Bdcause then you have something that can be dealt with by slackware's package tools. Install even one file outside of a package (and is src2pkg followed by installpkg that difficult?) and you can be sure the file will be forgotten about for ever, even when packages all around it are being upgraded.

I agree that using package tools is the right thing to do with most software, but for a simple thing like libflashplayer.so it seems overkill.

1 members found this post helpful.

It is tempting to forget about packaging if you are only dealing with a single file but I don't see any advantage in doing so (unless perhaps you are copying the file into /usr/local/). In any case, I got my lib-flash-plugin from slackbuilds which makes it an official package. (Running xxxxx.Slackbuild is no easier than src2pkg).

Well the latest 32-Bit flash player includes a KDE Control Module, so if you want that there's a few more files to keep track of.

Package management is well worthwhile, even when a package only installs a single file. Especially when someone else has done the packaging

• Only need to learn one tool (well, all right, two: slackpkg and sbopkg); no need to research where and how to install that single file
• Less cockups when you're blundering around in root, less typos, less debugging
• Automated maintenance: updates all arrive in a nice batch when upstream thinks it's a good idea
• Reproduceability (is that a proper word?): setup new machines or reinstall in minutes; instead of backing up gigabytes of executables all you need is /etc /home and /var (which has a nice list of packages - no need for separate record keeping)

Edit: and the automated tools do proper checks too (md5sums, gpg signatures). Let's be honest, none of us do that when we're installing manually.

Just think how many of the problems here are local difficulties with one or more of these things.

Additionally, these are all reasons why extensions/add-ons/plugins are evil and must die!

Of course I use all the other package tools (installpkg, upgradepkg, removepkg, slackpkg, sbopkg, src2pkg) on everything but the flash plugin. For that I just grab the plugin .tar.gz from Adobe. Next time I need it, on its next upgrade, I'll be a good little Slacker and use the SlackBuild.

Hi Vozz:

Boy do I ever sympathize with you!

Yesterday I did the Firefox upgrade to 5.0 and when I launched it, it told me to upgrade Flash so I follow the links and did the download of "install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz".

What could be more simple, I thought.

After hours of trying to install it, I became a ranting, sobbing, broken, totally frustrated human being! Just how stupid & incompetent can one person be? Anyone who says that golf is humbling has never tried Slackware - it can bring you to you knees!

Don't get me wrong, Slackware is the best thing that I have ever installed on my PC. It is rock solid, but, it is humbling.

After I regained my composure, I thought of making a 'help me post' in this forum - but didn't. I was too embarrassed, after all, I have been using Slackware for well over a year. How could installing a simple Flash upgrade be so difficult?

The lesson that I learned, thanks to you, is that you should *always* check out SlackBuilds.org when ever you need to upgrade or add software.

I use 'sbopkg' and should have used it yesterday! I just thought that the download would be 'more up to date' than the SlackBuild and that it would be better to use it - wrong, wrong, wrong! sbopkg allows you to view the info file of the SlackBuild and, if I had done that, I would have seen that the Flash Slackbuild was the current one.

Thank you for asking how to do it, and, thanks to all the 'real' Slackers who responded.

Well Robert - I am a Slacker - an awful, incompetent, incoherent one, but, nevertheless, I'm one.

But I have Firefox in my home directory for historic reasons and due to the nature of Firefox.

I started with Firefox when it was called Phoenix, Firebird etc. There were problems with extensions since some would only install to the program directory while others would install to the user directory. Hence if I had had Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox installed in the /usr directory, I would have had to fire up the browser as root in order to install some extensions.

So it went into my home directory and there it has stayed. This has allowed me to keep various versions, the old one for day to day work and new versions for testing.

I install flashplayer into my home directory, the plugins directory in my profile.

Firefox can have updates very frequently and since I carry out some financial transactions with it, if there is a security fix, then I want it straight away.

So I prefer to treat Firefox as separate from the distro and the "system".

I don't know whether having such an attitude makes me a real slacker or a phoney slacker.

Well, that reminds me a story.

The "filesystem" of the Japanese language won't allow fast and meaningful cursing. So, when needs arise, an average Japanese builds up some weird constructions to bypass strict rules of grammar or uses, ahem, the English short words.

In other words, using installpkg, upgradepkg, removepkg, slackpkg, sbopkg, src2pkg for dropping the single file is so Japanese, isn't it?

Disclaimer: No offense to Japanese people intended, just my

Having every installed program or library as slack-packages is easier to keep track of what you have installed, obviously making use of the "pkgtool" utility.

I am on the same page. Firefox in Ubuntu / GNU IceCat in Slackware is my primary Web browser. Both distributions provide security patches within days, so that's not really an issue. But besides being security-conscious, I am what you could call a "Web enthusiast". I am willing to install, upgrade, and test the latest and the greatest version, just for the sake of staying on the bleeding edge, even at the cost of stability and personal time. When Firefox went 4.0, for example, staying with 3.6 branch just wasn't an option for me, even though it is just as secure. In Ununtu, I keep a local self-updating version, just like you do. Never had a problem. And in Slackware I package GNU IceCat (5.0 SlackBuild pending). One of my favorite things about Slackware is how it doesn't update and break itself all the time, and I am willing to do a bit of extra work to keep the entire OS that way.

hi

I want to install libre office & followed a link from this forum & downloaded

libreoffice-3.3.2_en_US-i586-1_nhh.gz

I've played around with it & still having trouble with it. installpkg won't touch it since its not a txz or tgz

I tried unpacking it with ark & get another file with no suffix, which seems to be a binary.I
made sure its executable and tried # ./libreoffice-3.3.2_en_US-i586-1_nhh

can not get it to do anything ! any ideas please

Get Alien Bob's package:
http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/s...ice/pkg/13.37/

Would you mind starting a thread detailing how you do this, if it's not too much trouble? I do the same with Opera but I have never tried it with Firefox.

brianL ,

Thanks -got it and its working

for other newbies this is the one you want :

libreoffice-3.4.0-i486-1alien.txz