BeleniX
| Company type | Open source software project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Operating system distribution |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Bangalore , India |
| Products | Operating system distribution (Live CD and installable OS) |
| Website | www |
BeleniX was a now-defunct operating system distribution derived from the OpenSolaris codebase. It operated either as a Live CD or could be installed onto a hard disk. Initially created as a Live CD akin to Knoppix to showcase OpenSolaris capabilities, BeleniX eventually served as the basis for Sun's OpenSolaris distribution. Numerous advancements originating in BeleniX later became independent projects within the OpenSolaris community.
Design and principles
BeleniX emphasizes delivering the most up-to-date stable software, maintaining an actively refreshed package repository. It also integrates select cutting-edge applications to test emerging features and includes third-party drivers absent from the official OpenSolaris release by Sun.
Focused on the developer workstation environment, BeleniX offers sufficient stability and scalability for use as a workstation or development server, utilizing the powerful OpenSolaris kernel and userland components.
Compiled for the 32-bit (i586/Pentium) platform, version 0.7 of BeleniX introduced a live CD that contained both 32-bit and 64-bit installation options.
The distribution predominantly employs KDE as its desktop environment, with longstanding support for Xfce and planned comprehensive support for GNOME. Its development team comprises contributors from other OpenSolaris-based distributions like MilaX, Nexenta OS, and SchilliX. Named after Belenus, the Celtic deity of light, BeleniX is a fully self-hosting OpenSolaris development system—every component, including the kernel, is compiled within BeleniX itself. It aims to provide an accessible method to leverage OpenSolaris capabilities through a Live CD that boots within two to three minutes, encouraging innovation via new features and community participation.
History
The origins of BeleniX trace back to 2005 when it was initiated as a private endeavor by Sun employees at Sun's India Engineering Centre in Bangalore, India. The goal was to develop a Knoppix-style demonstration platform for OpenSolaris. Within a few weeks, an ISO image was released.
The project rapidly expanded into a FOSS community initiative involving contributors beyond Sun. BeleniX was the first OpenSolaris distribution to provide a fully operational X.Org X11 graphical interface environment.
Several pivotal innovations from BeleniX were later incorporated into Sun's official OpenSolaris releases. The initial beta version of OpenSolaris drew heavily from BeleniX. It was the second OpenSolaris distribution following SchilliX and the first to feature an auto-configuring X.Org-based GUI. Key contributions included:
- Interface auto-configuration predating NWAM (Network Auto-Magic)
- Fully functional X.Org X11 environment, which inspired the Fully Open X initiative
- Real-time loopback decompression of CD data
- File layout optimization guided by DTrace profiling
- Implementation of read-ahead and I/O scheduling within the ISO 9660 filesystem
- Toolkit for building Live CDs
- First OpenSolaris distribution capable of mounting both NTFS and Ext2fs
- Advanced automatic configuration for X.Org
- Complete operational environment for Java versions 5 and 6
- Basic port of GNU Parted
- Full KDE 3.5.x desktop environment
These technologies formed part of the foundation for Project Indiana. Building on this groundwork, BeleniX shifted toward becoming a source-level derivative of Indiana with a focus on KDE, aiming to deliver a comprehensive OpenSolaris distribution centered on KDE.
For an in-depth timeline of development milestones, refer to the LiveCD Features Timeline leading up to Sun's 2008 OpenSolaris release.
Software and toolchain
The BeleniX development team emphasized the ability for multiple packages to coexist on a single platform, ensuring that the most recent software versions were compiled using modern compilers. For instance, KDE 3.5.9 was compiled with GCC version 3.4.3, while newer packages such as KDE4 have progressively been built using GCC 4.4. Certain packages, including GNOME elements from the JDS initiative, were initially compiled with Sun Studio 12 but are transitioning to GCC 4.4. The overarching objective is to compile the entirety of BeleniX with GCC, establishing a completely free and open-source toolchain.
Desktop environments
BeleniX is primarily recognized as a KDE-focused distribution, yet it also supports XFCE and intends to integrate GNOME in forthcoming versions.
Installation
The installation process in BeleniX utilizes the Caiman Installer along with libraries derived from Sun's OpenSolaris distribution. Plans for future releases include redeveloping the Installer's graphical interface using Qt4, while maintaining the existing Caiman Installer libraries beneath.
Packaging
BeleniX continues to rely on SVR4 packaging inherited from Solaris. Due to certain technical constraints, the team currently refrains from adopting the IPS and is investigating alternative package formats such as deb, RPM5, and Smart Package Manager.