Greetz
I'm extremely new at slackpkg but so far it is pretty OK and not the travesty I once assumed it could be. However I'm getting several checksum md5 matching errors which I assume is referring to previous packages. I further assume that "slackpkg clean-system" might be the answer BUT I don't want to even risk losing packages I've installed, especially after failing to uncheck the kernel packages resulted in slackpkg deleting my custom (and substantially newer) kernel and it's /lib/modules. Thankfully I had a backup and I won't make that mistake again but that's why I'm, asking here instead of just "jumping in".

So my question is, how do I resolve the un-upgraded items that checksum'd out without losing what 3rd party stuff I have installed?

Welcome under the slackpkg "shadow"

I'd advise checking the /etc/slackpkg/blacklist next
(mine FWIW)

In normal working conditions, there should not be checksum md5 matching errors when using slackpkg with a properly configured repository. I experienced such errors when a package download was stopped and restarted (automatically by slackpkg),the message was of no consequence as, in the end, the package was downloaded and installed.

To avoid having your 3rd party packages deleted by slackpkg, you can blacklist them (i.e. add them to /etc/slackpkg/blacklist) so they don't appear when running "slackpkg clean-system".
Here's the example for blacklisting SBo packages. It also means that your 3rd party packages have a tag to avoid listing them all one by one:
My experience with slackpkg is only positive. It simplifies maintenance of multiple systems. I'm also using slackpkg+ which is an extension to retrieve trusted 3rd party repositories (like those of alienbob).

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Checksum issues are usually the result of a broken mirror (or one that is in the middle of updating). Try a different mirror and see if the problem with checksums goes away.

(You can try my slack-mirror-speedtest.sh script to see what mirrors are the fastest for you. It defaults to the US mirrors.)

As for clean-system, others have already pointed out that you can blacklist packages from it (and you can blacklist tags as well, so you can blacklist all alien and SBo packages pretty easily). But clean-system doesn't blindly remove packages, it will show you a prompt with all packages selected by default and you deselect the packages you don't want removed. You can easily cancel out of the list by selecting cancel or Ctrl+C. It only starts removing packages if you proceed further.

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I find some mirrors are better than others in this regard - the kernel.org mirror, in the US, has yet to let me down.

That is super handy bassmadrigal - thank you! Since xmission.com(slightly faster) and kernel.org are #1 & #2 on my list, I'll stick with kernel.org, but it's very nice to know what my speedy alternatives are.

Thanks all. I'm marking this solved. Permanently blacklisting kernel updates is preferable to manually unchecking them each time but had nothing to do with checksum errors. What solved my problem was manually editing "/etc/resolv.conf" which NetworkManager had set with the router base addrerss. I changed it to 1.1.1.1 and everything is copacetic now though I do wonder why slackpkg searches domains other than just what I un-comment. No biggy now though.

slackpkg can only use the mirror you specify. However, if you specify mirror.slackware.com, it will use the "mirrorbrain" backend (on that server, not on your machine) that will try and find the one closest to you.

Actually, I unchecked only the kernel.org US site since truepatriot76 mentioned it was fast and reliable. I surely don't yet fully understand slackpkg but I see it searching (and failing) to connect with "slakfinder", "bear.alienbob.nl" and one or two others. It works now so it's just idle curiosity plaguing my OCD desire to know all the fundamentals, but it only costs a few seconds at most, so backburner it goes.

I don't know if this will be seen in a "SOLVED" thread but I have a sincere request.

I DO know PV, Eric and all the developer contributors are always very busy and especially now with both Xmas and the last few steps toward a new Official Release seemingly imminent....

BUT.....

Could someone, sometime fairly soon, either/both take down old "HowTos" and/or update newer ones? Maybe I'm mistaken but the most recent docs I've seen on wireless, including the important wpa_supplicant, and slackpkg(+) are outdated. For example the Slackpkg+ docs still list "ktown" and as far as I can tell, unless we are supposed to use the MIRRORPLUS line for 14.2 and let Slackpkg+ figure out we're on Current, I will keep getting errors that "alienbob repoaddress" is not configured and frustrating errors like this

It may have been (or may return to being) a PITA to download files individually and manually upgradepkg --install-new but at least I knew what I was doing and didn't depend on other's means and instructions for more complex automated utilities like slqackpkg. This has been easy in some spots but a real uphill battle in others. Any help you might deliver with clear, up to date docs would be greatly appreciated.

This is likely because you have slackpkg+ installed. You'd need to look in your slackpkg+ config file (not sure the exact name). slackpkg+ is essentially an extension to slackpkg and works seamlessly with slackpkg. It opens up the possibility to have multiple repos listed (like multilib and slackpkg+ repos that are likely being checked with the above addresses).

Are you using the Princeton mirror? I had no end of troubles with checksum errors with them, and it seemed like they updated hours after everyone else did. I switched mirrors, and the issues went away.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks garpu, good to know but bassmadrigal is on the ball. I installed slackpkg+ to try to get a damned update for multilib and probably should stop for the day or the spot where I've been beating my head against the wall will break through and the way my day is going the whole damned house will collapse.

Please ignore rant - Ya know, I really don't mind much when an update installs something new that fails in some way or just doesn't work but oh man! do I hate it when they break my old stuff. Grrrrr! I'm so upset I'm about to go back to 32 bit just so I don't have to deal with multilib complications. I'm sure I'm irrationally biased since I really don't recall anything like extra flaming hoops to jump through when 16bit came to 8bit, or when 32bit came to 16. Furthermore I really am not expecting to rocket up to a Mothership and hack an alien race whose conquered interstellar travels operating system a la Independence Day I just want to be able to run the stuff I commonly use without days of frustrating labor dealing with oild documentation.

BTW and relevant to my rant, I noticed that Princeton mirror hasn't been updated since 11/13, at least 2 updates old... still showing KDEv4. With this kind of lag on mirrors how is anyone supposed to know where to go to get up to date Multlibn Compat32 files?

Right now Steam won't launch and worse, my favorite music player, Aqualung, won't either AND it broke my 32 bit libraries to run the v3 KPackage that I use basically every day. Don't mind me, I'm gonna go eat worms

This is the main mirror (I don't know if you can call it that) for multilib (it's in Europe).
Admittedly the README is a bit old but mainly due to the outdated listing of gcc and glic packages for each Slackware version. Other parts are still relevant, including "Enabling multilib":
I would recommend that you manually install multilib as explained above. The main reason is that gcc and glibc needs to be upgraded with their multilib version ('slackpkg install multib' will not do that). After the initial installation, you can just keep it updated with:

For the avoidance of doubt, you need slackpkg+ to manage multilib with slackpkg.
Regarding slackpkg+ configuration, for multilib, don't forget to set PKGS_PRIORITY in /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf to make sure that gcc and glib packages are updated by their multilib version and not their stock Slackware one.