SliTaz -- 25 MB Live Distro.

I decided to try SliTaz the 25 MB Live Linux wonder. The beauty of SliTaz is in its rootfs.gz file which is compressed using LZMA compression. As per the Documentation the file can be extracted using lzma and cpio with following command:
# lzma d rootfs.gz -so | cpio -id

I mounted the iso and tried the above command in Ubuntu Hardy. Although, lzma and cpio are installed, it did not work. I decided to boot into SliTaz Live environment. I mounted the iso and copied the contents to a spare partition. Following grub line was available in /boot/grub/example-menu.lst file:

title SliTaz GNU/Linux
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/null vga=771
initrd /boot/rootfs.gz

I added root (hd0,X) line and could but in Live Slitaz.Using the above command (# lzma d rootfs.gz -so | cpio -id) I could extract the rootfs.gz file. I copied contents to the root of the partition and changed the gub entry to:

title SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0
root(hd0,X)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.2-slitaz root=/dev/hdaX+1 vga=normal

This became Hard Disc install of SliTaz.

I find SliTaz very fast for web browsing.

Slim Ubuntu Desktops.

I am Ubuntu user since version 5.04 and it use to run on Gnome Desktop on 128 MB RAM comfortably. When Dapper Drake arrived I could install it but I had to add RAM to use it. I added 256 MB. Then the Laptop Display was broken and I converted the Laptop into Desktop by connecting an external monitor. This reduced available RAM to 312 MB.

I installed Gutsy and could use enhanced Desktop effects but it was very slow. I added KDE 4 also just to see what is coming but it was slow. For daily tasks I added Fluxbox. Then I saw LXDE thread and added LXDE. Since then I was using LXDE and liked it very much.

For Hardy Heron I decided to do Cli install and add Window Managers one by one. Initially I added openbox and fbpanel. Then I tried to install lxde meta package but it failed to install due to unmet dependencies. I checked the dependencies and could not find 3 packages in Ubuntu repositories. I downloaded these packages from Debian and installed through dpkg. Finally I could install LXDE Desktop.

Initially, I did not install any Login Manager and was using startx command after console login.

Today I discovered slim login manager and installed it. On Login Screen I could select the session by pressing F1 key. The first option was XFCE which I had not installed. After pressing F1 again the second option was openbox and I could login to openbox. Third option was IceWM, so I installed IceWM and could login to IceWM session.

I searched for "slim" files and got /etc/slim.conf file. In the section "Available sessions" I changed "xfce4-session" to "lxsession" which also became the default session.

Now I could login to LXDE Desktop. Then I thought that I should add all light weight WMs to the sessions and downloaded Fluxbox and JWM and replaced "wmaker" and "blackbox" with "jwm" and "fluxbox".

I really like these "Slim Ubuntu Desktops" and slim login manager.
LXDE
openbox
IceWM
Fluxbox
JWM