STX is a lightweight Slackware-based distro powered by the Equinox Desktop Environment (which is based on a FLTK-derived toolkit). It's designed with focus on installing it on older computers.

Surprisingly enough (and this attracted me) is the fact STX contains libgnome 2.12 and some GNOME apps -- including gnomesu :-)

The setup is very much like Slack's, and it usually takes a few minutes only -- I guess it's merely unpacking and copying rather than installing packages and configuring.

Apart from the user root, it comes with a preconfigured user "demo" (password "demo"), so you shouldn't login as root.

EDE tries to emulate a Windows look & feel -- maybe useful for the targeted audience, but not so impressive to me:


It features a few nice wallpapers though :-)

As for the included software, some particular decisions were taken by the German maintainer of STX:

• Office apps: TextMaker, PlanMaker Spreadsheet, Planner.
  The first two of them are from Softmaker and they are not usually free (even if we're assured that the included TextMaker is a freeware version and Planmaker is a crippled one), and should be familiar to SuSE veterans :-)
• Internet: is limited to use the Mozilla 1.7.12 browser and mail client, plus some useful tools: GAIM, gFTP, Putty, D4X
• Graphics: GIMP 2.3.5(!), Inkscape 0.42.2, ... XSane 0.97
• Multimedia: XMMS, gxine, Graveman 0.3.12-4
• Utilities: Leafpad Text Editor, misc small tools

While TextMaker is actually good at opening Word files, it's still a strange choice for most people. Leafpad is a small but less-known editor too.

Getting to use STX, we'll notice the XFE File Manager (another FLTK-based app), which is able to work in dual-panel mode (even if Midnight Commander is also included):


GIMP lacks a symlink in order to work:

To fix it, open a terminal, su to root and type:
You'll be able to enjoy a development version of GIMP:


STX Control Centre (yes, the British spelling!) is rather nice and definitely something you'll not find in Slackware:


Installing and managing installed applications may be done in two ways:

1. For applications from the STX CD, use "STX CC -> Software -> Local Software" and you'll get pkgtool:

    

2. For applications from the Internet, use "STX CC -> Software -> "Software from Internet" and you'll get GSlapt:

    

Installation sources (see /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc) are by default:

NOTE: If your network is working, but gslapt fails to retrieve packages, update the local cache (click the Update button)!

One of the known issues is that some windows -- like the default graphic viewer XFI (by the same Roland Baudin who made XFE) -- start much larger than the screen size. To handle this, keep ALT pressed while you drag the window with your mouse until you reach the titlebar, then you'll be able to resize or maximize the window.

Various mentions:

• flPhoto image management (FLTK) doesn't know GIF.
• Synaptics Touchpad will use a "Generic PS/2 wheel mouse" driver.
• "Make Screenshots" (should be named "Take a...") launch gnome-screensaver, which dies if launched from the menu and you are root, but works from the console.
  
  
  
• pterm (the only included X Terminal) doesn't seem to be able to copy/paste text!?
• USB removable devices were not automatically mounted in my case, nor did so the Windows partition. I had to manually use
  mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt
  mount -t auto /dev/hda1 /windows
• Even if I had saved files "on the Desktop" and they're visible in the file manager, they're not shown anywhere on the desktop!
  
  
  
• Mozilla needs larger fonts. Set the reference size from 12 to 16.
• STX includes GNOME tools like gnome-search-tool and Evince.
  Also included are GParted and a services editor:
  
  
  
  
  

STX lacks completely gcc, so when you'll get network access I recommend you to install from the Internet repositories (my personal choice):

• gnome-terminal
• gedit
• gthumb
• gcc & stuff
• possibly apache 1.3.34, mod-ssl 2.8.25-1.3.34, proftpd 1.2.10, php 4.4.1, mysql 4.1.14
  
  

A nice misconfiguration of EDE's panel shows a missing Firefox instead of the existing Mozilla, and XFE for a terminal, instead of pterm!


Now, the most interesting part for some people: how to get ADSL to work?

Stibs says: "PPP is broken, dialup stuff needs to get reworked". I can't tell about modems, 'cause I haven't tried yet, but I can confirm that configuring xDSL is kinda trouble!

First of all, do NOT use gpppoe-conf! I used it and it was quite pointless...


Go to the prompt and "su -" to start configuring things.

First of all, STX does not include adsl-setup nor adsl-start/adsl-connect, adsl-status, adsl-stop. Instead, you'll have (in /usr/bin): pppoe-conf, pppoe-start/pppoe-connect, pppoe-status, pppoe-stop (and pppoe-discovery, pppoe-relay, pppoe-server, pppoe-sniff).

Use pppoe-conf to set up your ADSL connection. Later on, you can modify manually /etc/ppp/pppoe.conf (tickle with DNSTYPE= if needed), and possibly the two resolv.conf files (in /etc and /etc/ppp).

Usually, with the provided /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 script -- which is only suited for "plain" Ethernet connections --, you'd need to manually disable eth0 then bring it up again before starting the pppoe connection. This isn't something you'll like to do.

 The quick fix for me was to edit some sections of /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1. What works for me:

 Then, at the end of the file:

The latter spares you to run manually as root:
after login. You can still remember you can do this to restart your network when needed -- or after you make changes in the config files related to network.

OVERALL, an interesting new distro.
— What's good: its GNOME orientation!
— Less good: XMMS and gxine need to be complemented with more codecs, and possibly with VLC, MPlayer (or whatever).
This distro is not for people intending to develop software on it, but rather for "home & office" use on older hardware.

P.S.: Using CTRL+F4 in applications that support it (like gedit) interferes with EDE's workspaces switcher, so instead of getting a MDI window closed, you'll get switched to workspace 4!



I also forgot to mention that -- due to EDE -- this might be the distro where setting/changing your keyboard is easier than in any other one!

UPDATE / NEWS:

• STX 1.0 Final is available since Jan. 09, 2006. It includes a couple of fixes, especially the 3 patches, plus some updates.
• A page on Installation, configuration and use of STX-Linux is not a bad idea.
• Get OpenOffice 2.0.1 from Linuxpackages (from Slack 10.2).
• An experimental repository for STX was launchd on Jan. 17, 2006. Add
  SOURCE=http://stx.mikeasoft.com/
  to /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc. Of course you can visit the site manually too.
• Stay tuned for STX 1.1!

3 (+0) comments so far      [view/add comments]       [permalink]