antiX-FAQ
antiX-FAQ

## Introduction

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If you’re a first-time user of antiX — welcome!

Instead of a heavy common Desktop Environment, antiX uses window managers to control what the end-user can see and do. We hope these FAQs will give you a basic orientation to antiX and its window managers, and provide the means to explore further on your own.

antiX comes in two flavours for 32 and 64 bit boxes. Both flavours include 5 init systems. (runit, sysVinit, dinit, s6-rc and s6-66 with runit set as default) antiX comes as a full distro (c2.1GB) and a core distro (c400MB) with a kernel that should boot "antique" computers as well as the latest "modern" processors.

By default, antiX-full loads into a zzzFM-IceWM desktop with a few icons on the desktop. Use F6 at the boot menu screen to choose your desktop. What you choose running live will automatically transfer if/when installed.

antiX is a very flexible linux distribution. You can run it live from a cd, live from a usb stick (with persistence ie changes are saved on reboot) as well as setting up a frugal-install from an internal or external hard drive. Of course, you can install to internal and external drives, sticks, cards etc. You can even run it live, add/remove applications, customize it, remaster it and then install. All your changes will carry over to install!

antiX-26 ships with 4 modern init systems (runit, dinit, s6-rc and s6-66) as well as the old, but trustworthy sysVinit. Runit and sysVinit are both tried and tested on antiX, while the others are more experimental The init chosen at boot time becomes the default on next boot when installed. It is possible to remove any unwanted init(s), but this should be done with care. See the individual sections for information about the init systems included.

antiX is based on Debian but is totally free of systemd and elogind! It comes with a custom kernel, its own custom scripts and repository to enhance user experience. antiX can be used as a rolling release distro ie you should be able to keep your applications up to date by enabling the Debian testing or unstable repositories and live on the bleeding-edge! For those that prefer stability, keep to the Debian Stable/Trixie repositories.

A further feature of antiX is that you can install kernels from a variety of sources including Debian, MX Linux, siduction, liquorix and others. This is especially useful if you have a recent computer as newer hardware is more likely to be detected and work with newer kernels.

Don’t forget - antiX is systemd and elogind free!

### Why have you decided to be free of elogind?

elogind is basically systemd without being tied to a particular init. Due to the existence of seatd, elogind is no longer necessary in our opinion. We also now ship with turnstile, though this is very much in its early stages. We have removed systemd/elogind dependencies from many common applications from upstream Debian and repackaged them as nosystemd debs. This enables us to keep systemd/elogind out of antiX. However, installing a full-blown desktop environment on antiX is likely to bring back libelogind0 and/or elogind. Presently, Xfce, MATE, LXQt and LXDE can be installed with consolekit instead of systemd/elogind.

## System requirements.

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### So what are the minimum and suggested requirements to run antiX?

antiX should run on most computers, ranging from 512MB old systems with pre-configured 256MB swap to the latest powerful boxes.

antiX-core will run with 256MB RAM plus swap, but don’t expect miracles!

512MB RAM is the recommended bare minimum for antiX. 1GB RAM and above is preferred especially for antiX-full. Modern websites tend to be CPU and RAM intensive, so the more RAM the better browsing experience.

antiX-full needs a 10GB minimum hard disk size. antiX-core needs 2GB.

## Pre-Installation.

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### Which flavour should I use?

antiX-full as it offers a full desktop experience on legacy and modern computers.

If you have a very old desktop/laptop with 512MB RAM or less, or you want a desktop with "the basics", it is probably best to use the script full2base. This will remove a lot of packages.

If you want complete control over what applications to install and know the Debian system fairly well, then use antiX-core since it does not include a graphical environment.

| antiX-core includes some support for wireless connection to acess the Internet.

### Why are there so many F options in the boot menu?

Choice! antiX tries to make it easy to boot on any hardware ranging from old boxes where booting with xvesa is needed to boxes with nvidia, radeon and intel drivers.

### I don’t want icons on the desktop, how do I disable them?

Use F6 to set the desktop and do not choose any of the Rox- or zzz- options.

### Can I install applications when running live?

Yes you can and if you decide to install during that live session, they will carry over to installation.

## Installation

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### I have an old laptop with very low RAM, what should I do?

If you have less than 512MB RAM, and want to test antiX live, choose one of the min- options at F6. To install to hard drive, at the live boot menu, type 3, login as root and type cli-installer.

It is also a good idea to create a swap partition before installation.

### Where should I install grub?

If users are happy with their present bootloader, grub-legacy, grub2 or whatever else, then it is best to install grub to the root partition or don’t install it at all and then make the necessary changes after installation.

If you are installing only antiX over another OS, or dual booting with windows, then install grub to the MBR.

### Will the language, keyboard settings I chose at boot menu carry over to install?

Yes, in fact this is the best way to install your localised antiX.

Set your options via the F2 and F3 keys and if you use a writable device, use F8 to save your choices.

Alternatively, you can do this manually by setting a variety of cheats. For example: lang=en kbd=gb,gr tz=Europe/Athens will give a US English desktop, a toggled Greek, British English keyboard and the timezone set to Athens, Greece.

The F1 help menu on live media has also been localised.

| Since antiX-21 we include an application called User Language that offers the user the opportunity to localise after installation. NOTE: Firefox-esr and libreoffice might need to be localised after installation.

## Post Installation.

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### How to Setup nvidia graphics drivers?

antiX suggests using the gui app found in the control centre or smxi tools. See smxi section.

### How to autologin?

The installer gives you the option to set auto-login. Post-install option > Control Centre-→Session-→Login Manager You will need to reboot for changes to take effect.

### How to set the correct date and time?

The best way is to do so at first boot when running live. F4 has these options.

- hwclock=ask

- hwclock=utc

- hwclock=local

Default is set to UTC.

You are also given an option during installation to set the hwclock.

If you missed the above, then there are 3 possible issues:

1) wrong timezone

2) wrong selection of UTC versus local time

3) BIOS clock set wrong

The first issue is addressed with sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata. Do this first. You should also be able to just check the current value with cat /etc/timezone.

Once you are sure the timezone is correct, you can work on setting your BIOS clock. Do this with the hwclock command. First do a man hwclock and then run hwclock --show to see what it is set to. It always reports in localtime which is why you need to first make sure your timezone is set correctly.

Use hwclock --localtime or hwclock --utc depending on whether you want your hardware clock to be set to localtime or utc. Most pure Linux systems use utc. Most dual boot systems use localtime.

Then, after you get your date command working via the sudo command you posted, you can use hwclock --systohc to set the hardware clock so it matches your system time. Again, you need the timezone and localtime/utc choice set correctly first (although if you want to assume they are set correctly already then this is the only command you need to run to get your changes to the date command to stick. If you assumed incorrectly then you will likely get mysteriously screwed by DST a few times per year).

Finally, if you are having problems with hwclock drift or if you are a perfectionist then you can install the ntp package which will use time servers on the net to keep your clock exactly on time. But you have to first go through the steps above before ntp will work correctly.

### How to edit sources list?

Either via synaptic (for antiX-full) Control Centre-→ System-→ Manage Packages-→ Settings-→ Repositories or edit individual files in /etc/apt/sources.d/ (for antiX-core and antiX-net)

### How to enable the Firewall?

antiX includes configured iptables Gufw may be more user-friendly and can be installed. Once installed, to set it up go to Control Centre-→ Network-→ Manage Firewall

### How do I find which applications to install?

antiX-full comes with package-installer, which makes it easy to install popular applications. See below for more information.

antiX-full also comes with synaptic so searching for applications is easy.

To search for applications in antiX-core use our tool cli-aptiX or use apt-cache search in a terminal

For example: apt-cache search video player

### How do I keep the system up-to-date?

antiX is set up using Debian Stable repositories by default. This allows users to keep their system up to date with regular upgrades. antiX recommends using apt update followed by apt dist-upgrade in a root terminal. Users can also keep antiX up to date via Control Centre-→ Software-→ antiX Updater Synaptic is also available for those that prefer a gui tool.

| The following packages are installed from the trixie-backports repo. NOTE: broadcom-sta-dkms, firmware-linux-nonfree, libreoffice, sysv-rc-conf and yt-dlp

### DVD videos don’t play. How come?

You may need to install libdvdcss2 and maybe some codecs by enabling the deb-multimedia repository (see above how to do this) and then either search for libdvdcss2 in synaptic and then install or use the command line.

- apt update

- apt install libdvdcss2

The easiest way is to use the Package Installer application as it automatically does the above for you.

antiX strongly advises users not to keep the deb-multimedia repository enabled as there may be conflicts.

### What window managers are available in antiX?

These window manager options come installed and ready to use in antiX-full

- the lightweight zzzFM-IceWM (default in antiX-26)

- the lightweight IceWM

- the lightweight Rox-IceWM

- the minimalist manager zzzFM-Fluxbox

- the minimalist manager Fluxbox

- the minimalist manager Rox-Fluxbox

- the very minimalist manager zzzFM-JWM

- the very minimalist manager JWM.

- the very minimalist manager Rox-JWM.

All window managers can be run with or without the zzzFM or Rox Desktop environment that provides drag-and-drop functionality or the Conky system monitor that displays real-time information.

antiX also comes with herbstluftwm, a manual tiling window manager.

### What are the min- options?

If you want to keep RAM usage as low as possible, you can choose one of the min- options. There is no wallpaper, no desktop icons, no conky and no applications running in the panel.

### How do I change from one WM to another?

You can switch by clicking on the menu -→ Desktop -→ Other Desktops,

### And how to set the default one?

Whichever one you have running before reboot, will be the default.

### Toggling Conky on/off:

In IceWM:

Right click on Desktop -→ Desktop-→ Settings-→ Conky on/off

In Fluxbox:

Right click on Desktop -→ Desktop -→ Conky on/off

In JWM:

Right click on Desktop -→ Desktop -→ Settings-→ Conky on/off

### How do I get out of antiX?

IceWM:

Click on the Desktop-→Logout there are several options including shutdown.

Fluxbox:

Right Click anywhere on the Desktop -→ Exit, which will present you with the choice to lock screen, hibernate, reboot, logout, suspend, or shut down.

JWM:

Click on the Desktop-→Logout there are several options including shutdown.

## Some Great Features in antiX

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### live-usb-maker

Install the downloaded or newly created iso file to a portable usb stick nd take your antiX with you in your pocket! Includes an option to encrypt the usb device for security. This tool inludes a basic gui front end, but the cli version offers more options and is easy to use.

### Package Installer:

Located in Menu-→ Applications-→System -→ Package Installer You can install packages for Disk-Recovery, Web Browsers, Graphics, Kids, Language, LaTex, Network, Non-free, Office, Server, WindowManager . . . simply choose the package you want, and the installer will do the rest. (internet connection required). This is also the best way to install supported desktop environments.

### LuckyBackup:

Can be found in Control Centre-→ Disks-→ Backup Your System or in Menu-→ Applications-→System -→ luckyBackup

### Repo Manager

This tool greatly simplifies the process of changing the package repositories that are used for updating/upgrading applications. The sources are set during installation depending on the selected timezone and language, and will generally work well. But there may be instances where a user might wish to change those selections.

### iso-snapshot:

Want to make a live iso backup of what you have installed on your hard drive? Then, this is for you! Simple, but effective.

### Remaster and Persistence:

Not only have we made it easy to set up antiX live with persistence, we also make it easy to create a remaster of the running live system!

### Customised gfxboot menu:

Use the F keys to set up how you want antiX to boot in live mode and F8 to save the changes for future live boots!

*F1 - Help

*F2 - Language

*F3 - Time zone

*F4 - Various hardware options including a disable services option

*F5 - Persistence options

*F6 - Desktop and font size options

*F7 - Console resolution options

*F8 - Save changes (only on writable media)

NEW: Customised grub menu on live medium.

### What do you mean by Safe Video Mode and Failsafe in the menu?

Safe Video Mode Disable KMS (kernel mode set) video drivers and force the use of the vesa video driver. Try this option of the system seems to boot but the screen is blank.

Failsafe Boot In addition to forcing safe video, also load all drivers early in the boot process. Try this option if the system does not boot at all.

## antiX-26

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### So, what’s in antiX-26?

Lots! Explore!

- 5 init systems: runit (default), sysVinit, dinit, s6-rc and s6-66.

- Based on Debian 13 (Trixie), but without systemd, libsystemd0, elogind and libelogind0. Instead we use seatd.

- eudev instead of udev

- Customised 5.10 kernel

- Customised 6.6 kernel

- NOTE: 64 bit antiX-full editions come with 2 kernels.

- libreoffice

- firefox-esr

- claws-mail

- cups for printing

- xmms -for audio

- Xine-ui, celluloid and mpv - for playing video

- Evince - PDF reader

- arc-evopro2-theme-antix

- Qogir icon theme

- meld

- pipewire for audio, but plain alsa can be set in a click or two.

File managers and desktop:

- zzzFM

- rox-filer

Convert your video and audio files with:

- winff

- asunder

Connect to the net with:

- connman

- or gnome-ppp if you are still on dial-up

Editors:

- geany

- leafpad

- Midnight Commander

Tools for remastering and creating snapshots of installed system:

- iso-snapshot

- remaster tools

General tools:

- bootrepair

- codecs installer

- Network Assistant

- User Manager

- ddm-mx - install nvidia drivers

Others:

- hexchat - gui chat

- luckybackup - excellent backup tool. There’s nothing lucky about it!

- simple-scan - for scanning documents

- transmission-gtk - torrent downloader

- wingrid-antix - turn the stacking window managers into tilers.

- Xfburn for burning cd/dvd

- connectshares-antix for network shares

- droopy-antix - an easy way to transfer files over the net.

- mirage - image viewer

- package-installer - install applications easily and safely

- antiX Control Centre - an easy way to do just about anything!

- cherrytree - note taking application

Why not try out our included cli apps:

- Editors: nano and vim-tiny

- Newsreader: newsboat

- Chat: irssi

- Audio player: mocp

- Video player: mpv

- Youtube video: pipe-viewer

- Torrent: rtorrent

- Cd burner: cdw

- Writer: Wordgrinder

Main changes from antiX-23

- Inclusion of 5 init systems on one iso

- xine-ui video/audio player

- gtk-pipe-viewer to watch Youtube videos.

- antiX-base and antiX-net editions are no longer provided

- live default boots without any services disabled

Cool in-house antiX apps available in the repos:

- 1-to-1-voice-antix - Voice chat between two pcs via encrypted mumble

- 1-to-1-assistance-antix - Remote access help application

- ssh-conduit - Remote resouces via an ssh encypted connection

- acstv - TV on your desktop

- antix-memory-manager - Set up and Manage zRAM

- antixradio - Radio on your desktop

### Tell me more about those Desktop Settings

Since antiX is designed to work on older boxes, we have attempted to make the desktop session more robust. Also, we have tried to make it as easy as possible for new users and highlight its features. However, depending on your hardware and tastes, you may wish/need to make some changes. For example, increasing/decreasing the desktop startup delay. The configuration files are found in Control Centre-→Session-→User Desktop Session

### Can you give me an example?

Ok, I want to use IceWM without desktop icons, choose a colour background, and only have the volume icon on the taskbar. My box is new, so I want to reduce the startup delay and keep conky on the desktop.

1.Boot using IceWM option or change to it via Menu-→Desktop-→Other Desktops

2.Control Centre-→Session-→User Desktop Session click on startup tab and comment # entries you do not want to use

3.Control Centre-→Session-→User Desktop Session click on desktop-session.conf and make the following changes Startup delay "0" Notification dialog "false"

4.Use the Wallpaper application in Control Centre-→Desktop to set No wallpaper and a background colour.

5.Logout and log back in to your customised desktop. They will be saved on reboot.

### What kernel is antiX-26 using?

A customised 5.10 version and 6.6 on antiX-full (64 bit)

There are several other kernels available via the package-installer application.

### Does flash work?

If you still need to use flash, use the package-installer to do so.

## Links

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- [antiX Home].

- [antiX forum].

Users really should have a look at the absolutely wonderful videos made by dev team member dolphin_oracle.

- [antiX-17 - What’s new]

- [antiX 16 - UEFI install (with partitioning)]

- [Introducing antiX-16]

- [What’s new in antiX-16]

- [Installing antiX-16]

- [antiX Videos]