thelinuxlink.net

Hey, Linc.... need your opinion on something.

I'm giving Slackware the "ol' college try" on a redundant system of mine.

What package manager do you use/like the most, Swaret or Slapt-get? Any general advice you can give me on using either of them? Should I include/exclude any special repositories to keep my Slackware system up to date?

Judland wrote:Hey, Linc.... need your opinion on something.

I'm giving Slackware the "ol' college try" on a redundant system of mine.

What package manager do you use/like the most, Swaret or Slapt-get? Any general advice you can give me on using either of them? Should I include/exclude any special repositories to keep my Slackware system up to date?

Actually I am more use to swaret, but I do use them both on different systems. Really it's up to whatever you are most familiar with I guess. Either one should do the job admirably.

To just keep your system up to date, here's what I actually do:
I join the slackware mailing lists so that I am notified of upgrades and security fixes. After I see a problem I run swaret to get the upgrade/fix.

I, personally, do not upgrade KDE because I do no use kde and there was a time when I would pull out all the cups and alsa packages and exclude those form my upgrade lists as well (but that's not practical anymore).

Other than that, revel in the fact that once you have Slackware running well, you #1 know what you are doing with a damn-near vanilla Linux install, and #2 are running one of the most stable linux distrobutions (if not *the*) on the planet. Barring yet unknown code bugs and hardware failure, your Slackware box should run longer and better than most 3rd world governments.

For Example:

Thanks, Linc.

I think I'll give Swaret a try next. I updated my install yesterday with Slapt-get, and it worked okay, but the default repository it was downloading from was so bone-idle slow, it timed out a couple of times.

Also, I do use KDE, and the default repository did not update my KDE to 3.5... that's why I was asking about the repos.

Other than those two issues, Slapt-get seemed to work just the way Apt-get did for me when I was running Kanotix.

About the only other "bad" thing I could comment on about Slackware so far (if bad is even the proper word for it) is that during the install, as I was choosing which packages to install and not install, it would have been nice for it to tell me how much storage space my selections were going to require.

If I'm installing on a limited system, this sort of information would have been nice. So either it's not there, or I missed it (which is possible, too).

Are there faster slapt-get mirrors than the defaults? Jebus!

EDIT: nm - I figured it out. I had to disable the main repo, not just add mirrors.

Yeah, once I commented out the default repository, Slapt-get sped up dramatically.

Now, I just got to update KDE to 3.5.

Judland,

I would also recommend you check out slackpkg. It's included in the /extra directory so PV has sort of unofficially "blessed" it. It is great for updating your Slackware to -current or to update from the /patches directory (which is how I use it on my Slackware server). It does not work with third-party repositories, like linuxpackages.net, but if you all need is an easy way to keep up with -current or to install security patches/updates, it works like a charm.

Does 10.2 use grub? I installed 10.1 on my testing box yesterday, and most stuff was great except the 2.4 kernel and the fact that it still uses grub for some reason. I got stuff to the point I'd want it usually, and then tried to upgrade to grub. BOOM! Oops. Ah well. Is there a way to get kernel26 installed w/o compiling your own?

I think you mean LILO. Slackware has always used LILO and still does. However, there is a Slackware specific grub package in the /extra directory. What is nice about that particular package is that it also provides a grubconfig tool that mirrors the liloconfig tool that ships with Slackware. So, basically once you are done with your install, grab the grub package from the /extra directory, then run pkgtool to uninstall LILO. Then install the grub package (installpkg grub*.tgz). Then run "grubconfig" and it will configure it for you.

As to the 2.6 kernel, there is a 2.6 kernel (2.6.13 I believe) that comes with Slackware. I believe it's in the /testing directory. Just go into the /testing directory and install the kernel-generic-2.6.13 package and the kernel-modules-2.6.13 package. You might also need to install the ALSA package in the same directory. Once installed, you'll need to edit LILO/grub manually to be able to boot to the new kernel.

You can also pick the 2.6 kenrel during install. When you get to the kernel selection stage, choose the "test26" kernel. When you reboot, you'll have the 2.6.13 kernel installed (but no modules). You'll still need to install the kernel-modules-2.6.13 package from /testing but once you do that you'll be all set. Very easy.

EDIT: I just realized you said Slackware 10.1. I was thinking 10.2. However, I think the same still applies -- the grub package is in the 10.1 /extra directory and there is a 2.6.10 kernel and modules package in the 10.1 /testing directory. You can browse the package tree here:

http://slackware.it/en/pb/

Yeah - I meant lilo there. I installed grub, but couldn't get lilo out of the mbr. Eventually, after several lilo -U commands, I reinstalled grub one last time, and rebooted to GRUB in the upper left hand side of my screen and no boot. That was more or less that.

Yeah, I had that happen to me before too. Rather than doing lilo -U, I would use pkgtool (or removepkg, whichever you prefer) to remove the Slackware lilo package. Then, use pkgtool (or installpkg) to install the Slackware grub package in /extra. Then run "grubconfig," and then double check your /boot/grub/menu.lst to make sure the references to your kernels are ok. After that, you should be good to go.

Chess wrote:Judland,

I would also recommend you check out slackpkg. It's included in the /extra directory so PV has sort of unofficially "blessed" it. It is great for updating your Slackware to -current or to update from the /patches directory (which is how I use it on my Slackware server). It does not work with third-party repositories, like linuxpackages.net, but if you all need is an easy way to keep up with -current or to install security patches/updates, it works like a charm.

Thanks, Chess. I'll look into Slackpkg for sure.

Question: does Slackpkg also pull updates from the Slackware-current/ repository? I've noticed that KDE 3.5 is in there, but upgrading with Slapt-get doesn't seem to do anything with that repository.

Judland wrote:Question: does Slackpkg also pull updates from the Slackware-current/ repository? I've noticed that KDE 3.5 is in there, but upgrading with Slapt-get doesn't seem to do anything with that repository.

Yes, it can pull from any Slackware tree that you point it to. There is a config file /etc/slackpkg/mirrors in which you can put whatever mirror & directory you want it to use. You can only use 1 mirror at a time, however. Here is the slackpkg homepage:

http://slackpkg.sourceforge.net/

You can tell it's a Slackware tool: typically minimalistic.

Actually, the one specified repository at a time approach seems to be very Slackware-esque, as well..... a highly controlled environment.

Thanks, Chess.

You're very welcome!

All this talk about updating had me thinking that I needed to do a security patch update for my Slackware server. So I ssh'd into my network from here at work, then tried to ssh into my webserver but no connection. So I went to my webserver URL via Firefox and nothing. Then I spoke to my wife who told me that the power went out for like 5 seconds this morning, which means the machine shut down and has not rebooted.

Grrrr...

I really need to put a UPS on that thing... Either that or figure out which bios or jumper setting will allow the machine to automatically start up on a power connection. I have my other computers set up that way and it's nice. After power is restored they automatically start up again.