LinuxQuestions.org - Blogs - Life, the Slackware, and Everything by Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?u=287892 LinuxQuestions.org offers a free Linux forum where Linux newbies can ask questions and Linux experts can offer advice. Topics include security, installation, networking and much more. en Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:23:27 GMT vBulletin 60 http://e1h7.simplecdn.net/lqcdn/images/questions/images/misc/rss.jpg LinuxQuestions.org - Blogs - Life, the Slackware, and Everything by Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?u=287892 So when should one upgrade? http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2404 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:54:33 GMT In my last entry, I quoted Alien Bob stating that Slackware assumes you're smart. Part of what that means to me is having a sense a how to tailor the system to one's own uses, and having the freedom to do so without the operating system insisting it be done its way. But what, really, does running an OS entail? Beyond installation, most of it comes down to certain configuration options, installing additional software, and maintaining the whole mess. Everything else involves actually using the software. All of this is so users can do things like surf the web, check e-mail, write documents, work toward world peace, and launch the Space Shuttle.

Maintaining software is a tricky task. Sometimes one needs to upgrade software to apply a security patch. It is seldom a major version upgrade (although the recent jump from Seamonkey 1.1.18 to 2.0 is an exception), therefore many people call applying security patches an update rather than an upgrade. My policy is to apply security fixes within a few days of when they become available. The Slackware change logs are nearly always good at explaining why a fix is needed, and patches are made available promptly.

What Slackware does not do is update major pieces of the distribution between releases unless absolutely necessary. For example, KDE has had several point releases since Slackware 13 came out. None of them are available as patches for the -stable (released) branch. On the other hand, if a user really wants to get into the latest KDE and Slackware, everything is available in the -current (development) branch. I'm okay with that. That's one of the things that makes Slackware so stable.

But what about non-included software like Open Office? Personally, I take the same approach to those applications that I did (and still sometimes do) for Windows applications. Why would you ever want to upgrade MS Word or Adobe Photoshop? Why abandon Adobe PageMaker for InDesign? There is a tricky balancing act knowing when to upgrade to the latest software and when to hang on to old versions.

Taking MS Word as an example, Word 2000 is perfectly suitable for a vast majority of users. If that's too old, or one has compatibility issues with newer file formats, then grab Office 2003. More than half of the people I work with have Word 2003, and they're not suffering.

The same applies to Open Office. I don't really care if OOo bumps up a version. The old one works fine. When it doesn't work fine, then I look at upgrading. Generally speaking, the only compelling reasons I've found to upgrade are when (1) significant new features are added,(2) a security patch is available, or (3) there are very serious compatibility issues with file formats.

Otherwise, there's often no good reason to upgrade. On the flip side, eventually it's a good idea to upgrade and use the latest stuff. I generally do that after I upgrade Slackware for at least some of the packages I use.

In short, it's better to be a late adopter than an early one. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2404 <![CDATA["Slackware Linux assumes you're smart."]]> http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2386 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:56:24 GMT I use Slackware Linux at home, where I play systems administrator for my wife and me -- and eventually our child(ren, after the next one is born in... I use Slackware Linux at home, where I play systems administrator for my wife and me -- and eventually our child(ren, after the next one is born in December). I'm going to quote an interview with Alien Bob to explain why I use Slackware:

Quote:
To me, Slackware’s philosophy has a different angle that sets it apart from all the others. To this day, Slackware has an extremely lean design, intended to make you experience Linux the way the software authors intended. This is accomplished by applying patches as little as possible - preferably for stability or compatibility reasons only. Slackware’s package manager (yes, it has one, pkgtools!) stays out of your way by not forcing dependency resolution. And the clean, well-documented system scripts (written in bash instead of ruby) allow for a large degree of control over how your system functions. Slackware does not try to assume or anticipate. The installer is still console-based, but it uses dialogs, menus and buttons nevertheless. Not depending on X during installation, Slackware’s installer is rock-solid, a statement which I can not repeat for the other distros I use. When you login for the first time after a fresh install you will end in the console instead of X. No assumptions are being made about what your intended use for Slackware is. This comes as a shock to many unsuspecting users, but it is the start of a learning experience.

I am well aware that the above statements are often perceived as negative, but in fact they make Slackware into a versatile tool that is adaptable to many needs. And yet, like any modern-day Linux distro, it fully recognizes and utilizes your hardware by virtue of the same kernel, Hal, D-Bus, X.Org and a truckload of other applications that the big distros ship as well. Slackware does not live in the stone age of computing. It is strong and thrives. It is lean and speedy.

The testimonials of ‘converted’ Slackware users at LinuxQuestions.org and other forums show that Slackware’s philosophy of giving full trust to the system admin is an eye-opener to people who struggled with the other distros before. This continuous influx of ‘converts’ is one of the reasons that Slackware has not disappeared into oblivion. Slackware assumes you are smart! This appeals to people.
Eric put it much better than I have in the past. Saying that "Slackware stays out of my way," or "There's no dependency hell" really doesn't say much. Rather, it is a relief that all the systems maintenance and administration tasks are transparent. I check the changelog and download updates when I need to do so. I seldom update versions of programs (like Open Office) unless there is a security fix or I really want to update.

This approach gives Slackware users a lot of freedom and the responsibility to go with it. In contrast, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu (the two other Linux distributions I've tried) both have tools that automate updating the system and other software, but sacrifice freedom for ease of use. For example, it seemed that every time I started up my laptop with OpenSUSE, it pointed out updates (including kernel updates!) that were available. What it didn't readily show was why I would want to apply those updates.

So, now I have the freedom and the responsibility to update my system on my own schedule, and you know what? I don't always update it. Sometimes good enough is good enough. I'll get into my reasons in another blog post, but for right now I'll end with the observation that I would rather have configuration and maintenance be transparent but require some learning, than easy but opaque. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2386 More on the laptop... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2331 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:17:51 GMT This has been a busy week. I had a couple of evening meetings, so the couple of hours of post-installation tweaking I usually do with any new... This has been a busy week. I had a couple of evening meetings, so the couple of hours of post-installation tweaking I usually do with any new operating system installation (including, maybe even especially, Windows) had to be spread out over a couple of evenings.

My post-installation routine is nearly done and the laptop is feeling like a slightly faster, more modern version of an old familiar home.

The major disappointment is Wicd. I can't seem to get it to connect to my WEP-protected home wireless network. It sees my wireless card and the network, but can't seem to get them together. I got my old configuration files for WPA_Supplicant, rc.wireless, and rc.inet1 back in their usual locations in /etc and everything is working well.

It just dawned on me that Wicd my need rc.wireless.conf and, maybe, WPA_Supplicant.conf to work well. I installed and tried to use Wicd without those files customized for my hardware, and that may be my problem. I'll give this theory a shot and see how it goes.

I still need to create an initrd to load the generic kernel rather than the huge one, but after that, the basic system is ready. Beyond that, I need to install so additional software like Open Office, although I may try to build the latest (beta) version of Koffice too, just to see how it looks.

It is a relief to have a clean installation of Slackware back on this computer. I've upgraded from 12 to 12.1. and then to 12.2, all the time building and testing software like QGIS and Scribus. In that time, I've picked up a lot of cruft that is now safely relegated to the closet (a backup tar.gz file). :D

Edited to add: screw it, I'm not sufficiently motivated to deal with getting Wicd to work. My WPA_Applicant setup is working well enough. At this point (Oct 26, a week and a half after I first wrote this blog entry), I'm perfectly happy with my laptop and I'm ready to get my desktop set up. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2331 A quick review of Slackware 13 and KDE 4.3.1 on my old laptop... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2323 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:05:03 GMT I posted this as a thread, but it makes a good blog entry: This past weekend I installed Slackware 13_x86 on my IBM A22m laptop. The laptop is a... I posted this as a thread, but it makes a good blog entry:

This past weekend I installed Slackware 13_x86 on my IBM A22m laptop. The laptop is a Pentium III 1 GHz with 512 MB of RAM.

I was running Slackware 12.1 on this computer, so before I started I backed up my /etc, /home, and /root directories onto my desktop computer and then reformatted the hard drive. This gave me a clean slate for the new installation.

For the installation, I selected all of the package groups except KDE and KDEI. Consequently, the installation went reasonably quickly. I logged in as root and verified that X starts well without configuration. XFCE ran like a champ.

Prior to the installation of Slackware 13, I downloaded Vbatts's KDE 4.3.1 packages and copied them to a DVD. (More information on the packages is available in this thread.) While in XFCE, I quickly copied the packages to the laptop's hard drive and then logged out of X back to runlevel 3.

I installed the KDE 4.3.1 packages and I'm very happy with them.

I started on my post installation routine, but had to go to bed. Most importantly, I've created my regular user account and done a little configuration of KDE.

Here are some observations:
  • KDE 4.3.1 is as responsive on this machine as 3.5.10 was. In both cases I'm more than happy with the performance.
  • I always boot to runlevel 3 and the startup time for KDE 4.3 is just a little slower than it was with KDE 3.5 on the same machine.
  • There's not a ton of difference between KDE 4.3 and 3.5 in terms of the user interface. I switched the kicker back to the classic view and the deskotp to folder view and everything feels about the same. I made of folder /home/drew/Desktop and pointed the KDE folder view to it.
  • Konqueror works just fine, Dolphin is okay, and Konsole seems better/cleaner.
  • Xorg set up just fine without any intervention on my part so far. I will probably need to create an xorg.conf file to enable mouse scrolling, however. Sound works perfect.
  • I'm having the same errors with Akonadi errors as others have had. I will probably turn off Korganize and desktop searching. I'm sure the features are valuable, but I'm not using them right now. Perhaps I will in the future.
  • The latest version of Sbopkg installed and works just fine. I ran the SlackBuilds for madwifi so I can get my wireless up and running.
  • Alien Bob's VLC build works well too. DVDs play without any problems.
  • Emacs looks good and runs well. Nothing else matters.
  • KDE 4.3.1 doesn't have the "media" widget that shows what media are inserted (e.g. a DVD icon will show up in the task bar when a DVD is inserted and a USB drive icon will show up next to it when I insert a flash drive).
  • Finally, not installing KDE from the installation DVD and then installing Vbatts's KDE packages results in Koffice not being installed. This is fine with me because I never use it Koffice, I thought I'd point out a consequence of doing things the way I did.

Naturally, I have a few things I need to do yet: switch to the generic kernel and create an initrd, copy my old files back to the laptop, get wireless up and running, install some software, install the latest patches, and play with KDE's settings, but that's just a few more hours of work, and most of that time will be spent waiting for stuff to copy and/or compile.

The bottom line is that this release of Slackware is pretty darned good. I can't wait to upgrade my really fast, modern AMD Athalon 64 desktop with Slackware 13_X86 64!

In the meantime, I'll update this entry or the rest of my blog with info on the additional post installation routine. I'm particularly interested in how well Madwifi and Wicd will work. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2323 When should one pay for free software? http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2295 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:10:18 GMT I've been using Slackware Linux since version 11 came out. So, that would be since late 2006. Prior to that, I used a free CD of Ubuntu -- and I just remembered, before that I used a free Knoppix live CD.

So for nearly three years, I've been using Linux (now pretty much full-time at home) and I haven't paid for anything. I figured that this time, I would pay for my upgrade to Slackware 13 -- except that money is very tight right now and the cost of the DVD is somewhat prohibitive. . .

I think the key here is that Pat and the Slackware team put out the software for free without any expectation that users must pay for it to use it. It is perfectly okay to use the software for the rest of my life and never pay for it. At the same time, there's no doubt that it takes time and money to develop and maintain Slackware (and other FOSS software), and that it is in everyone's best interest that developers see some monetary return for their labor. Even beyond enlightened self-interest, however, is something of a moral imperative that I feel to recognize the gift that the Slackware team has given.

I will not be buying the DVD, at least not for this version, but I will be making a donation to the Slackware project. It will be somewhat less than the full cost of the DVD, but quite a bit more than the $1.00 that shows up by default at the Slackware store. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2295 Slackware pre- and post-installation routine... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2166 Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:34:29 GMT Slackware is a great Linux distribution. It is fast, stable, and easily maintained. It is also easy to customize to users' tastes, which is a good thing because a certain amount of customization is necessary for a fully useful installation.

That's not because Slackware is somehow "incomplete," its maintainers simply refuse to monkey (much) with the upstream products that go into the distribution. So, for example, there's a bug in the coreutils utility that results in the info command not pointing correctly to some apps' info pages. The fix is relatively simple, but Slackware doesn't patch it, relying instead on coreutils's maintainers to address the problem if they choose.

So those who use Slackware develop a number of pre- and post-installation routines every time they install a new version of Slackware.

This blog post is an outgrowth of this thread where Slackware users post their post-installation routines. My intention is to collect the best of those posts and organize them here. I will revise this post over time with new/updated information.

For now, here are the categories of steps:

Pre-install backups and tasks
  1. Back up my users' folders.
  2. Back up the /root folder
  3. back up the /etc folder
  4. Save and annotate any special configuration files -- my wireless configuration files, fstab, Bash profiles, .emacs, etc. Some of these I make sure get in the right place in the new installation, some of these I simply refer to when working with the new configuration files.
  5. Back up my custom keymap and rc.keymap script for command line usage. It makes the Caps Lock key a Control key and makes the right Alt key behave like the left Alt key.


Post install

Configuration
  1. Create an initrd so I can boot from my JFS-formatted drives with the generic-smp kernel and then reconfigure lilo. I usually have the huge-smp kernel as a "safe" boot option.
  2. Run xorgconfig. I printed out my monitor's and video card's specs so I can fill in the information.
  3. modify xorg.conf for a scroll mouse
  4. Backup nv-based xorgconfig
  5. alsaconf, alsamixer, alsactl store
  6. Create new users (when needed after a new installation).
  7. Copy essential files from my backed-up copies of /etc /root/ and /home directories (e.g. .emacs, .bashrc, Thunderbird profiles, startup stuff from /etc, and a custom keymap I use).
  8. Something new this time: download and install the proprietary Nvidia drivers and get them working.
  9. Set up an IPtables-based firewall.

Software Installation

Compile and install (via slackbuilds/Sbopkg and src2pkg):
  1. src2pkg
  2. sbopkg
  3. Install flashplayer plugin, flashblock, adblock and for Firefox
  4. OpenOffice
  5. Kaffein
  6. Mplayer
  7. Frozen Bubble
  8. Moria
]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2166 In Linux, the key is knowing what to know...fc-cache http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2120 Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:44:28 GMT Part of the reason I'm starting to keep this blog is because I've learned enough about Linux now to start forgetting stuff. Part of the key of using Linux is knowing which commands to use, and how to use them, in a given situation.

For example, I downloaded Alien Bob's MS Fonts SlackBuild script so I could install Georgia and the other good web fonts. I built the package and installed it, and then wondered why it wouldn't work!

It took some research for me to find the fc-cache program and then read its info page. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2120 The interface is not the operating system... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2108 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:54:25 GMT One of the things that I like best about Linux is that the OS and its interface(s) are independent. Even the text-based interface is interchangeable.... One of the things that I like best about Linux is that the OS and its interface(s) are independent. Even the text-based interface is interchangeable. If you don't like Bash, use zsh or csh. For window managers and "desktop environments": if you don't like Gnome, use KDE, or Fluxbox, or Window Maker, or ... or ... -- there's several dozen to choose from.

Slackware has a wonderful little script, xwmconfig, that lets a user set his choice of window manager to start with the startx command. I've recently built and installed Enlightenment 0.17 and am enjoying it a lot. It's lighter and faster than KDE, but also a bit more attractive. It doesn't do everything that KDE can do, but it does what I mostly want it to do.

We'll see how I like KDE 4 when I install Slackware 13, but if I don't then I'll be sure to run Enlightenment. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2108 <![CDATA[Google's new operatng system...]]> http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2102 Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:21:31 GMT This week, Google announced its plans for a Google OS (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349836,00.asp) to be used on netbooks called (not... This week, Google announced its plans for a Google OS to be used on netbooks called (not surprisingly) Chrome, and running (especially not surprisingly) on Linux.

Most of the press about the Chrome OS has been negative, with most of the analysis saying that people will reject a Google Linux-based netbook -- as they've rejected previous Linux-based netbooks -- because it won't run the applications that people want (Word, Excel, etc.) and probably won't come with the patent-encumbered codecs that people want.

The analysis may be correct.

The question is why. My theory is that it has everything to do with the form factor. People don't expect a Palm pilot or iPhone to run MS Word, but netbooks are just small notebooks, so why wouldn't they behave just like notebooks? ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2102 First post: building Gnash on Slackware with src2pkg http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2098 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:17:52 GMT I didn't realize I had an LQ for a long time. For a longer time, I didn't think I had much to post. However, I've been thinking that I need a place to keep a bunch of technical stuff I've worked out over time with help from the friendly people at LQ.

____________________________________________

In the past day or so, I've been working to build Gnash for Slackware 12.2 to evaluate it as an alternative to the Adobe Flash player. Below are my results so far:

Gnash is a package you have to build twice. Those instructions were not quite explicit in the README, but are better explained on the wiki for the project.

Briefly, this is what it takes.
  1. Configure with your selected switches, make, and make install the main package.
  2. Then configure with again, with a slight change, make, and make install-plugins to build the plugins package with the pieces installed in the right place.

If you don't build and install the main package first, the plugins probably won't build and install correctly.

Since I want to create Slackware packages with src2pkg for this software (instead of just using ./configure && make && make install), here's what I did.

To review, here’s what’s needed to build Gnash. All of these are available from Slackbuilds.org, except for Gnash:
  • gst-ffmpeg (Gstreamer ffmpeg plugin) or
  • ffmpeg, which requires:
    • lame
    • faac
    • faad2
    • speex
    • xvidcore
    • schroedinger
    • openjpeg and
    • x264, which requires:
      • yasm
  • libxml2 (included in Slackware 12.2)
  • libpng (included in Slackware 12.2)
  • libjpeg (included in Slackware 12.2)
  • Boost
  • gtkglext (if you want to use gtk)
  • agg (if you want to use the AGG renderer)

There's no particular build order, but build the dependencies' dependencies first. That is, build yasm before x264, and build x264 before ffmpeg.

Get Gnash from here: http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/

Making the full package with src2pkg

I downloaded the gnash source into a folder. As root, within that folder, I ran the following command:

Code:
src2pkg -A -C -VV -W -e='--enable-gui=gtk --enable-renderer=opengl --enable-media=ffmpeg' -i='make install' gnash-0.8.5.tar.gz
See the src2pkg documentation to explain the switches and the gnash README to explain the --enable switches. The important thing is that I chose the GUI, renderer, and media code base and instructed src2pkg to make a configuration "auto" script if the package successfully builds.

The package build successfully and I installed it.

Making the plugins package with src2pkg
The plugins really do seem to require a separate make and make install step after the main package has been installed.

I copied the gnash folder I created to a new folder called gnash_plugins. The contents are just the source tarball and the src2pkg .auto script.

I modified the .auto script with the correct switches to make the plugins. The important parts of the script are:

Code:
#!/bin/bash
## src2pkg script for:  gnash
## Auto-generated by src2pkg-1.9.8
## src2pkg - Copyright 2005-2009 Gilbert Ashley <amigo@ibilio.org>

SOURCE_NAME='gnash-0.8.5.tar.gz'
NAME='gnash'   # Use ALT_NAME to override guessed value
ALT_NAME='gnash_plugin'
VERSION='0.8.5'   # Use ALT_VERSION to override guessed value
# ARCH=''
BUILD='1'
PRE_FIX='usr'
# Any extra options go here:
EXTRA_CONFIGS="--enable-gui=gtk --enable-renderer=opengl --enable-media=ffmpeg --with-plugins-install=system"
INSTALL_LINE='make install-plugins'
Please note the "ALT NAME" which makes the package name include "gnash_plugin" to differentiate it from the standard package.

Note the extra configs of "--with-plugins-install=system" which makes the plugins available to all users.

Finally, the install line is now "make install-plugins".

To build the package, I just ran:

Code:
src2pkg -C -VV -W -X
The -X switch runs the .auto script.

The package built successfully and I installed it.

My testing so far indicates that the package and plugins work.

However, they don't render very well at all. I'm going to recompile using the AGG renderer and see if it helps. ]]> Lufbery http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=2098