Questions for Linc, the Slack-master

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:03 pm

Okay, well I downloaded and installed Slackpkg, then selected a Slackware/current repository, and then did an upgrade of the system.

Slackpkg wanted to upgrade approx. 138 installed packages, including the kernel (3.4.31 to 3.4.32), KDE (3.4 to 3.5), Xorg (6.8.2 to 6.9.0), and gtk... to name a few.

I was concerned with all of these updates, as these packages have caused problems within other distros I've tried. But, I said to myself, what the heck, this is a test system anyway. So I let it go.

Well, I can sum up the whole experience with one phrase... I'm fucking impressed!

Now, I know these packages are not "bleeding edge", but I didn't have to do one fricken thing other than run the slackpkg --upgrade command. That was it. When it was done downloading and upgrading, slackpkg even offered to reconfigure my Lilo configuration.

Now, I really felt that letting an auto-configure of Lilo was going to be the blow to the head.... nope. The system rebooted and I was golden. All I had to do was uncomment the module for my network card in the rc.modules file. That was it!

I'm now using KDE 3.5, with an updated kernel and Xorg, no less.

Finally, a complete upgrade that works! Again... I'm fucking impressed.

Chess · Post by **Chess** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:26 am

Nice! There are lots of Slackware users that run -current on a daily basis and it generally works fine. There is occasional breakage, but not too often. Just keep tabs on the -current changelog before upgrading and you should be ok. I would recommend, however, blacklisting the kernel-ide and kernel-modules and maybe alsa and maybe some others listed in the 2d post in this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... p?t=333758

just to be safe. Enjoy!

Edit: one more thing - Slackware -current is, actually, pretty bleeding edge (or at least very current), for the most part. You have the newest KDE and the newest xorg (xorg 6.9 is the exact same as xorg7 but retains the old monolithic way of doing things instead the modular way, but xorg6.9 is otherwise the same as xorg7). Whenever a stable version of Slackware is released it contains almost all up-to-date packages.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:39 am

Thanks for the tips.

Slackware/current is almost bleeding edge

. I noticed that I'll have to manually update to php5, as it only has php4.4.

I might have to try manually upgrading the kernel to 2.6. I use a couple of apps on my Arch box that require it, so if I were to use Slackware as a main distro., I'd need to do a few manual upgrades.

But, so far so good.

Chess · Post by **Chess** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:30 am

Judland wrote:Slackware/current is almost bleeding edge . I noticed that I'll have to manually update to php5, as it only has php4.4.

Very true. It also has Apache 1.3.x instead of Apache 2, which for me is fine (I am very used to Apache 1.3.x). But as far as the desktop stuff goes, it is pretty current, although certainly not truly bleeding edge like Arch or some others.

I forgot to mention that php5 is in /testing so it should be an easy upgrade.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:41 am

And that's understandable... as the goal here is stability. All-in-all, I think it's a nice blend.

I've had enough experience with Arch now that I think I will find updating Slackware with "un-official" packages easy enough. I'll keep playing with it

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:38 am

Are there any fast mirrors hosting the 10.2 isos? I gave up after 24+ hours on the ones I was just downloading from the slackware ftp site.

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:41 am

Snarkout wrote:Are there any fast mirrors hosting the 10.2 isos? I gave up after 24+ hours on the ones I was just downloading from the slackware ftp site.

Last time I used the utah.edu mirror it was nice and fast.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:54 am

Snarkout wrote:Are there any fast mirrors hosting the 10.2 isos? I gave up after 24+ hours on the ones I was just downloading from the slackware ftp site.

I use the Canadian one from the list on Slackware.org, gulus.USherbrooke.ca

It's pretty quick.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:37 pm

I see that under the Slackware/current/testing repository both of the updates I mentioned above, kernel 2.6 (and alsa) and php 5.0.

Guess I have something else to try now.

If everything goes well I may well be moving our main desktop PC over to Slackware.

I suppose the only hurdle in that move would be how well Slackware handles my Nvidia Geeforce 2 graphics card. But, I won't know that till the install is done.

Chess · Post by **Chess** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:45 pm

Judland wrote:I suppose the only hurdle in that move would be how well Slackware handles my Nvidia Geeforce 2 graphics card. But, I won't know that till the install is done.

Slackware handles my nvidia geforce with aplomb. The module compiles easily and without issue. I'm sure it will work fine.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:55 am

Thanks for the tip, Chess. I haven't heard of aplomb, but I'm sure I'll figure it out when the time comes.

Not ready to move over to Slackware just yet. I'll keep playing and testing it on the disposable system for a little while. Looks good so far, though.

I installed SeaMonkey last night without any difficulties. Just downloaded the .tar.gz and ran installpkg. It even appeared in my KDE menu as soon as it was complete.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:01 am

a·plomb
Pronunciation Key (-plm, -plm)
n.
Self-confident assurance; poise. See Synonyms at confidence.

[French, from Old French a plomb, perpendicularly : a, according to (from Latin ad-. See ad-) + plomb, lead weight (from Latin plumbum, lead).]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Main Entry: aplomb1
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: great self-confidence; self-assuredness
Etymology: Middle French a plomb `according to the plummet'
Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

Main Entry: aplomb2
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: perpendicularity
Etymology: Middle French a plomb `according to the plummet'
Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:03 am

Okay... I thought it was a Slackware package of some sort!