Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The liquorix Linux kernel configuration project

The website of the liquorix kernel configuration project is one of the most simplest I have come across. liquorix project provides customized kernel for debian based distributions. The customizations are taken down from the zen linux kernel projects. Both zen and liquorix projects take the vanilla kernel and optimize them with additional drivers and kernel code which is not yet part of the vanilla kernel.

Installing the liquorix kernel is as simple as adding the repository source to /etc/apt/sources file, open synaptic, refresh the list, search for liquorix and install it. People having trouble with the latest devices can try this kernel. Liquorix is optimized for the desktop use. If further configuration is required, then the config file can be downloaded with the respective kernel patch.

Patch the vanilla kernel(Be careful in downloading the patches and the configs. The version numbers should match on all the three files). The versioning system for the Linux kernel is just a google or bing away. Build it and install it as u would install a regular vanilla kernel.

I really liked the patches and appreciate the effort put behind by the team in providing a kernel which is geared towards the desktop users. The desktop is zippy and zappy. The response is excellent for the mouse and the key strokes, it is almost immediate. My laptop is on steroids. I had a shutdown/restart problem on my tx1301 au laptop, but installing the latest liqourix kernel solved it. The desktop is more responsive and the hibernating option is much better. There is the tuxonice patch ("It saves the contents of memory to disk and powers down. When the computer is started up again, it reloads the contents and the user can continue from where they left off. No documents need to be reloaded or applications reopened and the process is much faster than a normal shutdown and start up" from the tuxonice website)

So, all in all an excellent community effort in putting all the good kernel code which is not yet upto linus's standards. Thanks to Linus and the entire freedom software community.

1 comment:

  1. I second what you just said! The liquorix kernel also takes care of the nvidia driver. No more command line after you install a newer kernel. Great job!

    ReplyDelete

Nobody can deter me away from "free as in freedom" concept seeded by Sri RMS. See to it that u dont make fun of my belief. If u think otherwise, no need to comment.