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Old 12-06-2005, 08:39 PM   #1
Fritz_Monroe
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Zenwalk, anyone using this daily?


I really like Slackware, but am stillin the mode of discovering what distro I would want for long term use. I happened upon the Zenwalk Project page. This looks like a interesting little distro that might be worth using for an older system. It got me wondering if anyone is making use of Zenwalk for their day to day computing uses. Since there isn't a Zenwalk forum, I figured I'd ask here. I'm curious if this is mainly for slower or older computers, or if it's maximized for speed. Based on the project page, it appears to be a fully functional distro, but with a single program for each use of the system.

Thanks in advance for any info.
 
Old 12-06-2005, 09:04 PM   #2
Xian
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fritz_Monroe
Since there isn't a Zenwalk forum, I figured I'd ask here.
Yes, here is their forum: SlackPlanet Forums.
 
Old 12-07-2005, 04:02 PM   #3
Fritz_Monroe
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I'll take a look. Thanks for pointing me that direction.
 
Old 12-13-2005, 03:05 AM   #4
marco.uk
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Hi Fritz_Monroe,

I had a look at Zenwalk (installed the latest version), but I think that it is quite unstable. Had several problems with Firefox and I do not like the default settings for KDE 3.5.
 
Old 12-13-2005, 08:50 AM   #5
AxXium
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I am currently giving Zenwalk a spin on one of my laptops. I am thouroughly impressed with its package management system. Zenwalk actually has two fully compatible package management systems. It has Slackware's "pkgtool" as well as it's own "net-pkg". The one labled "net-pkg" is the one that I'm most impressed with. I haven't used it long enough for it to fail yet so I'm pretty optimistic and wish that Slackware would incorporate it. If your unfamilar with "net-pkg", I highly recommend you giving Zenwalk a spin. Net-pkg is a no-brainer to use, quick, nimble and all you would want from package management. It seems to have no dependency checking, but that's how Slackers like it anyway. It's all good

As far as stability is concerned, the only package that I am having trouble with is "Anjunta". Everytime I use "Anjunta" in Zenwalk, the app crashes after I write 5 or 6 lines of code in a C++ source file. That is disappointing. For now I am just coding in a terminal or using "Abiword" to write the text.

My other disappointments are no compiled version of Bzflag (is a must for any Distro. :}), or 3D enabling drivers for ATI video cards (My Dell C600 Laptop has one). More contributed packages would be nice. Also the I want to find another console text app other that VIM. I didn't fins Emacs, Pico, Nano or Elvis yet in their package repositories.

Other than that it's quite cool. Setting up X11 and internet connections was a breeze. I love the post installation configuration app. Other than SuSE no other distro properly configured all three of my laptop's mice correctly from the start. It is a very peppy (speedwise) distro, very unbloated. It's as quick as Gentoo without all the Bullsh** compiling, configuring, recompiling and reconfiguring...

All in all, my gripes are minor and it may be that I just need to look a little harder, except for the "Anjunta" crashing problem. This is a young distro and has it's minor quirks but looks to be very, very promising.

I give it 2 thumbs up

Last edited by AxXium; 12-13-2005 at 09:10 AM.
 
Old 12-14-2005, 03:12 AM   #6
marco.uk
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Hi mianve,

What version of Zenwalk did you install? I tested the new version 2.01 and had several problems:

- Firefox did not start sometimes, because it could not find some files

- Had to reinstall LiLo after the Zenwalk installation as I could not boot into the system anymore

- KDE was sometimes crashing with signal 11 error (especially kicker and konqueror)

Not to get me wrong, I think Zenwalk looks very promising. Just think that it needs a bit more testing and bugfixing.

Marco
 
Old 12-14-2005, 07:35 AM   #7
vangelis
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I'm using Zenwalk 1.3, until now I am very pleased with the 1 app of each work and since I use it in my older computer I don't wan't any special software to do something.
I downloaded zenwalk-core 2.0.1 and want to add my gui apps alone, it kinda gives me some power as a user for creating my system.
Ofcourse it's not LFS (I can't afford the time and I think that my mind would explode).
I think this upcoming distro will come up to be aknowledged in the linux community if they continue like current.
 
Old 12-14-2005, 07:55 AM   #8
AxXium
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Wink

marco.uk wrote:
Quote:
Hi mianve,

What version of Zenwalk did you install? I tested the new version 2.01 and had several problems:

- Firefox did not start sometimes, because it could not find some files

- Had to reinstall LiLo after the Zenwalk installation as I could not boot into the system anymore

- KDE was sometimes crashing with signal 11 error (especially kicker and konqueror)

Not to get me wrong, I think Zenwalk looks very promising. Just think that it needs a bit more testing and bugfixing.

Marco
I am using Zenwalk 2.01 fully updated. I swear nothing crashes but for the exception of "Anjuta"

Here is a link to my bug post at Zenwalk's forum.

http://www.slackplanet.org/index.php?topic=1280.0

You can see that they jumped on fixing it right away.

The more I use this distro the more I love it. I another week I just may wipe out Gentoo & SuSE 10
 
Old 12-14-2005, 03:56 PM   #9
Dankles
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marco.uk
Hi mianve,

What version of Zenwalk did you install? I tested the new version 2.01 and had several problems:

- Firefox did not start sometimes, because it could not find some files

- Had to reinstall LiLo after the Zenwalk installation as I could not boot into the system anymore

- KDE was sometimes crashing with signal 11 error (especially kicker and konqueror)

Not to get me wrong, I think Zenwalk looks very promising. Just think that it needs a bit more testing and bugfixing.

Marco
Are your sure your disks are ok? I've had weird problems with linuxs when my disks are bad
 
Old 12-16-2005, 10:41 AM   #10
AxXium
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Don't give up on Zenwalk :)

I hate to seem biased (Zenwalk Team Member), but it is a lightning fast and stable distro offering the best of what is needed and really used, not just offering every unmaintaned package under the sun. We are doing our best to provided the world with something truly amazing. I like it so much I joined the team

Please report bugs for Zenwalk at our site so that we know about them and hence can fix them right away.

http://www.slackplanet.org/index.php?board=20.0

Have a great one
 
Old 12-16-2005, 10:54 AM   #11
Fritz_Monroe
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My only concern is the help from other users. I posted a message on the Zenwalk forums 2 days ago and there have been almost 40 reads of it, but nobody has answered. It's kind of disturbing since I'm used to Slackware users jumping right on the questions as soon as they are asked. It could be the smaller user base, but if that's the case, I'd have expected a moderator or a regular to respond.
 
Old 12-16-2005, 10:58 AM   #12
AxXium
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Really?

Fritz_Monroe wrote:
Quote:
My only concern is the help from other users. I posted a message on the Zenwalk forums 2 days ago and there have been almost 40 reads of it, but nobody has answered. It's kind of disturbing since I'm used to Slackware users jumping right on the questions as soon as they are asked. It could be the smaller user base, but if that's the case, I'd have expected a moderator or a regular to respond.
Ok, I did my best to answer your questions.

It's very odd that you got no response within 5 minutes.

Last edited by AxXium; 12-16-2005 at 11:12 AM.
 
Old 12-16-2005, 01:10 PM   #13
Fritz_Monroe
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mianve
Fritz_Monroe wrote:


Ok, I did my best to answer your questions.

It's very odd that you got no response within 5 minutes.
I really didn't mean for you to jump right on that. I figured that there probably isn't that big a user base and that was the reason there wasn't an answer.

Anyway, thanks for the response.
 
Old 12-16-2005, 01:14 PM   #14
AxXium
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Quote:
I really didn't mean for you to jump right on that. I figured that there probably isn't that big a user base and that was the reason there wasn't an answer.

Anyway, thanks for the response.
That's what being in the GNU/Linux family means.

We help each other.

Whether by creating free software, fixing bugs or offering advice.

We all benefit
 
Old 12-17-2005, 07:55 PM   #15
dannyl
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Just a question, since it is Slackware based can you install Slackware packages from the Slack repositories?
 
  


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