
Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1 - Tomte
http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=x86_64
======
warrenmar
For those of you that don't know about Slackware. Slackware is the oldest
distro and it is still plenty alive today. When to setup linux on my computer
in the early days with other distros (red hat/suse/etc), this would eventually
crap up (rpm hell) and give me something unusable. Using Slackware forces you
understand how everything works in a linux distro. This lets you fix your own
problems.

~~~
DeepYogurt
It's not the oldest. SLS predates slackware (as do a few others iirc)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System)
Slack was awesome back in the day, but the the philosophy as being "as unix
like as possible" prevented it evolving and adding nice things like package
managers. Using slackware is a good exercise, but I'd never use it for an
application I care about.

~~~
massysett
This is simply false. Slackware has a package manager. It just does not
resolve dependencies. It has also evolved. The Slackware developers have
worked on packages such as wicd, which makes networking easy without
dependency bloat; other distros reap the benefits of it too.

~~~
keithpeter
[http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/wicd-
re...](http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/wicd-requires-
patch-after-update-4175551527/)

Wicd is proving difficult for 14.2. I must admit that I prefer network-manager
because of the convenience of the modem-manager when using a usb mobile
Internet dongle.

I take the general point you are making. I'm an end user of Slackware. I think
that anyone who has ever successfully installed Windows on a laptop would cope
with a Slackware install fine if they read the docs on the DVD. Slackpkg makes
updates reasonably easy.

------
orthecreedence
Slackware is the muscle car of linux distros. If you don't mind getting your
hands dirty, it's fast and solid. Plus if you can master Slack, you can waltz
into any other distro and not break a sweat.

I've run it on desktops/servers since version 8 and love it. People knock it
for not having a "real" package manager, but if you like the control of
compiling from source then this doesn't really matter (and you always have the
latest versions of any packages available). There's almost always a slackbuild
for the project you want. Plus there is the official slackpkg (and slapt-
get/swaret for dep resolution as well).

So yeah, it's a bit more work, but I guess for some of us that's fun.

~~~
executesorder66
How does the difficulty of installing Slackware compare to Arch or Gentoo?

I've only ever installed and used Arch.

~~~
bitwize
Slightly easier than Arch.

Just install everything when it asks you to. You can ignore the kdei disk set
if you speak English (and have no plans to run KDE in, say, Urdu), and the kde
disk set if you do not need KDE altogether.

Since there is no dependency resolution, when you install from SlackBuilds.org
(Slackware's AUR, more or less), you have to install each package's
dependencies as well. These are listed in the package info file and tools like
sbopkg let you install many packages at a go through a queueing system, so
this is not as bad as it sounds.

The benefit of this is a completely user-configurable system, and a lack of
errors when you hosed the dependency resolver since there's no resolver to
hose. :)

~~~
adrusi
I just wish slack had something comparable to mkinitcpio that arch has, which
makes it much easier to set up an initial ramdisk for an encrypted root
partition.

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
README_CRYPT.TXT in the root of the distribution[0] describes how to do this,
step by step, including the relevant theory so you know what you're doing.
After all of that it shows you the
/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh command which you can use to
generate the command that you need to build the initrd. Quoting from the docs:

    
    
        The mkinitrd package in Slackware 14.0 (and on) ships with a script called
        'mkinitrd_command_generator.sh'.  If you run this script, it will analyze
        your Slackware configuration and make a smart suggestion about the 'mkinitrd'
        command you have to type in order to create an initrd.gz with all the bells
        & whistles.  The script will recognize your kernel version, root partition
        and filesystem, it will find out if you are using LUKS and/or LVM and will
        determine what kernel modules your initrd needs to mount the root filesystem.
        The following command will save you the headache of figuring this out all
        by yourself:
    
          # /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -r
    
        It should emit a string like this (your system will probably give different
        parameter values):
    
        mkinitrd -c -k 3.14.10-smp -m ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/cryptvg/root -C /dev/sdx2 -L
    

The administrator of that machine can examine the output of that command and
determine if it is correct after reading the theory about how the initrd needs
to be built. If it is, it's a simple one liner, but if not, it's simple enough
to either write a wrapper script or copy the script to
/usr/local/sbin/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh and make the necessary changes.

[0] ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware64-current/README_CRYPT.TXT

------
unixhero
I really want the best for Slackware. I used to be a slacker 1996-2006 and
grinded my Linux teeth on it. It escapes me why they don't want to innovate at
all with a proper modern package manager. Also they need to remake their
website and with that create a decent forum and a decent wiki just like Arch
has perfectly done.

Nowadays I don't care at all about knowing every corner of my system. I have
applications to manage, languages to learn, money to make and a life to live -
so I lazily run Ubuntu on everything.

~~~
gmrs
I'm a bit skeptical about the word "modern" these days. slackpkg is a good
package manager and does everything you need to keep your system up-to-date.
From the slackware website:

 _" Slackware is designed around the idea that the system should be a complete
installation kept updated with any official patches. This avoids the mess of
dependencies that some other Linux based GNU systems face."_

Why remake the website? The website is clear enough, has links to the
Slackware Book and to a mailing list.

~~~
unixhero
It's not adequate sorry. I am not happy with mailing lists for community
building. And I know of Linuxquestions.com forums, but that's not adequate
either. Seriously, it would take 60 minutes to get this sorted, and 30 bucks
yearly of hosting these forums.

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
What are mailing lists and forums missing for you? What killer features do you
think that the Slackware team need to implement beyond what they currently
have? I ask in all sincerity because you haven't mentioned it in your post.

~~~
unixhero
The community. As a user and potential contributor, I need that.

Also I am sounding like a downer... I'm sorry about that. My strong opinions
can often be too much, and I get that because they might sound negative. I am
saying the things as a long time Slack user that gave up.

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
But what is 'the community' to you? To many Slackware users it's precisely the
mailing list, the LinuxQuestions forum, the subreddit (/r/slackware), things
like slackbuilds.org and docs.slackware.com.

So what is missing from what Slackware currently offers that would make have
'the community' to you?

~~~
unixhero
Based on what I have seen elsewhere (other distros and other major software
projects), I am saying it would benefit greatly from a better approach.

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
Okay, you're talking in circles.

What would you like them to do differently in their approach? What could they
do differently that would engage you better?

~~~
unixhero
Yeah I am going to end the philology here. My advice and concerns above is
more than enough.

------
chinarulezzz
Would be nice if PV include slackpkg+ in the base DVD (in /extra a.e.)

------
ktRolster
I don't see systemd in there anywhere.

~~~
Tomte
Patrick Volkerding is hesitant about systemd, but not openly hostile, so he
has decided to stay away from it for now, but hasn't ruled it out for the
future.

People who are set against systemd should probably better look elsewhere
(although their options are pretty limited).

~~~
bitwize
Alternatives include CRUX (whose maintainer's systemd stance is "over my dead
body :)"), Void Linux (the only distro I know of to adopt systemd by default
and then migrate _away_ from it; currently it uses runit with systemd as an
option), and Alpine.

I'm sticking with Slack for the time being, but I've got my eye out for
alternatives should the worst happen.

~~~
jff
I've also played a little bit with Devuan, which is basically just Debian
without systemd, and it seemed to work pretty well.

~~~
bitwize
To be quite honest I didn't have much faith in Devuan as lasting beyond the
"publicity stunt" phase, so it's remarkable to me that it's still around.

------
DeepYogurt
Does it have a package manager yet?

~~~
Tomte
Slackware has always had a package manager, from the beginning.

What you probably mean is "does it have a package manager with dependency
resolution, yet?". And the answer has been "yes" for years now. Several,
actually.

They aren't included in the main installation, but they are widely used.

See also
[http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:package_management](http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:package_management)

~~~
DeepYogurt
Right, what I mean is can I type

apt-get/dnf/zypper/emerge/whatever install apache

and have that work

~~~
babuskov
swaret, slapt-get, etc. listed in Unofficial Tools section on that page do
exactly as you wrote.

However, I find that people who choose Slackware usually like to compile stuff
on their own. It can be a painful experience with some programs that have
narrow version compatibility ranges for some libraries. For example, I recall
building Inkscape and Workrave to be a nightmare because you had to try 5-10
versions of some dependencies until it clicked.

~~~
ihsw
I remember this, trying to install various dependencies. It was a complete
nightmare.

~~~
keithpeter
I'm a lazy end user.

AlienBob has binaries of his slackbuilds for download and the Microlinux
Desktop (Nicholas Kovacks) provides a range of binary builds for a nice xfce4
desktop. 14.2: microlinux builds are on hold a bit until 14.2 gets more
stable.

There is also the slackonly binaries that are built from the slackbuild
scripts at slackbuilds.org. Not sure how maintained slackonly is but many of
the 14.1 builds work fine.

You don't have to compile a lot unless you want special options or if you have
trust issues about binaries.

~~~
babuskov
Yes, I used a lot of alien's packages. IIRC, there was no Inkscape so I had to
do it manually.

~~~
keithpeter
To save some electricity for anyone else... Nicholas Kovack's microlinux has
inkscape 0.91 binaries compiled for both 14.1 and 14.2.

The 14.2 32 bit version is working fine. You just need the inkscape package
from

[http://www.microlinux.fr/microlinux/desktop-14.2-32bit/slack...](http://www.microlinux.fr/microlinux/desktop-14.2-32bit/slackware/)

On 14.1 you will need more libraries to support Inkscape version 0.91. I found
these worked...

    
    
        atkmm-2.22.7-i486-1_microlinux.txz
        cairomm-1.10.0-i486-1_microlinux.txz
        glibmm-2.36.2-i486-1_microlinux.txz
        gsl-1.16-i486-1_microlinux.txz
        gtkmm-2.24.4-i486-1_microlinux.txz 
        inkscape-0.91-i486-1_microlinux.txz
        libsigc++-2.2.11-i486-1_microlinux.txz
        pangomm-2.34.0-i486-1_microlinux.txz

