I needed to split the HowTo into two posts in order to be under the maximum character limit per post. I apologize for the inconvenience.
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Part 2 Sections:
LILO and the Fancy Bootsplash
Get Rid of Obsolete Slackware Packages from 12.0
Merge Changes for Config Files
Update Your Graphics Drivers (if needed)
Miscellaneous Fixes
Rebuild/Upgrade any Non-Slackware Packages (as Needed)
Fix Other Random Problems
** LILO and the Fancy Bootsplash **
To use the bootsplash new to Slackware 12.1 you need to modify your lilo.conf. Slackware's liloconfig has an option to add this for you, and looking at its code you can see what it is doing. It uses a function called
boot_bmp() that simply cats the necessary text into lilo.conf, and then it makes sure that the boot message is turned off by commenting that line out.
The beginning of my lilo.conf looks like this (the bold sections are what I manually changed for the bootsplash)
Code:
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
# Boot BMP Image.
# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp
# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0
# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
# be used. We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
# background color, shadow color.
bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255
# Standard menu.
# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and
# use a boot message with the standard menu:
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 40
** Get Rid of Obsolete Slackware Packages from 12.0 **
The CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT files does a good job of listing these.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
*** PACKAGE REMOVALS SINCE 12.0 ***
a/util-linux: Removed (replaced by util-linux-ng).
ap/espgs: Removed. This is replaced by ghostscript.
ap/gimp-print: Removed. This is replaced by gutenprint.
e/emacs-info: Removed (this is now included in the monolithic emacs package).
e/emacs-leim: Removed (this is now included in the monolithic emacs package).
e/emacs-lisp: Removed (this is now included in the monolithic emacs package).
e/emacs-misc: Removed (this is now included in the monolithic emacs package).
e/emacs-nox: Removed (this is now included in the monolithic emacs package).
l/libmusicbrainz: Removed.
l/libtunepimp: Removed.
l/mcs: Removed (renamed to l/libmcs).
x/dejavu-ttf: Renamed to x/dejavu-fonts-ttf.
x/xorg-server-xdmx: Removed. This is unmaintained upstream.
extra/ham: Removed due to lack of maintenance.
extra/intel-wlan-ipw3945/*: Removed; support for these devices is included
in the kernel now.
extra/linux-wlan-ng: This does not compile on 2.6.24.x kernels.
extra/ntfsprogs: Upgraded and moved to the AP seires.
extra/xf86-video-ati-6.6.3: Removed.
pasture/gcc-3.4.6/: Removed.
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slackpkg is again useful here.
Code:
slackpkg -onoff=off clean-system
will list all of the packages not found in Slackware 12.1 (none selected for removal). Compare this to the list you created earlier and select the obsolete slackware 12 packages (the ones appearing in the slackpkg dialog but not your original list). In my example,
I found two obsolete packages not included in the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT file.
Code:
xf86-input-acecad-1.2.0
xf86-input-void-1.1.0
** Merge Changes for Config Files **
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by UPGRADE.TXT
6. Fix your config files. Some of the config files in /etc are going to
need your attention. You'll find the new incoming config files on
your system with the ".new" extension. You may need to fill these in
with information from your old config files and then move them over.
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Regardless of what method you choose to upgrade packages, you will have to devote some of your time deciding if there is anything in the new config files that you need.
slackpkg has a nice feature that will find these files for you and ask what you want to do with them. This can be specifically done by running '
slackpkg new-config'. My personal preference is to
Prompt for each one. If I know I didn't modify the old config (perhaps because it is not something I use, such as bluetooth), I simply
Overwrite it with the new one. For the ones I know I modified, I choose to
Keep them, and I manually merge any changes I want later. For all the ones I am not sure about, I
Diff them and make my decision from there.
One annoying thing I noticed with slackpkg, is that if you choose
Overwrite, the old config file is backed up with a .orig extension. Since I had already backed up my entire system, I found these files to be clutter and used
find to remove them.
Here is a command that will find and list the .orig files under /etc
Code:
find /etc -type f -name \*.orig
And the command that will remove them
Code:
find /etc -type f -name \*.orig -exec rm -v '{}' \;
In particular, you need to be careful about any possible .orig files under /etc/modprobe.d.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
The /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file has been changed significantly; be sure to
move/merge the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.new file in its place. Also, you
must NOT leave a backup of the old blacklist file (such as blacklist.orig)
in /etc/modprobe.d/ -- ALL files in that directory are checked, so if a
module is blacklisted in *any* of them, it won't be loaded.
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It is important to note that slackpkg did not find all the .new files. I used the following command and came up with these additional files.
Code:
find / -type f -name \*.new
/usr/lib/man.conf.new → Overwrite
/etc/group.new → Remove
/etc/passwd.new → Remove
/etc/shadow.new → Remove
/etc/gshadow.new → Remove
The new group and passwd files would only be useful if there were some new groups or users needed for some new feature, and something like that would have been mentioned in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. It wasn't so they were removed promptly.
** Update Your Graphics Drivers (if needed) **
You probably need to upgrade to the newest driver if you intend on using hardware acceleration. There are slackBuilds for the driver and kernel module for ATI and Nvidia cards. The slackBuilds also come with a nice script that helps you to switch between your proprietary driver and the built in kernel driver.
ATI SlackBuilds
Nvidia SlackBuilds
** Miscellaneous Fixes **
These are all specified in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT.
Removed /etc/rc.d/rc.scanluns
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
The provided kernels are now compiled with CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN=y so there
should be no need for the /etc/rc.d/rc.scanluns script (it should now be
deleted, as it's not included in the sysvinit-scripts package any more).
If this configuration causes a problem with any real SCSI drives, then you
should add this to your kernel's lilo stanza: append = "max_luns=1"
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Removed /etc/rc.d/rc.hplip
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
HPLIP no longer requires daemons to be started at boot time, so any
/etc/rc.d/rc.hplip script should be removed.
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Added alias for hp-toolbox to either
/etc/profile (system-wide) or
~/.profile (user specific)
Code:
alias hp-toolbox='LC_ALL=$LANG.UTF8 hp-toolbox'
Added my user to
lp group
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
There is a minor problem with the HPLIP and CUPS versions in Slackware 12.1;
hp-toolbox will not work unless LC_ALL is set to a UTF8 locale.
An easy workaround is to start it with "LC_ALL=$LANG.UTF8 hp-toolbox" if
you're not using a UTF8 locale. Also, your user account must be a member
of the "lp" group for hp-toolbox to work properly, and to use the scanner
portion of some (all?) HP print/scan/copy units, you'll need to be a member
of the "lp" group. This is due to the fact that hplip's udev rules set
the device with group "lp" ownership.
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Remove obsolete udev files
The two files to remove are located under
/etc/udev/rules.d/. I actually did not have a 70-persistent-net.rules file, and it was not created until I removed 75-network-devices.rules, so keep this in mind.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
If you have more than one network card and have been using the
75-network-devices.rules file, it is now called 70-persistent-net.rules
(and is generated from 75-persistent-net-generator.rules).
Rules for optical devices are now located in 70-persistent-cd.rules (and
are generated from 75-cd-aliases-generator.rules).
You will need to remove the old rules files (75-optical-devices.rules and
75-network-devices.rules) so that they don't conflict.
As stated above, Slackware's udev implementation will automatically create
rules files for your optical devices and network interfaces on first boot.
If you add/remove/replace any of this hardware, and/or you "clone" a system
to another hard drive for deployment, you will need to either remove these
two rules files (so that udev will regenerate them to reflect the new or
changed hardware) or edit them accordingly.
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Fix slow Xfce Terminal
I noticed after the upgrade that having Terminal open caused workspace switching to be slower and Terminal also resized slower than normal.
This is easily fixed by creating /etc/profile.d/x-fix.sh
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# This should fix slow Xfce Terminal in Slackware 12.1
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
Do not forget to make it executable.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
If you notice Xfce's Terminal and perhaps some other applications being drawn
very slowly in X, then you should try explicitly disabling the Composite
extension in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, or set XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 in your
environment prior to starting X. For more information on this, see:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2792 |
Computer won't shutdown completely
I did not have this problem, but I added it here because I lot of people did. If you are one of those people (see
"Slackware 12.1 - Halt Problem") just add the following append line to your /etc/lilo.conf.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
If you have an older machine (with a BIOS released prior to 2001) and it will
not power off on shutdown, try adding this to your kernel's lilo stanza:
append = "acpi=force"
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Mouse does not work
I did not have this problem either, but many people seemed to have missed the notes about this in the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, so I felt it deserved attention here.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT
The psmouse module is no longer blacklisted by default; instead, it is loaded
with the imps protocol per /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse -- if you need/want a
different protocol, edit that file. Note that options declarations have
no bearing on *if* a module is loaded - they only affect *how* it is loaded.
In other words, the module should now be loaded automatically (since it's no
longer blacklisted), and the options in /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse are the ones
applied when loading it.
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So, for instance, if your mouse doesn't use imps then
edit /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse so that it uses the correct protocol for your mouse. -
Thread related to 12.1 mouse problems
There are more helpful hints in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. Read it if you haven't already done so!
** Rebuild/Upgrade any Non-Slackware Packages (as Needed) **
Depending on how much and what specific software you have installed, this portion of the upgrade process can take the longest or shortest chunk of time.
Looking at my list I had created previously, I had 75 Non-Slackware packages. Some of these I chose to simply remove and some had become part of slackware (and so were upgraded during the upgrade process). As for the rest of them, if there was a newer version that looked worth my time I chose to upgrade. The others I only upgraded if they were broken.
Fortunately, almost all of my packages were created via slackBuilds (most scripts from slackBuilds.org), so I didn't need to go looking through any repositories.
Since some of the libraries were broken (no surprise) I chose to rebuild them all. A good number of the packages worked fine as is. For the few that didn't, I ran
ldd to see what libraries were causing problems and rebuilt/upgraded as needed.
It is important to note that even if you choose to have a fresh installation you will have to do this step of the process.
** Fix Other Random Problems **
This is a separate section because there was no mention of these problems in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. Some may be specific to my machine as well.
Default 640x480 no longer displays
It seems that the newest Nvidia driver (169.12) for my 7600GS does not correctly handle my monitor (Dell 152FP) at a 640x480 resolution, while my previous driver (100.14.19) on Slackware 12.0 worked fine. The problem is that the driver now by default uses the wrong vertical sync. To fix it, I simply had to specify that 640x480 be used at 75Hz. This is easily done be changed my Modes under the Screen Section (in /etc/X11/xorg.conf) from
Code:
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
to
Code:
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480_75"
The other VESA modes work fine in the VertRefresh range I specified in my Monitor section (60.0 - 75.0) and are auto-detected correctly.
Remote Control for Audacious broken
This is not a problem with Slackware or Audacious, but rather a consequence of the remote control utility not keeping up with Audacious development. In my case, I had been using FoxyTunes and I had created a symlink at /usr/lib/libxmms.so that pointed to /usr/lib/libaudacious.so. This enabled FoxyTunes to work with Audacious by selecting XMMS as the player.
However, this was using Audacious 1.3.2 on Slackware 12.0. On Slackware 12.1, with Audacious 1.5.0, this no longer works because /usr/lib/libaudacious seems to have been removed. If you read the
Audacious FAQ, you will see that this change has been in place since version 1.4.
The remote control of audacious is now done through audtool (it has a man page), so keep this in mind when using remote control utilities.
For those interested in controlling Audacious through FoxyTunes feel free to post in this
FoxyTunes thread. I've contacted the FT developers a couple times about official Audacious support, and I have been told it is on their ToDo list.
Font Problems
Here is a useful
thread on font issues in 12.1.
Beautiful Fonts in 12.1 is also worth a read.
If you have Microsoft TTFs installed and the new Liberation fonts are overriding them, then (as root) simply remove the symlink at
/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-liberation.conf and then run fc-cache -f.
Enjoy Slackware 12.1!
