How to install Slackware (plus others)

perry · 08-21-2007, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Slackware Includes Bluez

Next Slackware release will be bluetooth-enabled, since today, Pat has included several Bluez packages in Slackware-Current (per April 23). Bluez is an implementation of the Bluetooth™ wireless standards specifications for Linux and it has been used for many Bluetooth devices around and it's already working for some time. My laptop is Bluetooth ready, but since i never used Bluetooth before, i never configure it to work with Bluetooth.

Working on this one myself... will update shortly!

http://live.gnome.org/PhoneManager
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeBluetooth

- Perry

perry · 08-21-2007, 11:36 PM

Step 1: Download the driver
Ok, here's the latest way to download and install your 3D hardware accelerated DRI if you own an ATI 9600/9700 + series of a video card.

Code:

wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run --no-check-certificate
chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run
./ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run

Now follow all default prompts for automatic install then exit. But your not done yet, you have to generate and add custom Slackware packages! To do that you run the same command again except this time you add on two parameters:

Code:

./ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Slackware/All

Step 2: Install the driver
As a result of the last command two tgz packages will be created, both have to be installed and should be named similiar to the following:

Code:

sudo installpkg fglrx-module-8.40.4-x86-1_kernel_2.6.21.5_smp.tgz  
sudo installpkg fglrx-x710-8.40.4-x86-1.tgz

Mind you, this is a simpler way of doing that:

Code:

sudo installpkg fglrx-*.tgz

Step 3: Config the driver
First time installers of their ATI card may also have to run the following to update their xorg.conf. But it's always a good idea to backup your current xorg.conf before you do that!

Code:

su
cd /etc/X11
cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak
aticonfig --initial -f

Step 4 : Have a backup plan (optional)
If in doubt, change your inittab from a 4 to a 3!

Code:

vi /etc/inittab

look for a line that says :4: in it

Code:

# These are the default runlevels in Slackware:
#   0 = halt
#   1 = single user mode
#   2 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
#   3 = multiuser mode (default Slackware runlevel)
#   4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
#   5 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
#   6 = reboot

# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:

This will cause your reboot to go into text/console mode where you can enter "startx" to see if your system took your changes to xorg.conf. If for whatever reason your having trouble do the following:

Code:

cd /etc/X11
cp xorg.conf.bak xorg.conf

And then change your 3 back to a 4 when your ready and you'll be back where you started.
Mind you Ctrl-Alt-Bksp restarts your server, with Ctrl-Alt-Fn (1-7) will give you a chance to sign on in text as root. In which case you can enter init 3 & init 4 to restart the X server should you get a weird "pause" effect that the ATI driver will sometimes spit at you. ATI keeps trying to say they've "corrected" that problem... whatever!

Step 5: Update the kernel
Finally, should you ever make any changes to your kernel after this, it'll be a good idea to do this after you've done a make install on the new kernel:

Code:

cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
./make.sh
cd ..
./make_install.sh

This ensures the fglrx driver is still part of your kernel.
If making changes to your kernel is a frequent process, make a change to your /sbin/installkernel file to speed the process up for you!

Code:

# The -p is for the few people that know you can set passwords on lilo that
# will then be required if someone wants to be sneaky and root the system
# with "linux single" or similar lameness..
/boot/build
/lib/modules/fglrx/make_install.sh
/sbin/lilo -p

Step 6: Reboot & Test
Hope this helps get you these kind of results:

Code:

perry@slackware:/mnt/maxtor/installations$ glxgears
15743 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3147.260 FPS
19605 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3920.955 FPS
18246 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3649.192 FPS

perry@slackware:/mnt/maxtor/installations$ 
perry@slackware:/mnt/maxtor/installations$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI RADEON 9600 Series
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6747 (8.40.4)

perry@slackware:/mnt/maxtor/installations$

Step 7: Enjoy your new 3D hardware accleration
Be sure to undo the changes made for your backup plan (if you did that), change the inittab entry from 3 to 4. Mind you, I'm back to 1280x1024 resolution again (as oppose to 1400x1050). Maybe I'll make another posting on how to switch between these two drivers later!

Code:

perry@slackware:~$ glxgears
13407 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2681.121 FPS
24351 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4869.125 FPS
25361 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5069.251 FPS
25328 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5065.396 FPS
25314 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5062.780 FPS
25292 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5058.364 FPS
25703 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5140.572 FPS
22784 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4556.785 FPS
33757 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6751.361 FPS
59711 frames in 5.0 seconds = 11942.142 FPS
38226 frames in 5.0 seconds = 7645.145 FPS
19414 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3882.797 FPS
18853 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3770.575 FPS
18975 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3794.977 FPS

Cheers,

- Perry
ps.
While not an *absolute* requirement, sometimes ATI requests you have a device called 'shm' supported in your /etc/fstab:

Code:

tmpfs  /dev/shm  tmpfs  defaults    0   0

It rarely takes up much memory, it won't hurt to have it included!

duryodhan · 08-26-2007, 11:05 PM

none /home/perry/.mozilla tmpfs defaults 0 0

Are you sure you want your Mozilla Firefox plugins etc. data to be stored on tmpfs?

duryodhan · 08-27-2007, 02:59 AM

Also,

I found that the powersave didn't quit work for me (2.8 Ghz presc(h)ot) ,, It went down to 350MHz and the computer became very less reponsive.

I changed to userspace and then set it manually to 2.1Ghz. Now it is noticeably cooler, uses less power and is very usable. I should probably write an app that allows me to do this from inside KDE... Or is there one already ?

NightSky · 08-27-2007, 05:46 AM

Thank you does not express sufficiently my appreciation for a great easy to read and understand guide. Tried you Sound config Worked just like u said in Xfce. I am using a AGP x2 ATI Rage 128, 32mb video card. Can I make use of Genome, since u think so highly of it and it did start out as a Network GUI.

b0uncer · 08-27-2007, 07:11 AM

Nice job, perry. I'd like to add, about sound trouble, that in my own latest installation of Slackware 12 I happened to end up with several sound devices (did a manual kernel recompilation, so this might not affect a regular install): a dummy one (#1), and the "real" one (#3). After booting KDE I found out that KDE Control Center dealed with the #1 sound device, the dummy one, thus producing no sound in applications using arts. Apps like stand-alone audio players that can select their sound device worked by setting the device to #3, but arts refused sticked with the dummy device. Solution was to manually override the sound device in KDE Control Center (for arts to work), but curiously enough, the place where it's overridden (a text box enabling you to type in the device name to use) didn't tell what the string should look like that was entered into the box. I tried several namings for the #3 audio device, but in the end managed to find out the string KDE wanted me to input to the text box was of form "hw:0" (for the first device, in my case the dummy one). Resembled a bit the way GRUB names harddisks, (hd0,0) and so on.

So, should someone end up with having several sound devices, this is the way to fix arts problem: using the hw-string mentioned above, tell arts which device you want to use (0 for the first and so on). Use alsamixer to find out which one is yours:

Code:

alsamixer -c 2

would try to configure device number 2 and so on. Once you find the correct device, use the number to tell arts to use that device in case it's not.

Pratt · 08-27-2007, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdg

Great thread, very informative and easy to follow. A candidate for Sticky-land.

I agree with you! Its a great Thread, and it has a lot of usefull tips.

Quote:

Also,

I found that the powersave didn't quit work for me (2.8 Ghz presc(h)ot) ,, It went down to 350MHz and the computer became very less reponsive.

I changed to userspace and then set it manually to 2.1Ghz. Now it is noticeably cooler, uses less power and is very usable. I should probably write an app that allows me to do this from inside KDE... Or is there one already ?
Today 04:05 AM

I also had problems with the "ondemand" tip. I have a laptop and it didint worked well with that option. I Read the documentation on /usr/src/linux-2.6.21.5/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt and read more about the "conservative" governor. It works the same way as the ondemmand, but it certainly does a better job on my laptop.

So i actually added

Code:

echo "conservative" >> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

to my rc.local and it works quite good now!

I use Klaptop on my desktop to change the governors (userspace - powersave blablabla) and also the CPU Throttling on the fly in KDE.. it works for me

Oh! something i would like to know more about is what is up with all that bunch of groups i have on my system? any way to delete more groups or users?

perry · 08-27-2007, 08:17 PM

Install yourself a decent graphical hard disk partitioner, gparted is the honestly the best I've used on either platform. System Commander had me spoiled but it getting old and was bit of a security risk with it's partitioning capabilities available during the bootup process (plus other quirks).

gparted is open source and smart. It makes use of whatever you already have working on your system, it just saves you the trouble (and trauma) of having to know all those arcane command line arguments and stuff. Check it out, it's very safe and intuitive. And it's such a comfort being able to both view and edit your partitions graphically as oppose to plain text.

Check it out!

- Perry
ps.
I think I'm going to starve to death, all I did today was streamline my Linux partitions... but boy, now I got myself one hell of a system! Look at all that free space now available and not tied up with 3 Linux installations (you only need one)!

Code:

Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3              8385660   5967296   2418364  72% /
none                    777636        32    777604   1% /tmp
tmpfs                   777636         0    777636   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda1              5148800   2832764   2316036  56% /mnt/win2k
/dev/hda5               521748    125980    369264  26% /var
/dev/hda7              4192764    707032   3485732  17% /usr/local
/dev/hda8              6136576   2543300   3593276  42% /usr/local/opt
/dev/hda9             13630684   2668344  10962340  20% /home
/dev/sda1             39017920  29536376   9481544  76% /mnt/maxtor
/dev/sdb1             78124056  11472328  66651728  15% /mnt/xcraft1
/dev/sdb2             38448304  10560320  25934884  29% /mnt/xcraft2
/dev/sdb6             97720340   9429812  88290528  10% /mnt/xcraft6
/dev/sdb5             97656084  31611916  66044168  33% /mnt/xcraft5
none                    777636     23044    754592   3% /home/perry/.thumbnails
none                    777636         0    777636   0% /home/perry/.gnome2/epiphany
none                    777636         0    777636   0% /root/.thumbnails
none                    777636     11380    766256   2% /home/perry/.mozilla
none                    777636         0    777636   0% /root/.mozilla
none                    777636         0    777636   0% /root/.gnome2/epiphany

perry · 08-27-2007, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pratt

I agree with you! Its a great Thread, and it has a lot of usefull tips.
Oh! something i would like to know more about is what is up with all that bunch of groups i have on my system? any way to delete more groups or users?

Did you check out "Securing Slackware 12.0" on page 1 of this thread! It talks about streamlining user groups and bunch of other todos in order to tighten up your installation.

If you did read that then I can safely say "no". Based on Black's work, what groups are remaining must be there for a reason.

Thanks!

- Perry

perry · 08-27-2007, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duryodhan

none /home/perry/.mozilla tmpfs defaults 0 0
Are you sure you want your Mozilla Firefox plugins etc. data to be stored on tmpfs?

Maintenance Free Plugins!
I've yet to have a problem with a browser plugin. In fact, this setup ensures that I won't. Plugins go into a completely separate directory, (typically /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, etc)!

Vapourize HTML-based Viruses!
All that 'data' that the browser maintains is prone to problems via scrupulous html scripts and the like. With every reboot you pretty much vapourize viruses attacking your browser through it's cache. And you'll learn to save to deskop the pages you want instead of trying to maintain that hideous bookmarking mechanism.

- Perry

perry · 08-27-2007, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightSky

Great How to, Perry. Thank you.
One question: I have SY6BA+IV, PC100, PII600e, w/win98se 160gb Dual boot Slackware12 on 160gb 2nd primary hdd, a 2nd Box w/ WinXP , and a G4 Mac Power Book. What do I need to turn my dual boot into a dedicated file & web server? I want to save photos and web pages to be accessed by winxp and mac laptop. Also backup XP. Use win98se for writing, web surfing, email,and web page testing on different browsers, use xp and laptop only for photo, graphic, and web construction work. I want to share printer and currently have a broadband dsl 2WIRE Gateway that all three units share- the laptop is wireless. A KVM switch between two boxes. Do you know of a good how to for this? I found one using fedora core3 but I have never installed anything but slackware.

Samba has become synomenous with interfacing Linux with Windows. Interfacing with Mac is usually a bit more civil.

Heads up! It's a hit or miss operation. As it can be a pain to both setup and maintain. But who knows, perhaps Slackware 12 will have a decent Samba installation saving you 1/2 the work!

Let me know how you make out!

- Perry

perry · 08-27-2007, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0uncer

Nice job, perry.
So, should someone end up with having several sound devices, this is the way to fix arts problem: using the hw-string mentioned above, tell arts which device you want to use (0 for the first and so on). Use alsamixer to find out which one is yours:

Code:

alsamixer -c 2

would try to configure device number 2 and so on. Once you find the correct device, use the number to tell arts to use that device in case it's not.

Bouncer,

Thanks for your heads up on sound problems! I know it's really really sweet when you get a fresh Slackware install in there and the moment it finds it's modules and your unmute the sound, it's quite nice to hear that jingle letting you know you've just reached a milestone. Using the more popular brands of sound cards makes a big difference, however things have gotten better over time for most sound cards.

Thanks again!

- Perry

perry · 08-28-2007, 10:51 AM

Dropline Gnome likes to use it's own Python package
located here!

Code:

wget http://saxa.droplinegnome.org/extra/python/python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa.tgz
installpkg python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa.tgz

If you run into any problems related to 2.5 you can reinstall Slackware 12's own Python package located here!

Code:

wget http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/slackware/slackware-current/slackware/d/python-2.5.1-i486-1.tgz
installpkg python-2.5.1-i486-1.tgz

This will get rid at annoying messages like the following:

Code:

You're running gDesklets for the first time.
gDesklets will start a requirements check now...

Checking requirements:
- sys ... found
- xml.parsers.expat ... found
- xml.sax ... found
/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py:118: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module cairo._cairo: This Python has API version 1013, module cairo._cairo has version 1012.
module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py:118: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module gtk._gtk: This Python has API version 1013, module gtk._gtk has version 1012.
module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py:118: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module pango: This Python has API version 1013, module pango has version 1012.
module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py:118: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module atk: This Python has API version 1013, module atk has version 1012.
module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py:118: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module gtk.gdk: This Python has API version 1013, module gtk.gdk has version 1012.
module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py:118: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module pangocairo: This Python has API version 1013, module pangocairo has version 1012.
module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
- gtk ... found
- ORBit ... found
Version check failed.

Giving a much better:

Code:

root@slackware:/home/perry/Desktop# installpkg python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa.tgz
Installing package python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa... 
PACKAGE DESCRIPTION:
python: python (object-oriented interpreted programming language)
python:
python: Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming
python: language that combines remarkable power with very clear syntax.  
python: Python's basic power can be extended with your own modules written in
python: C or C++.  Python is also adaptable as an extension language for
python: existing applications. 
python:
Executing install script for python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa...

root@slackware:/home/perry/Desktop# gdesklets shell

You're running gDesklets for the first time.
gDesklets will start a requirements check now...

Checking requirements:
 - sys ... found
 - xml.parsers.expat ... found
 - xml.sax ... found
 - gtk ... found
...

True, it's just a version warning, but more often enough, ignoring these warnings can cause the whole ship to not want to leave dock!

It's good to be able to fix things!

- Perry

ps.
Whatever you do, avoid the gDesklets package provided by Dropline like the plague... it hasn't been updated

perry · 08-28-2007, 11:45 AM

Classical Foo Bar: File Type Associations Failure
If your attempt to update your system has resulted in a lost of file type associations (thats where you go right click on a file and programs that can operate on that file no longer come up) has resulted in some sort of minor explosion (aka your /etc/gconf/schema directory got wiped) you can do the following:

Code:

update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
update-desktop-database /usr/share/applications
export GCONF_CONFIG_SOURCE="xml::/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults"
gconftool-2 --makefile-install-rule /etc/gconf/schemas/*.schemas
gtk-query-immodules-2.0 > /etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules
gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders
pango-querymodules > /etc/pango/pango.modules

That should help get back most of what was there, but not all. It seems to have done the trick for after a failed gDesklets install. gDesklets... how many times did i try to get that installed... how many nights... oh well...

Yes Virginia... it did look too good to be true...!

- Perry

ps.
For more on that fixing that problem check this out!

perry · 08-28-2007, 12:57 PM

For those of you wanting to not look back at Windows for playing games there is a really great company out there that for just $5 per month will give you top quality gaming support. It's a company called Transgaming and they can be found at Cedega.com. They'll require the first three months up front (thats a whopping $15 + tax but no shipping required). Other than that you can try out the latest Wine installation, it's free and works albeit not as many bells & whistles come with it like a gaming database with default settings for well almost 200 mainstream games plus a lot of legacy support.

In any event, for Slackware Dropline people, you'll want to install these two packages to make sure your cedega 6.0.2 install goes in with as few problems as possible. Those of us using x86_64 bit machines with matching ATI x86_64 drivers will have to take a wait and see approach on Cedega's 3d hardware support. It seems to work...

Code:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/dropline-gnome/dbus-python-0.82.0-i686-1dl.tgz
wget http://saxa.droplinegnome.org/extra/python/python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa.tgz
installpkg python-2.4.1-i486-1saxa.tgz
installpkg dbus-python-0.82.0-i686-1dl.tgz

Have a nice day!

- Perry