SliTaz Forum

qmastery16

Member

Registered: 2026-03-13

Posts: 3

Is there a SliTaz ISO with a working Ethernet/WiFi out of the box?

We love Slitaz because it has a very simple "bzImage + rootfs" structure of ISO, that allows us to do magic tricks like this:

github [dot] com/mikebdp2/floppinux-amd64net

There we have a 2.88MB floppy Linux distro with Ethernet and WiFi, that we put inside the opensource coreboot+SeaBIOS of our AMD PC. Then we run commands: /etc/get_repo.sh , ./repo.sh and ./slitaz.sh - in order to automatically download a Slitaz Linux bzImage and rootfs (a single archive that has been obtained by joining the rootfs5.gz-rootfs1.gz with the ./linux-slitaz/extractor.sh script at this repo).

So with these magic tricks we kexec the Slitaz Linux bzImage + rootfs and instantly get a graphical desktop! ;-) However, we noticed a sad thing: our Ethernet/WiFi capabilities are LOST by this action. Why? Probably because the Slitaz Linux kernel configuration is insufficient and the firmware files are missing. Trying to resolve this problem we tried to switch to a Linux kernel from Artix Linux (Arch without SystemD) - however, its Linux kernel also expects a lot of stuff to be designated as kernel modules instead of it being compiled to inside of a Linux kernel (stuff is =m instead of =y) - and since a Slitaz Linux default rootfs obviously does not have these essential kernel modules in it (although there would have been the compatibility problems if they existed) - then the Ethernet/WiFi have no chance of working...

Please tell, is there some secret pre-built ISO of Slitaz Linux that has a working Ethernet for very simple Atheros QCA8172 / Realtek 8168 Ethernet adapters? (they are very standard and work even in KolibriOS, maybe even without the closed source binary files) And also, WiFi support for Atheros ath9k / ath9k_htc ? (probably they also work on 100% opensource without any binaries, but I can't tell for sure)

Best regards,

qmastery

shann

Administrator

Registered: 2011-04-01

Posts: 1,296

Website

Re: Is there a SliTaz ISO with a working Ethernet/WiFi out of the box?

Hi qmastery,

Quick check on kernel config (at least for 5.10 kernel) :

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep ALX

# CONFIG_ALX is not set

For Realtek, r8169 provided on kernel (include 8169/8168/8101/8125 ethernet support)

/home/slitaz/wok# find linux/install -name "*8169*"

linux/install/linux64/lib/modules/5.10.238-slitaz64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169.ko.xz

https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/R8169.html

Of course, think could purpose kernel with alx driver as module, for ath9k / ath9k_htc, if remind need firmware-atheros but include on kernel 5.10

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep HTC

CONFIG_ATH9K_HTC=m

Regards,

shann