Apps & everyday use
Find your way around the desktop, get help from Slax AI Assistant and discover the tools already on board.
Your everyday desktop
Click the green start button, tap the left Super key, or press Alt+F2 to open the application launcher. Start typing to find an app or command, or browse the categories. The Session category contains power and session actions.
The taskbar groups windows by application. Hover over an icon to see its open windows, then move over a preview to peek at that window on the desktop. Click a preview to switch to it. Drag the app icons along the taskbar to arrange them in your preferred order.
Hold Alt and tap Tab to see the windows on your current workspace. Release Alt to switch to the selected one; hold Shift too to go backward. Alt+F3 shows all four workspaces, giving your browser, notes and other tasks a little more room.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Left Super, Alt+F2 or Ctrl+Esc | Open the application launcher. |
| Alt+F1 | Open a terminal. |
| Alt+Tab / Alt+Shift+Tab | Preview and switch windows on the current workspace. |
| Alt+F3 | Show the four-workspace overview. |
| Ctrl+F1 through Ctrl+F4 | Switch directly to a workspace. |
| Windows/Super+Left or Right | Send the current window to the previous or next workspace. |
| Alt+left-button drag | Move a window by dragging anywhere inside it. |
| Alt+right-button drag | Resize a window. |
| PrintScreen | Save a screenshot in Pictures and open it in the image viewer. |
Slax AI Assistant
Open Slax Assistant in the launcher when you want help with your next task. It can explain a command, inspect the current system, investigate a problem and run commands to get things done. Describe what you want in your own words; you do not need to know the right command first.
The assistant opens in its own desktop window. Connect to the internet and sign in using one of the methods shown there. Keep it beside the application you are working with so you can follow the conversation and its results. The assistant uses an online service; its commands act on your running Slax system.
Install only what you need
A small download arrow in the launcher means an application is available to install. Click it and Slax downloads the required packages, installs them and opens the application. An internet connection is required.
Optional applications include Video Player, Drawing, Remote Desktop, Document Scanner, CD/DVD Burner, Task Manager, Mines and Sudoku. Apps without a download arrow are already installed. The browser, file manager, editor, calculator, archive manager and Partition Manager are ready to use.
For other packages, open a terminal and use apt update, followed by
apt install package-name. A persistent session keeps installed applications after restarting.
See the apt guide for examples.
Keyboard, network and sound
Choose your keyboard layout
Click the EN indicator in the taskbar and choose a layout. Show all lists more available direct-input layouts. Ctrl+Shift, Alt+Shift and Windows/Super+Space initially let you explore layouts; after selecting an alternative, the shortcuts toggle between it and English.
A menu selection remembers your alternative layout; using a non-English layout for thirty seconds also remembers it. Each new desktop session starts in English, while a persistent session retains the alternative for the shortcut. Included Chinese and Japanese fonts and color emoji help display text; choosing a keyboard layout does not configure a Chinese or Japanese input method.
Get online
Use the network tray icon to open Net Manager. Select your Wi-Fi network and enter its password, or use Ethernet where available. Slax includes networking firmware for supported adapters. Some hardware may need additional firmware or drivers, which can be installed with apt.
Set the volume
Click the speaker for the volume slider and mute button. Scroll over the icon or use your media keys for quick adjustments. Muting remembers the previous level; moving the slider unmutes it. Escape or a click outside the popup closes it.
Partition Manager
Partition Manager is included in Slax and works offline. Open it from the launcher, select a drive and inspect its partitions and free space. It can create, resize and format partitions, with planned operations collected for review before you apply them.
Check the drive’s identity and keep a backup before changing its layout. For a Slax USB made from the ISO, create your data partition in the unused space while preserving the existing Slax and UEFI partitions. The USB setup guide explains that layout.
Disks, recovery and virtual machines
The terminal includes tools for native Linux filesystems, FAT, exFAT and NTFS, as well as LVM and LUKS
encrypted storage. Utilities such as ddrescue and rsync are available for recovery
and copying files. Network diagnostics include ping, dig,
traceroute and tcpdump.
Slax includes guest integration for VirtualBox and VMware: automatic display resizing, text clipboard
sharing and shared folders when enabled by the host. VirtualBox shares appear under
/media/sf_*; VMware shares use /mnt/hgfs.
QEMU/KVM can use SPICE for display resizing and clipboard integration when the host provides its agent channel and enables those features. Shared folders use the host’s configured virtiofs or 9p setup. None of these features needs a permanent Slax installation.
Text-mode utilities
These tools are included in Slax and work in a terminal on the desktop or in text mode.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
Archival utilities | |
gzip and gunzip | Compress and unpack .gz files |
bzip2 and bunzip2 | Compress and unpack .bz2 files |
xz and unxz | Compress and unpack .xz files |
zip and unzip | Create and unpack ZIP archives |
7z | Create and extract 7z, ZIP and other archives with 7-Zip; the included RAR plugin adds RAR extraction |
tar and cpio | Pack files and directories into archives or extract their contents |
mksquashfs and unsquashfs | Create and extract compressed SquashFS images, the format used by Slax modules |
Disk utilities | |
lsblk and blkid | Identify drives, partitions, filesystems, labels and UUIDs |
fdisk, cfdisk and sfdisk | Inspect and edit MBR or GPT partition tables, interactively or from a script |
mount, umount and findmnt | Mount filesystems, unmount them and see what is currently mounted |
losetup | Attach a disk-image file to a loop device |
hdparm and sdparm | Inspect and adjust ATA or SCSI drive settings |
mdadm | Assemble, inspect and manage Linux software RAID arrays |
lvm, vgs and lvs | Find and manage LVM volume groups and logical volumes |
cryptsetup | Open and manage LUKS-encrypted storage |
Hardware monitoring tools | |
dmidecode | Read the computer's firmware-provided hardware information |
smartctl | Read drive health information and run supported S.M.A.R.T. tests |
nvme (nvme-cli) | Inspect NVMe SSDs, read health and error logs, and manage NVMe devices |
lsusb | List connected USB devices |
dmesg | Read kernel messages, including hardware detection and driver errors |
Filesystem utilities | |
mkfs and fsck | Call the appropriate filesystem-specific formatting or checking tool; available operations depend on the filesystem |
mkfs.ext4 and e2fsck | Create ext4 filesystems or check and repair ext2, ext3 and ext4 |
resize2fs and tune2fs | Resize ext2/3/4 filesystems or adjust their settings |
mkfs.fat and fsck.fat | Create, check and repair FAT filesystems |
mkfs.exfat and fsck.exfat | Create, check and repair exFAT filesystems |
mkfs.ntfs and ntfsresize | Create or resize NTFS filesystems; NTFS drives can also be mounted for reading and writing |
ntfsfix | Fix some common NTFS problems; this is not a replacement for Windows chkdsk |
mkfs.btrfs and btrfs | Create and manage Btrfs filesystems, subvolumes and snapshots |
mkfs.xfs, xfs_repair and xfs_growfs | Create XFS filesystems, repair an unmounted filesystem or grow a mounted one |
System utilities | |
htop and top | Watch running processes, CPU usage and memory use |
ps and free | List processes and check available memory |
lsof | Find which processes have a file or device open |
pstree and killall | Display the process tree or send a signal to processes by name |
apt and dpkg | Install and manage packages; downloading new packages with apt needs an internet connection |
tmux | Manage multiple terminal windows and panes, and detach and reconnect while your programs keep running |
Data recovery tools | |
ddrescue | Copy data from a failing drive, keeping a mapfile so recovery can be resumed |
partclone.ext4, partclone.ntfs | Back up and restore partitions by copying only used blocks; Partclone provides tools for these and other supported filesystems |
testdisk | Find lost partitions and repair damaged partition tables and boot sectors |
photorec | Recover lost photos, documents and other files by scanning their contents, even when the filesystem is damaged |
gpart | Look for lost partitions on a disk with a damaged partition table |
rsync | Copy or synchronize files locally or over a network |
Networking tools | |
ip and ss | Inspect network interfaces, addresses, routes and sockets |
ping and traceroute | Check connectivity and follow the route to another host |
dig, host and nslookup | Look up DNS records |
ethtool, iw and rfkill | Inspect Ethernet or Wi-Fi devices and manage wireless radio blocking |
tcpdump | Capture network packets for troubleshooting |
nc | Send and receive data over TCP or UDP connections |
wget | Download files from the command line |
connmanctl | Control network connections from the terminal |
wpa_supplicant and wpa_cli | Connect to Wi-Fi and control WPA authentication from the command line |
ssh, scp and sftp | Connect to remote computers and transfer files securely |
sshd | OpenSSH server, not started automatically; generate host keys with ssh-keygen -A, then run service ssh start |
Working with files and text | |
mc | Midnight Commander, a two-panel file manager with remote file access |
mcedit and mcdiff | Edit text files or compare two files using Midnight Commander's tools |
less and man | Read long text files and command manuals |
file | Identify a file's type from its contents |
sha256sum | Calculate or verify SHA-256 checksums, including a downloaded ISO |
Windows shares | |
mount -t cifs | Mount a Windows share as a local filesystem |
Slax-specific commands | |
savechanges | Save the session's changed files to a .sb module, excluding temporary files and caches |
sb2dir | Extract a .sb module into a directory |
dir2sb | Pack a directory into a .sb module |
rmsbdir | Remove a directory created by sb2dir, including its special module metadata |
slax list | List modules mounted in the running system |
genslaxiso | Create a bootable Slax ISO, optionally adding modules |
Applications for desktop in Slax
xterm | Terminal program (command line GUI) |
chromium | Chromium web browser |
SciTE | Simple text editor |
galculator | Calculator with basic, scientific and programming modes |
fbprintscreen | Save a screenshot to Pictures and open it in the viewer; also available with PrintScreen |
scrot | Capture screenshots from the command line |
feh | Simple image viewer and background setter |
slax-ai | Open Slax AI Assistant; internet access and sign-in are required |
partition-manager | Inspect disks and review partition operations offline |
xarchiver | Graphical archive manager |
connman-gtk | Network manager |
pcmanfm | File manager |