SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I am trying to learn how to find and install additional software in
Slackware 14.1.
I realize these are very basic questions, please be patient with me.
Searching this site. http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/sl...1/PACKAGES.TXT
I find an index of packages.
Is this the complete list of available, official packages? Or are all these packages included in the install?
Does all additional software packages come from, Slackbuilds or
Alien Bob?
Looking through Slackbuilds, I see they have a lot of packages that look interesting.
I realize I will have to do a lot more reading to learn Slackbuilds,
but perhaps someone can point me in the right direction. I'm just not sure where to start.
Thank you for looking.
Last edited by offgridguy; 08-30-2016 at 10:17 PM.
Slackbuilds.org is the go-to place for software for most Slackers. AlienBob is also an excellent resource.
If I can't find what I'm looking for at either of those two places, I usually just compile from sources, which really isn't all that difficult, except for the whole searching for dependencies thing. (When I started with Slackware, there was no Slackbuilds.org. I learned a lot about dependencies.)
Those packages are all part of the install. If you choose the default, it will have everything installed except for the stuff in extra/ and the stuff in slackware/kdei/ (internationalization of KDE isn't selected by default).
Most packages will need to be installed from other sources. Eric (Alien Bob) provides packages on both his server and Slackware's server, but, while the list is long, it certainly won't cover all packages. Most people will install stuff from slackbuilds.org (commonly called SBo), but SBo doesn't provide packages, they provide a script (called a SlackBuild) and links to the source to build a Slackware package that you can install yourself. They'll list any dependencies that package requires (and they're all required to be available on SBo), along with any optional dependencies.
There's a few other repos out there, some will package SBo's offerings, while others will do their own. Be wary of installing pre-compiled packages from multiple sources, since the dependencies could be different and you could end up putting yourself in "dependency hell" (it won't always happen, in fact, it may not even be typical, but it is a pain to try and work out). I typically install stuff using SBo, with the occasional package from Eric (like Chromium, LibreOffice, and QT5, since they're all big compiles). This way, I ensure all the software is built based on the dependencies on my computer and I won't run into issues with mismatched or missing dependencies.
The easiest way to learn how to use SlackBuilds is to check out their HOWTO link at the top. They provide an example of it and walk you through how to use it. Once you're familiar with the process, then you can look into more automated tools to handle building software, but I'd highly recommend figuring out how to do it manually, because the automated versions won't always work, and it is good to know how to do things by hand if needed.
One thing that is rare to Linux distributions that is normal for Slackware is that there are really about four different common sources for software:
1. Slackware (the thing you installed)
2. Slackbuilds (most popularly, but not exclusively, available from slackbuilds.org)
3. Pre-compiled binary, or "slack packages", in the form of .tgz or .txz files.
4. Converting pre-compiled RPM files to .tgz with `rpm2tgz`
So you can install some things from the Slackware disc or servers, you can install some things from slackbuilds.org, and you can download and install other things as pre-built packages from other places.
My impression is that "most" slackers settle for a mix of AlienBob packages along with SB.o packages they build themselves. But there are other places. Personally, here is a list of sites I frequent:
Slackbuilds.org is the go-to place for software for most Slackers. AlienBob is also an excellent resource.
If I can't find what I'm looking for at either of those two places, I usually just compile from sources, which really isn't all that difficult, except for the whole searching for dependencies thing. (When I started with Slackware, there was no Slackbuilds.org. I learned a lot about dependencies.)
Welcome to the wonderful world of Slackware, the Distro of Iron. It always works and never breaks (unless I break it myself, of course).
Thank you for the help Frank. There is quite a learning curve involved with Slackware compared to most of the other distro's I have tried but I'm eager to learn. One thing I like is that Slackware forces me to learn the CLI.
Last edited by offgridguy; 08-31-2016 at 02:12 AM.
Those packages are all part of the install. If you choose the default, it will have everything installed except for the stuff in extra/ and the stuff in slackware/kdei/ (internationalization of KDE isn't selected by default).
Most packages will need to be installed from other sources. Eric (Alien Bob) provides packages on both his server and Slackware's server, but, while the list is long, it certainly won't cover all packages. Most people will install stuff from slackbuilds.org (commonly called SBo), but SBo doesn't provide packages, they provide a script (called a SlackBuild) and links to the source to build a Slackware package that you can install yourself. They'll list any dependencies that package requires (and they're all required to be available on SBo), along with any optional dependencies.
There's a few other repos out there, some will package SBo's offerings, while others will do their own. Be wary of installing pre-compiled packages from multiple sources, since the dependencies could be different and you could end up putting yourself in "dependency hell" (it won't always happen, in fact, it may not even be typical, but it is a pain to try and work out). I typically install stuff using SBo, with the occasional package from Eric (like Chromium, LibreOffice, and QT5, since they're all big compiles). This way, I ensure all the software is built based on the dependencies on my computer and I won't run into issues with mismatched or missing dependencies.
The easiest way to learn how to use SlackBuilds is to check out their HOWTO link at the top. They provide an example of it and walk you through how to use it. Once you're familiar with the process, then you can look into more automated tools to handle building software, but I'd highly recommend figuring out how to do it manually, because the automated versions won't always work, and it is good to know how to do things by hand if needed.
Thank you, this is very helpful and answered a big part of my questions.
One thing that is rare to Linux distributions that is normal for Slackware is that there are really about four different common sources for software:
1. Slackware (the thing you installed)
2. Slackbuilds (most popularly, but not exclusively, available from slackbuilds.org)
3. Pre-compiled binary, or "slack packages", in the form of .tgz or .txz files.
4. Converting pre-compiled RPM files to .tgz with `rpm2tgz`
So you can install some things from the Slackware disc or servers, you can install some things from slackbuilds.org, and you can download and install other things as pre-built packages from other places.
My impression is that "most" slackers settle for a mix of AlienBob packages along with SB.o packages they build themselves. But there are other places. Personally, here is a list of sites I frequent:
You just tell the program what repos you want to use and thats it. Personally I add Alien's and rlworkman (Robbie). It also updates and manages the main Slackware repos and uses the same commands as slackpkg (search install etc...). nano /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf to edit.
Slackbuilds.org is invaluable and saves alot of time. I check Alien and Robbie first then SlackBuilds. You can also add SalixOS /extra as a repo which has many programs from SlackBuilds as binaries.
You just tell the program what repos you want to use and thats it. Personally I add Alien's and rlworkman (Robbie). It also updates and manages the main Slackware repos and uses the same commands as slackpkg (search install etc...). nano /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf to edit.
Slackbuilds.org is invaluable and saves alot of time. I check Alien and Robbie first then SlackBuilds. You can also add SalixOS /extra as a repo which has many programs from SlackBuilds as binaries.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.