SLAX 15.0.4 / 12.2.0 – Live Linux System Distribution

Slax is a modern, portable, small, and fast Linux operating system with a modular approach and exceptional design. It runs directly from your USB flash drive without installation, and you can carry it in your pocket. Despite its small size, this OS provides a nice graphical user interface and a wise selection of pre-installed programs, such as a Web browser, Terminal, and more.

Slax is available in Slackware– and Debian-based editions, giving you access to the software repositories of either distribution. Tens of thousands of prebuilt software packages are available through the Slackpkg package manager on Slackware or the apt package manager on Debian.

Slax boots from USB mass storage devices such as flash drives as well as from regular hard drives and CDs/DVDs. Plug your device in and boot from it. The entire Slax operating system resides in a single /slax/ directory on your device, making it easy to organize alongside your other files.

It provides a FluxBox window manager already preconfigured for the most common tasks. Included applications are the Chromium web browser, the Xterm terminal emulator, the Leafpad text editor, and the Qalculate calculator. You can put Slax on a wide range of different filesystems, including EXT (ext2, ext3, ext4), btrfs, and even FAT and NTFS.

When Slax is booted from a read-only medium, such as a CD or DVD, all system changes are stored only in memory and are discarded after you reboot. On the other hand, if you run it from a writable device, such as a USB flash drive, it can store all changes. Your configurations and system changes are restored the next time you boot Slax, even on a different computer. This feature is known as Persistent Changes, and you can read more about it in a separate chapter.

Text-mode utilities included are:

• Archival utilities: comparable to gzip, bz2, cpio, tar, ARJ, ZIP, LHA, LZO, XZ
• Disk utilities: as fdisk, gptdisk, parted, hdparm, sdparam, lvm2, mdadm
• Hardware monitoring tools: like dmidecode, lm_sensors, smartctl, powertop
• File system utilities: for ext2/3/4, btrfs, fats, ntfs, reiserfs, xfs, jfs
• CD ripping/ burning software: comparable to cdparanoya, cdrdao, mkisofs
• Utilities for CPU overclocking, like cpufreq-info and cpufreq-set
• Data restoration tools: comparable to ddrescue, xfsdump, rsync, bpe
• Networking tools: comparable to tcpdump, iptraf, iftop, mtr, NC, FTP, netwatch
• Support Windows shares: by mounting with mount -t cifs
• Wireless tools: comparable to iw, rfkill, wpa_supplicant
• Other tools: like OpenSSH SSH server and client, screen, Midnight Commander, and more…

Choosing the Right Slax Architecture (32-bit or 64-bit)

Slax is available for 32-bit and 64-bit processor architectures. The 32-bit version can run on very old computers, including systems with Intel 686-class processors introduced in 1995. It also runs on modern computers, although it requires a slightly larger download than the 64-bit version. Furthermore, it has a limitation that a single application can address only 4GB of RAM.

By contrast, the 64-bit version has a smaller download size, is free from these limitations, and is compatible with most computers available today. So, in general, if you plan to use Slax on very old, archaic computers, then choose 32-bit. If your computer was manufactured in the 21st century, you should choose the 64-bit version of Slax. If you're not sure which computer you'll use, opt for the 64-bit version because almost all computers manufactured today support 64-bit architecture.