Introducing SlateKit Base - Technical Preview

SlateKit Base technical preview is now available for download:

• file: slatekit-base-tp-02082014.iso (115MB)
• md5sum: 1de6e747f66c7d9ae88a14de79df3105
• website: slatekit.org

What?

SlateKit Base is a small Linux distribution (binary compatible with Ubuntu 14.04 amd64), with specially configured Qt 5.2.0, Mesa 10.0.1, two web engine/renderer: the default QtWebKit, and Oxide, which based on Chromium/Blink.

The whole graphical stacks are merely framebuffer (both KMS and uvesafb), EGL surface, and Qt/QtQuick has made rest of the user interface. No X11, Mir nor Wayland are being used.

Why?

The purpose of SlateKit Base is for demonstrating the capabilities of SlateKit project. Most of the key components of SlateKit are preloaded, including the Web Browser, On-Screen Keyboard, and Input Method. I'll add Launcher and Network Manager into next release.

How Do I Get This Thing Running?

As always, this image works on VirtualBox, default it boots into command line with 1024x768-32 screen resolution by using uvesafb driver, you can switch screen resolution with boot parameter like: screen=800x600-32. Network can be configure by:

# ifconfig eth0 up 
# udhcpc -s /etc/udhcpc.script 

Then start the web browser by oxide or slatekit-shell command:

# oxide 

Oxide example file is located under /usr/share/SlateKit/Oxide/web.qml, and SlateKit Shell is /usr/share/SlateKit/Shell/qml/Shell.qml. Don't forget to turn off VirtualBox's mouse integration (Command + I) if you're on Mac OSX.

Can I Use It on Real Device?

This release comes with limited driver selection. If you have Intel, nVidia or AMD/ATi device that supported by KMS, you can create a bootable USB drive using dd command, and try booting SlateKit Base on it with following boot parameter:

boot: slatekit debug=1 

And start udev:

# udevd --daemon
# udevadm trigger  

If everything works fine it will drop you into a command line with native framebuffer resolution, then you can launch the browser as usual.

Contact

If you have any thought, question, demo or hardware support request, please feel free to send me a mail or contact me on Twitter @penk.

Happy Hacking!
penk