fluxflux is a PCLinuxOS Remaster (a big thank you to the PCLinuxOS crew for providing the basis of fluxflux!). It comes as a Live CD but it can also be installed to a hard disk or an external USB device.

fluxflux provides a fully configured and ready-to-use live system containing all typical programs for the average PC user (text processing, printing, scanning, chat, Samba, Image processing and management, audio and video applications, CD and DVD burning, Internet, email, and more).

Special thanks go to Peter Vogt, Italy, for the idea to make an English release of fluxflux-wind, available as German release (2. release) and for his translation of the webpage!

I appreciate the help of everyone providing me their skills and knowledge. It was this knowledge and the “trial and error” (I'm not a programer or IT expert) permitting me to provide this Live-CD and its customized scripts.

I hope you will find useful information here!

And I really appreciate your feedback…

Important information on fluxflux is available under tips or in the forum.



14.10.2008: Release fluxflux-wind-en-2008-2 (all files to create a bootable USB drive or SDHC are included!)

• Added new sound drivers (ALSA) that the switching from internal speakers to headphones will work correctly
• Added new packages to configure VPN connections (I hope that I installed all that are neccessary)
• Fixed a wrong path in the WBar
• Fixed a missing sed-command in the script for filetransfer to a BT-handy
• ... everything else is the same as in 2008-1 ...
• Please read the next lines and follow the notes there!

11.10.2008: Release fluxflux-wind-en-2008-1 (all files to create a bootable USB drive or SDHC are included!)

• Upates up to 10.10.2008
• Size of the ISO 532 MB
• Size of the installed system 1.65 GB
• The system of the Live-CD or a Live USB device (flashdrive/SDHC/HDD) can be installed to an internal hard disk, a SDHC in the card reader or USB adapter, or on any kind of USB device. The installation time depends on the writing speed of the selected media, starting from approximately 10 minutes.
• Kernel 2.6.22.17 .tex2 (i686) with current v4l-drivers for DVB-T sticks (additional firmware may be necessary) and now also with WLAN drivers for the Akoya.
• You can setup a bootable USB stick from the ISO, thus avoiding to boot the ISO itself (for both, Linux and Windows, see instructions at the bottom of this page)
• The modified and commented installer will copy pre-configured initrd.img files to the installed system, enabling the system to boot from SATA after the installation (supported root file system partitions are ext2/3/reiserfs/xfs!)
• The modified installer will also set the correct paths in the /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst, if you install the system to external drives (USB-HDD, USB flash, SD(HC), so that you can reboot without trouble or manual editing. Just press F11 after powering on the netbook and choose your bootdevice!
• Special scripts for:
• Using the webcam in flash applications via webbrowser
• Connecting to internet via Huawei UMTS modems (the Huawei will be switched after plug-in and a zenity-based script will configure your connection with comgt for the PIN and wvdial). You can also use net_applet to connect your Huawei UMTS modem.
• fluxDesk - a kind of EasyMode
• Battery display indicator now closes automatically
• Optical and acoustical battery warnings
• Note to Akoya users: the provided xorg.conf supports only the basic functions of the Akoya touchpad. You can find an amended /etc/X11/xorg.conf here, which can be copied to the installed system…
• Note: On the Live system the webcam and bluetooth must be switched on after powering on the Wind, before the livesystem will start, since the Fn-F11-key do not respond properly on some devices. There are no problems in the installed system, Fn+F6 works for the webcam.
• Printer configuration: best done via Firefox using the URL local host:631
• Autologin of the new user: select Menu - Settings - Login window and go to Security. Replace Guest by the new user name and press the Close field at the bottom to store the changes.
• Note: you need to adapt the Firefox download folder location for each new user!
• Note: For a hard drive installation ensure to set the BIOS-option AHCI to "Disabled", else the disk access will decrease from 46 to 20 MB/seconds (measured with "hdparm - t /dev/sda")!
• Simple WLAN configuration.
• All common applications are covered by suitable programs.
• Function keys are assigned according to the Wind keyboard layout and additional shortcuts have been configured (see the readme.txt on the desktop of the Live system).
• System can be easily installed in short time.
• Suspend-to-RAM (Fn+F12) also works in the Live system from CD/USB (do not remove the boot device!).
• Suspend-to-Disk (Pause key or Alt-s) will work on systems with a swap partition
• Design and Bootsplash using pictures of Richard Mohler
• New commentated installer with installation assistance in the background and popup windows at crucial places such as partitioning and installation of the bootloaders
• You can setup a bootable USB stick from the ISO, thus avoiding to boot the ISO itself (for both, Linux and Windows, see instructions at the bottom of this page)
• The modified installer will copy pre-configured initrd.img files to the installed system, enabling the system to boot from SATA after the installation (supported root file system partitions are ext3/reiserfs/xfs!)
• Exact description look here ...
• … and this is what it looks like:

Known Problems in fluxflux-wind-en-2008-1:

• Suspend-to-Ram is not working proberly at the Medion Akoya Mini, no idea why ... users can try a "pmsuspend ram" in a terminal to check if this will work better!

Use of fluxflux-wind (when switching on the Wind keep F11 pressed until the blue window with the boot selection is shown, then select the desired device):

• As Live CD (burn the ISO to CD, then boot this CD).
• As Live USB/SHDC: instructions at the bottom of this page.
• As installed Linux system on the internal Wind hard drive: boot the Live version and start the installer (the installer contains additional comments and gparted is provided for working on NTFS partitions).
• As installed Linux system on SHDC/USB flashdrive/USB HDD: boot the Live version, start the installer, and follow the instructions.
• The system will boot from all ordinary devices, in Live mode as well as after installation: internal hard drives, external USB hard drive, USB flash drive, SDHC in the card reader of the Wind, SHDC in the USB adapter.

Setup of a bootable USB flash drive from the ISO, without the need to boot the ISO (Live system):

• Download the ISO

In the Linux system:

On a Windows system (2000, NT, XP):

• Save the ISO image to the hard disk or burn it on CD
• Attach the USB flashdrive (FAT 32, at least 600 MB)
• Copy all files from the image or the CD on the flashdrive
• Navigate/change to the USB flashdrive
• Click the batch file “bootinst.bat” and follow the instructions
• This will create a bootable USB flashdrive. Upon booting, the syslinux-bootmenu can not be displayed, so just hit the ENTER key on the MSI Wind when the boot prompt appears.
• After the first boot the installer can be fixed. Open a terminal and enter:
• su -
• root
• cd /initrd/cdrom
• ./bootinst.sh
• Follow the instructions and install syslinux. The next reboot will display the full boot menu.
  

Notes:

In case of problems with WLAN and no longer starting programs, a solution is outlined here: http://www.pclinuxos.de/smf/index.php?topic=3915.msg38230#msg38230


And now have fun with fluxflux!

I appreciate further suggestions… and: I am not in competition with anyone!