh, well...