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Old 07-07-2003, 07:39 AM   #1
ppfundst
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Compile your own slackware?


Hi Slack experts!

I am currently using Slackware 9 and I am very happy with it.

That said, I noticed that most of the packages from the CDs are compiled for i386, while current dropline packages are optimized for i686.

Although it does work fine of course, I was wondering how I could either recompile them on my machine to have a i686 optimized system (I am using a P4), or if there was a special slackware version somewhere optimized for i686?

So, can I have a fully i686 optimized system based on slackware (yes yes!), or do I have to switch to gentoo?

By doing this I am hoping to have a performance improvement.

Any ideas, comments, pointers anyone?

thanks.
 
Old 07-07-2003, 08:14 AM   #2
linuxJaver
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U can install other distro dual booting with slack, I've slack, rh, w2p on the same HD. I surely interested on an optimized slack, but somewhere I read. It is the slack policy to keep it simple n even run on i386.

The real performance abuse is the misconfiguration of application, service running around that abused the CPU, ram resourced rather than the non optimization of the compilation. I believe it .. so
 
Old 07-07-2003, 08:15 AM   #3
nvn
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I believe the full Slackware source is located on CD 3. If you didn't buy your copy of Slack, you can most likely download the source from [insert favourite mirror here]. So...get on with the compiling.

And, a note regarding the "keep it simple and even run on a 386" bit; as you may or may not know, Slackware 9.1 is going to branch - it will be compiled for 486, since Pat Volkerding (and most others) felt like "if you're using a 386, you're not using Slack 9". Sounds reasonable.

Last edited by nvn; 07-07-2003 at 08:18 AM.
 
Old 07-07-2003, 08:18 AM   #4
ppfundst
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Maybe no need for i686 compilation

Hi all,

I just read in :

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3166&page=2

quoting:"

Almost the whole distribution is compiled with the CFLAGS set to:
"-O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686"
which means that it is i686 optimized and i386 compatible.

"

In that case, there is no need to compile it from source...

Could somebody confirm this?

Thanks.
 
Old 07-07-2003, 08:22 AM   #5
nvn
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Interesting...thanks for the link. Time to rtfm a bit...
 
Old 07-07-2003, 08:40 AM   #6
galad
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Re: Maybe no need for i686 compilation

Quote:
Originally posted by ppfundst
Hi all,

Almost the whole distribution is compiled with the CFLAGS set to:
"-O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686"
which means that it is i686 optimized and i386 compatible.

"

In that case, there is no need to compile it from source...

Could somebody confirm this?

Thanks.
I can't cofirm this but it is possible to download the source code for an applications and edit the Makefile adding the option
-mcpu=i686
to the CFLAGS line.

To build the tgz package you can then use checkinstall, it is a very useful utility in the "extra" dir of slackware mirrors.

Sorry if I wrote something obvious,
greetings,
 
Old 07-07-2003, 08:45 AM   #7
hojoloco
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You can of course get the source packages and edit the Slack.build scripts to make things for i686. That said, for the most part you probably will not notice any difference. I have done it for XFree on my Slack 9 box, mainly to compile in support for my ATI AIW card. I believe that as of slack 9.1 support for i386 is being dropped and everything will be compiled for i486. I have been tempted to try Gentoo, but a co-worker has been using it and had difficulties. But the main reason I haven't switched is I love the simplicity of Slack and the BSD style scripts.
 
Old 07-07-2003, 09:04 AM   #8
linuxJaver
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Yes interesting link, thanks also

Back to wut written there, that slack has no dependencies check of packages. The dependencies checking is already done by the creator i bet ..

Regarding to the link above I gonna ask something (question at bottom):

I've ever worked with solaris/sunOs environment (on the university). They had a kind of "application preconfiguration" on their systems.

That mean an user can easily put in their ~/.applrc like:
pgsql
java
kde

And the user environment will be configured for running the applications. The real configuration of each application packages is actually already done by the system administrator in say /usr/local/applications/{apache,pgsql,java,kde,gnome,gcc,..}.

But user has also the possibility to define his own applications initialization in ~/lib/applications.

My question is: Has any one ever seen any distro with such application preconfiguration. I'm actually interested on some scripts there on their /usr/local/lib/applicaiions, /usr/local/bin/{scripts for initialization of the applications}.
Most likely this kind of application preconfiguration is distributed on sun systems or maybe had that administrator (mentioned above) just written those scripts by himself or had he downloaded from some where n installed them .. ?

Last edited by linuxJaver; 07-10-2003 at 01:08 AM.
 
Old 07-07-2003, 09:09 AM   #9
galad
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I'm trying Gentoo on a machine here at work. I started from stage1, it means that everything is compiled from scratch using optimizations I've chose.
It took 4 days to compile a decent system. It is difficult to install (even if the manuals onsite are great) and it needs a very fast internet connections. For example here in Italy only the 3% of the people has a 10Mbit/sec line (I'm one of the lucky guys :-) )

You MUST use a kernel with experimental features or you won't be able to use your mouse.

In the end, I didn't notice any relevant speed increase with applications of any type.

You can install and decently configure your Slackware box in less than a hour and you have a standard compliant, not patched, high configurable linux box. I think I could not ask for more.

I didn't know about the Slack.build script, it is great, thank you very much for the info.

greetings,
 
Old 07-10-2003, 01:14 AM   #10
linuxJaver
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Can any one owning a solaris system confirm me, whether they such application preconfiguration on their system ?

Any know about ~/.applrc, ~/.applications, ~/lib/applications, /usr/local/lib/applications/.. ?
 
Old 07-10-2003, 01:32 AM   #11
carboncopy
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solaris preconfiguration documents

http://docs.sun.com/db?q=preconfigur...prod%2Fsolaris
 
Old 07-10-2003, 01:37 AM   #12
shellcode
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so what's so hard about this?

just use pkgtool to remove the current packages and download the new ones which are optimized and install them....seems pretty simple to me...
 
Old 07-10-2003, 01:39 AM   #13
carboncopy
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By the way, maybe you can try LFS. Never got to get down and do it completely.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

The docs for lfs is great. Good for learning.
 
Old 07-10-2003, 06:11 AM   #14
linuxJaver
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Hi carbon copy,

Thanks for the link to docs.sun.com, I've downloaded an admin manual for solaris 9. Actually am quite interested on installing solaris 9, because I've worked quite long with it during the uni-time. Thing is my hardware look like not in the spec for solaris (my abit kt7-raid, athlon 900mh burnt ..).

My current hardware spec is asus tx97e, amd k6-350mh, 256mb ram. Is that suffice the solaris 9 hardware requirement ? I don't plan to run great servers. Just gonna have a solaris environment for single user (usage: X, 2 xterm, netscape browser, possibly from time to time run an apache server).

Is it advisable to install solaris 9 with that spec ? According to their hcl, it seemed only few mobos reported to be hardware compatible for it. I mean am dun need to spend the time if it is not ..

I am confortable if u can reply at linuxjaver@yahoo.com or here ..

Btw, do u have those ~/.applrc, ~/.applications, ~/lib/applications, /usr/local/lib/applications/.. stuff on your solaris platform ?
 
  


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