- This topic has 25 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Apr 27-12:20 am by andyprough.
-
Posts
-
andyprough
I’ve made an alpha version of an antiX respin with no non-free software or firmware, that I’m currently calling antiX Libre Respin. I’ve posted the files for it here: https://archive.org/download/antiX19.3x64LibreRespin-20201226_1927
The torrent downloads faster than the straight https download of the ISO from my experience.
Please note, this is distributed with no warranty whatsoever, and has only been lightly tested on two of my laptops, so treat it as very experimental. I would not recommend using it to install in a dual boot configuration with Windows or in some other configuration where you might be putting your production systems or your important data at risk.
Also, since this has no non-free software or firmware, it isn’t going to work with most wifi cards. Libre linux does work with some Atheros chipsets, so if you have an Atheros usb wifi dongle laying around, you might try it. It should (hopefully) work with a lot of ethernet hardware. I’m not blacklisting proprietary software or firmware, so you are free to install proprietary firmware for your wifi card if you like.
Key characteristics of this respin:
1. Basically a regular setup with antiX 19.3 – you won’t see a lot of visual difference with regular antiX at this point
2. This respin is using the Debian kernel, as it does not have non-free blobs
3. I’ve cut out the “helper” apps from antiX which install non-free software and firmware. You won’t find the programs in the Control center to load the Nvidia firmware or the Windows wifi firmware. anticapitalista re-wrote the packageinstaller-pkglist to help me with this respin, so this is using the new packageinstaller-pkglist-libre package, which does not offer to install non-free software. Once again – you can manually find and install non-free software and drivers yourself, I have not blacklisted anything, but this respin is set up to not help you do it automatically.Other than the lack of non-free firmware, I hope you won’t have abnormal difficulties with this respin. I’ll try to support requests for help as I can, but most problems other than the lack of non-free firmware should have the same solutions as for regular antiX.
Attachments:
Anonymous
just letting you know:
I tried twice downloading from archive.org
first attempt took 37min, second 28min
and both attempts wound up producing a 1GB *.iso file (but the dl never finalized, just hung)andyprough
OK, I may move the direct download to Google Drive tomorrow. I like Internet Archive because it automatically sets up the torrent, and the torrents are fast.
andyprough
just letting you know:
I tried twice downloading from archive.org
first attempt took 37min, second 28min
and both attempts wound up producing a 1GB *.iso file (but the dl never finalized, just hung)Here’s a Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cHfRHbDQbCkNYBeUCUCtvK1XiJfvAn7B?usp=sharing
ISO upload should be complete in about 10 minutes.
3rd try got it. I booted it in a virtualbox instance.
list of 259 packages (ignoring lib* named pkgs) in antiX 19 Full which are absent from the respin: https://pastebin.com/q4LEp33x
novel packages added: libavcodec58 and mokutil/root/.cache directory contains 1.5MB cruft (mesa_shader_cache files and qt_compose…)
consider adding that path within the iso-snapshot-exclude.listandyprough
3rd try got it. I booted it in a virtualbox instance.
list of 259 packages (ignoring lib* named pkgs) in antiX 19 Full which are absent from the respin: https://pastebin.com/q4LEp33x
novel packages added: libavcodec58 and mokutil/root/.cache directory contains 1.5MB cruft (mesa_shader_cache files and qt_compose…)
consider adding that path within the iso-snapshot-exclude.listI should have stated – it’s based on Base not on Full. It’s big because I didn’t use the smaller compression method – I think I will next time. Thanks for the exclude list advice – sounds good.
andyprough
A second alpha version of this respin is up now: https://archive.org/download/antiX19.3x64LibreRespin-20201229_1054
I’ve switched to using the Linux-libre kernel after getting feedback from one user who prefers not loading the Intel mei module, or the hdcp module due to it being a form of DRM. These modules are both deblobbed or disabled with the Linux-libre kernel.
ISO size is down to about 655mb after I went with the xz compression method. The torrent downloads much faster than direct download usually.Once again, this is highly experimental, and is merely an alpha project to present a version of antiX with no non-free software or firmware. Please back up your data before trying it, and keep in mind that the Linux-libre kernel will not work with most wifi chips.
This version does work with an Atheros wifi chip for me, but only after installing the ISO. For some reason the live USB doesn’t work with the Atheros wifi dongle – I’ll have to research and see if I can get that working in the live USB environment again.
anticapitalista
The second iso is painfully slow to download and the torrent doesn’t do anything.
Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
andyprough
The second iso is painfully slow to download and the torrent doesn’t do anything.
No torrent problems here – this is my screenshot from a moment ago.
Attachments:
andyprough
What’s the recommended site for uploading antiX respins? Anyone have better luck with one site or another? I like Internet Archive, because it doesn’t bombard people with ads and javascript. But if there is a preferred site for antiX users, I’ll try to use it.
unsure the application process for requesting an account for these,
but they seem to provide “http -accessible” hosting via ftp upload accounts
https://distro.ibiblio.org/
https://projects.tuxfamily.org/#%3Fdo%3Dallgroupssuggestion: Send the question “Which free hosting sites are available, for projects to upload iso/img files and rpm/deb packagefiles?” to jessiesmith at distrowatch, via email… asking him to reply via the weekly newspage. In the meantime, post to the DW weekly comments to ask this question.
Separately, you might ping Lunduke or (freedompenguin) Matt Hartley or one of the other syndicated pundits, asking them to publish an article regarding available file hosting for distros/projects.
andyprough
I’m going to go ahead and keep the Internet Archive page as the main page for now, since it does create really useful torrents for each file and if users are able to access them the torrents are a good fast way to get the ISO downloaded. Also, the Internet Archive does not limit my storage space or the number of downloads, and does not bombard the users with ads and intrusive javascript.
However, I’m also going to post a copy of the current version of each ISO to mega.nz, and post the link in this thread for anyone who has trouble accessing it from the Internet Archive. I tried it and MEGA was able to download the 655mb ISO to my computer in under a minute – so it’s potentially very fast. Here’s the link to the current ISO from MEGA: https://mega.nz/file/KR9SmQhD#DA7aVT9UKOKC2NMrUfwGDaeQ4p_xpX25Hj3c2lCpcpI
FYI, I tested dl from the mega.nz link you posted. The 655MB transfer took < 25 seconds.
A current user of a libre system, running a libre browser… would not be able to retrieve from mega.gz, right?
.
andyprough
A current user of a libre system, running a libre browser… would not be able to retrieve from mega.gz, right?
Thus, the need for a torrent. There aren’t any cloud storage sites that will allow a download without js – none that I know of.
anticapitalista
I gave the second iso a shot – nice to get it under 700MB (jut shows how much ‘bloat’ using non-free uses).
Works well on my laptop with ethernet.
Only issue (and a serious one) was that a dist-upgrade updates the kernel and causes errors.
I think you should include the linux-headers as well.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
