Well, i finally installed Slackware 9, and i must say i was impressed with new features such as hotplug support. On the other side, i was really surprised that enlightenment and all it's libraries aren't there. Then i went to compile a new kernel just to find out kernel source is not installed and is not on the installation or the extras cd!! This is not anything like slackware! No kernel source installed with default full install!?
Are you, other slackware 9 users also missing the kernel source or is it just me, because this time i didn't buy the slackware official CD's, instead i got slackware ISO on a cd with a Linux magazine. So is the kernel source really missing from slackware 9? If so, then that's pretty bad... Although i have to say that the hotplug support and the automatic module loader work very well, so there is little need to compile a custom kernel, but i would still like to do it.

Then i configured X, and antialiasing works in mozilla, KDE and some other programs, and it's terrible. Without antialiasing in slack 8.1 it was good, but now fonts in programs such as mozilla are HUGE, taking up a lot of my precious screen space. I tried to chage them, and their size, but i just get worse results. I guess i'll have to recompile mozilla without antialiasing support...
Is there something i can do to improve this HUGE fonts hell? Am i the only one with this problem over here?

Thirdly, i started downloading and compiling common programs i had on slack 8.1. Heh, many of them won't compile without tweaking or additional libraries that were on slack 8.1 by default. I can't get eroaster to compile even after hunting down all the libraries it needed, and wvstreams and wvdial are in even worse situation, make miserably fails with some obscure error i can't track down.

New release of Slack is great as long as you use CLI only. X is a total mess with antialiasing, and a lot of software needs additional libraries that were available in slack 8.1 or it won't compile at all with new gcc.

Then all enlightenment libraries, imlib2, etc... are missing as i already mentioned, and so many other programs rely on them, it's a shame E wasn't included.

Overall, a slight dissappointment...

So does anybody know at least how to fix that antialiasing hell?
Thanks in advance to everyone!

-NSKL

It is all in the slackare-9 tree on the servers. I have to say I was shocked when I first saw a true slackware-9 iso image. I always just keep current so I rarely use an iso to install, and even when I do I always make it myself. So when I noticed there iso had no kernel source and stuff like that I was very surprised, but trust me, it is all still availible on an slackware mirror.

I have also noticed a few font issues but i have to say using a large LCD like I do I don't actually find them annoying on my particular desktop machine.

Antialiasing is beautiful on my CRT and LCD. What program do you use to configure it? I know GNOME and KDE both have great programs, that show you what each setting looks like, makes it real easy.


The Kernel source is in the /k directory by the way (on FTP). I know, I was annoyed too, but its a 35MB file. Thats A LOT of a CD, and it seems slackware still wants to stay on one CD (which is good for dialup people like me). Other than that though, I didnt find any packages missing. And in the Extra Directory, theres a lot of useful stuff.

I recommend CheckInstall. That package SHOULD be included by default. It makes managing self compiled programs a breeze. I don't know how I live w/o it now. I mean, I always compile from source, and on most of my machines, its a mess, and in Slack, I have a nice list of my programs for easy install/uninstall, and backed up packages of all by compiled programs, making reinstall a breeze. (PS. I know Checkinstall is available for other distros, I just havent gotten around to it, and my systems are a mess anyway).

I'd rather have the kernel source than gnome ;)
Specially considering that the installer allows
to install on xfs and the stock kernel doesn't
have that built in I find it quite a shame that
the source isn't on the CD :}

Cheers,
Tink

I've heard a few reports about this, I don't (and didn't) have any font problems, and I think thats because I installed dropline before I even configured XF86, and dropline has a tweaked (i686) version of XF86, plus the webfonts package etc..

Please see following:

http://www.geocities.com/pesho_pv/fonts.html
http://www.geocities.com/pesho_pv/fonts2.html

and tell me which fonts do you prefer most. On first page you'll see two screenshots of my desktop showing Dropline GNOME 2.2.1. This is with enabled bytecode interpreter (FreeType 2.1.4) and disabled anti-aliasing for fonts smaller than 15 pt in size) i.e. as much as possible Windows-like. O the second KDE 3.1 is shown (again 2 screenshots) but this time fonts are displayed trough disabled bytecode interpreter and aliasing at all sizes i.e. like in MacOS X.
For even more detailed comparison between enabled and disabled bytecode interpreter, different font resolutions, etc. go here:

http://www.geocities.com/pesho_pv/dpi_dis.html
http://www.geocities.com/pesho_pv/dpi_en.html

It will be even better if you provide screenshot of your desktop with problematic (according to you) applications and probably I will be able to help you somehow.
In the meanwhile you can read our (I mean Dropline forum members and users) "Font FAQ". It is far from finished, but hopefully it will give you some ideas:

http://www.dropline.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=825

Well, about missing packages and kernel source, thatnks for telling me it's still on slack's FTP, but it's still a shame it's not included by default since it will take me forever to download it via 56k.

I fixed the font problem. I was using a virtual screen which is much larger in resolution than my physical screen, and that was causing fonts to look crappy. I disabled the virtual screen and now fonts are nicely antialiased!
Thanks for all the info.
-NSKL

After my 17" monitor died on me, and I replaced it with a similar backup 17" monitor, my fonts were 2x the size they were with my original monitor. I don't use dropline, but I visited the Font FAQ and figured maybe my problem is this one:

Q. My fonts are too large or too small. The resolution seems wrong. My fonts are mis-shapen.

So I did the command and found it to be:
resolution: 104x113 dots per inch
but I don't have Gnome font configurator so I don't know where to go from here. Can you give specific manual instructions on how to do this without gnome? Slack on.

-Malix

Actually, the kernel source is included on cd2, but it is not installed by default.

The only problem I really have with antialiasing is Mozilla. It does look terrible. Konqueror looks great. That and there are too few fonts included with Slackware.

hmm I couldn't find it on cd2 but that's ok I just d/loaded it from kernel.org using lynx after i setup.

You get cd2 when you buy slackware 9.

any ideas to go about fixing my problem?

I'd suggest installing dropline, anyway. If you have the hard drive space, it's worth having. It includes some other software, including xine along with libs to let you play encrypted DVDs. All of these are available separately, but installing dropline is a breeze.

The antialiasing that comes along with dropline is integrated into a tweaked version of X that they install by default.

with dropline installed would i get the antialiasing even if i wasn't using gnome, and instead using blackbox?

I believe so, I think dropline actually has a different font rendering system within xfree if I am not mistaken.