Kiara Oscar 03... Now we're getting somewhere!

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Slow... but in a good way!"



Okay, let's start with known bugs.

It's slower than it ought to be, though in an innocuous way. When I try to watch Hulu, I get great response, unlike with KDE4.3 on Jaunty for example, which is kind of jerky on this box. But applications can take a long time to launch, and the first time I try to launch a desktop app after logging in is just deadly. I didn't time it, but I'm talking maybe 30 seconds! But the launch time improves considerably after that, and I'd rather have things take a long time to launch and perform well after I launch them. But I had to give you a heads up on that first launch. No doubt about it, that's a problem.

New Slacky login.

The best news is that, pretty much by accident, I feel that I've improved on the Slax login by making it more like Slackware. Unlike native Slax, Kiara doesn't launch as the X-Root, which of course, is taboo. It's all text now. As I mentioned before, I've always found Slax's habit of going where you're not supposed to go kind of perversely charming, but this is better. It started as a workaround.

Here's how you login:

You login as root at the text prompt as root. and then you type the slax default password "toor". Slax provides instructions for doing this.

And then, I inserted a dumdum script that secures the session, and also runs xconf to prepare you for running x. "secures the session" means that you establish a normal user account, and you change the password for root. (If you care the slightest whit about the security of your session, you don't want to be running with the publically known slax default "toor" as your root password.

So after your're logged in as root, you type:

oscar.sh

And you'll be prompted for all the necessary information. Mostly, you'll be typing in passwords and hitting return. I use the same password for normal and root account. I think that's perfectly acceptable for a single home user. Be sure to hit the up arrow for additional groups, some of those addition groups, like audio, are important. The personal user data , including your real name, is completely optional, and not much point for a home user. I just hit enter.

This script was the first time I ever used the echo command. Experienced scripters won't be impressed, but I felt like I was hot shit.

When you've got a normal user account and a confidential root password that only you know, your live CD session is running just as an installed system would run. My hypothesis is that this is probably more secure than the default for one of the more popular debian-based live CDs like knoppix or sidux, that run with the normal user as sudo with root access.



There is a dedicated root Desktop with its own takin'care of business menu (no direct links to hulu, or any website for that matter) and a help file that begins "Welcome to root... now get out!" (unfortunately, that link doesn't work. It should be fixed by the next upload.)

Bug: I've been getting an error message after booting, something about hw something isn't a virtual link. It comes with a delay. It can crop up in the middle your login.

Welcome to Flux/Konqueror!



Writing Konqueror into fluxbox is one of those great ideas that you don't want to pat yourself on the back too much for. When it comes to programming and software, I'm not a smart person. But thanks to the power of free software, I'm using the work of smart people to create a very smart Desktop. You'll see.

Textual Healing

Editing your fluxbox configuration files has been greatly simplified with templates and keyboard shortcuts.

Type control + Shift + F1 to edit your menu
Type control + Shift + F2 to edit your keyboard shortcuts


As you can see, there's a ton of keyboard shortcuts already inserted, and templates for fast insertion of countless possibilities. Maybe it's these big templates that are slowing things up?

I'll have more to say about the way these shortcuts are organized, for maximum ease of memory retention.

Of course, with a live CD, you're going to have to take special steps to retain your configuration files, which are located in ~/.fluxbox


Brand spankin NEW! Firefox 3.5.4!


There isn't even a slax module for this yet, so it's located in the home directory and activated from the fluxbox menu. Apparently, I forgot about the keyboard shortcut. When you activate firefox from any other menu, from KDE for example: you get 3.5.3, which is installed in the usual way, via a slax module. To be sure you're getting the latest version, type sh firefox/firefox from the command line.