i only problem i have during slackware installation is not knowing what packages to install, what not to install.

redhat installer clearly categorizes different applications and utilities under proper headings.

with slackware i want to install the xfce, windowmaker and after installation ... use dropline to install gnome.

i want to install basic tcp/ip utilities to practise with setting up Web Server, FTP Server, Mail Server.

i dont want to install extra load

i am not a programmer ... i would i want to install development package? even if i had to ... then how would i know what to install what not to install?

i avoided the software developement packages today ... and when i tried to install dropline gnome ...

it showed dependencies that i need all those software development packages like perl, sed, aspell, glib-1.2, elflibs, cdparanoia, texutils etc etc ..........

and in networking section there is shit load of mail clients like mutt, pine, fetchmail, sendmail and god knows what not ...

and there is bunch of command line audio utils which i dont want and they get selected by default ......

everything else is perfect during slackware installation ... but this package selection stuff is completely out of my understanding :-(

i guess the safe way would be to full install and and start removing packages that you don't use latter. i found it to be pretty dificult to install a fully functional system based on my (very limited) experience with linux.

as you already found out, development packages are not for programers in the linux world and the most of them are needed in order to compile or install other programs.

once you have already installed slackware you can just boot from the cd and run the setup everytime you find something missing and hope you don't miss much :P. i have already tried that for a couple of days but i desided to reinstall everything at the end.

i hope someone has a more specific answer but after, all installation depends on anyones specific needs.

btw, slackware backages are marked as needed, recomended and optional if i'm not wrong. installing all needed and recomended could be another solution(?).

You could go the other way around. I tried that once with slack.
Its pretty time consuming, but who needs fresh air anyway?

I installed the stuff i REALLY REALLY needed (i think all required packages are in the 'a' directory).
For example you're probably going to need a base linux package so install that and other required packages ---> finish up and reboot into the madness. It's not pretty but once you figure all dependencies out you will have an abolutely extremely tragically super-configured system that suits your needs.

But I do warn you, there's a fair amount of headscratching involved =)
Cheers!

Hello
personally, i think slackware has the best package managament tool, suse is also good. but redhat is not that much convenient.

its best to install everything in slackware and then use "pkgtool" to remove packages that are not required. believe me, this is the best process, and easier than anything you encounter. for instance, you try to uninstall mozilla in redhat or suse, you get a load of dependency message (gnome, nautilus, everyone seems to depend on mozilla). but with slackware's pkgtool, just select mozilla and uninstall, it'll uninstall like a breeze without any future problem.

slack is sweet

if your going to pick and choose .....make very sure that kernel-ide and kernel-modules packages are installed, these are in the :a: directory, and also kernel-headers package too, this is in the :d: directory.
If you want to compile/install programs yourself--you'll need Gcc pack, it's also in :d: and ALL of the Glib packages, these are your library files, they are in the :L: directory..........if, in the future you find a dependency of some sort, look in the :L: directory. the library file you'll need, will most likely be in there..........

thanks .. guys

i guess i will install everyyyythingg [i'm doing it rite now]

since i dont have a hard disk space problem i can install everything to practise and play around with linux ... i am not running any website or mission critical stuff .......

in a year or two when i will have a better understanding and about to properly run websites or servers then i will try to make a well configured system.

who knows by that time slackware will make some brand new changes in their installation style ...

thanks,
hasan.

Watch soon for a 'minimal install' thread as I am polishing up my list. I have <150MB install that includes windowmaker, ROX-Filer, opera7.22, nedit and mount.app. A great minimal desktop that will let you surf and do e-mail and download more packages as needed. All dependencies are satisfied and no boot errors. No broken packages, no bad hacks and not one gram of fat! Im going to soon post a little howto that will attempt to explain some of the basic dependencies for the basic slackware system.

I think you are making a good decision. I would at least install everything on disc #1. Otherwise everytime you try to install a package you will be missing something and not understand why.

For "NEWBIE" I'd also suggest "install almost every thing", since slackware packages are some what already pre selected ..

Wut u should choose is the interactive mode or maybe called (newbie mode), dunno I used expert mode for quite long.

My suggestions:

Pakages that really determine the harddrive capacity is either kde/gnome, so if
u don't intend to use both, choose either kde or gnome, but not both. If u choosed kde u should also decide whether or not to install international support that is support for say "languages other than english" ..

The other packages are non huge packages, among them if u don't use emacs u can let out "e - packages". If u don't know wut "tex" is, u can let that out the "t - packages" safely..

The rest (a ap d f k l tcl x xap) u should better install all of them for newbie, especially those languages packages,libs (d,k,l) or u might have little thing not work well sometime in the future .., or u might have problem when u try to build/compile other thing by ur self ..

--
Icecool ..

Like kiko pointed out, you may want to install either kde or gnome, but not both. However, some gui apps are made specifically for one or the other and depend on the different libs that each uses. For kde this is qt, and for gnome it's gtk. I installed the kde gui only, but installed all the libs that each one uses. This allows me to be able to use apps that were made specifically for the other gui.

HTH