Thanks clawhead, that post saved me a significant amount of time banging my head on the wall.

Wish I could take credit. I got it from somebody over on alt.os.linux.slackware.

What I still don't really grasp is where this glitch came from. I had done a general upgrade using swaret a day before installing kernel 2.6.9. From what I read on alt.os.linux.slackware, the problem is due to a messed up udev package that had been on Current for a few days. However, I upgraded from 10.0, not Current.

So I still don't know what the culprit was. If you have a clue, let me know.

I also wonder if there's a better fix, perhaps updating udev or something, rather than correcting the rule.

The culprit has to be something in the way the kernel is configured. When I upgraded my laptop kernel to 2.6.9, the man pages and less broke. However when I upgraded my server, there were no problems. However, the udev.rules files are rather different between the two machines. Since they both have an updated Slackware 10 install, it must be something in the kernel config.

Mistake #1............don't let swaret update anything............there was a reason that Pat V. took swaret OUT OF Slack 10--
it is a junk program...........
.........but some people insist on installing and using it anyway..............

Personally, I think swaret is just fine if used VERY conservatively. What I mean is that you point to stable release (NOT current) at an official mirror and you don't let it resolve dependencies. If you use it that way, there is very little difference between swaret and manually downloading and installing the packages. Unfortunately, swaret doesn't come configured that way so people just use it and get in trouble.

Can anyone explain what the beef is about swaret? I've been using it for a long time and have never had a problem with it. I think it works very well once the user learns how it works. There have been issues with the current packages, but that is to be expected.

What other updating options are there? I used slapt-get prior to swaret but haven't used it since.

Kent

i made the change clawhead posted and i still get this:
Error executing formatting or display command.
System command (cd /usr/man && (echo ".ll 11.3i"; echo ".pl 1100i"; /bin/gunzip -c '/usr/man/man1/lp.1.gz'; echo ".\\\""; echo ".pl \n(nlu+10") | /usr/bin/gtbl | /usr/bin/nroff -S -mandoc | /usr/bin/less -is) exited with status 256.
No manual entry for lp

neat thing is the man page shows for a split second then disappears.

any ideas? do i have to reboot after making the change?

I noticed this morning that the new release of updates [ using swaret, of course ;-) ] includes both udev and kernel 2.6.9. Does this mean that the problems mentioned above have been fixed?

Anyone? Anyone?


Kent

I think it is fixed, based on the following:

(1) Today (1nov04) I updated to the current udev [ not using swaret, of course ;-) ], and man, etc., remain unbroken.

(2) I'm still using kernel 2.6.9.

(3) I checked the suspect rule string in /etc/udev/rules.d/udev.rules, and it looks O.K. The udev.rules had a date of 4;20 a.m. on Nov. 1. I assume this is a fresh ruleset and not a copy or modified copy of my previous, edited ruleset.

Guardedly optimistic,
clawhead

I had both lines. Just commented out the tty one and ran /etc/rc.d/rc.udev.
All works now.
Thanks

Well, here's one reason, not very scientific, but kind of comfirms what I've noticed reading this forum.
I did a forum search using "upgradepkg broken" as the keywords.

upgradepkg LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Search > Thread Results (upgradepkg broken)
Displaying Topics 1 to 8 of 8

Now a search with "swaret broken" as keywords.

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Search > Thread Results (swaret broken)
Displaying Topics 1 to 35 of 50 Pages (2): [1] 2

The ratio of questions relating to bad upgrades due to swaret as opposed to upgradepkg convinces me not to use it or recommend it to others.

thanks that helped me too!

regards

Thanks clawhead!

This fixed my problem too....

On Slackware 10 just upgraded to the new 2.6.10 kernel.

F.Y.I

I couldn't SSH or use man pages... Both fixed after your tweak!

Cheers...........

Thank you guys I've noticed broken ssh and man and look how to fix it. This post solved my problem