Kongoni is the Shona word for a Gnu (also known as a Wildebeest) the animal which inspired the name of the GNU operating system. The name represents the spirit and history of Kongoni, a GNU/Linux operating system of African origin.
Kongoni is a desktop oriented operating system with a strong belief in being truly free software. This means that Kongoni will neither include nor ship any software not under a license approved by the free software foundation.
The system is meant to be easy to install, use and customize. Kongoni targets 32 bit Intel compatible chipsets with native versions for each.
The core OS is shipped as a runnable and installable live CD. Each version is compatible with the slackware release it is based on and can natively install packages for slackware (32-bit).
Our own shipped packages use a powerful mechanism for installation knowns as ports. Ports mean that the programs are downloaded as source and packages are then built automatically (no user knowledge required). This means smaller bandwidth requirements (a big concern in Africa) and programs that run faster and use less memory.
The system includes several pieces of our own code including:
* The installer (Stable, but needs improvements)
* KISS: Kongoni Integrated Setup System an easy to use tool for doing common system configuration tasks.
* PIG: Ports Installation GUI: An easy to use tool for installing and managing programs.
All our releases are named after great philosophers and thus far we have released: Aristotle, Sophocles, Nietzsche and Cicero.
I do not understand. FSF homepage does not include Kongoni as 100% free software. Why are not you in this list (as you said up there)? Ps. Congrats for the nice distro.
It’s not like I don’t want to, but FSF is not really behaving that nice. I’ve wrote them and took over 3 months to answer and ask some things which are kind of pointless.
Documentation, Help, or links thereto would be a big help …
In time, it’s a one man show and it’s not that easy
Hello I have not tried Kongoni but may do so soon. I think it’s sad that for some probably dumb reason you are not listed on the approved distributions list at the GNU.org site. I think I found Kongoni through distrowatch and I’m glad I did. If this is a one man show, congratulations! Much success in the future. I have written the FSF about incuding you telling them they have missed you but I got no answer. If they are being jerks then forget them…
Possibly the reason that Kongoni is not approved by the FSF is that this site (with Facebook and such) and the promotion of “Linux”do not uphold the values that advocate freedom but rather functionality issues. I would love to try and promote Kongoni. It would be nice that you participate in the gnu-linux-libre mailing list if you are interested in complying. They would probably be a great guide. Sometiwes at the FSF they are too busy and don’t have time to explain how to comply. I hope my comment helps.
FSF zealots are more restrictive than BSD or Apache. Your distro works, well.
Word will get out. May others join your cause.
There is a need for Freed Slackware.
Kongoni is based on Slackware, which the FSF purists say
1)allows non-freed software (i.e. real-world functionality), and
2)is polluted with at least one non-freed program (xv) and uses a kernel with binary blobs.
Does Kongoni provide for use of a purely freed Linux kernel?
Can it keep non-freed software under careful user control?
[Separate kernels, repos, sandbox ...]
See the FSF’s page – where many excellent distros are listed, since they respect user freedom!
Kongoni GNU/Linux is fully free, using the FSF kernel and there is no non-free apps anymore in it.
Is there or going to be a 64 edition ?
Well it will, but to be honest don’t know when.
how can i compile linux-libre kernel on slackware?
The same you would compile a normal kernel. Nothing different.
Thank you really a bunch for creating Kongoni! I tried the LiveCD, and I am certainly impressed by it, particularly since Gnash (Flash alternative) seems to work (though I still need to fine tune some little issues). As you know, for newer Flash videos, Lightspark is needed. Towards achieving this end, Lightspark 0.4.6.1 is supposed to be available in the repository of Kogoni, but I cannot find it. I tried PIG, but nothing happened. Could you please let me know what I can do to download it and add it to Kongoni?
Hi, I’m not sure what going on but the current version of lightspark in the repository is 0.4.8.1. So normally it should be there. Try from console: portpkg -s and then portpkg -f lightspark, see what happens.
Thanks for replying, indeed! Well, I tried what you told me, but apparently Lightspark couldn’t be installed. Here are the last 5 lines from console:
–> Rebuilding pseudo ports
–> Syncing /home/kongoni/ports/pkg/
[kongoni@kongoni ~]$ portpkg -f lightspark
** No search results found.
[kongoni@kongoni ~]$
Please let me know, what should I do now? Is there a way to install Lightspark via a different method?
Do you see git to checkout? Because the package is there or it should be if git checkout everything.
The package should be in ~/ports/kongoni/desktop/lightspark. If you don’t have that, that means git didn’t checkout or cloned
I run the LiveCD two times, and I did the same procedure each time, but I couldn’t download or find Lightspark. What should I do next?
Well first of all, open a bug report if you think is a problem and second, you can’t find lightspark, because it’s has to synchronize first PIG/portpkg and you must be sure git its checked out. Also please don’t write bugs or problems in the about page as a comment.
Thank you for your advice, Kongoni author! I hope this is a temporary issue, and I will keep trying to see if I can solve it. Of course, if I feel it is definitely a missing package, I will report it as a bug in the proper “Bug Reports” section. I could see that some users reported missing packages there, so it is not something that rare. On an hypothetical note, if I ever have another question regarding Kongoni’s usage, do you know a place where I can ask? Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a forum or a support e-mail address. However, please let me very politely tell you that perhaps you would consider opening a Yahoo! Group for Kongoni where questions could be asked and answered by users. This is just a simple and sincere advice and in no way I am trying to say that something is wrong with Kongoni because I really like Kongoni. I am just trying to help.
Hi, any problem or issue can be reported on http://bugs.kongoni.org or at bugs@kongoni.org.
Thanks very much, indeed!
is taht possible to compile it in current slackware 64bit ?
and how can i do that?please
thank’s for you speed Reply:)
Well yes, but you need to know what you are doing and I really can’t explain in a couple of words, sorry.
i will try
i hope to have kongoni 64bit in the near future
good job man keep working
and thank you youre speedy answer
thank i will try
ihope to have kongoni 64bit in the near future
please make it simple (KISS) as slackware ,keep working good lock
and thank you for your speedy answer
You welcome and good luck also, you’ll need it
will kongoni be in future compatible with slackware like salixos or will be independent like frugalware?
Most probably independent due to the style of packages and how they are installed.
Hi, it is distribution a free (freedom)?
of be this, you may report to gnu@gnu.org
more info: http://gnu.org/ – in the download section
Will be most probably, at the right time, kind of busy at the moment.
ok, i Use your distro, and is very pretty, KDE is a little slow on my pc, but i recommend it anyway;), very good luck and please continue this development…
Downloaded the distro and from what i assume is a live cd i kinda like it. one of the problems i have encountered while trying to install to hard-drive is it says i dont have any hard drives installed on my system. it recognize the cd drive and the card reader/usb connections. So i was wondering if im doing something wrong cause i have 4 250 gig sata drives on here so didn’t know if the distro didn’t detect sata drives or only ide drives. i guess any help would be great. thanks
You can’t write issues about the distro in the About section, there is a bug reporting tool which should be used.
i486? too old!
why not i686?
Because Kongoni is based on Slackware.
I’ve installed GNU/Kongoni, now I’m looking for new packages like vlc. I have been reading about PIG and ports management, but nothing yet!
Can you tell me how to proceed?
Well done! I tried Kongoni from a USB stick and works OK! I really LIKE the idea of 100% Free Software. I hope there’s help from Kongoni enthusiasts. Keep up the good work.
Tough economy, no x64, several websites down. How are you doing?
Well, a lot of stuff are going down, too little time for devel at the moment.
I’m so thankful that there is Africa Linux Kongoni!
Is Kongoni not (origin) in South Africa? I read on http://distrowatch.com/ that Kongoni is origin in South Africa!
I need Africa Linux distributions! Please introduce Africa Linux distributions (all Africa Linux distributions that you know!) to me!
Thank you very much!
Sorry, but I don’t know any African’t distribution.