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Problems/Questions - What is going on?
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    1) Problem with Midori (Browser):

    This is really silly. Is there anyway to fix that?
    Note that it's very funny I can't even install any other browser for some reason??!!

    2) Applications/Tools are very slow and responding time is SO MUCH SLOW:

    My PC is P4 3GHz with 512MB RAM. It works VERY FAST with Ubuntu 10.04 so what's going on here?????

    3) Is there anyway to install a Screen Saver?
    I can't understand how heavy and bad to include a simple screen saver for SliTaz?

    4) Installing anything from the Package Manger takes forever so why is that?

    So far, these are my questions.

    Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. The dev could work a bit harder to make this OS much better.

  • Trixar_zaTrixar_za January 2011
    #1 Is why I use firefox - also this forum software has several issues - especially with javascript and css rendering in most browsers.

    #2 and #4 is about the exact same application. It's written in bash script and being forced to check the package list everytime it runs, amongst other tasks, makes it VERY slow. The only reason it's fast on Ubuntu is because it pre-cache's the list every week - you know that point where your system suddenly starts using 99% of your resources while the system is idle? Yep, that's Ubuntu pre-caching your packages list. It's been  a known bug since 7.10, yet the the Ubuntu team still hasn't made it play nice, even with a fix available. Ok, with that point made. It's easier just to use the tazpkg command. Just use tazpkg search and tazpkg get-install. It's WAY faster.

    Finally to answer #3 just read and download from here: - it comes with pretty much the only screensaver set you get with Linux. And to answer your question about the screensaver - no, it's not a simple thing to add a 'small' screensaver since it doesn't really exist with linux.
  • GokhlayehGokhlayeh January 2011
    "I can't understand how heavy and bad to include a simple screen saver for SliTaz?"

    In fact, that's not true because SliTaz include a simple screen saver, it's small, it was simple to include and yes... it exists; It's called "black screen after few minutes" and it's the lightest, the less resource eater and the simplest screensaver of the world... By the way, it's also the only screensaver which can truly be called screensaver; why should use spend time and energy to add worst alternatives ? :p
    (in other hand... why not?)

    "Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. The dev could work a bit harder to make this OS much better." : In fact, "the dev" (all contributors, so, we) are working hard to make this OS much better (and to make this OS, period). They (We) work for free, and freely - and they (we) share the result with who want it. I'm sorry if you're a bit disappointed, and if you find that "the dev" doesn't work hard enough... But, SliTaz have no customers, just a lot of people improving it everyday - you're welcome to join us or use what we do for what you want.
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    Trixar_za, I like your replies :)

    1) I LOVE Firefox, period. Thing is, I couldn't install it on SliTaz for some strange reason. I might try again but I just did today and nothing happened. I manually downloaded it from its website but SliTaz by default does not deal with such type of files. I even forgot the type. I just could not open it.
    Before (2 weeks ago - maybe?), I tried to install Firefox from the Package Manager and something not Firefox was installed. I think a lighter version or something but I'm quite sure it was not Firefox, the same I have say in Ubuntu or Fedora.

    2 and 4)


    Okay, I'll remember that :)

    Actually, I've never noticed Ubuntu using 99% of the resources. Even if it does, I won't freak out like some other users :P

    3) Why it's not a simple thing to add? I'm afraid I disagree with you. Also, I disagree about Linux does not have screen savers. From what I understand, when we talk about "Linux", we do talk about The Kernel. After all, you can add whatever you want in your OS/Distributions which is based on Linux Kernel.
    If I want to build a Linux Distributions, Screen Savers will definitely be in my to-add list :D

  • Trixar_zaTrixar_za January 2011
    The reason I said that it's not simple is because there is only one real screensaver package for Linux called xscreensaver. Every distro's screensavers come from there, it's just that some use different software to manage it like Ubuntu does. However, what Gokhlayeh said is true. The basic blank screen is a screensaver :P
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    Gokhlayeh, thanks for your reply :)

    I'm afraid that's not true or at least that what happened with me :(

    I left SliTaz for many hours and when I came back, I found my screen/monitor on the same status I left it. No black screen and nothing. The desktop with that SliTaz background in yellow (the default one) sitting there waiting for me :)
    So, where is that "hidden" black screen saver? :P

    I'm definitely interested to make this OS even better but:
    a) I'm still new to Linux and very new to SliTaz
    b) I'm in a process of building my own remix based on one of the distributions and I chose SliTaz because it's very interested. However, I'm a bit disappointed.

  • babaorumbabaorum January 2011
    Hi TheForsaken, keep cool, it is a bit rude to say that devs don't do enough. Slitaz is free and a new little distro, not a major buyable one like Mandriva where you can call yourself a customer and wait for things to be done.
    If you are hasty, please contribute more to the development, I cannot imagine your help to be rejected !

    Did you ensure that your hardware is not the cause of this ? I have a similar computer configuration and if Ubuntu is fast on it, Slitaz is too.
    Besides, whatever times I do install Slitaz, screensaver (black screen) is working `out-of-the-box`.
    Are your partitions damaged ? Are there missing data sectors on harddisk (probably not if ext2/3/4, but who knows) ?

  • ms3811ms3811 January 2011
    To add to what's said above:

    firefox (you need to be root to run tazpkg):

    # tazpkg get-install firefox

    To check if firefox is already installed:

    # tazpkg list | grep firefox

    If you cannot find firefox in the application menu for some reason, try running "firefox" from the terminal. Although, the command line is "firefox", the title bar on the browser will say "Namoroka". That's just the name of the build, it is still firefox.

    If you are new to linux in general, Slitaz may not be the best distro to start with. It is cutting edge with a specific purpose, speed, lightweight and mostly bloatfree while still retaining sufficient functionality for most common tasks (and quite a few uncommon tasks). You might find PCLinuxOS or the likes of that easier to start with.
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    Hello Babaorum :)

    I just can't understand why most of the users in ALL Linux Forum defending their favorite distro like it is their and they spent all their life working on it? :D
    No offense but someone just attacked me on Fedora's Forum JUST because I said "why Fedora can't detect other Linux Distributions during Installation the same way it does detect Windows?"
    Actually I added more points but he called me troublemaker and I don't deserve help, etc.

    Anyway, I know you're not like that guy and I know we're both cool but believe it or not, this is my way of improvement :D
    I know it could be rude, harsh, negative but that's my way. Everyone in this world has his/her own way and it doesn't matter the way, what does matter is the result, right :)

    The End Justifies The Means

    So don't worry, I'm very cool :D

    Now, let's do this :)

    1) Unquestionably, I'm aware that SliTaz is a "new little distro" and it's not a major one. Totally understand and actually that's why I'm here ;)
    I mean, I adore Linux and sooner or later, I have to contribute more to this world, world of Linux.
    So don't worry again, we're in the same page.

    2) Yes, my hardware is in perfect condition. I'm Multi-Booting on the same PC, same HDD (except I formatted it now) and everything is fine. And YES, if Ubuntu is fast, SliTaz IMHO must be VERY fast. However, it's slow in my case :(

    3) As for the screen-saver, seriously, I have no clue what's wrong and why it does not work "out of the box".
    Any thoughts?

    4) Nop, my partitions are fine. Otherwise, SliTaz won't work on the first place ;)

    So, what do you think? what's going on?
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    Please, ignore this post. I posted it on the wrong thread

    It should be here:


    Problem 5:

    When I plug-in any USB-Drive, SliTaz detect it as "/dev/sda" while SliTaz always detect my Hard Drive(s) as "/dev/hdX".

    So, am I missing something here?
    Why it does detect the USB-Drive as "sdX" while it's detecting my HDD(s) as "hdX" ???

  • ms3811ms3811 January 2011
    Why is that a problem? Just asking. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can help with the reason behind it.

    For what its worth, It does the same thing for me on all my installs, hdd (part1, part2) = hda1, hda2, etc and USB stick 1, 2 = sda1, sda2, etc. (or on another machine sdb1, sdb2, I think).
  • TotoetsasoeurTotoetsasoeur January 2011
    Nothing wrong with it. The right and usual way is (Slitaz uses that one if I'm not wrong):
    hdx => IDE drive,
    sdx =>SCSI/SATA (and usb) drive.

    But some other distros use sdx for all of them: IDE, SCSI, SATA and usb.

    Not a big deal. ;-)

    And in case of laptop, all are sdx (Not 100% sure about this).
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    ms3811 and Totoetsasoeur

    Please ignore my last post ... I posted in the wrong thread :)

  • TotoetsasoeurTotoetsasoeur January 2011
    ok, but do not ignore my last answer...
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    I read it but still did not fix my problem :)

    Thank you though!
  • Trixar_zaTrixar_za January 2011
    @TheForsaken I'm a very passionate, direct and opinionated person, which means I normally get seen as pretty aggressive at times. One thing I can tell you is that if you criticize something with your brutally honest opinion, it tends to lead to people being defensive.

    Let me put it in another way. Walk into any strip joint and start criticizing the dancers' dress style and pole dancing skills. If you survive the dancers, customers and bouncers, you'd understand why this is bad.

    Just remember that these people spend a lot of their free time growing their community and this distro. When an outsider, with little understanding about the dynamic, hard work and passion that goes into it, comes around and criticizes it... well, it's like a slap in the face of everybody that put so much work into it.

    Recently I was on IRC complaining about something, when godane reminded me that those 'them" was us and that I was one of that "us". It's also when I realised that if I don't like something in SliTaz, that it's up to me to fix it because I am one of "them" I kept expecting to fix it.

    The point I'm trying to make is that if you have ideas how to make SliTaz better, then great, but don't expect others to do it for you. You'll earn much better understanding and respect by trying to do it yourself than trying to give us "pointers".
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011

    You know I don't want to slap anyone on the face whatsoever, right? :) I hope you understand that.
    I'm VERY honest person and I understand that's the main reason why people misunderstand me and think I'm rude and/or aggressive. I had no problems with antiX's Forum whatsoever. With Ubutnu, a little bit and that was in the beginning. Debian's forum, well, one of them was very rude to the point that he told me to close the door on my way out and no admin even bothered to jump in. Fedora's Forum, same happened but the admin jumped in. Here, so far so good :)

    Point is, I got your point and please try to understand that I'm very much willing to help and contribute here with SliTaz or with any other Linux Distribution, simply because I love Linux and it has changed my life indeed. I mean the real-life.

    Back to topic, if I know how to fix these problems, I wouldn't post here on the first place. Yes, I'm that kind of persons who never give up at all but I'm still learning.

    Anyway, I'll do my best to find a solution for my problems but I disagree that I have to be on my own :) I mean, we should help each other to make this OS is much better. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying to make it even better.
    I believe when there are problems, we need to help each other to fix that.
    I do that with Ubuntu. I used to ask Qs and I'm now helping out others.

    I think this is way off-topic :D

    Thanks for your explanation :)
    Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to do anything but explain my point of view.

    Now, I'll try to look into each of these problems/issues individually and see what can I do :)

    BY THE WAY, in case of suggestions/feedback and stuff like that ... where shall I post there? here or some other forum?
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    By the way, if you consider me an outsider, I don't really see myself an outsider at all. As long as I'm using Linux and SliTaz, I'm one of you/this community and I do have the right just like anyone else here to state an opinion and write a feedback, etc.
    Unless, people here don't welcome NEW Comers, then it's definitely different story :)

    DO NOT worry, I'm not upset or anything, no offense taken but the "outsider" example wasn't perfect :P
  • Trixar_zaTrixar_za January 2011
    When I said outsider, I meant people that don't have the experience to truly understand something enough to give 'good' opinion about it. That's what brutal honesty is - your opinion.

    Like the Strip joint example, since you never worked with such a business or know what's expected of it, your opinion is lacking important facts. Meaning that by commenting on their dress and dancing style you're pretty much speaking out your ass. Hence the beating of a lifetime ensues.

    The reason I said you're on your own is because sometimes people just won't help you do what you want. For example I kept asking for help on how to write a receipt yesterday on IRC and was blatantly ignored. So I got mad and did it all on my own and created my first package.

    I learned two important things by doing it that way. What it took to make a package and how hard it is when you don't really know how. I previously didn't know this, so with regard to it I was also speaking out of my ass. Next time however it will be easier and my packages will only get better.

    The community is here to help... but not always.
  • TheForsakenTheForsaken January 2011
    "The community is here to help... but not always." << Enough said.

    I understand now the difference between this community and Ubuntu's community.
    I still have different point of view than yours but I agree that you can not "always" get the help you need.

    I will not be mad like you. I've leaned how to be patient.
    With Ubuntu, I started a thread once regarding a network issue and NO ONE replied for 3 weeks until I fix it on my own. We ALL know that Ubuntu is the most widely used Linux Distribution but I guess you right, you can't get what you always expect.

    Here, I'm asking simple things but apparently, I'm asking something too much complicated or perhaps I need to wait for the proper advice.

    Anyway, again, this is not our topic so please let's "stick" with the topic of this thread. I got your point and I hope you got mine, period :) case closed :)

    Now, if ANYONE knows the answer of my questions, that would be great. I'm going to wait for sometime and if nothing will come up, I'll simply move on to play with another Distributions as I have over 50.

    NO OFFENSE SliTaz Community, you rock but hope you do NOT misunderstand me.

  • Trixar_zaTrixar_za January 2011
    I believe we covered most of them, didn't we? Use Firefox instead for this Forum because it's software is horribly coded and breaks most browers.

    I think the screensaver one has been covered too, so that leaves tazpkg's graphical side right?

    With stable there is nothing you can do about it except use the command line one. At the moment Gokhlayeh is optimising that code which he says it's up to 4 times faster than the old one. Is that more in line with what your expecting?

    If you're looking for another small linux then try TinyCore :P - it uses the same busybox system SliTaz does. You're not the only one with more than one distro :P

    My hobby is actually playing with other OSes all together - normally one man or small group projects written from scratch that doesn't use a Linux, Unix or Windows base. You'd be surprised how many good ones are out there.

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