Re: Fancy features of Storm Linux
"Christian Rishøj" <chrris@mail.dk> wrote:
I recently visited Storm Linux's (Debian in disguise) homepage and found
some fancy (not nessecarily usable) features like graphical bootloader and
(framebuffered?) svga console and boot sequence. See for example
http://www.stormix.com/products/screenshots/index_html?query_start=5
...which has a nice screenshot of the graphical bootloader.
Does anybody know how these nifty things are accomplished? Are the tools
available to Debian users as .deb's? Does anyone intend to pack such thing,
e.g. the graphical bootloader with a Debian logo?
I think this would be a nice option. What do you think?
Well I now use Storm Linux - I was so impressed when I tried it on a spare partition after having tried Corel Linux. Stormix have 'created' an excellent distribution which must be of interest to members of this list since it is based on Debian. Storm Linux 2000 is currently Slink, but it upgrades to Potato without losing any of the Storm 'enhancements'. The Storm Package manager is a GUI front end to apt-get and is very nicely done. It makes it much nicer to be able to easily see what packages are available and to search for packages which are uninstalled/installed. When you have selected which packages you want installed/removed/purged, Storm Package Manager disappears and brings up an xterm where apt-get is run just like you would run it yourself. When the package has installed, it asks if you want to delete the .deb, and then the GUI reappears. I really didn't think I'd use it, being used to the command line apt-get, but I do. It is very nice. Much better than the Corel or Gnome implementations.
Storm Package Manager is available in potato incarnation from:
ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm/dists/potato/main/binary-i386/sl-stormpkg_1.0-1_i386.deb
Of course you could add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm potato main
Then do apt-get update, apt-get install sl-stormpkg
If you are using Slink, the change the line to:
deb ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm rain main contrib (rain = slink, hail = potato)
They also have the start of an admin utility which currently offers user account management, network management and a dial-up configuration utily. More modules are planned.
Storm breaks none of the Debian features like Corel did. The Debian menu system works as it should, KDE uses the correct libs so can be upgraded, etc..
The install routine is truly simple, but offers fewer custom settings than a Debian install, although there is a text-based install option which I haven't tried.
The nifty graphical bootloader is available to all if you download Storm's lilo 'lilo_21-4.storm.2_i386.deb' from ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm/dists/rain/main/binary-i386/
Install and set lilo.conf to place the bootloader in the mbr of your first hard disk you will get the nice bootloader when you boot up.
If you get the Storm kernel sources 'kernel-source-2.2.14-storm_2.2.14-2_all.deb' from ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm/dists/rain/main/binary-i386/ and compile it with framebuffer support for the VGA16 server you will also get sound during bootup through the PC speaker (it says 'Storm Linux 2000') and a very nice graphical border around the boot up messages - an excellent compromise between fancy graphics/no boot messages, and the traditional boot messages.
It is excellent that all the Storm enhancements are available in the downloadable version of Storm Linux, hence a CDROM is available from Cheapbytes at a ridiculously low price.
If anyone wants to try the graphical boot, the kernel settings for the 'Console Drivers' section are like this:
# Console drivers
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE is not set
CONFIG_FB=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_FB_PM2 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VESA is not set
CONFIG_FB_VGA16=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_ADVANCED=y
# CONFIG_FBCON_MFB is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_CFB2 is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB4=y
# CONFIG_FBCON_CFB8 is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB16=y
# CONFIG_FBCON_CFB24 is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_CFB32=y
# CONFIG_FBCON_AFB is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_ILBM is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_IPLAN2P2 is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_IPLAN2P4 is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_IPLAN2P8 is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_MAC is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_VGA_PLANES=y
# CONFIG_FBCON_VGA is not set
# CONFIG_FBCON_FONTWIDTH8_ONLY is not set
CONFIG_FBCON_FONTS=y
CONFIG_FONT_8x8=y
# CONFIG_FONT_8x16 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN8x16 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN12x22 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_6x11 is not set
CONFIG_FONT_PEARL_8x8=y
# CONFIG_FONT_ACORN_8x8 is not set
You will also need to enable PC Speaker support under sound.
Hope this helps.
-- Phillip Deackes Using Storm Linux 2000
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