Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

Thrillhouse · 2007-08-30 01:55:23

I wanted to try out Zenwalk to possibly install on a laptop I'll soon be getting but I'm having a little trouble getting it installed.

I mount the iso as a bootable disk and the install process starts just fine. I auto-partition the hard drive, then install the packages and everything is going fine but when I get to the screen where I select which services I want to be started at boot time, I check/uncheck what I want and hit OK and the install process just freezes right there. I've tried it 4 or 5 different times and it freezes at that point every time. No error message or anything. I have to manually shut down the machine and try again each time. Does anybody know what could be causing this? I've tried a couple different iso's and have verified the MD5 sum on each of them.

mac57 · 2007-08-31 03:21:58

I can't answer your question, but as someone who has just recently tried out Zenwalk on an older machine and very quickly ditched it, I would suggest that your quest is not worth the effort of trying to solve the problem.

Zenwalk is SLOW. For a short time, I had both the most recent Zenwalk and the most recent Arch both installed on the same machine. It was a vintage machine (200 MHz Pentium Pro) and so I started with Zenwalk, which claimed to be "optimized" for older machines, all the way down to 486. Then I added Arch. Arch booted and ran in about half the time that Zenwalk did ON THE SAME HARDWARE.

Zenwalk is LIMITED. They describe themselves as a "rational" release, which is to say that they have exactly ONE application in each category and that is it. If you don't like their selection for a particular category, you are stuck with trying to build from source for the most part. If you are used to the smorgasboard of applications that Arch makes available, you will feel like you are suddenly in a straightjacket.

My advice? Don't go there. The more I dicker about with other Linux releases, the more I realize how golden Arch is. It is simply the best.

Thrillhouse · 2007-08-31 21:37:57

Thanks for the info, mac. I didn't think it would want to make me switch but I did want to try it anyways. My skills at configuring XFCE are lacking and I thought they may have made a nice setup of it.

I may just end up installing Arch with XFCE.

mac57 · 2007-09-01 16:45:00

thrillhouse, if you are interested in setting up XFCE4 on Arch, check out this thread:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 57#p275157

in which I go through in explicit detail how to set up the combination of XFCE4 + Rox Desktop/Filer. It is really pretty simple. Arch's XFCE4 works "right out of the box" and the above thread shows you how to make it work even faster and better.

IMHO, XFCE4/Rox is the lightest, fastest and most effective XFCE4 configuration you can use, and it looks great too! I have included a few screenshots so you can get an idea of what the end result looks like.

I "dual boot" both KDE and XFCE4 on my machine, switching between them as I feel. I love the speed and good looks of the XFCE4/Rox combo, but I love the sound themes and extra programs of KDE (like K3B, Kuickshow and the like). So, both have their strengths, and I slosh back and forth between them depending on what I am up to on any given day.

Last edited by mac57 (2007-09-01 16:46:25)

sH · 2007-09-01 19:12:05

I had Zenwalk running for a long time. But then suddenly everything went wrong. It's just to untidy with all the mix of packages from the forums, repos, internet, etc. If something is going wrong you never know why. Arch offers a lot of stuff from the repos and can be scaled to a system that has the same footprint as Zen. It's a nice distro, but Arch is a lot tidier and more mature.

klimas · 2009-07-03 20:41:05

I know this thread is quite old, but I cannot resist on commenting.

I was a Slackware junkie for many years and eventually switched my desktop & laptop (but not server) to Zenwalk (who has time for manual dependency resolution these days?). I have had nothing but good experiences using Zenwalk. It IS Slackware with a package manager (dependency resolution included) and some GUI tools. The package manager has both a console and GUI interface allowing for simple one line system updates (just like Arch). Most importantly, you can browse avaiable programs in a category of interest and play!

I also think that the statement that Zenwalk only has "exactly ONE application in each category" is very misleading and incorrect. Zenwalk SHIPS with only one application for each task in the release ISO, but the actual community repository has hundreds if not thousands of packages to choose from.

Speed-wise I cannot compare it to Arch (yet), but Zenwalk definitely has a much lighter footprint then the standard buntu's, hats and drakes. After 3 years of rolling updates my laptop still runs quickly and cleanly with ~3 times the response of a one year old XP installation (on similar hardware).

Saying all that, I have been hearing great things about Arch and am in the process of giving it a try (but will reserve comments until I get to know my new system).

In general, one should just pick the right distribution/OS for their needs. I would characterize users in the following categories:

1. (Windows/OSX) Most people don't care how an OS works and will just reinstall if something breaks (windows). Others don't like windows and want something flashy, simple and mainstream (OSX).

2. (buntu's and driva's) People that want to learn how an OS works but are unable (at this point) to set a system up from scrach and are usually doing the leap from the proprietary world. Unfortunately, because of the GUI obfuscation layer, they may never learn how the system works - great community support though.

3. (Fedora/Redhat's) Predominantly corporate and university lab deployments.

4. (Zenwalk/Arch's) Intermediate and experienced users (some returning from category 5 due to other desires in life) that have learned all the basics of a Linux system and enjoy the flexibility and efficiency (read: ability to recover your system once you have done something stupid) of the console.

5. (No dependency resolution/manual compilation of all programs/etc.) Masochists? :-)

Klimas

Arch Linux

#1 2007-08-30 01:55:23

Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

#2 2007-08-31 03:21:58

Re: Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

#3 2007-08-31 21:37:57

Re: Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

#4 2007-09-01 16:45:00

Re: Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

#5 2007-09-01 19:12:05

Re: Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

#6 2009-07-03 20:41:05

Re: Zenwalk Installation Fails on Virtualbox

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