Thank You.
I have moved to the 64 bit Porteus-ATMA and the latest version can be found here (please open the link in a new tab). Currently you need to download the ISO images. But I shall provide modules separately if there is demand. You may use UNetBootin to make bootable USB drives or directly burn a CD/DVD with appropriate ISO image.
I would like to know if people find this useful so that I may provide more content. I can provide links to 32 bit Linux also if there is demand. I do not want to track downloads, but would appreciate a line of email saying whether you find this useful, along with your suggestions so that I may update things accordingly.
------------------Older version Below-------------
To download the software, just keep moving down.
Why Use Slax Atma?
I was using slackware standard edition after migrating from Red-hat when they started commercial versions. I was very happy with the light weight, highly configurable slackware installation except for one serious issue. If my hardware crash or if there is a conflicting library in my installation, my day is gone. Usually it happens on a day when you have a deadline coming up the next day!
The obvious solution is to use a live CD. I had a collection of live CDs that would save my day by running what all I need just to get things done. It was then I found Slax. It was the exact solution I was looking for. I could either boot from CD or install on HD. More over, it could be installed as modules that can be activated and deactivated when required! Cool!!
But there was Just one problem. It was a live version, meaning every time you start your machine, the default settings gets loaded. All I did to resolve this issue was a write a code that would create a module of an active session and save it to the disk so that next time you start the machine, your settings are retained! I named it ATMA - the Automated Trans Migration Algorithm and since it had to edit a few internal scripts in slax, made it an independent distribution slax-atma.
Then when Porteus came, I moved to Porteus-ATMA. The concept and code are the same.
The advantage? Ten fold. I am not at all worried of the life time of my machine! I have everything on my machine and a backup of the modules. If my machine crashes, I need not have to wait for a new machine nor the completion of the installation of the OS. I can simply plug the USB drive with the live version of the OS and ATMA into any machine and lo, my same working environment is restored! This has saved me days of frustration. I simply love it. I encourage you to try it.
DEDICATION:
This software is dedicated to my students who can't afford to buy a laptop but have the talent to do CS.
Here are some reasons why one might find slax-atma a handy tool:
1. You don't need to carry your laptop, just work on any host machine and have your working environment reconstructed there - that's why it is called ATMA, the Sanskrit word for the Soul or the short form for Automated Trans-Migration Algorithm that allows the soul to migrate from one body to another! (The Indian Myth).
2. Slax uses (see http://slax.org) a very powerful data compression algorithm called lzma to compress the files. This usually allows your hard drive to hold 4-5 times more data at no extra cost!!
3. Using packages have never been easier before. You need not install anything on your machine. Just download a package and activate it when you want and deactivate it after use! Slax also allows you to activate packages directly from the web, that means, you even need not download a package! All nightmare on package dependencies and library conflict are gone!
4. Slax-atma uses incremental backups. This means, if you accidentally delete a file, it will only disappear temporally from the system. Unless you overwrite the file with another of the same name, your old file reappears when you reboot. If you are a software developer, it saves you from nightmares!
5. People use pen-drives to carry data. Mostly for PowerPoint presentations. I have seen many a times a conflicting or old implementation of the software at the destination that makes your presentations behave erratically and that even when you show the key slide in your presentation! Nothing is more comfortable to have the OS on the pen-drive that you can confidentially click the mouse button and concentrate on your presentation.
Ok, that are just a few reasons. Discover it yourself!! It is all given off FREE because we believe in FREEDOM and LINUX believes in YOUR POTENTIAL to be useful to the world and your community!! All the best.
Cheers,
Sajeeth
Slax-atma Download
1. Linux 2.6.27 kernel, no default password for root and guest users.
2. Atma is disabled by default. You should type sos to make it active. Even then, if you want to save your changes automatically when you shutdown the machine, you should remove the # before sos in /etc/rc.d/rc.6. The recommended option is to run sos when you actually want the changes to be saved.
3. sos creates a file zbackup in your modules directory under slax. If you want changes to be permanent, run atma_gene and it will be stored in a separate file in modules. This allows you to delete zbackup and restore your system if you find that last sos has to be undone.
4. You can run X programs like k3b from root terminal for all users once you run sos after installing on pendrive or harddrive.
5. Suspend to disk option. Type hibernate from terminal. On laptops, you can configure it with control panel.
6. Latest gcc 4.3.3 based rebuild.
7. Extended Package suites are included in DVD version for Scientific computing, Video editing, Audio editing and creation, Desk Top Publishing, Astronomy research, Speech processing and synthesis etc.
8. Wifi, usb broadband modems and web cams are better supported.
9. Browser pack with a number of different browsers are included.
10. Openoffice 3.1.1 and skype 2.1 comes as part of the basic distribution
FAQ
Slax-atma-Novemberma9ia slax-atma DVD version [Feb 2010]. This is the latest slax-atma DVD boot image. Download it if you want to try all the packages available with slax-atma. You can use it to get all packages in one go for making your custom pendrive version of slax-atma. All additional pakages are in subdirectories under /optional. Copy only those modules that you want into your pendrive /modules. You can also activate the modules from the DVD and work with it if your pendrive does not have enough space. However, the cost is the slow speed of DVD drives. May be, if you have a portable harddrive, it is better to copy the modules to it and then activate when required.
Porteus-atma-ForAstronomy DVD version [Oct 2011]. This is the New Porteus-atma version for conducting Astronomy workshops. It has VO packages like Topcat, vospec, splat,aladin, stellarium,Celestia etc installed by default. If you wish to run other packages like IRAF for example, just go to the portius/optional/Astronomy path and click on the IRAF.xzm file. That will activate IRAF and you can start working with IRAF and related packages like ds9 without installing anything. Clicking on it again, deactivates IRAF and all related packages and restores your memory! If fact, you can do it for all the packages in the optional directory. If you want to run R for example, you have the default option with sage and you can run it as sage -R from a terminal. Or you can activate the Science_Lib.xzm and R and other scientific computational packages will be ready! Let me know if you face any problem!
Slax-atma-Novemberma9ia basic CD version [Feb 2010]. This is the latest slax-atma CD boot image using gcc 4.3.3. It has google-chrome, opera-10, firefox 3.6, vlc, support for web cams etc etc...
NOTE: sos is nolonger activated by default when you shutdown the machine. If you need it, remove the '#' before sos line in /etc/rc.d/rc.6 If you want part of your home directory (eg.Mail folder) to be saved every time you work with your computer, put a soft link from /home "your user directory" to the pendrive or any other media. Run sos once to ensure that your modifications are saved there instead of memory.
Slax-atma-Novemberma9ia (without modules library) minimum version [Feb 2010]. For those who do not need the modules, download this CD boot image.
How to Create a Pendrive version of Slax-atma in just four steps
Make a bootable partition on the pendrive.
1. Download and create a bootable CD with iso image or mount the image using mount command.
2. Copy All the content in the CD (both boot and slax) to a directory /slax on the pendrive. The partition with directory /slax could be a windows partition in the pendrive. eg: sda1.
3. Boot from the CD after connecting the pendrive. Login as root
4. Open a terminal, cd to the pendrive partition (say) /mnt/sda1/boot and type ./make_lilo.sh. It will first ask you the location of the windows partition and will show you the same. You can safely remove it as you are going to work on the pendrive. Press OK and you will be asked the location of slax. This would default to the first seen linux partition in your system(if you have). Type here the partition of the pendrive into which you copied slax. Eg. /dev/sda1. Press OK and you will be now asked the location to copy lilo. If you copied slax to /mnt/sda1, this should be /dev/sda. Press OK will install lilo on the pendrive and your pendrive will now be ready for booting.
The same procedure may be used to install slax-atma to the harddrive also.
How to create your own modules?
You can create your own modules with Slax. This is useful when you activate a module and then edit some files in it that are in the /usr or /bin directory that does not get automatically updated after rebooting the machine. For example, suppose you activate a module that makes a directory /usr/aips in your machine. You then edit a configuration file in that directory to suite your machine. When you deactivate the module, everything except the edited module will disappear from the directory. Since it is in the /usr area, it will not be saved by the atma module. To save it, you need to convert it into a module and activate it before activating the original module. To do this, make a directory /path/fls somewhere in a writable media. move the /usr/aips directory into /path/fls. Then issue the command dir2lzm /path/fls/ myupdates.lzm to create a module of the /path/fls/ content with the name myupdates.lzm Note that everytime you issue the command, the lzm file will be overwritten. So either give different file names or extract the content of the lzm file to the directory /path/fls with the command lzm2dir myupdates.lzm /path/fls If you have the erlier version of slax atma, it creates modules with extension .mo To convert mo files into lzm files, use the command mo2lzm myupdates (note that the .mo extension is not there).
General Packages for of Slax-atma
All these modules can be put in the /slax/modules directory if you want them to be activated every time you boot. A better option is to use slax activate and deactivate command to activate or deactivate the module on the fly. Just type activate module_name to activate and work with a module or deactivate module_name to remove it from the system. This conserves memory usage on low memory systems.
VideoLan 1.0.2 PackageYou can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
Basic DTP Software suiteYou can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
Video and Image manupulation suiteYou can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
Audio Library suiteYou can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
Astronomy Packages for of Slax-atma
All these modules can be put to the /slax/modules directory if you want them to be activated every time you boot. A better option is to use slax activate and deactivate command to activate or deactivate the module on the fly. Just type activate module_name to activate and work with a module or deactivate module_name to remove it from the system. This conserves memory usage on low memory systems.
VO Packages: paperscope,aladin,topcat and vodesktop Requires Java. If you have a proxy, give proxy IP and port number separated by a space in command line. eg: aladin 192.168.11.7 3128
You can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
IRAF PackageYou can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
AIPS 31DEC08 PackageYou can keep this file in any directory and activate it when required
Voplot and voplot3d Packages[requires Java]You may activate this module when you want to work with voplot
SpecView Package [requires java] Java tool to Display and Calibrate Spectra
Java 1.6.0 Package[required by voplot,voplot3d and imagej]Recommended: Add this file [java-6u6+3d.lzm] to your /slax/modules directory [NOTE: IF YOU ARE USING ACTIVATE MODULE COMMAND TO LOAD JAVA, YOU NEED TO OPEN A NEW TERMINAL AND RUN JAVA FROM IT.]
apache-ant-1.7.0 PackagesYou may need this file only if you are a Java software developer
apache-tomcat-6.0.16 PackagesYou may need this file only if you are a Java software developer
Jdk 1.6.0 PackageThis file is required ONLY by Java software developers
ImageJ-1.39 PackageA very useful image editing tool
Scientific Packages for Slax-atma Add these packages to /slax/modules directory
sage-4.5.3.lzm (A unique mathematical package. Beware it is about 650MB but is really good.See sagemath.org for details)
qtoctave-3.0.0-i486.lzm[NEW! Matlab kind of GUI including octave 3.0.0]