The status of Mint Fluxbox CE

[.ee]

Downloaded, installed, and now testing. Many thanks to the developers of this particular flavour of minty linux!


First impressions are very positive. I am testing in on the system I was not using before with Mint: old Dell Latitude X300 , Pentium M 1.4GHz 2MB L2 cache, 4200rpm HDD with 33MBs via hdparm, RAM=640MB.

First nice surprise was the B43 driver which popped out after installation and have done all the job to make the Broadcom 4318 wifi card working out of the box. Recent days I was striving to make it workind under other (older) debian based distros.

Booting times are also very good: Mint Fluxbox booted to the login screen faster than Crunchbang linux on a comparable system (1.1 GHz 2MB L2, 4200rpm 30MBs, 1280M RAM) but then it took several seconds long from the login screen to the desktop (because blackbox of Crunchbang is of cource lighter).

Update/upgrade and installation of few progs like emacs, texlive, kazekahase, etc went smooth.

The default desktop is OK, though I personally like the default fluxbox desktop of Antix more. I am the small fonts/icons freak, so I started to adapt fluxbox setups to my taste. Though I have choosen "very small" icons in Thunar FM preferences, I would still prefer the icons of directories to be 25-50% smaller (with font size 6). I also found the File Manager difficult to find in the menu.

After one hour of working, all updates and installations, with firefox and few xterms open the system takes 300MB RAM
(the fresh installation was using around 250MB) and 4MB swap (I will have to tweak it that the swap is not addressed if there is enough free RAM available). WIth 5 tabs open in Firefox the processor is at 25-30% load, which is on the same level as the mint xfce edition.

The problem I had with Antix was that the browser was taking almost all CPU power after long use with multiple windows and open sites, so that the (not very powerful) system was locked.

Mint Gnome is still the system I use most and rely on in critical situations, but I am in search of a lighter, faster booting,
and more optimal for my notebook (limited CPU power, slow disk, but plenty of RAM) configuration.

What I should look at in order to help the developers before the final release?

PS: This is posted from Linux Mint Fluxbox CE!

[shane]

I would like the discussions that will emerge from this RC to all be in one thread... ie. the one Clem will make when it is officially released. This way we can keep it all in one place.

Some of the things you mentioned may be answered in the release notes and I don't want to jump the gun. But... the file manager is the first thing on the menu... Ctrl+ M > Down arrow > Enter or Right-click and click first item...

I think it would be better for orderliness if the discussions remain in the thread Clem will create for the RC. I will keep in mind your comments...

[shane]

The Linux Mint 6 "Felicia" Fluxbox CE RC1 (wow... thats a mouth full ) has been released!

The announcement is here: http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=651

Please post your bug reports here: viewtopic.php?f=143&t=22755&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Enjoy!

[mintph]

removed LM 6 XFCE CE and completely installed LM 6 Fluxbox CE RC1

Machine:

Compaq Presario V3000 3gb RAM, 2.0GHZ Intel Centrino Duo.

- Wireless WEP works out of the box (although I prefer NetworkManager).
- DVD works... was able to check-out DVD containing pictures

I actually like this better than XFCE.

Will do more stuff and give feedback later on. What are the current issues with it so that I can check them out too?

[shane]

removed LM 6 XFCE CE and completely installed LM 6 Fluxbox CE RC1

Machine:

Compaq Presario V3000 3gb RAM, 2.0GHZ Intel Centrino Duo.

- Wireless WEP works out of the box (although I prefer NetworkManager).
- DVD works... was able to check-out DVD containing pictures

I actually like this better than XFCE.

Will do more stuff and give feedback later on. What are the current issues with it so that I can check them out too?

Have a look at this thread to see the problems we are facing... and contribute to the discussion!

viewtopic.php?f=143&t=22755

[tawan]

I saw on the twitter thing that Fluxbox had been given the go-ahead so I found the ISO on the server, -- and it's all sweet so far.

I will post on the official thread when it comes into being. So far, lovely, I have kept the look and feel pretty well default as I think it's a nice job

[shane]

Thanks Phonicboom! You helped me a lot with finding bugs in the RC... I really appreciate it!

[toolz]

It seems XFCE is nearly ready. Any updates?

[exploder]

It seems XFCE is nearly ready. Any updates?

We are waiting for approval from Clem.

[toolz]

Just to be specific, I was enquiring about Fluxbox. I think I read somewhere - possibly in this thread - that it was waiting for XFCE.

[Husse]

Shane cannot make any more Fluxbox editions - he'll be too busy with other things and move to a place with hardly any internet
Clem has stated he will look into it and see if he can continue the work

[charleshb]

Shane cannot make any more Fluxbox editions - he'll be too busy with other things and move to a place with hardly any internet
Clem has stated he will look into it and see if he can continue the work

How can we the community help? How can I get involved to see this branch of Linux Mint continue?

[Husse]

We would need a new maintainer - it is not all that easy to make a Community edition

[shane]

Hi all!

Sorry to all for bailing out like this... but I have other priorities right now... more importantly the final exams for my specialization... After which I will most probably move to Zambia (Africa).

I did request for help a few times earlier, but I got very little from outside the team. I would hate to see this edition die off. After trying out the fancier desktops I always find myself coming back to Mint Fluxbox. I am most willing to help out anyone who is going to take up the responsibility as maintainer. As Husse said, it is not all that easy, but it can be done. I hadn't done anything quite as complicated before jumping into the deep end. And I am not even an IT professional (I am a pediatrician by profession). The most important thing I think is that it is time consuming... remastering, testing, fixing bugs, etc...

Once things have settled down, I would love to come back and play a more active role. Right now, I just do not have the time...

[charleshb]

Hi all!

Sorry to all for bailing out like this... but I have other priorities right now... more importantly the final exams for my specialization... After which I will most probably move to Zambia (Africa).

I did request for help a few times earlier, but I got very little from outside the team. I would hate to see this edition die off. After trying out the fancier desktops I always find myself coming back to Mint Fluxbox. I am most willing to help out anyone who is going to take up the responsibility as maintainer. As Husse said, it is not all that easy, but it can be done. I hadn't done anything quite as complicated before jumping into the deep end. And I am not even an IT professional (I am a pediatrician by profession). The most important thing I think is that it is time consuming... remastering, testing, fixing bugs, etc...

Once things have settled down, I would love to come back and play a more active role. Right now, I just do not have the time...

OK, Shane. I'm new to Linux Mint. I've been a Linux user since Red Hat 5.0. Moved to Debian and then Ubuntu. I used to use WindowMaker all the time until Ubuntu. I've been looking for a nicely integrated distro w/ a lighter weight desktop/window manager than gnome and happened on Linux Mint Fluxbox and Crunchbang. I'm willing to step in and get started. I work as a UNIX/Linux sysadmin for a telecom here in the USA and I'm a husband and father, but I've always got a few hours a day wasted in front of the TV or computer. So, where do I start?

[Locrian]

i know slightly more than a newbie and that's about it, i love fluxbox and i don't want to see it die so ill help with whatever my ability allows me to do, im also a fast learner so with some time and practice ill learn how to do just about anything.

[Husse]

If you want to help contact me by mail or forum PM and I'll take it from there
I've already mailed charleshb about this

[charleshb]

If you want to help contact me by mail or forum PM and I'll take it from there
I've already mailed charleshb about this

I emailed you. I don't see forum PM.

[Husse]

I don't see forum PM.

Mail received - if you click the user name you will see the option to send a Forum PM
I will need some time to read it through before I contact Clem

[charleshb]

Hi all!

Sorry to all for bailing out like this... but I have other priorities right now... more importantly the final exams for my specialization... After which I will most probably move to Zambia (Africa).

I did request for help a few times earlier, but I got very little from outside the team. I would hate to see this edition die off. After trying out the fancier desktops I always find myself coming back to Mint Fluxbox. I am most willing to help out anyone who is going to take up the responsibility as maintainer. As Husse said, it is not all that easy, but it can be done. I hadn't done anything quite as complicated before jumping into the deep end. And I am not even an IT professional (I am a pediatrician by profession). The most important thing I think is that it is time consuming... remastering, testing, fixing bugs, etc...

Once things have settled down, I would love to come back and play a more active role. Right now, I just do not have the time...

So, now that XFCE CE is released, where do you grab the source and build files? Where is the repo that you built the last version of FluxBox CE from?