Slackware

Thanks for the welcome! Found your post in a google search, and noticed that it was really fresh, so I thought I'd chime in.

As for sbopkg: it's a package manager that creates slackware packages. After it syncs with the SlackBuilds.Org database (sbopkg -r), simply search for the package(s) that you need. It can download the source for the install and the slackbuild instructions, create the package, and even install it for you if you wish. It also has a queue, so you can get several packages at a time. The queue can be sorted as you wish so that dependencies are satisfied.

In short, it's pretty nifty. Packages are created in the /tmp directory for later collection and archiving if you wish. ProTip: /tmp/SBo fills pretty quickly with build detritus, so you may want to clean it out every now and again.
Cool!!! It sounds like I will have to investigate that. Thanks for the tip, Mate:D:D
Feel free to lay pearls of wisdom on me. I am wisdom challenged at the present time, but there has been some improvement in the last few weeks. There may yet be hope for me.:p:p
Paul
 
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My pleasure; it's how we all learn together. I've been messing with slack on the server side for years, but have only recently started using it for desktops, and I'm learning a ton myself.

[sidebar: just looked at your profile. I'll see your C64, and raise you my VIC-20!)
 
I get up at 04:30 on work days, and today was one of those.... I started it from scratch at 4:33 pm today, when I got home.

I get up at 4:30 on work days, but I don't get home until 7:00. I must be doing it wrong! :confused::D
 
My pleasure; it's how we all learn together. I've been messing with slack on the server side for years, but have only recently started using it for desktops, and I'm learning a ton myself.

[sidebar: just looked at your profile. I'll see your C64, and raise you my VIC-20!)
Yeah, I started with the 64 with the tape drive. It was much better than the previous unit, which had a whopping 1 k of ram, and no outputs to any type of storage (Timex-Sinclair ZX80). The tape was nice, but it didn't take long before I wanted the 1541. I got it and was in heaven! I notched the flip side of the floppies, and used it too. Much later I sold the 64, and purchased the 128. After that I added the 1571, 1581, Ram expansion, an external hayes 1200 baud modem, a mouse, and the RGB monitor. I had that setup for quite a while, and it served me well. Then the IBM clones started their siren call, and I could not resist switching over. During this time I was maintaining everything from PCs, through minis like the uyk-20 and uyk-44, to the larger systems like the uyk-7 variants, and the VAX11-780 series, including all the peripherals. It's been a long, fun ride. After I retired, I went to work for Verbatim, working on the robots which made 3.5 inch floppies. Now I am in high speed industrial robotics with another company. YEE-HA!:D:D

Do you still have the Vic-20?

Paul
 
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Well, I left the system up all night, and it completed the format with check sometime before I got up. I just started the fresh install of 14.1, so it will be a while.
 
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Well, I could not stop the errors from creeping o_O(I should say Galloping!) in during the install, so I ended up replacing that drive. Now the install and updates are complete, and I can continue with my journey of enlightenment.:D:D WOOHOO! I installed the old drive into a USB external case for further analysis at a later time.
 
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My pleasure; it's how we all learn together. I've been messing with slack on the server side for years, but have only recently started using it for desktops, and I'm learning a ton myself.

[sidebar: just looked at your profile. I'll see your C64, and raise you my VIC-20!)
Dude, I just went to the sbopkg info page. That is freaking awesome!:D:D I added a bookmark for it and will do more research on it tomorrow. Now I have to retire for the evening, because tomorrow I will be at the salt mines (my friday).

Happy trails to all.
Paul
 
My pleasure; it's how we all learn together. I've been messing with slack on the server side for years, but have only recently started using it for desktops, and I'm learning a ton myself.

[sidebar: just looked at your profile. I'll see your C64, and raise you my VIC-20!)
Ok, I just installed sbopkg version 0.38.1. This should be fun! I still have some work to do getting the new install of slack set up to my liking, but then tweaking is half the fun, eh?
 
I have been tweaking the new install to my liking, and some things were easy to figure out, like hiding the task bar. Try as I might, I could not figure out how to change the wall paper.:confused: I thought that I had tried everything, when my wife came in. I told her what I was trying to do, and after suggesting most of the same stuff, she asked if I had tried right clicking on the desktop.o_Oo_O BINGO!:p:p Well, I will take help from anyone, even a windows user.:p:p:p I added the duck, the toy, and a few other choice files to the collection. Good to go, and one more thing learned. Mo wisdom!
 
My pleasure; it's how we all learn together. I've been messing with slack on the server side for years, but have only recently started using it for desktops, and I'm learning a ton myself.

[sidebar: just looked at your profile. I'll see your C64, and raise you my VIC-20!)
Ok, Mate, I am in need of another dose of wisdom. I am attempting to make a slackpack of Fldigi 4.0.4. I downloaded the slackbuilds archive for fldigi, decompressed & exploded it. I modified the version statement in the slackbuild script from 3.22.08 to 4.0.4. I downloaded the compressed tarball for 4.0.4 into my build environment where the script files were located. So far so good.:) I made the script executable using chmod, and ran it. It started the process of making the slackpack, but showed a configuration error "The fltk-config script could not be found. Please install the development headers and libraries for FLTK 1.1.x or set PATH to the directory that contains fltk-config". Rats, and I was so close.:confused: This is my first attempt, and it took a while to get to this point, but at least I did not Bork the slack install. I guess that is a good thing. Oh well, if at first you don't succeed...

Nothing like a good beating, eh Wiz?:D:D
 
Upon further investigation, I came up with fltk, got it compiled into a slackpack, and installed it. Then I went back and installed FLDIGI It installed, but there is no icon for it anywhere in the menus. I can go to /usr/bin/fldigi, and run it that way, but there is no icon except for the one for FLARC. HMMMMM.:confused::confused: This one should be worth at lease a couple t-shirts!:p:p
 
Now I need to wrap my brain around script writing. At the present time, it looks like Greek to me:confused:. Hopefully that will change in the near future. Anyone have a primer on script building?

Paul
 
I have not posted lately, because I am doing a bit of reading, to try and wrap my brain around scripting. :eek: I have Slackbook 2.0, the Bash Beginners Guide, and Slackbasics, all in PDF format. It may take a bit of time, but I intend to read through all of them. We will see if anything sinks in or not. Wish me luck, and if anyone has any other suggestions for reading material, please let me know.:D:D


ciao for now,
Paul
 
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I seem to have the hang of doing the updates:D, Just finished one in fact:cool::cool:, but I have yet to find the secret to changing the system sounds:confused:. Any wisdom on this subject out there?

Paul
 
I fixed the problem I was having with FLDIGI. I syncd sbopkg, and looked at what was there. They had FLDIGI 3.22.08. I used slackpkg clean-system to remove the newer version that was not working, left FLTK installed, and used sbopkg to install 3.22.08. It works perfectly, and retained all the setup info that I had put into the newer version. Good to go. It is working on the top half of the screen as I am typing this. This is called fun!:p:p

Happy trails,
Paul
 
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For anyone thinking about venturing into Slackware, here are some of the things that I have learned from the experience:

It is easiest for the beginner to use the defaults during the installation.

When the installation is complete, You will be at the command line, logged in as Root. To bring up the xwindows environment, issue the command xinit .

If you want xwindows to start by default, you must do some work. Open the file /etc/inittab. Go to the line which reads ID:3:initdefault and change the 3 to a 4, then save the file. Now the login will be shown in the xwindows environment.

Lilo will wait for 2 minutes for you to select an operating system, even if you only have Linux installed, before defaulting to linux. If you wish to shorten this period, open the file /etc/lilo.conf . Edit the timeout value to the time you want. It is 1200 by default, which equates to 2 minutes. A value of 10 will cause a pause of 1 second. If you change the value, don't forget to save the file. To effect the change, you must run liloconfig from the command line or a terminal window. You must be logged in as root. Select expert mode, and use the recycle option. Then reboot the computer.

Happy Trails,
Paul
 
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Ok, so I finally got up enough courage to upgrade to 14.2. Blimey, I thought the initial install updates for 14.1 took a long time. That was nothing! It took every bit of 45 minutes for 14.2 to complete updating. Now I am in the process of setting everything up to my liking.:cool:
 

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