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Slackware 11 is out!!!!
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Wally Balljacker
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Bite your tongue!greggh wrote:All the Slackwareites have moved over to Ubuntu. I think even Linc has converted to Ubuntuism.
Actually, I run many different things. I run Slackware, Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Mac OS X, HP/UX, Irix, and NetBSD. And I am probably forgetting some
-Linc Fessenden
In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...
In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...
It was just timing. The 2007 release would have been sooner, but a minor bug in the 64 bit version was found in the final hours, so release was delayed a couple of days.Patrick wrote:I see Mandriva just released a new version. Coincidence or a planned effort to steal some of Slackware's thunder? I think it's more of the former than latter. They have totally different target audiences.
Installed the PowerPack version of 2007 last night. Very nice. It's very dull to go back to a non AIGLX desktop this morning at the office. Will set-up a dual boot of 2007 this weekend, when IT isn't around.
Slackware 11.0 release notes.
Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 55th day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3172
Sun Oct 1 23:28:27 CDT 2006, The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (68% of Full).
Hi folks,
Here we go with another release of Slackware! As usual, there are
a few things that merit special mention so that they won't be traps for
the unprepared. Also, be sure to see the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT file
for more information.
This version of Slackware contains a glibc built with NPTL (Native
POSIX Thread Library) and TLS (Thread Local Storage) support. There's
a lot more information about that in the README.NPTL file. If you're
using a 2.6 kernel that supports NPTL, you'll get better performance
out of any software that uses threads. In general there will be no
need to recompile anything to get this boost; anything that links to
the pthread library will use the NPTL version of glibc in /lib/tls if
the kernel can support it. The new glibc requires a TLS capable
version of ldconfig, and a side-effect of that is that if you try to
upgrade the glibc packages on a mounted filesystem using installpkg's
ROOT= flag, it's not going to work properly unless the machine you are
running from has a TLS capable ldconfig. So, if you want to do that,
either upgrade your own glibc packages first, or chroot to the mounted
partition and then upgrade the packages there. Most people won't have
to worry about this -- it only affects upgrades done with the
ROOT=/someplace flag, not installs from the CD or upgrades done
according to the UPGRADE.TXT instructions.
As you can see, Slackware 11.0 is still using a 2.4 kernel
(2.4.33.3) for the default system kernel. The 2.4.33.3 kernel has been
rock-solid here, and it seemed best to put out one more release of
Slackware with support for 2.4 before heading full-force into 2.6
territory because a lot of people will want to run the 2.4 kernel on
production machines for a long time to come, and some of the changes to
the system that will be needed to fully embrace all of 2.6's features
aren't necessarily 2.4 kernel-friendly. The next version of Slackware
may drop support for 2.4.x unless LinuxThreads support can be
maintained in glibc.
The 2.6 kernel series shows a great deal of improvment since the
last release (I'm running it on my gateway machine), but it's still
undergoing heavy development and the stability of any given release can
be hit-or-miss. Things are improving rapidly in that regard though,
and Greg Kroah-Hartman, Adrian Bunk, Chris Wright, and some other folks
have been helping by producing stable branches (2.6.x.y) after each new
major release of a 2.6.x kernel. Anyway, since there is hardware out
there that requires a 2.6 kernel in order to install, this release of
Slackware has both 2.6.17.13 and a 2.6.18 kernels integrated into the
installer. To install using one of these, after booting the first
disc, enter huge26.s at the boot prompt for the supported 2.6.17.13
kernel (which also supports installing via NFS), or test26.s to use the
2.6.18 kernel from /testing. These kernels have compiled-in support
for essentially all of the hard drive controllers and filesystems that
are supported by the 2.6.x kernel series, and should be helpful for
people with new SATA controllers or other hardware that 2.4.33.3
doesn't support. This kernel doesn't have any built in network support
and is primarily intended for installing from local media (although
huge26.s will support an NFS installation if you run the 'network'
script to load your network module, and you're installing from CD or
DVD). After the packages have installed and you've reached the menu
where you are prompted to select a kernel to install, BE CERTAIN to
install huge26.s or test26.s (whichever one you used to install) or
there's a chance that your machine will be unable to boot with the
stock sata.i kernel that you'll end up with.
Also, the kernel module packages for 2.6.x are not part of the
standard installation, so if you install using huge26.s or test26.s
kernel you'll have to install the corresponding kernel-modules package
when you're done. They can be found under /extra/linux-2.6.17.13/ (or
ISO number two under /extra/linux-2.6.17.13), or
/testing/packages/linux-2.6.18/ (or ISO number four under
/testing-2.6.18/packages/linux-2.6.18). You might also consider
installing the other packages there and building an initrd according to
the instructions in README.initrd if you'd like to be running a slimmer
kernel without a lot of unneeded drivers taking up RAM, or better yet,
visit ftp.kernel.org in /pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ and grab the latest
version of the 2.6 kernel to build your own. It'll probably have some
important fixes. Note that the 2.6 kernels do not have an
"alsa-driver" package, but if you remove that package then you'll have
to upgrade to the kernel-headers package for your 2.6 kernel in order
to have the /usr/include/sound/ ALSA headers. These have not been
extensively tested, and you may be better off sticking with the
kernel-headers for 2.4.33.3 (which are what glibc was compiled against)
and the alsa-driver package compiled for 2.4.33.3.
The GNOME desktop is not shipped as a part of Slackware, and
continued maintenance of GNOME for Slackware has been adopted by a
couple of outside projects:
http://gsb.sf.net
http://gware.sf.net
If you're looking for a GNOME distribution for Slackware, I can
recommend either of these as being extremely well built and more
comprehensive than any GNOME series that was previously included. If
you're a GNOME fan, check them out. I think you'll be pleased.
The network setup script /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 has been extensively
rewritten and supports many new options in rc.inet1.conf. Thanks to
Eric Hameleers for doing some great work with this, rc.wireless, and
other parts of the networking setup. See the comments in rc.inet1.conf
for information about the new options. One that didn't get listed yet
that I'll mention here is support for IP aliasing. This sort of thing
should work now for setting static IP aliases: IFNAME[2]="eth0:1"
Have fun!
Pat Volkerding <email removed>
Last edited by Chess on Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chess Griffin
CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
This file documents the packages added (Package Additions) and
removed (Package Removals) during the development cycle from
Slackware 10.2 through Slackware 11.0, as well as some potential
"gotchas" that users can avoid by arming themselves with
a little knowledge.
Package Additions Since 10.2:
* a/pcmciautils
* a/sharutils (split from bin)
* a/acl (split from xfsprogs)
* a/attr (split from xfsprogs)
* a/sysfsutils
* a/sysstat
* ap/diffstat
* ap/dmapi (split from xfsprogs)
* ap/linuxdoc-tools
* ap/lm_sensors
* ap/xfsdump (split from xfsprogs)
* d/git
* d/mercurial
* d/ruby
* kde/amarok
* kde/qca
* kde/qca-tls
* l/apr
* l/apr-util
* l/cairo
* l/db42 (for backwards compatibility)
* l/db44 (upgrade from db4; see "Package Removals" and
"Other Notable Changes and Hints"
* l/desktop-file-utils
* l/freetype (split from x11) - see note in "Other Notable Changes
and Hints" below
* l/gd
* l/gnome-icon-theme
* l/hicolor-icon-theme
* l/libgpod
* l/libmtp
* l/libmusicbrainz
* l/libnjb
* l/libtheora
* l/libtunepimp
* l/libvisual (library only, no plugins yet - but this should allow
for compiling audio visualization plugins for amarok without a
recompile of amarok itself)
* l/mm (split from apache)
* l/mpfr (split from gmp)
* l/neon (split from subversion)
* l/slang1 (renamed from slang)
* l/slang (Added slang 2)
* n/mailx (renamed from nail)
* n/rdesktop
* x/dejavu-ttf
* x/fontconfig (split from x11) - see note in "Other Notable
Changes and Hints" below
* x/ttf-indic-fonts - see note in "Other Notable Changes and
Hints" below.
* xap/seamonkey
* xap/vim-gvim (renamed from xvim) - this package now depends on
ap/vim
* kernels/huge26.s/* - added a 2.6.17.13 kernel to the official
(supported) package set. The user will be given a choice of
whether to install the 2.4.33.3 or 2.6.17.13 kernel. If a 2.6
kernel is used, additional packages must be added after the
installation -- at the very least the kernel-modules package.
Possibly also the kernel-headers to provide /usr/include/sound
used to compile ALSA applications.
* extra/linux-smp-2.6.17.13/* - added a 2.6.17.13 kernel, modules,
and headers with SMP and hyperthreading support, optimized for
i686 or better cores (including dual core CPUs).
Package Removals Since 10.2:
* ap/sgml-tools (replaced with linuxdoc-tools)
* d/python-demo (merged with python package)
* d/python-tools (merged with python package)
* l/db3 (moved to /pasture)
* l/db31 (moved to /pasture)
* l/db4-* (moved to /pasture)
* n/nail (renamed to mailx - see "Package Additions")
* xap/abiword (became a pure Gnome app)
* xap/mozilla (replaced with seamonkey)
* xap/xvim (renamed to vim-gvim) - see note above in "Package
Additions"
Other Notable Changes and Hints:
* Both the 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels included are now compiled with
high memory support.
* Many old bison and db packages were pasture-ized from d/ and
extra/ and so on; after upgrading/installing Slackware 11.0, you should
have *one* bison package and *two* db packages (the db packages are
listed in the package additions above)
* a/devs was upgraded during the -current development cycle. You
CANNOT upgrade this package while udev is running - you'll need to
chmod -x /etc/rc.d/rc.udev, reboot, upgrade the devs package, and then
reboot again. Actually, you don't *have* to reboot again, but if you
know that, then you likely know how to go about it that way
If you don't know the trick, here's how to do it (no secrets here):
sh /etc/rc.d/rc.udev stop
umount /dev/pts
umount /dev/shm
umount -l /dev
installpkg devs*.tgz
sh /etc/rc.d/rc.udev start
mount -av
Thanks to Richard Hoyle for this information.
* So long as we're on the subject of a/devs, be aware that this
package is still *required* in order to boot, even if you're using
a 2.6 kernel and udev, so don't remove it.
* a/lilo and a/kernel-* were upgraded during the -current
development cycle, so be sure to run /sbin/lilo prior to rebooting.
* glibc was upgraded during the -current development cycle, so be
sure to follow the instructions in UPGRADE.TXT when upgrading (do the
upgrade in runlevel 1).
* There was a major upgrade to a/udev and a/sysvinit - make *sure*
you merge the *.new scripts in /etc/rc.d prior to rebooting or you
*will* have problems.
* If you're having trouble with udev, make sure you've synchronized
all of the .new config files and init scripts first. Most of these
issues can be fixed with a little bit of fine tuning, such as
blacklisting unwanted modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and loading
the desired replacements in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. Often simply
blacklisting them will result in udev loading the correct modules.
Also, keep in mind that newer versions of udev (084+) require at least
a 2.6.15.x kernel. Experiment with it before resorting to this, but if
you simply must have one of them, there are alternate versions of udev
in /extra.
* If you're running a 2.6 kernel and new udev (084+) on a router,
you'll probably need to uncomment (and possibly edit to suit) the rules
in /etc/udev/rules.d/network-devices.rules to make your interfaces
always get the same names assigned. Hotplugging events are generated
(and processed) in random order by udev, so there's no guarantee that
your current eth0 will *always* be eth0 unless you uncomment (and
possibly edit) those rules.
* If you need custom udev rules, DO NOT edit the default udev.rules
file - any changes you make will be clobbered with the next udev
upgrade. The correct way is to add a custom file to the
/etc/udev/rules.d/ directory - most people use '10-local.rules' - and
add your custom rules there. If there is some reason that one of the
default rules needs to be changed, mail Piter Punk and/or Pat with an
explanation.
* the php package now depends on l/freetype
* As indicated above, freetype and fontconfig were split out of the
main X11 packages. You need to upgrade the main x11 package first, then
install fontconfig and freetype, then upgrade the remainder of the x11
packs; otherwise, they give an error during postinstall about not being
able to load fontconfig libs.
* The psmouse module is blacklisted by default in the
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file due to problems with the default kernel
options used when it loads; this allows you to load it (from
rc.modules, for example) with option "proto=imps" if you need it, or
you are certainly free to comment it out in the blacklist file if it
works fine for you with the kernel defaults.
* n/apache now depends on l/mm (l/mm was split from apache)
* xap/seamonkey was chosen to provide the Mozilla development
environment (primarily because the official binaries are used for the
Firefox package, and these do not contain the development headers).
At this time, only GAIM links with SeaMonkey's libraries, but if you
are planning to compile something needing "Mozilla" libraries and
headers, be sure SeaMonkey is installed.
* There have been quite a few reports that fonts are 'ugly' after
upgrading; one way to fix it is to remove /etc/fonts/local.conf if it
exists. If it doesn't exist, or that doesn't work, go into KControl's
font settings, uncheck the box for antialiasing, and apply the changes.
Then, recheck the box and apply the changes. This should create a
$HOME/.fonts.conf file. You might consider copying the contents of this
newly created file to /etc/fonts/local.conf if you want to fix it for
all users on the system. Thanks to Pat for the initial suggestion with
KControl, and thanks to ananke for working out exactly what changes are
necessary to fix it.
* php5 and lvm2 are available in /extra if you would like to use
them
* Slackware's vim package now (starting with vim-7.0.066-i486-1)
includes a $VIM/vimrc file (in this case, /usr/share/vim/vimrc) for
vim's default configuration. This default should provide a suitable
start for most and your ~/.vimrc will override it if not, but if you
had previously not explicitly set, e.g., 'backup', because vim's
compiled-in default resulted in no backups and that suited you, the
$VIM/vimrc includes 'set backup' and you will suddenly be keeping
backups. These settings can be overridden individually (in this case
with 'set nobackup') but one of several ways to avoid having
$VIM/vimrc affecting your configuration at all is to put this at the
top of your ~/.vimrc, overriding everything in $VIM/vimrc:
set all& " reset all options to compiled in defaults (thanks to deryni in #vim)
unmap Q " remove mapping to gq
syntax off " turn syntax off
filetype plugin indent off " turn filetype detection off
augroup! vimrcEx " delete the autocommand group that wraps text, etc.
* If you have an ati radeon card and are experiencing problems with
it locking up, there is a patched set of ati modules at
/extra/x11-radeon-patched/ - if you are not experiencing problems, then
don't install this, as it does tend to cause problems if you weren't
already having them...
* The ttf-indic-fonts package supports Bengali, Devanagari,
Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. For
information about fully enabling Indic support (including input), see:
/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Indic-Fonts-HOWTO.
* As part of the upgrade to nfs-utils and portmap, the
/etc/rc.d/rc.portmap script has been replaced by /etc/rc.d/rc.rpc. The
rc.rpc script does not have to be executable unless you plan on
mounting nfs shares manually (as it will be run by other init scripts
if any nfs shares or mounts are detected), or if you plan to run
YP/NIS.
----
This file is made available under the GFDL 1.2.
Thanks to Robby Workman and other contributors for helping to track
the many changes from Slackware 10.2 to Slackware 11.0.
Chess Griffin