When I was using Backtrack 3 beta a few days ago, I installed the latest version of OpenVPN from a tarball I got from the OpenVPN site. It worked perfectly.

Now I've got Slackware 12 installed. I went to the slackbuilds site and got the slackbuild for OpenVPN and installed it (...tho I still don't understand why Slackware has its own installers rather than just using the ones we get from websites). Anyway, when I run OpenVPN, it won't work with the comp-lzo directive (i.e. LZO compression).

I went back to slackbuilds and got the slackbuild for LZO, thinking it would fix the problem, but after installing LZO, OpenVPN still wouldn't work with it; it gives me an "unrecognised parameter" error when I specify comp-lzo.

Any ideas?

BTW, does Slackware come with any sort of Remote Desktop program installed (e.g. something like TightVNC)?

Perhaps, it will help if you first compile and install the LZO package, and then compile OpenVPN so that it can pick up support for LZO compression.
If you compile OpenVPN without the presence of LZO libraries, it will not be able to use LZO even if you install LZO libraries afterwards.
Slackware requires you to use your brain and think. There is a logic to all of this. Please don't take offense, it is not meant as an offense. But you may be better off with another distro, if it Slackware does not fit your mindset.

Eric

Slackware is an Operating System. It's not a puzzle, it's not a toy, it's not some sort of learning tool.

Are you implying that this inconvenience is by design, or even that it's helpful? I've been using personal computers long enough to appreciate two things:
1) Knowing how stuff works under the hood.
2) Having the convenience of having stuff done automatically.

If the latter is frowned upon by anyone, then such aversion is born out of fear of their own incompetence. For instance, in Microsoft Windows, I'm more than capable of going thru all the INI files and registry keys in order to change what gets executed when my system boots up -- but I don't. I use a neat little program installed called "msconfig". Why? Well the first reason is that I'm not six years old anymore and so I don't take enjoyment from shouting "Daddy Daddy I edited the config files all by myself". Admittedly, I did do this when I was six, but I've gotten bored with such things over the years. Second reason is that it turns a ten-minute job into a one-minute job. I mean I really couldn't be bothered opening win.ini, then going into the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run...

When I downloaded the SlackBuild for OpenVPN, I didn't sign anything to say "Piss me off and inconvenience me so that I'll learn more about your OS". To give you a real world example of inconvenience: I arrived into college with my laptop today, booted up Slackware and tried to connect to my VPN server at home. I couldn't connect because of the LZO problem, therefore I didn't have access to my files. This is hardly conducive to replacing my current OS, which is Windows XP, with Slackware, now is it?

I'm not saying that "learn by making mistakes" is a bad way of teaching, but it definitely has its place. If I'm building a circuit in a class in college, I repeat class, and I blow the fuse in an ammeter, then I've learned something -- in having to unscrew the multimeter and fit a new fuse I'll remember that the impedance of an ammeter is close to zero, and I'll be sure never to stick it across a voltage source again. Not much problem there. But how helpful is this method of teaching going to be if someone is up Mount Everest without a screwdriver and without a spare fuse?

Slackware requires you to use your brain and think? Hmm OK here's my brain doing some thinking:

1) I'm a program, my name's OpenVPN.
2) Internally, I can utilise the functionality of LZO compression, but only if the machine has the LZO library.
3) Okey dokes no problem, when I'm executed, I'll attempt to dynamically load the LZO library. The dynamic loading will either succeed or fail.

In MS Windows, the process described above is extremely simple:

{
HMODULE hDLL = LoadLibrary("lzo.dll");

puts( hDLL ? "Yes, we can use LZO"
: "Can't use LZO" );
}

In the case of OpenVPN in Slackware, it would appear that OpenVPN is not using this method of checking for LZO support (or then again maybe it is but something else is going wrong). If it doesn't use the dynamic load option, then this could be explained either of two ways:
1) OpenVPN is flawed in that it doesn't try to load LZO at runtime.
2) Slackware is flawed in that it doesn't provide the facility to load (and thus check for) different libraries at runtime.

Anyway I solved the problem, I ditched the SlackBuild file and just downloaded the proper tarball from the OpenVPN site. Once I installed it, it worked perfectly.

I'm not looking for a toy or learning tool in Slackware, I'm looking for an operating system upon which I can do all my day-to day stuff: manage e-mail, surf the web, watch videos, listen to music, play around with networking, design circuits, write reports.

Indeed, I'm no expert when it comes to Linux. What I can say tho is that I'm learning more and more every day. I plan on reading the Slackbook to pick up more stuff. I want my Linux proficiency to, one day, be comparable to, if not to surpass, my Microsoft Windows proficiency. Learning is no problem for me, I'll pick it up. But don't tell that the reason for my inconvenience is that Slackware has a masterplan to piss me off every time I want to do something.

Doing all things automatically for you is not what Slackware stands for. Doing the things you want it to do, and doing these very reliably is what Slackware stands for. But it requires you to know what you are doing. What you learnt using Windows does not translate to Slackware 'automatically'.

If you would have been a little less braindead my friend, you would have read the README which is even printed in full on the download page of SlackBuilds.org:

If you would have looked inside the SlackBuild script you would have seen the configure command "--disable-lzo".
Now, you do not seem very proficient in Linux and compiling source-code. Yet you spill words just about all over my screen about how you know things better. Hm?

In Linux there is the concept of dynamically loading libraries - just like Windows. But by running the configure command you let it search for required and optional dynamic libraries. Certainly, some programs will disable support for certain dynamic libraries if these are not found during configuration of the sources. Others will use dlopen() calls to look for and load dynamic libraries at runtime. Obviously, OpenVPN does not fall into the latter category. Bad luck - complain to the author, but don't blame Slackware.
The fact that the binary tarball you downloaded from their website works, is nice. Of course, someone who offers binaries for download will ensure that all functionality is built-in. If you decide to compile a program yourself, it is you who is responsible for installing dependencies as well. If you do not like that, then there are several other Linux distributions who do all of this for you automatically.

Dude, what do you think I use my workstation for? What's new?

Eric

Um... just an aside, but...
From the source of openvpn's SlackBuild script:
This is on Slackware 12.0, by the way.

To clarify, you didn't get OpenVPN's SlackBuild from SlackBuilds.org, as we don't have one for 12.0 (since it's included with Slackware).

I beg to differ. Slackware is a lot of things to a lot of different people. To the newbies, it's a puzzle. To the hobbyist, it's a toy. To the right sort of person, it's a fantastic learning tool.

Damn! I knew there was something I forgot!

And here we get to the learning experience portion of today's program. Never count on something working right the very first time. Always setup a test case in a controlled environment before turning your creations loose in the wild if you expect them to live.

Ok, first of all you didn't use your brain, because there is no OpenVPN SlackBuild script for Slackware-12.0 hosted at http://www.slackbuilds.org/. This is because 12.0 included OpenVPN so there was no need for a third-party build script. Second, had you used the included package for 12.0, you wouldn't have run into this problem because it has LZO support built in.

3) You simply don't know what you're talking about. See the paragraph above.

somehow i want to add my 2 cents
but it appears it has all been said

anyway good luck with Slackware
thanks
john

I agree except for the possibility of getting hold of copies of:
Running Linux
Linux in a Nutshell
both published by O'Reilly

These have been my eternal companions since starting out in the digital world. I was very much a late comer to the world of computers and computing - I was 43. Was taught on win95 how to word process, then given a 2nd hand machine with no OS, couldn't afford win95 so tried a copy of Redhat on floppies - struggled but Running Linux helped win the day. Soon discovered Slackware/TeX and the Open Source community and have never looked back. Even manage .

Stick with it and learn from all those around you who are so willing to give so much FREE advice, help and support.

It sometimes suprise me that people at this forum still take time and effort to kindly answer people who might have not been all that nice themself... Many forums could learn from this!

Anyway, I want to say thanks to those who remained calm! I deffinately learned from you and I kicked my head for NOT checking if openvpn was included in slack 12. Because that was eventually the reason why I read this post :-)

--Robbert

I am most impressed by the restraint shown by slackware's hard hitters :-) BTW this exchange reminds me of my favourite matrix quote:

Andrew