En:Sabayon Linux

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Contents

Sabayon Linux Overview

Real World Equivalent

"Sabayon is an Italian dessert made with egg yolks, sugar, a sweet liquor (usually Marsala wine), and sometimes cream or whole eggs. It is a very light custard, which has been whipped to incorporate a large amount of air."

Source: Wikipedia.

Real theory

Sabayon Linux is an operating system powered by the Linux kernel and GNU. There are many Linux flavors, but most geeks just call them distributions. We are a Linux distribution, though, and try to provide our users the best and most complete computing experience.

Our philosophy follows two simple statements:

A) OOTB (out of the box) Functionalities: There should be no problems and everything should "just work."

B) KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!

Moreover, to achieve this, Sabayon Linux uses Gentoo Linux as its base. It is (and always will be) 100% compatible with it. We are one of the most scalable distributions and are happy to support everyone from the most creative kernel hacker to the newbie. How? Because of point A above, and because Gentoo Linux is THE most extensible Linux distribution, no one can say anything to the contrary.

What Sabayon Linux is NOT

  • It is NOT a binary-only distribution. Yes, you can install Sabayon Linux in half an hour and have a powerful desktop under your hands. But, our current policy does not support the idea to fork Gentoo Linux package management because users don't like to waste time compiling. We have a clear idea; if you don't want to compile a lot of packages just wait for the next release, because you always be able to:
    • Update your current installation to the latest Sabayon Linux by running the Sabayon Linux installer and choosing the Upgrade option
    • Keep up to date, Sabayon Linux release cycles are very, very short. If you just want to keep your PC secure, just use the glsa-check utility.
  • It is NOT developed with politics in mind. This means that if we like an application over another, it's just because it could work better and be closer to our OOTB philosophy described above.
  • It is NOT company-driven. We have always been users, and then developers. That's our power and our view. We only want something that works without Microsoft and their superficial operating system implementation!
  • It is NOT Ubuntu! We don't try to mimic any other distribution, we just take the best from each one.


How is Sabayon Linux different from other distributions?

  • Sabayon offers a complete out-of-the-box experience, it comes with pre-installed media codecs, drivers, and games.
  • New versions are released in a short amount of time. This means that you don't have to go through the headaches of updating by hand to the latest and greatest software available. Also, you don't have to fiddle around with updates, making this distribution that much easier.
  • Unlike most other distributions, it's completely independent from commercial interests. No big firm stands behind Sabayon Linux and dictates what it should do. The developers of Sabayon Linux are all users from other Distributions, so they started to make a distribution "from users for users".

Screenshots

You can see a large number of screenshots of several versions of Sabayon Linux, including screenshots of the screens displayed during installation to hard disk, on the following page:

Screenshots Gallery.

Important Items to Know

Prerequisites and System Requirements for running Sabayon Linux

  • Live Environment - No 3D Desktop:
    • i586 Processor (starting from AMD K5 and Intel Pentium)
    • at least 512MB of RAM (1GB suggested)
    • a 2D graphics card
    • a DDC capable Monitor
    • mouse and keyboard
  • Live Environment - 3D Desktop:
    • i686 Processor (starting from AMD K6 and Intel Pentium II)
    • at least 512MB of RAM (1GB suggested)
    • an OpenGL capable 3D graphics card (mostly NVIDIA, ATI, Intel, VIA)
    • a DDC capable Monitor
    • mouse and keyboard
  • Installation:
    • i586 Processor (see above)
    • at least 512MB of RAM (1GB suggested for decent eyecandy effects)
    • an OpenGL capable 3D graphics card (mostly NVIDIA, ATI, Intel, VIA)
    • 20GB of free space, that is bare minimum DVD Install. 30+ Gig is recommended
    • 7GB of free space for miniCD. 10+ Gig is recommended
    • Internet connection (not mandatory but highly suggested)
    • a DDC capable Monitor
    • mouse and keyboard


Passwords on Live-CD/DVD:

  • root password: 
 root
  • sabayonuser password: 
 sabayonuser

Boot Methods for special ways of using Sabayon

NOTE: Starting from SabayonLinux 3.2, all these options can be choosen without typing anything on the boot command line


  • Start the SabayonLinux Live system. 
 sabayon
  • Start the Graphical Installation. 
 install
  • Start the Text mode Installation. 
 text-install
  • Start the SabayonLinux Live system without proprietary drivers. 
 genuine
  • Start the SabayonLinux Live system without loading X.Org. 
 console
  • Start the SabayonLinux Live system with Internet Kiosk framework. 
 internetkiosk
  • Start the SabayonLinux Live system with Internet Kiosk framework + NX Client. 
 internetkiosknx
  • Start the SabayonLinux Live system in Debug mode (expert). 
 debug
  • Perform a memory test. 
 memtest

Boot parameters and workarounds for problematic Hardware

Sabayon Linux supports some extra features that can be enabled by adding the boot parameters below. Moreover, you can tune the system to behave in different ways.

  • lang: set a specific localization 
  lang=fr_FR
  lang=en_GB
  lang=it_IT
  lang=es_ES
  • res: set a specific resolution 
  res=1280x1024
  res=1920x1440
  res=800x600
  • refresh: set a specific Monitor Vertical Refresh Rate for X.Org 
  refresh=75
  refresh=50-85
  • hsync: set a specific Monitor Horizontal Sync Rate for X.Org 
   hsync=64
   hsync=28-110
  • xdriver: force X.Org to use a specific Video driver 
 xdriver=vesa (good generic driver)
 xdriver=ati
 xdriver=radeon (open-source driver for ATI GPUs - see X.Org Wiki article http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon)
 xdriver=radeonhd  (open-source driver for ATI GPUs - see X.Org Wiki article http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonhd)
 xdriver=nv
 xdriver=nvidia
 Other xdriver options include i810, i740, i128, sis, mga, r128, openchrome, cirrus, cyrix, s3 and s3virge
  • insmod: force the loading of a specific kernel module 
 insmod=ndiswrapper
 insmod=agpgart,gameport
  • rmmod: force the unloading of a specific kernel module 
 rmmod=ndiswrapper
 rmmod=i2c,gameport
  • sound=mute: do not autoconfigure the sound mixer.
  • nofreqscaling: disable the autoconfiguration of CPU frequency scaling.
  • noddc: disable DDC Monitor autoconfiguration.
  • session=: autostart a specific Desktop Environment. Available kde,gnome,xfce,fluxbox,e16
    • To autostart Fluxbox for example: 
 session=fluxbox
  • music: enable music during boot (experimental).
  • autoscramble: randomization of root and sabayonuser passwords.
  • nox: start the System without X.Org.
  • legacy: start with safe parameters - for legacy compatibility.
  • noaccelmanager: disable Acceleration Manager (for 3D desktop selection).
  • noapic nolapic: disable APIC (mostly used on some faulty bioses).
  • gentoo=nohdparm nohdparm ide=nodma: If the system hangs on hdparm service startup or your system does not have DMA Hard drives, try this.
  • acpi=off: disable ACPI completely.
  • pci=noacpi: disable ACPI for PCI maps (HP servers and VIA chipsets).
  • pci=nomsi: disable MSI (Message Signalled Interrupts). Some chipsets do not handle MSI well, leading to difficulties in identifying Hard Drives and other devices.
  • floppy.floppy=thinkpad: useful for some ThinkPad notebooks.
  • all-generic-ide: useful when your IDE CD/DVD Reader is not detected at boot
  • vga=771: useful on some wide-screen laptops. It forces a healthy framebuffer resolution.

NOTE: Feel free to add extra cheat codes.

Special features

Sabayon Linux supports some enhanced features, like the ability to surf anonymously, Internet Kiosk framework and persistent home directory.

What is Tor/Privoxy

Just start with the boot option:

  • tor: enable the system to use Tor/Privoxy system to surf the web anonymously.

Tor (The Onion Router) is a free software implementation of second-generation onion routing — a system enabling its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet. Originally sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory, Tor became an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) project in late 2004. The EFF supported Tor financially until November 2005 [1], and continues to provide web hosting for the project.

Like all current low-latency anonymity networks, Tor is vulnerable to correlation attacks from attackers who can watch both ends of a user's connection. In a number of countries, including the US, various government agencies have access to connection data of a large number of internet service providers. Because of this, Tor is not suitable for protection against big-brother-like observation by those government agencies.


What is Internet Kiosk

Again, just start with the boot option:

  • internetkiosk: enable Internet Kiosk mode (do not use this - use the command outside).
  • nxclient: used along with "internetkiosk" parameter, autostarts NX Client.

Internet Kiosk is an automated Internet navigation system based on Sabayon Linux, KDE and NoMachine NX Server/Client. You can not only surf the internet, you can listen to music across the NX network, burn CD/DVD from your terminal, print your photo, play 2D games, use your Flash Pen, write and read Office documents (OpenDocument and MSOffice ones).

  • How it works:
    • Internet Kiosk System starts if you meet these requirements:
      • A NoMachine NX Server available (that will be the real locked-in user desktop)
      • A Thin Client with NX Client or an OLD Computer with at least 192MB of RAM, a DVD Reader and 2MB of non-volatile memory like USB flash memory or IDE HD.
  • There are two Operational modes:
    • Internet Kiosk NX: A memory device /dev/sda1 or /dev/hda1 must be available. This can be formatted in ext3, reiserfs, xfs, reiser4, ext2 or FAT32 (very important because most of USB keys are pre-formatted with this filesystem). If you don't have this partition, you can boot SabayonLinux LiveDVD normally and then use Partition Editor on the desktop (aka GParted) to create it. Priority is given to /dev/sda1. So, if you have /dev/sda1 and /dev/hda1, /dev/sda1 will be used. At boot time, init scripts change Default Desktop Environment to Fluxbox, stop some services, like SSH, Syslog, Clamav, FreeNX Server, and autostart NX Client with the configuration files created/stored (automagically by SabayonLinux) on our non-volatile memory. In addition, a script "startinternetkiosk.sh" can be placed on it and will be called in the boot runlevel. From 2.60.2, another script "startinternetkiosk_endboot.sh", can be called before X load and must be placed in the same directory of startinternetkiosk.sh.
    • Internet Kiosk: The difference is that it will only call "startinternetkiosk.sh" (boot runlevel) and "startinternetkiosk_endboot.sh" (before X start) from your non-volatile memory and no other changes are made.


What is XsistenCe

  • One Removable Device (USB storage) + Sabayon Linux = your data everywhere. In other words, you can use your Home directory in read/write mode and your data will be stored on your external non-volatile removable device.
    • Just have a previously formatted USB external disk (like a flash pen).
    • A blank file called "xsistence-mode" on the root of the USB storage above.
    • Some free space on it, at least 15 MB.
    • Add "xsistence" boot option to enable it.
      • If the System detects a previously created image file, it will use that.
      • If the System does not detect an XsistenCe image, it will be created.
      • You can specify the size (MB) of it, by adding: "xsistence_mb=xxx"
  • boot example: 
 sabayon xsistence xsistence_mb=100

Gaming and multimedia capabilities

Sabayon Linux is the most advanced and complete Linux distribution when it comes to multimedia completeness and capabilities. Use the parameters below only in ISOLINUX command line mode (no need to write those in Sabayon Linux 3.2).

OpenGL and Accelerated Desktop

If you want to try to get your OpenGL Acceleration or your Accelerated Desktop to work in cases that it doesn't, just poke with the commands below. You only need to add those parameters to the boot commandline.

  • opengl
    • Force the System to use a specific OpenGL subsystem, when autodetection fails. 
   example for NVIDIA (with NVIDIA Proprietary drivers):
   opengl=nvidia
   example for ATI (with ATI Proprietary drivers)
   opengl=ati
   example for X.Org Mesa implementation
   opengl=xorg-x11
  • agpgart
    • Force the System to load the AGP driver, when the autodetection fails.
  • noaccelmanager
    • Disable the loading of the Acceleration Manager application.
  • aiglx
    • Enable AIGLX Desktop Acceleration and disable Acceleration Manager.
  • xgl
    • Enable XGL Desktop Acceleration and disable Acceleration Manager.

Supported languages

- The DVD Editions support every language available for the respective application. For example, starting from Sabayon Linux 3.2, we support all GNOME, KDE, Firefox and OpenOffice language packs.

- Language support on the MiniEditions is limited to English, for space reasons.

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