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Old 02-26-2014, 10:51 PM   #1
archfed
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Slackware new install: desktop environments and NVIDIA GPU drivers


Hi,

I recently tried Slackware on my desktop and I absolutely love it but I really don't like KDE and XFCE is being a little problematic plus I'm not quite sure how to install drivers for my graphics card. I thought maybe I could do a text-only install for now until I figure out how to get a desktop environment I like installed & then sort out the GPU thing.

I really like how Crunchbang is setup with Openbox, Conky & etc...

I've been trying to install them to make Slackware feel like Crunchbang but I'm not sure how to. Other distros I've used have package managers so installing from tarballs is alien to me.

My questions are:
  1. What is the correct way to install something in Slackware?
  2. Are there any other desktop environments available other than the ones in the install DVD?
  3. What material should I read to be more familiar with Slackware?
  4. Should I re-install from scratch (since I don't really want to use KDE or XCFE)?
  5. Will using proprietary drivers improve performance in any way?

I read through most of the slackdocs and right now I'm going trough The Slack Book, I don't quite understand everything but with some help I think I can get there easily.
I'll the desktop as a server and to play around with programming.

My desktop's specs are:
Intel 2.6 dual core, NVIDIA GTX 650, 4GB RAM.

I'm sorry if I made any mistake or left any information out. It's hard being a newbie.
 
Old 02-27-2014, 03:38 AM   #2
Drakeo
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slackware 14.1 two ways to install it. one is like the way slackware was built to install like the software maker wants you to. the other is slackbuilds.org
they actually do a good job of making it work reall good. slackware 14.1 out of the box. I use NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.49.run for my 64 bit .
that driver does not need libvdpauand now I am using the latest beta (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-334.16.run) it builds out of the box but you will need libvdpau install first.

I have used both slackbuilds and the nvidia installer. I find the nvidia suites me fine.

I also fined when upgrading to the new nvidia installers that I reinstall mesa first. and since I run multilib this makes this times 2.
but the installer will ask if you need 32 bit lib's.

if built from slackbuilds please read the readme.
 
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Old 02-27-2014, 05:16 AM   #3
allend
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Quote:
What is the correct way to install something in Slackware?
The correct way is to install a package. The package system in Slackware is designed so that software can be installed correctly according to Slackware conventions and so that software can be be cleanly uninstalled without affecting the operation of other installed software.
Packages can be be supplied as precompiled binaries with an appropriate install script or can be built from source code using so-called SlackBuild scripts. There is also src2pkg, a third-party tool written by gnashley, for compiling and building Slackware packages directly from source code.

Quote:
Are there any other desktop environments available other than the ones in the install DVD?
Yes. You can find many other desktop environments that can be used with Slackware at http://www.slackbuilds.org/repository/14.1/desktop/ e.g. awesome, dwm, i3, icewm, ion, lxde, openbox, ratpoison, razorqt

Quote:
What material should I read to be more familiar with Slackware?
If you are reading the SlackBook and viewing http://docs.slackware.com/ then you are using the primary references. You can also find information at http://slackwiki.com/

Quote:
Should I re-install from scratch (since I don't really want to use KDE or XCFE)?
No, there is no need to reinstall from scratch. My recommendation would be keep KDE and XFCE unless you have some pressing need to remove them apart from aesthetics. You do not have to use them. All they will do is take some disk space. There are some KDE applications that are best of breed (e.g. k3b, okteta) that you can use in other desktop environments.
If you really must uninstall, then remove the packages in the /kde and /kdei as well as /xfce series.

Quote:
Will using proprietary drivers improve performance in any way?
I always use the proprietary driver from nVidia for my computers with nVidia GPUs. For my purposes the nouveau driver is also acceptable, but it stands to reason that the the company that produces the products will have the best knowledge and software to maximize the performance.
 
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Old 02-27-2014, 05:44 AM   #4
TobiSGD
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Quote:
Originally Posted by archfed View Post
Will using proprietary drivers improve performance in any way?
Indeed it will. While the nouveau developers are doing a great job the nouveau development, due to a lack of help from Nvidia and therefore the need to re-engineer most things, is rather slow. At this point the nouveau driver is not able to change clockspeeds on your card, which means that it will run with the speed it has at boot time all the time, which is most of the time a rather slow clockspeed. The proprietary driver will give you a rather huge performance improvement.
 
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Old 02-27-2014, 10:15 AM   #5
Drakeo
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we can disagree on this. and sbopkg is far from Kiss. the kiss method here is to do as Pat has set it up to do.Run Level 3 that sbo build is far from perfect it has got better and better. Or when it comes to rebuilding the the driver from the hardware manufacture. It sits in /root/ to recompile when a kernel upgrade happens.
So to each his own. As far as 99.99 percent of the time you should use a package. when slack builds does like some of the folks from puppy linux have done is to make a script that downloads the driver and builds the package and installs it. Keep it simple. do you want to build the installer or the kernel driver ???

how about kiss.
 
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