Version 2.1 of CRUX, the lightweight keep-it-simple Linux distribution, has been released. It’s based on the 2.6.11.7 kernel, Glibc 2.3.5, GCC 3.4.3 and X.org’s X11 6.8.2. Changelog.
CRUX 2.1 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’ve been a long time supporter of Crux since 0.9.3. Crux is a great distro if you are looking for a small system that is minimal and doesn’t try to tell you how to run your system. I seriously recommend this distro to anyone that wants to actually control their system!
Arch Linux is the evolution of Crux. Judd Vinet started out with Crux and then evolved it.
Don’t you mean made it more complex and took away it’s simplicity? If thats evolution then I don’t wanna go forward… Arch! pfff….
I missed the part where this post was about Arch.
This is kinda flamey, man. Arch Linux is fine, and all, but the changes they made as they moved away from CRUX brought costs and benefits, alike.
CRUX’s big strength is that it’s often too simple to fail. Things that can go wrong on other distros don’t, on CRUX, because the system is built to be brutally straightforward. Some people see this is a bad thing (you, obviously) because it means more operator effort, stuff doesn’t work automatically. Others (me and a whole lot of CRUXers) don’t mind the work, and like a simple, highly-customizable system.
Personally, I use CRUX for a lot of custom, streamlined installations: firewall/router/AP/VPN boxes, DNS/DHCP/NTP servers, Kerberos servers, file servers. My desktop and laptop run it, too.
Get this: with Compact Flash cards (and IDE adapters), I can put fully-functional Linux distros on 128M flash cards that contain an entire read-write filesystem. I have a rack of cheap miniITX machines that have NO moving parts. Try that with RedHat… or Arch, or anything less flexible.
A friend of mine compared CRUX to “Linux From Scratch” with package management. He was being derogatory, but I think it’s a nice way to put it.
Go CRUX!
I love being able to roll my own cd with my own customized packages.
That and nls and info are all taken out. Oh and the community (#crux on irc) is great!
since 0.9.2, i’ve been a crux lover — maybe i’m just not smart enough to get red hat (or gentoo, for that matter) working right…
when crux 0.9.3 came around, i built a little box for my grandma to use — she didn’t even know what a mouse was when i came & set it up for her. as far as i know, she’s still on stock 0.9.3 — doubt she’s upgraded
it’s always worked for her, & will continue to work ’til the hardware dies. crux is rock solid!
Good news! So what will be in CRUX 3.0? And when it will released?
why do you want to know about crux 3.0, if 2.1. was just released, don’t get it, use it and like it or don’t. The only thing that annoys me, is that udev wasn’t used default, just hate devfsd (i know it can be installed afterwards, but it would have been nice to have it as default. what i really like is the package management format, it’s so easy to create your own customized packages, try that with gentoo which is just to bloated. Try to create a customize Xorg with Xaw3D, some patches and some fonts in one streamlined package in Crux (30min) and gentoo (just can’t get it right). Portage syntax is way too much complicated. I agree that Arch is a nice system too.
Hello,
Is there a valid BitTorrent link for Crux 2.1?
Somehow the one that’s on download page does not work for me and mirrors are full :o(
Thanks.
Try http://code-monkey.de/files/crux-2.1.torrent
It’s joke. I’m kidding. I like CRUX and use it from release 1.3.
>Try to create a customize Xorg with Xaw3D, some patches
>and some fonts in one streamlined package in Crux (30min)
>and gentoo (just can’t get it right)
Gentoo sucks
. Gentoo is good after RH, but if you is a power user, gentoo is a big problem.
Been using CRUX since January and I have to say, it’s been the best experience of any Linux distros to date. I’ve wrestled with Gentoo, Fedora, old Redhats…Debian didn’t work for me either even though it is very well tested. It just isn’t customizable.
With CRUX you can actually get the same ease of operation in everyday use, but with understanding of the in and outs of the operating system. The skills needed to operate CRUX are the skills that everyone should have of their operating system of choice.
The current trend is that most Windows operators know their operating systems better than Linux operators. And I say most – not all. I hope you guys know how your init scripts work and have failed your kernel builds many enough times to realize that you don’t know even close enough.
“Arch Linux is the evolution of Crux. Judd Vinet started out with Crux and then evolved it.”
What is the difference between CRUX and Arch? I see that Arch has hardware detection ( http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html ). Does CRUX have hardware detection?
What advantages do their own package managers have over pkgsrc for Linux?
Advantage? Beeing dead simple, and not forcing any dependencies on you.
Look at this Pkgfile for kdebase for instance:
# $Id: Pkgfile,v 1.9 2005/03/17 23:30:22 sten Exp $
# Description: Basic applications for the KDE system
# URL: http://www.kde.org
# Maintainer: sten, nick steeves
# Packager:
# Depends on: kdelibs, samba, ghostscript, xpdf, cdparanoia, lame
name=kdebase
version=3.4.0
release=1
source=(http://download.kde.org/stable/3.4/src/$name-$version.tar.bz2 kdm)
build () {
cd $name-$version
./configure –prefix=/usr
–with-shadow
–disable-debug
–disable-dependency-tracking
–enable-final
make
make DESTDIR=$PKG GENKDMCONF_FLAGS=”–no-old” install
mkdir -p $PKG/etc/rc.d
install -m 755 ../kdm $PKG/etc/rc.d/kdm
rm -rf $PKG/usr/share/doc
}
Note that you are completely free – at your own peril – to leave any listed dependency out. Great if you know what you are doing – which all cruxers are supposed to. 🙂
If you don’t leave anything critical out, the worst that will happen is a footprint mismatch that can be ignored. So basically you can build a system the way *you* want it and not the way the packager thought you should have it.
All that said and done, if you want you can use pkgsrc with crux, I know it has been done.
About 2.5 years ago I started my Linux journey on Slackware and was very pleased with what I learned out of it. But eventually package management became an issue and at the time I wasn’t aware of slapt-get and other systems. Then I started looking to other distros, not that I wasn’t happy with Slackware at the time.
Anyway I gave Crux 1.0 a whirl and was very impressed. It was BSD-init, had a mad simple ports system, config files were placed in their rightful areas and most of all, their was little bloat. Compared to gentoo portage, crux portage is dead simple, although missing some of the functionality, it’s still a fine system. Nowdays I maintain a small collection of game-related ports for the main CLC repository .
Thanks. Does the package manager install i686 optimised software?
> Thanks. Does the package manager install i686 optimised
> software?
Packages found on installation CD are being prebuilt with -mtune=i686 but always you may override this defualt setting in pkgmk.conf. Since CRUX is soucre-based, it’s up to you how do you compile your packages (witch are called ports in CRUX, just like in some BSDs).
Why haven’t they moved to udev as default yet?
I think they were having trouble with it and decided not to wait any longer to release 2.1. I think there is a guide on how to set up udev manually after you install 2.1.
That’s what I loved about Crux as well, I could roll my own install cd with all the packages I wanted and have the ability to have an install cd that had the exact set up I wanted. I could install that cd and be up and running with my perfect set up in no time. It’s great!
I even once rolled my own custom Crux cd that used Red Hat’s RPM’s instead of the default package manager. The Crux layout is so easy to get used to I’m not sure why more people aren’t using it.
It’s the linux hackers dream come true!
Udev hasn’t been added because author doesn’t like it, see http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=crux&m=111453774410332&w=2
Switching to udev is a matter of installing udev & hotplug and adding the appropriate commands to the init scripts.
And with Arch you can do the SAME thing with ABS (Arch Build System), noone is really forcing you to install dependencies….
1. This thread is still not about argh.
2. If you want to reply to something, first make sure you understand to what you are replying to.
3. If you want to start another religious flamewar, please go somewhere else.
bye.
Yes indeed, I fell in love with 0.9.1 and am still happy.
It is the only one I have found that I can get some understanding of how to make it do what I want. And it has some lovely packages for those who like simplicity and speed;
such as evilwm, boa and dillo to name a few – and my real favourite yapo for push-button package management.