Slackware 13 - The Odyssey

thach.trung.ngoc · 10-28-2009, 09:45 PM

i found only one instance of conky running

But one thing is very weird, whenever i click on desktop, conky disappear. I dont know how to fix it

jpcrow · 10-28-2009, 11:14 PM

Added a section on Sbopkg, I left in the the instructions on manually installing SlackBuilds because I'm glad I learned how to do that first, but sbopkg is a welcome addition. Thanks for the suggestion Escaflown.

Still working on conky (about to test out thach.trung.ngoc's startup script) and reading reviews of security software.

vinegaroon · 10-28-2009, 11:21 PM

One thing I see you didn't mention is switching to a -generic kernel from the default huge kernel.
This is recommended but not necessary.
/boot/README.initrd is a good place to start.

jpcrow · 10-29-2009, 10:26 AM

Solved the issue of multiple Conky instances. Every time I logged out of KDE4 the session manager was saving my session, and every time I logged back in it was starting a new conky instance.

Simple solution:

System Settings -> Advanced -> Session Manager -> 'Start with and empty session'

escaflown · 10-29-2009, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow

thach.trung.ngoc,

do you find that you have multiple instances of conky running?

right now a ctl+esc shows me 5 instances running... I guess on top of one another.

I ask because I'm wondering if it's my startup script that is launching multiples or what?

You have multiple instances because by default KDE tries to recover all the applications that have not been closed from the previous login session. To fix this, you should have a logout script for killing the process related to conky when you're logging out of KDE. As I couldn't find where the KDE logout scripts are located, I simply did the trick in my conky_auto_start.sh script bellow:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
killall conky > /dev/null 2>&1
feh --bg-scale "`grep 'wallpaper=' ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletsrc | tail --bytes=+11`"
sleep 15
conky -&

onebuck · 10-29-2009, 09:26 PM

Hi,

Welcome to LQ & Slackware!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow

My name is Josh and this is my first post here at LQ.

Below is a post I've written about the past week of my life:

Objective:
To chronicle my installation of Slackware 13 and configuration of a usable and attractive desktop environment.

Purpose:
To help others who are new to Slackware and to get advice from the community.

History:
I have been using Linux for several years as a second operating system with dual boot setup WinXP/Ubuntu. My interest has been purely of a hobbyist nature until a recent decision to use GNU/Linux as the primary/sole OS on my laptop. I have most recently been using *buntu based (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu) distros for various reasons, but mostly the community was attractively active.

My decision to install Slackware 13 was made after installing Kubuntu and using it for about 2 weeks. I began to dislike the relative instability of it's 'stable' releases and updates (the constant updates and bug fixes seemed to break my machine more often than not) and began to search the internet for something more rock solid and less automated. After reading several opinion pieces on the subject I came to the decision that Slackware 13 offered more of what I was looking for than other "top" distros. Also, the opportunity to be more "hands on" was appealing.

Rig:
HP Pavilion dv5000 Laptop
nvidia GeForce Go 7400
Intel Centrino Duo 1.8ghz
1 Gb RAM
80 Gb SATA HDD
<snip>

El Fin?
Well, that about catches everyone up to speed. Please offer suggestions on things I should be including on my Slackware 13 machine or advice on Conky or anything I've talked about here or maybe haven't talked about.

This is my first experience with Slackware and I'd like to make it the Best Little Linux Box in town. If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time.

I plan on updating this thread over time in Work-In-Progress style.

**Edit: Fixed some errors and attached a screenshot of my Desktop!

Josh, I would like to reference this post in 'Slackware-Links' & 'So you want to be a Slacker! What do I do next?' with your permission.

Your writing style and techniques will aid new users too Slackware. I hope you will have one of the 'Best Little Linux Boxen in town'. Meaning that you should share with friends and others.

That laptop will be singing for you for a long time!

Again, Welcome and I for one am looking forward to your additions here on the Slackware LQ Forum.

Just a few links to aid you in the future;

Slackware® Essentials
Slackware® Basics
Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Utimate Linux Newbie Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Virtualiation- Top 10

The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

jpcrow · 10-30-2009, 02:41 PM

Feel free to reference this post.

I'm glad to help others who are new like me. All written out in a row like this, its hard to realize this took me several days to figure everything out. (Well, still figuring out.) It was alot of fun and I encourage 1st timer Slackers to read as much as possible while they create their own experience with Slackware 13.

onebuck · 10-30-2009, 04:55 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow

Feel free to reference this post.

I'm glad to help others who are new like me. All written out in a row like this, its hard to realize this took me several days to figure everything out. (Well, still figuring out.) It was alot of fun and I encourage 1st timer Slackers to read as much as possible while they create their own experience with Slackware 13.

Thanks!

Hopefully your Slackware experiences continue. Especially with the sharing part. I know that's one of my driving points is to aid those that are unaware and sometimes frustrated. As for the reading part, I too think everyone should continue to grow therefore reading will be at the forefront.

Recently I had a individual who was referenced a wiki by 'Alien Bob'. The OP came back with that the pages were to complicated and could not continue. Alien Bob's wiki and other information is straight forward with limited tech speak. Written for understanding for everyone. I stated as such to the OP and said if he could not understand that then hand holding would do him no good since instructions would be along the same. My point is to reinforce your statement about 'reading'. Documentation can be dry but the Slackware team is good at writing the information for understanding therefore the first place anyone should go for Slackware issues is the Documentation.

I look forward to working with you or assisting you in the future as I'm sure our paths will cross.

jpcrow · 10-31-2009, 02:35 PM

Added a section on installing RC.FIREWALL on my machine. Thanks hoodooman and samac for getting me thinking about setting up a firewall and pointing me to a solid iptables configuration script.

Thanks Scott Bartlett for a great firewall, and thanks ledow for preserving this for the future.

salemboot · 11-01-2009, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow

Added a section on installing RC.FIREWALL on my machine. Thanks hoodooman and samac for getting me thinking about setting up a firewall and pointing me to a solid iptables configuration script.

Thanks Scott Bartlett for a great firewall, and thanks ledow for preserving this for the future.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cautionary.png

rworkman · 11-02-2009, 08:11 AM

Good writeup, Josh. A few points here and there:

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow

Next I added my user name to the sudo list by editing the /etc/sudoers file (note: visudo did not work for me, and so I eventually used pico):

Code:

pico sudoers

Hrm, that reminds me - I meant to look into building sudo with the --with-env-editor flag so that you can set VISUAL or EDITOR in your environment and have visudo use that as the editor.

Using visudo instead of editing the file directly allows for syntax checking of the file before it's written out to disk.

Quote:

NOTE: It is important to note that wicd weirdly detects some non-hidden networks as hidden networks and will not connect to them.

That's a bug in the wicd version shipped with 13.0 - you can upgrade to the version in -current (normally it's not advisable to do that, but in this case, it's okay). You'll need to remove /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf or fix the essid line for the appropriate AP though.

Quote:

Then, still as SU

Nitpick: you're *root* - you just got there using the "su" command. You don't do anything *as* su.

Quote:

Code:

pico /etc/inittab

Learn vi. :-) Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

Chuck56 · 11-02-2009, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rworkman

Learn vi. :-) Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

You might consider printing out a copy of the vi-vim-cheat-sheet and keeping it handy as you learn vi.

Lufbery · 11-02-2009, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rworkman

Learn vi. :-) Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

... or Emacs.

Josh,

You've done a great job with your write-up and with keeping it up-to-date.

Thanks,

sevin711 · 12-14-2009, 02:30 PM

Josh,

Perfect write up/tutorial. I am up and running and have a far better understanding of a lot of topics. Kudos.

AlphaSigmaOne · 12-14-2009, 04:14 PM

Excellent work!

I was actually think of doing something similar now that I have some time over the Holidays. Perhaps I won't.

Granted, I did want to add some sort of intro to the Linux commands as well.