With KDE in Slackware 12.1 I want to update the version for; ntfs-3g, so I can safely mount my windows XP partition. I have that slackpkg tool, and have attempted to do install or upgrade to the newest version of that ntfs-3g driver, but it downloaded to my desktop as a .tgz compressed file, and I thought the Slackware package tool uses that type, but can not get it to install,( says not listed ). Do I need to add a certain software source repository, or can it be installed with the version I did get?

I'm not sure what that error message was. As a general rule though:

If you don't have a version of ntfs-3g already installed, you can use installpkg ntfs-3g.version#.tgz

If you already have a version installed, you can use upgradepkg ntfs-3g.versionx%ntfs-3g.versiony.tgz

You need to be root to install/upgrade the package.

If you did a full install of 12.1 you already have ntfs-3g. If not and you want to use slackpkg, you can do:

Brian

It has a older version of the ntfs-3g, so I just do that line with both versions; upgradepkg ntfs-3g.version-old%ntfs-3g.version-new.tgz, right? And is it needed to include the file extension; .tgz? Do I need to change directory to where that new file is first, (on the desktop)? Thanks

You need to specify where the file is, so either you enter the whole filename like /home/user/Desktop/ntfs3g.....tgz or you enter the directory and type upgradepkg ntfs-3g.....tgz.

Yes it is necessary to type the extension,
No you dont need both version, but only the one you want to install.
If you are unsure if you already have a version installed type upgradepkg --install-new filename

Perhaps a little more information can help clarify.

PKGTOOLS is the package management system on slackware, and includes "installpkg", "upgradepkg" and "removepkg" (as well as some others). In order to use these utilities you need a slackware tgz package (file) on your system. In using these tools you would need the full name of the file, including the tgz extension, and path information if it is not in your current directory. You do not need to specify the "old version" when using upgradepkg because it will replace whatever version is currently installed (even if it is newer) with the "new" version for which you have a tgz.

SLACKPKG is a utility which people primarily use to stay current with patches/updates. It uses official repositories/mirrors, goes and downloads whatever version exists there, and then installs/updates it on your system using PKGTOOLS. You cannot specify a version, because there will be only one version present for your version of Slackware.

One more thing: Slackware is not necessarily about using the latest version of a package, rather it's about stability and security. You might want to upgrade pkg X if the new version contains additional functionality you need, but if you are "only" interested in safety and stability then you're probably better off just updating the official version (for your Slack version) as patches become available (and slackpkg is a great tool to stay on top of this).

Hope this helps,
Brian

Thanks for all the help. My original reason to upgrade ntfs-3g came from my windows XP C partition not auto-mounting at boot. So I looked at fstab file, and it only listed my D storage partition but not C, so then I added a line for the C, and did try in terminal; mount -a, which did not work to mount C, thanks.