- This topic has 42 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Mar 27-4:22 pm by melodie.
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andyprough
I had some people on the Trisquel forum asking for an updated Libre respin of antiX, especially for 32-bit since Trisquel has followed upstream Ubuntu in dropping 32-bit support. So here’s a 32-bit ISO: https://archive.org/details/2022-02-12anti-x-21-libre-respin-32bit
archive.org torrents do not download correctly with a lot of torrent software (I think because you aren’t allowed to seed back to archive.org), but they do work well with qbitorrent.
I’m also uploading the ISO to Mega.nz for fast direct downloads here:
https://mega.nz/folder/qF9UXKCR#LjlB3TsqbI78Kq62u2NZjQIt runs very well and with very low resources on my older 64-bit laptops as well. And with the PAE kernel you get to use all your ram, so what’s not to like?
I’ve added the JWMKIT suite of themes and tools for the JWM window manager to this version. Let me know if you like it or hate it. I’ve personally become a fan of how it gives a lot of theme options and extra little utility programs with a minimal resource footprint.
This version replaces the kernel with a 4.19 32-bit PAE Linux-libre kernel, and has the Linux-libre repo so that changing to other versions of the kernel are as simple as entering an apt command for your preferred kernel from here: https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/freesh.en.html
If you need a non-PAE version and/or an older kernel let me know and I’ll upload a different ISO. I’ll probably upload one soon anyway, since I have an old 32-bit mini-tower that I’ll need it for. And I’ll do a 64-bit version soon.
This version also has Trisquel’s ‘Abrowser’ web browser. It is a fully libre licensed, privacy focused browser, similar to IceCat, but which is kept current against the latest Firefox releases. I added the latest base version of LibreOffice simply because I need it, but I can make a smaller ISO without LibreOffice if anyone needs it.
Other than that and a different default wallpaper and only using the libre version of antiX Package Installer, there’s not too many changes from stock antiX. As with last year’s Libre-antiX 19.3, this one strips out all non-free firmware, meaning that you will have to have an Atheros wifi card or adaptor if you want wifi. Look on h-node.org to make sure the specific Atheros device works without nonfree drivers before you spend $10 on one on ebay.
This will obviously not work with a lot of the latest newest hardware, but it’s 32-bit, so, shouldn’t be much of a problem. Let me know your thoughts, and please be kind to your data and back it up before messing with this.
andyprough
Responding to a post by JWM-KIT, a dev on the Devuan forum – I’m trying to move the discussion over here:
@andyprough
Just trying to be helpful. I want to see you project do well. So I hope you are open to some more suggestions.
Of course! Always open!
The first item is on me to do the work in JWM Kit.
Antix has a lot of apps in a Category called X-antiX. This is a non-standard category so JWM Kit’s Easy menu put them in the Other’s category. Changing the category will probably affect the other desktop sessions as they are probably configured to dealing with this category.I can make a fix for this in the next version. It looks like most of these apps belong in settings. So how about merging anything with the X-antiX category into Settings. With the default JWM Kit config this would mean these items would be added to t he JWM Kit Settings panel.
If you want I can also have JWM KIt Settings group these X-antiX apps together with an “AntiX” title over it. (like it does the JWM Kit tools)
Let me know your opinion.
That would all work great for me!! Remember, antiX is spelled with a small “a”, haha!
Next : A couple of things you can easily fix with Freedesktops
Nvidia Driver Installer : The category is set to System: Change the : to a ; so it’s System; (use the check button where it says categories to enable the entry)
Session File Manager : Application is a Freedesktop type, not a category. Either change it manually, or simply just use one of the category buttons to add a category.
LibreOffice Math is the only thing in the Education category. Wouldn’t it be cleaner to have it in Office? In Free desktop use the check box next to Categories and remove Math; Now when you reload jwm it will be in Office instead of Education.
OK, I’ll make those changes in the respin. The Nvidia installer should not be there – this is a Libre-software respin, and the Nvidia installer would be looking for non-free firmware. I’ve got to remove the Nvidia installer .desktop file from the antiX Libre respin.
Last : The wallpaper. I know it’s a silly thing to mention. I’m not even saying to change it, but the animals in bright white is a no go for me. Fill them in with black and it will look a lot nicer. Here, I did it for you.
Link to not so bright background
Haha, you’ve inverted the colors on an official GNU wallpaper where I had already inverted the colors. The larger background needs to be the darker color because on some monitors the antiX conky is not readable with a lighter background. Ultimately I’ll probably go with a totally different wallpaper anyway, this was one I was using for last year’s version of the Libre antiX respin.
It seems ROXTerm crashes when running alsamixer and receiving mouse input. I advise use rxvt instead of ROXTerm for both AlsaMixer and the equalizer.
I’m pretty sure that alsamixer is meant to have that behavior on antiX. Since alsamixer is a keyboard driven program, and since a user can bring up an alsamixer instance from the menu rather than from the terminal, the ability to kill it by clicking the mouse on it seems to be built in. Works the same as hitting the Escape key. Anyway, that’s an antiX developer decision, and I am not an antiX dev, just a re-spinner.
NOTE : Several of the .desktop launcher are in $HOME/.local/share/applications/ but were owned by root (not the user antix) This prevents JWM Kit Freedesktop from modifying these files. Maybe you did this on purpose? Just wanted you to be aware before you tried to edit the AlsaMixer .desktop launcher as this would prevent changes from being made.
Ohh, I see – that’s why I couldn’t make changes to the Nvidia firmware app through Freedesktop. Interesting… I think it would be best to leave the antiX programs as they are for now, as I am not trying to change the underlying structure or behavior of antiX. If I need to make changes to the .desktop files I can do it from the terminal.
JWM-Kit
I thought the Nvidia stuff looked a little out of place 😉
Wallpaper – Take a closer look. I didn’t invert it. All I did was fill in the white with black and left a little bit of a feather edge to make it have a white glow. So all other colors are the same. . . hmm. I wonder if the gnu.org has any new wallpapers.
ROXTerm/AlsaMixer – So it was a termination and not a crash. Sorry I misunderstood. Well In my opinion I’d just as soon use the mouse to control the volume as I would to close it. Were all different though. I guess you’ll want to stick with ROXTerm to maintain constancy with the other apps.,
Small “a” – Got it. Thank. Now I won’t do something stupid like make a big label in JWM Kit Settings saying “AntiX”.
andyprough
I thought the Nvidia stuff looked a little out of place 😉
Wallpaper – Take a closer look. I didn’t invert it. All I did was fill in the white with black and left a little bit of a feather edge to make it have a white glow. So all other colors are the same. . . hmm. I wonder if the gnu.org has any new wallpapers.
ROXTerm/AlsaMixer – So it was a termination and not a crash. Sorry I misunderstood. Well In my opinion I’d just as soon use the mouse to control the volume as I would to close it. Were all different though. I guess you’ll want to stick with ROXTerm to maintain constancy with the other apps.,
Small “a” – Got it. Thank. Now I won’t do something stupid like make a big label in JWM Kit Settings saying “AntiX”.
Can you give me that link to your wallpaper version again?
I never knew you could use a mouse in alsamixer. Learn something new every day! I’ll leave it alone, I wouldn’t even know what the antiX devs did to make it close with a mouse click in roxterm or how to reverse it.
Where is JWMKIT normally used – by the puppy linux users? It seems like such a perfect fit in antiX, I wonder if anyone here has ever tried it before.
JWM-Kit
AlsaMixer : The mouse wheel moves the sliders up and down. Very comfortable control
Where is JWMKIT normally used – by the puppy linux users? It seems like such a perfect fit in antiX, I wonder if anyone here has ever tried it before.
The majority of JWM Kit users are those who have actively searched for a better/different/fresh solution to the Linux window manager/desktop experience. This means the users group is quite diverse while sharing the independence to find their own solution and not just use what some distro shoved in their face.
Apparently a good number of Puppy Linux users are either using JWM Kit or at least taking it for a spin. No version of puppy that I’m aware of comes with JWM Kit pre-installed. They have their own custom JWM config and tend to stick with it. I guess antiX is similar in that they also have their own custom JWM config.
I think antiX is a good match for JWM Kit. The only issue is that they have very different ideas on how to build a jwm configuration. This means that if you wish to use JWM Kit on antiX you might want to backup your jwm configuration.
Concerning this issue I did see a post on the antix forum a while back where some one addressed this. The person called JWM Kit’s config proprietary. Such misinformation is ridiculous as nothing about JWM Kit is proprietary. The comment was out of pure ignorance. Yes JWM Kit’s config is different from antix, but it’s no more proprietary than the antiX config. It follows the standard XML defined by JWM. It’s amazing what JWM can do when you fully understand it.
I didn’t say that to ruffle any feathers. I just wanted to clear bad mouthing of a project I’ve worked so hard on. No hard feelings.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by JWM-Kit.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by JWM-Kit.
andyprough
I think antiX is a good match for JWM Kit. The only issue is that they have very different ideas on how to build a jwm configuration. This means that if you wish to use JWM Kit on antiX you might want to backup your jwm configuration.
Yes, that wallpaper does look good, thank you for that. The slight glow along the edges is a nice touch, I agree. I think it will work with the conky. I’ll try it on a couple of systems with low-res monitors.
My best experience with JWMKIT on antiX has been by completely removing everything JWM related from the standard antiX install, including any config files and the antiX desktop-defaults package for JWM, and purging JWM itself. Then installing JWM from the Debian repo from scratch, adding JWMKIT, and running the JWMKIT_firstrun setup. That may be due to my lack of in-depth knowledge about JWM and JWMKIT, but that does seem like the most straightforward way to go. Otherwise it seems like the antiX JWM defaults and the JWMKIT defaults were creating some problems. I don’t even recall what the problems were, but starting from a fresh slate seemed to give me a very good JWMKIT experience.
One thing I really like with this respin is the incredibly low memory usage. 32-bit is often overlooked in terms of giving you drastically lower memory usage. If a person doesn’t need to do complex projects on a system, and just wants a light, fast system for simple web browsing and light tasks, it would be hard to beat this kind of antiX setup. I’ve used some of the Puppy spins and TinyCore Linux, but this kind of antiX setup with 32-bit gives you really low resource usage PLUS all the instant access to the full Debian repos, plus a bunch of 3rd party software that can be installed with one mouseclick in the antiX Package Installer. Plus the great tools – are you aware of the great Live USB tools on antiX? Not only does it have multiple built-in persistence options and frugal install options, but you’ve got the ability to update to a newer kernel on a Live USB, and to make snapshot ISO’s to share with others (which is how I make the respin). Plus you’ve got the multi-arch options, the multiple init system options – A person (such as yourself) wanting to make a specialized ISO to show off JWMKIT could hardly do better than using antiX as the base.
JWM-Kit
I’ve never used antiX much but I was aware of built-in persistence. It’s on of the features people always mention in reviews.
If you are using volumeicon you don’t need the jwmkit volume traybutton. Pick one.
Use JWM Kit Trays to remove JWM Kit’s volume button
or to prevent tray icon from loading on stat up change the line in $HOME/.desktop-session/startup
This load volumeicon for other window managers but not for JWM.from this
volumeicon &
to thisif [ ! $DESKTOP_SESSION_WM = jwm ]; then volumeicon & fiIn my opinion volumeicon looks nicer in your setup and uses very little resources. I figure the icon itself is the majority of it’s memory usage.
EDIT to clarify : I mean the memory used by volumeicon is not much more (if any) than just displaying the icon.Anyone who boots the ISO on a system that defaults to a low resolution will want to find ARandR quickly to change the resolution. And the less they have to stumble around in a 800×600 screen the better. I’d suggest adding ARandR to the right mouse menu and giving it a more generic label like “displays”. My idea for this menu was for “Favorites” This would also be a good place to quickly access the conky toogle, terminal, and filemanager.
antiX has it’s own way of setting the dekstop wallpaper and it conflicts with the wallpaper set in the jwm config. To prevent antix from setting the wallpaper on startup change the following lines in /usr/local/bin/desktop-session
from this
echo_bg_cmd desktop-session-wallpaper
to thisif [ ! $DESKTOP_SESSION_WM = jwm ]; then echo_bg_cmd desktop-session-wallpaper fi- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by JWM-Kit.
olsztyn
I happen to be using JWM on antiX as the primary WM and DWM as secondary.
JWM configuration is relatively easy, such as defining programs in bottom panel. No desktop icons or wallpaper. Just simple and effective and rock solid.
What would be the actual benefit of the third-party JWM-Kit?- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by olsztyn.
Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parametersandyprough
I happen to be using JWM on antiX as the primary WM and DWM as secondary.
JWM configuration is relatively easy, such as defining programs in bottom panel. No desktop icons or wallpaper. Just simple and effective and rock solid.
What would be the actual benefit of the third-party JWM-Kit?Hi Olsztyn, as you may recall I’m also primarily a DWM user, but I personally like JWMKIT, I think it has very nice aesthetics and is very well organized. JWMKIT Offers a lot of built-in themes and icons and various new utilities for JWM, but does not require extra memory. I don’t mind the fact that DWM is utilitarian instead of good looking since there’s very little of the window manager to look at, but for some reason I do prefer JWM to be as aesthetic as possible without becoming a resource hog.
I’m trying to make it the eye-catching feature for this year’s Libre-antiX respin. Hopefully you’ll see some value in it, but I know that not everyone is going to find it as appealing as I do. I’m not going to try to convert you. My DWM is as plain and basic as you can get, and I’m not interested in adding the bling that a lot of people do. You may feel the same about JWM, which is understandable.
Here’s the home page, check it out if you like: https://codeberg.org/JWMKit/JWM_Kit
There’s a lot of screenshots like this in the wiki:
JWM-Kit
@andyprough
I’ve posted a new deb package. jwmkit-0~20220216.deb has the changes we discussed. You can find it on my sourceforge page
Changes
- apps in the X-antiX category are added to Settings
- Settings panel now has an antiX section
Let me know what you think
Hi Olsztyn, as you may recall I’m also primarily a DWM user,
Of course. I do recall very well. I actually learned from you how to implement it and greatly appreciate…
On JWM: Much development work and attention has been dedicated on antiX to IceWM, such as management of launch panel, correcting some issues, etc… My impression is that not nearly as much attention has been dedicated to JWM though, probably because IceWM is default in antiX.
However from my personal experience JWM seems rock solid reliable and well designed WM with well thought out defaults. Customization is easy to learn and working as expected.
However to end user who would not want to learn JWM config syntax – some config tools could be beneficial. If I am understanding correctly, this is where JWM-Kit appears to fit such role. I think it would be interesting to try…- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by olsztyn.
Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parametersandyprough
I’ve posted a new deb package. jwmkit-0~20220216.deb has the changes we discussed. You can find it on my sourceforge page
Changes
- apps in the X-antiX category are added to Settings
- Settings panel now has an antiX section
Let me know what you think
OK fantastic! And I tried the other changes you suggested, hopefully I’ll have time to try out this new package later tonight. Thanks!
andyprough
Of course. I do recall very well. I actually learned from you how to implement it and greatly appreciate…
Oh, I didn’t remember it that way – well I’m glad you are enjoying it! I just remember that after a bunch of us played around with dwm that anticapitalista then took us all on a tour of herbstluftwm, and he made the tags clickable for us, and ever since then I’ve been able to find my way around herbstluft.
However to end user who would not want to learn JWM config syntax – some config tools could be beneficial.
That’s me – I never took the time to learn much about JWM, so configuring it was all a big mystery to me. And I think a lot of other people are like that. But I’ve known for awhile that if you can get it set up correctly, it can be a very minimal replacement for a much more bloated desktop like XFCE.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by andyprough.
JWM-Kit
A few more suggestions. I hope these are helpful and I’m not just annoying you. I’ll start with the more complicated one.
antiX Control Centre should not show the “Choose Wallpaper option” when using JWM since you will be using JWM Kit Desktops (replaces Wallpaper). To remove the wallpaper option from the Control centre. In the file /usr/local/bin/antixcc.sh
change this
wallpaper_prog=/usr/local/bin/wallpaper test -x $wallpaper_prog && wallpaper_entry=$(entry \ $ICONS/preferences-desktop-wallpaper.png \ "/usr/local/bin/wallpaper &" \ $"Choose Wallpaper")to this
if [ ! $DESKTOP_SESSION_WM = jwm ]; then wallpaper_prog=/usr/local/bin/wallpaper test -x $wallpaper_prog && wallpaper_entry=$(entry \ $ICONS/preferences-desktop-wallpaper.png \ "/usr/local/bin/wallpaper &" \ $"Choose Wallpaper") fiNext remember that JWM Kit Wallpaper has being replaced with JWM Kit Desktops. So you need to change references from the old Wallpaper app to Desktops. This is the new default for the default config on the newer version of JWM Kit. So this step is not needed if you use JWM Kit First Run to set the default config after installing the new version, but since you already have a working config it would probably be easier to just edit it the start from the beginning.
Places in the config this needs changed. – menu-right, and menu-jwmkit. Both can be edited with JWM Kit Menus.Wallpaper. I’ve taken the “Free Software Dealers by Péhä” from the gnu.org art collection and edited and uploaded It to my sourceforge. It has been edited to fit the screen instead of the original “playing card” format. This should look nice with your conky config even at the low resolution of 800×600. I like it, but hey if we all agreed it wouldn’t be art right? let me know what you think.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/jwmkit/files/SHARE/and last. How about hiding the JWM Kit tools when using IceWM or Fluxbox. It will look cleaner and will prevent having confused user who can’t figure out why the tools has no effect on their non-jwm window manager.
Log into either the minimal-fluxbox or minimal-icewm
from the menu select : applications -> preferences -> menu manager
then select “applications” from the prompt and then “hide” from the prompt. Now highlight all JWM Kit apps and hit ok.Hint : Don’t forget JWM Kit Settings. It will not be listed with the rest. It will simply be called Settings. Technically it starts with a space. So you can tell the difference if their is another app called settings in the list because it will be intended by a single space. 🙂
This should remove all the JWM Kit apps from the IceWM and Fluxbox application menu, but you can still find them in the JWM settings menu.
Honestly you already had a nice release and I think if you make the changes we’ve discussed it will really polished it up. It might even shine a little 😉
- This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by JWM-Kit.
andyprough
OK, making good progress now. The new JWMKIT .deb package is working out well. I started from scratch with a fresh antiX install and a fresh install of JWMKIT, and I’m liking the results so far. I still have a few changes to make over the weekend, but should have a much better ISO available after that.
I love the wallpaper! You have a great eye for it, this is fantastic. Only problem is, now I want to find a similar icon set – papyrus is too refined for this desktop. Oh well, one thing at a time.
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