smxi Makes Setting Up Debian a Breeze

by
in linux on (#3KB)
Typically, the install process doesn't stop with the installation of the base OS. You've still got to install and configure a lot of programs and drivers, for example: VirtualBox, Flash, LibreOffice, Java, and NVIDIA drivers, to name but a few. That takes time and energy.

Recently I needed a hard drive upgrade, and after trying out Xubuntu 14.04, I decided to stick with Crunchbang 11 . With a fresh installation, I needed to quickly get the applications that weren't an apt-get away. Enter smxi , a handy collection of scripts created to solve the frequent, repetitive support questions that often appear on IRC channels. Here's a guide showing how to set up smxi in Crunchbang.

How do you complete your config and install? What other tools and scripts are out there to ease the pain, particularly for multiple machines?
Reply 10 comments

Text documents (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-12 03:12 (#1H1)

I just have text docs which list the steps and commands needed to go from a fresh install to ready machine. Scripts?

My method is not sophistiocated but it works (Score: 1)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 05:15 (#1H2)

I just install a minimal system, and as soon as I am booted and running, as the occasion arises and I find I need package X, I just use apt-get, yum, or pacman to install it. I don't grasp what the problem is. All that stuff is always online and a few keystrokes away.

I don't use Nvidia or AMD video crap, so the whole cluster foxtrot of getting that garbage working is not anything that affects me. I am perfectly happy with my Intel video which has excellent drivers built into every distro and Just Works.

Re: My method is not sophistiocated but it works (Score: 2, Insightful)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 17:11 (#1HF)

I just use apt-get, yum, or pacman to install it. I don't grasp what the problem is.
"Possibly most important: expecting someone to look for an answer to a question they don't even know exists! This is a very common problem in advanced technical user circles, nobody remembers their own learning curve, and starts to think that highly specialized technical knowledge is somehow something that people should know."

Everyone has to start somewhere, and in the Unix(-alike) world, people who started a while back are justifiably notorious for treating people who started more recently like shit.

Re: My method is not sophistiocated but it works (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-13 18:33 (#1JQ)

Everyone has to start somewhere, and in the Unix(-alike) world, people who started a while back are justifiably notorious for treating people who started more recently like shit.
I don't think anyone was treating anyone like shit, but saying so is of course an easy way to avoid answering the question. What's the problem?

I also just install a minimal systems and install extra packages when needed and I have no idea why I would ever think it would be "easier" to download a .zip (A .zip file? On Linux?! WTF?!), install unzip , extract the zip file (Seriously WTF?!) and run some third party (and totally unsupported by my distro of choice) scripts instead of just installing the package I really need.

I did try to look in their FAQ yesterday, but I couldn't find any reason why they decided to use a .zip file instead of a .tar.gz. I can't remember a single distro where unzip is installed by default, but I'm pretty sure most distros has tar by default. Why are they trying to make it harder for people to use their scripts?

SMXI is great.. (Score: 2, Informative)

by coolhand@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 14:33 (#1H7)

I've been using it for years to help make Sid/Sidux/Aptosid/Siduction more stable and friendly. It's there and it works. I don't know why distro's aren't "officially" adopting it. (I believe it started as a semi-offical part of Sidux, then became independent when they decided not to "support" it).

Puppet (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-05-12 15:15 (#1H9)

Does anyone here use something like puppet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet_%28software%29) to manage bulk configurations? Sounds like a similar idea but much more built out for use in an administrator's toolbox.

Re: Puppet (Score: 1)

by coolhand@pipedot.org on 2014-05-13 15:29 (#1JB)

Puppet isnt anywhere close to the same thing as smxi.. Puppet is for managing configurations of multiple systems, and keeping everything in line. Once you get more than a handful of systems, whether desktops or servers, the only way to effectively manage them is with tools, whether that be with Puppet, or something like active directory group policy in the MS world. So with Puppet or other configuration managers, you would create "recipes" that would define the configuration for a specific class of your machines. Then either push that configuration out to them, or have an agent on the remote machines that would poll your server to see if there are changes to apply.

SMXI is simply a script to manage things (installing kernels, specific software, upgrades, video drivers) on a single desktop.

They are NOT comparable at all..

I hate to be a unix snob, but (Score: 1)

by fatphil@pipedot.org on 2014-05-13 18:41 (#1JR)

(a) It's being distributed by an idiot, as zips are unable to preserve important file-system-related information (such as file permissions, including executability). Tar exists for a reason, and in fact predates zip by pretty much a whole decade. The fact that the instructions for use include a preparatory "install a package which will help you cope with our bizarre distribution medium" step is a tell-tale sign that it's not been designed particularly sensibly.
(b) actually, I don't hate to be a unix snob, I revel in it.