Since Github has been very unstable, it might happen that clicking on the releases page will not show the latest version. The temporary solution is to access the latest release direct link: https://github.com/porteux/porteux/releases/latest
PorteuX is a Linux distro based on Slackware, inspired by Slax and Porteus and available to the public for free. Its main goal is to be super fast, small, portable, modular and immutable (if the user wants so).
It's already pre-configured for basic usage, including lightweight applications for each one of the 6 desktop environments available. No browser is included, but an app store is provided so you can download the most popular browsers, as well as Steam, VirtualBox, Nvidia drivers, office suite, multilib lite, messengers, emulators, etc.
Out of the box PorteuX can open basically any multimedia file. Hardware acceleration is enabled by default for machines with Intel, AMD or Nvidia cards (for Nvidia cards it's required to download Nvidia driver from the app store).
If you're new to PorteuX and have never used Porteus or Slax, it's recommended to read this in-depth review of Porteus.
PorteuX is provided in 2 main versions based on Slackware 64-bit packages: stable (safer) and current/rolling (bleeding edge). After choosing which main version you want, you should choose which desktop environment you want and download the ISO accordingly:
. GNOME 42.10 (or 45.2 in current)
. KDE 5.23.5 (or 5.27.10 in current)
. LXDE 0.10.1
. LXQt 1.4.0
. MATE 1.27.3
. Xfce 4.12
. Xfce 4.18
PorteuX is a modular system so it doesn't require a normal setup/installer. You can simply copy the ISO content to your media storage and run either porteux-installer-for-linux.run or porteux-installer-for-windows.exe (depending on which system you're running) to make the unit bootable. It's simple like that. Avoid ISO installer applications such as Rufus or Etcher because by default they set the bootable unit to be read-only. For more details, please read install.txt file in the root folder of the ISO.
Xfce 4.12 is the recommended version for the best balance between performance and flexibility. Many patches have been applied to this Xfce version to improve the user experience. For optimal performance, remember to turn off the compositor when running 3D applications such as games and benchmarks (Settings -> Window Manager Tweaks -> Compositor tab).
If you want to have PorteuX working on a language different than English, download multilanguage package and use PorteuX Language Switcher application to configure the language.
If you want to build anything inside PorteuX, it's recommended to download and activate the 05-devel xzm module, which includes compilers, git, headers, etc. If you need to build a driver (e.g. VirtualBox or any physical device), you should also download and activate 06-crippled_sources xzm module. It's not recommended to have these 2 modules activated during boot time, instead put them inside /porteux/optional folder and activate them only when needed.
If you want to run Windows applications inside PorteuX, in the app store you can find both Wine and Multilib Lite xzm modules. Just like 05-devel and 06-crippled_sources, it's not recommended to have these 2 modules activated during boot time.
To be able to read Asian characters, please download and activate the module notoserifcjk-regular.xzm.
username: guest
password: guest
username: root
password: toor
PorteuX is lightweight and snappy. Although it can run on old machines, it is on high end machines that the user will experience everything PorteuX can offer in terms of performance. Its ISOs have the average size of 410 MB and after boot the whole system takes no more than 1 GB of RAM, even considering that everything is loaded in RAM.
Boot times are really fast. LXQt, for instance, can boot in only 3 seconds:
Clear Linux, considered the fastest Linux distro, is slower than PorteuX in Geekbench:
All this performance benefit is achieved without providing ancient software. It means that the kernel, desktop environments and all applications are usually as new as possible.
PorteuX and Porteus follow the same basic structure, so a given module built in Porteus 5 should work in PorteuX current, and modules built in PorteuX stable should work in Porteus 5. However, this does not apply to the base modules (000-kernel, 001-core, 002-xorg, 002-xtra and 003-desktopenvironment).
PorteuX can be built in a live session of Slackware 64-bit, Porteus 64-bit or PorteuX 64-bit. At the moment the main scripts are not generating ISOs, but only the xzm files for each module (000-kernel, 001-core, 002-xorg, 002-xtra, 003-desktop-environment, 05-devel, 06-crippled_sources).
To build PorteuX, run the commands below as root in the exact order as described:
1- in 000-kernel folder run createModule.sh
2- in 001-core folder run createModule.sh
3- in 002-xorg folder run createModule.sh
4- in 002-xtra folder run createModule.sh
5- in 003-desktopenvironment folder run createModule.sh (where 'desktopenvironment' is the one of your preference)
6- in 05-devel folder run createModule.sh
7- (optional) in 08-multilanguage folder run createModule.sh
In the end all modules will be in their respective subfolders inside /tmp/porteux-builder-[version].
New optimizations made to the kernel require either 32 GB of RAM to build in RAM (default) or 8 GB if the user changes the output to a physical storage unit by editing PORTEUXBUILDERPATH in builder-utils/setflags.sh.
Feel free to report any issues or request changes. Any feedback is welcome.
arleson (core team)
theUtopian (core team)
blaze (@porteus)
brokenman (@porteus)
frank honolka (@snuk)
neko (@porteus)
ncmprhnsbl (@porteus)
patrick volkerding (@slackware)
phantom (@porteus)
ponce (@slackware)
tomáš matějíček (@slax)
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