SprezzOS FAQ

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Preliminaries

1. Did the world really need another Linux distribution?
   • Probably not. Does it really need you? At least SprezzOS has a page of justification for its existence.
2. What if Sprezzatech should go out of business?
   • I would continue to work on the Project as time was available.
3. What if you get hit by a bus?
   • That's admittedly a problem. Since it's all open source, anyone could pick it up and fork it.
   • The Debian Derivatives Census tracks all divergences from Debian, and could be used to assure all desirable changes get merged back in.

Installation

1. I just installed, and my machine seems broken. It just says "login" on a black screen. Ought I lose hope?
   • No; you're in the shell environment. X.org is not installed by default in SprezzOS 1.
   • If you want to run it, you'll need log in and install the xorg-xserver package, the appropriate video package, and appropriate input packages.
2. I don't need no stinking text mode! Will you ever install X.org by default?
   • We plan to support configuration of X.org directly from the installer of SprezzOS 2.
3. Where's USB-based media?
   • It'll be made available as soon as it's available.

Installation Problems

1. Are there hardware configurations on which the installer is known to fail?
   • Sadly many, I'm afraid. Our installer is neither as mature nor robust as I'd like it to be.
   • It's improving slowly, but is definitely the weak link in the SprezzOS chain. I'm sorry.
   • Please file bugs.
2. Why did my install fail during package installation? Don't you people test these things?
   • The installation media is constant for a SprezzOS version, but it fetches and installs a set of packages dependent on the current upstream repositories.
   • Some packaging bugs only manifest themselves when configured during install, and slip through.
   • Sometimes interpackage bugs (i.e., dependence on a missing package) slip through.
   • Please file bugs. These tend to get fixed very quickly once noted.

Security

1. I want to do everything as root, and am smarter than you. Why must I create a user account?
   • If you're so smart, figure out a way to install without creating a user account.
   • Or just never use it. Or remove it. You're running as root all the time anyway. Set your login shell to rm -rf / for all I care.
2. I adhere to Richard Stallman's no-passwords policy. Why do you force a password upon me?
   • It's a useful protection against stuck ENTER keys driving runaway installs.
   • Were it not for people like you, there'd be no thievery in this world!
3. Why isn't there a password on sudo? And a timeout? And a supersecret password after the first password? That'd be tre secure!
   • Observe:
   1. Eve pwns Bob's account.
   2. Eve installs a keystroke logger running with Bob's privileges.
   3. Bob has to type a bunch of crap, even though...
   4. Eve still captures both the secret and supersecret passwords.
4. How do I get back TCPwrappers support?
   • Set the Delorean's circuits for 1985 and get that baby up to 88. Alternately, use IPTables.

Multimedia

1. Where's the Enlightened Sound Daemon?
   1. The last ESD release was 2008. It has been deprecated for years, and PulseAudio supplies a compatibility module. It will not be returning.
2. How do I watch Flash in my browser?
   1. You can try installing the flash-nonfree package, though it is no longer supported upstream, tends to crash a lot, and has known security issues.
   2. You can try installing the gnash-plugin package, though it doesn't work very often.
   3. Yeah, I agree this situation sucks. Sorry, man; I didn't do it.
3. How can I rip physical Blu-Ray media?
   1. We recommend the (regrettably closed-source) MakeMKV. It has strong, active Linux support, and works very well.

X

1. I ran startx and just have an ugly black xterm! Where's all my crap?
   • You need to install a window manager, and run it in your .xinitrc.
2. Can't I have a graphical login?
   • Yes; you need to install and enable a display manager.

Misc

1. Why does all of this suck so much?
   • Humility is endless. You get what you pay for. Patches are welcome.
2. Where can I send these patches?
   • sprezzos-dev@googlegroups.com, or better yet attach them to a bug.
3. This is awesome! How can I help?
   • Money, money, money. Please donate using the Donate button on the left. Your donations keep the Project afloat.
4. Using Facebook as a login mechanism for the wiki makes me unhappy!
   • That is a statement, not a question.
5. Don't you know that successful large projects need consensus, not a rogue HIC playing by his own rules?
   • The Linux kernel and Linus Torvalds would seem to be a counterexample, but I suppose that only time will tell.
6. Isn't this really just one guy? Why do you keep saying "we"?
   • Future-proofing, and yes, but I fight with the strength of ten tigers.

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