So you want to be a Slacker! What do I do next?

tallship · 12-27-2011, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onebuck

The link that I provided is for Slackware's Security Advisories main page. Some users do not use '-current' so they can use the security advisories.

That certainly brings up an important point Gary. The notion of Slackware as a rolling distribution, instead of one (however current) that is statically fixed from release to release.

Most of us advise folks not to run -current, with the caveat that it *may not* be completely stable as it is the development branch that Slackware stable is ultimately built from in future releases - yet it's a matter of "Don't do as I do, do as I say.", because we actually run -current ourselves (and confidently so).

Sure, there are many machines we manage that, for the sake of our jobs and our clients mission critical business operations, run a stable release version, but overwhelmingly, our installation base of Slackware Linux consists primarily of -current, while as you point out, "some" people don't.

Regardless, my advice is to:

1.) subscribe to the email list and get your advisories

2.) Follow the changelogs and run the following on a regular basis, picking and choosing, or simply rolling back when you want:

Code:

# slackpkg install-new
# slackpkg upgrade-all

I hope that helps

Kindest regards,

.

onebuck · 01-15-2012, 08:50 AM

Hi,

Well it is the middle of the month and things are slow with '-current'. Some Slackers (myself included) are getting cabin fever in the Northern hemisphere since being stuck inside with the ever changing weather, it's damn cold outside here in Illinois,USA. First snow of the season and temps in the teens after having balmy 40°-50° days in January.

One thing of note, java is changing due to Oracles positions;

Quote:

excerpt from Alien's Blog;
In 2007, Sun delivered to its earlier promise to make Java open source and released the bulk of its code under a GPL license. Since then, high-profile companies like IBM and Apple have done major contributions to the OpenJDK codebase in order to create an industrial-strength alternative to the binary releases of Java SE..
Oracle assimilated Sun in 2010 and obtained the rights to Java SE.
For Linux distros, not much changed because binary releases of the JDK and JRE were still made available for re-distribution. In 2011 however, Oracle decided that new binary releases of its Java SE (the runtime or JRE as well as the SDK) may no longer be included with Linux distros. They retired the “Operating System Distributor License for Java” (DLJ) and decided that distros should compile their own packages using the Open Source codebase of OpenJDK,.which Oracle itself uses as well for their binary builds.

Of course, you as an “individual user of Java SE” still have the legal right to download and use Oracle’s binaries – you’re just not allowed to re-distribute it. Making a Slackware package out of your Oracle-downloaded binaries is simple – use the jdk.SlackBuild or jre.SlackBuild scripts which are part of Slackware and “wrap” those binaries into a convenient package.
While this is a nice solution for the individual, our own Slackware had to stop updating its Java packages. It now has to solve the question of keeping or removing Java from its distribution. Since Oracle’s binaries can no longer be included, Slackware has to follow the advice and build its own Java from source.
This situation now lasts since august 2011 and it is bothering me. So, in November 2011 I made a promise to Pat Volkerding that I would create a set of Slackware packages for the OpenJDK. Unfortunately that took me longer than expected because a lack of time and because (as outlined in my previous post) I wanted to build them in such a way that I could use the SlackBuild scripts on ARMedslack which still lacks a Java package.

I uploaded the results of my efforts last week but Pat has not responded since, so I am making the packages and sources/scriptes available to a wider audience. Please note that I named the resulting packages “openjdk” and “openjre” but the packages that could get included into Slackware eventually may be named differently (like “openjdk-jdk” and “openjdk-jre”). In any case, I invite you to test them and report your findings.
You can get all of it here: http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/openjdk/ with a mirror here: http://alien.slackbook.org/slackware/openjdk/
For ready-made packages (for Slackware-current !) you can check the two directories “pkg64″ (containing 64bit versions) and “pkg” (for the 32bit version of Slackware). If you want to install my pre-built packages, then all you really need are “rhino” which is the JavaScript engine, “icedtea-web” which is the browser plugin, and one of “openjdk” or “openjre” packages, depending of course on whether you need the full Java compiler suite or only the Java Runtime Environment.
You will also find packages for apache-ant, xalan and xerces. These are only needed if you want to re-compile OpenJDK yourself. If you want to build your own packages instead of using (or after installing) mine, then follow the instructions in the sources/README.txt file. If you are not running Slackware-current but one of the stable releases, then compiling from source will be your only option.
For you wannabe-compilers, I will repeat part of that README text here. OpenJDK will not compile successfully on Slackware unless you make some modifications to the gcc and seamonkey packages. You can either recompile those using the modified SlackBuild scripts and sources which I also provided in the openjdk sources tree, but you can also choose the less intrusive alternative by running (as root !) two small shell scripts that add the missing functionality to your system: create_gcj_jvm.sh and fix_seamonkey_pkgconfig.sh. These two scripts should work on every Slackware release.
After running the two shell scripts (or after rebuilding gcc and seamonkey) you are ready to (build and) install apache-ant, xalan, xerces and rhino, logout and log back in again to set the ANT_HOME environment variable, and proceed with building OpenJDK and icedtea-web. Good luck!
Any questions or feedback about these scripts and packages? Please post them here and I will follow up.

As always many thanks to Alien_Bob for his continued efforts. If you are interested in java as most users then be sure to aid Alien_Bob with the testing.

I too am awaiting the RaspberryPi release;

Quote:

We’ve started manufacture! Posted on January 10, 2012 by liz 537
Raspberry Pis started being made a couple of days ago, but I was forbidden to tell you about it until signed contracts and receipts for payment had arrived – it’s been killing me, especially since I’ve had tens of you asking me when manufacturing would start every day for the last few weeks. I am not good at keeping secrets.

Be sure to read the rest at RaspberryPi. One of the reasons behind manufacturing moving to the far East! We are being locked into using Far East Manufactures because of current manufactures not keeping up competitively with the Far East competitors. Everybody is blaming labor differentials.

Since Tebow time is now over for the season, here's hoping everyone will have a Happy & prosperous New Year!

Go Niners!

SCerovec · 01-16-2012, 08:00 AM

RE java:
I was Just about to ask how I make my JRE "cmov"-less (it's i586, but relyes on cmov my Gecko has not on it's Vortex CPU)
Thanks for that info

onebuck · 01-27-2012, 04:01 PM

Hi,

I am placing a copy of my post #26 for 'Slackware on an SSD' here. I plan on adding more tweaks, information & benchmarks when possible here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlpa

There is a post with several optimizations on SSD.

Hope it helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlpa

Hi, this is my fstab:

Quote:

/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda5 / ext4 defaults,discard,noatime,nodiratime 1 1
/dev/sda2 /media/Windows ntfs-3g discard,umask=000 1 0
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /var/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

<snip>

You do not need 'nodiratime' in your 'fstab' since it is part of 'noatime'.

Another point for 'swap' is to use and placing in '/etc/rc.d/rc.local' : 'echo 1 >/proc/sys/vm/swappiness' to limit swap. Default swappiness in Slackware is '60'. Even with today's large memory footprint, I like to keep a swap.

As the memory gets >=8GB then consider locating high read/write operations in memory or if you prefer a physical HDD at the cost of time.

You can also maximize performance by using and placing in '/etc/rc.d/rc.local'; 'echo 50 > /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure'. Slackware default for '/proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure' is '100'.

Note: Plus be sure to use & where X=a,b.c..: 'tune2fs -o discard /dev/sdX' if you do not use 'discard' in 'fstab'.

If you have 'SSD' & 'HDD' in the system then you can use 'noop' scheduler and can be placed in '/etc/rc.d/rc.local': 'echo noop > /sys/block/sdX/queue/scheduler' ( where 'X' is a,b,c,d,e....)

Slackware default is [cfg] scheduler. You can verify this by 'cat /sys/block/sdX/queue/scheduler' that will show the contents for the scheduler in use will be in [cfg] brackets (where 'X' is a,b,c,d,e....).
You will see other available schedulers from the output of 'cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler'.

If you are worried that udev may assign different '/dev/' node to drive(s) because of kernel updates,system upgrade, etc. You should take the means to assign 'noop' to the correct device and place this in '/etc/rc.d/rc.local';

Code:

This code snippet from ArchWiki;

SSD=(device ID's of all 'SSD': see note below)

declare -i i=0
while [ "${SSD[$i]}" != "" ]; do
  NODE=`ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/${SSD[$i]} | awk '{ print $NF }' | sed -e 's/[/\.]//g'`
  echo noop > /sys/block/$NODE/queue/scheduler
  i=i+1
done

Code:

Note Information revised from ArchWiki;

This provides the links listed with targets information to place in bash array 'SSD= ( ) parentheses in above 'SSD= ( );

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2012-01-25 10:01 ata-INTEL_SSDSA2M040G2GC_CVGB0320007N040NGN -> ../../sda

Place 'ata-INTEL_SSDSA2M040G2GC_CVGB0320007N040NGN'

into the bash array 'SSD= (ata-INTEL_SSDSA2M040G2GC_CVGB0320007N040NGN)'

You can place all system target ID for 'SSD' in the bash array. Each ID should be space separated.

Caution Note: You should only switch the scheduler to 'noop' for the 'SSD(s)' in the system. You should keep the 'cfg' scheduler for all other physical 'HHD' in the system. Some say to use 'deadline' but for a 'SSD' device that has no mechanical heads or spinning disks actions to introduce delay then no advantage for 'deadline' over 'noop' which is 'FIFO' queue.

Sometimes you may need to completely reset 'SSD' cells to factory state. 'TRIM' can degrade performance over time on some 'SSD', even ones that support native 'TRIM'. I suggest to get 'SSD' utilities from the drive manufacture. Manufactures usually provide utilities along with firmware upgrades but not always.

Partition Schemes for 'SSD' are always debated. Personally I think that the 'longevity' of the SSD can be extended by placing active partitions like '/var' on a physical HDD rather than on a 'SSD'. '/tmp' can be treated in the same way.

Nothing saying you cannot setup highly active partitions on a 'SSD' when the 'SSD' is optimized properly. 'SSD' longevity is increasing for newer devices. For me a 'SSD' that lasts for 5-8 years is longer than the system usage lifetime for my hardware.

Everyone should select the type of 'SSD' selected, be it synchronous 'SLC' ($$$)or asynchronous 'MLC'($). Each has advantages and disadvantages. Some manufactures are keeping the costs down by using asynchronous 'MLC' with a known good processor controller(i.e.; SandForce is widely used). Maximized performance can be had by synchronous 'SLC' and known good controller 'SandForce'. But you will pay for those advantages on a SandForce synchronous 'SLC' based 'SSD'.

Densities are getting better for 'MLC' at a much lower cost for consumer grade 'SSD'. So unless you have the mission critical performance needs that are provided by a SandForce synchronous 'SLC' based 'SSD' at a much greater cost then my suggestion is to select a premium grade SandForce asynchronous 'MLC' based 'SSD' device at a lower cost. I like 'Patriot SSD' while others prefer 'OCZ SSD'.

I buy computer systems all the time as the need fits. Just purchased another refurbished Dell Laptop at a great cost savings. My old Dell Laptop(5 years old) is still functional (LQ machine) and will continue to be used but for other duties. Placed a Patriot PyroSE 60GB drive in the new Dell Laptop. Still doing a lot of tweaking for this system with Slackware64 -current. Most of this 'SSD' information is based on the tweaking of the 'SSD' in the New & Old Dell laptops. So much information out there on 'SSD' usage. Some FUD, while some factual and useful from LQ, manufactures & wikis'.

Note: Be very careful with mixing old & new 'SSD' advice & information. I will revise this as I continue benchmarking and tweaking the New Dell Laptop w/Patriot PyroSE SSD. Also will place revisions in So you want to be a Slacker! What do I do next?

Buyer be-aware!

But: "No man ever yet became great by imitation." -Samuel Johnson

HTH!

sycamorex · 01-27-2012, 04:21 PM

Thanks for that, Gary. It'd be great to have all the config/tweaking info in one place.

onebuck · 02-06-2012, 07:37 AM

Hi,

Now that Slackware '-current' is moving again things seem to be getting back to normal.

I recently purchased another refurbished Dell Laptop to replace the Old Dell laptop (moved to other duties).

On my TODO list was to use Dugan's new guide for my font usage with '-current'. I upgraded my packages to bring it to 'current' status. Firefox 10 did not look that good. So why not do the fonts along with other tweaking. Looking at ' Beautiful Fonts in 12.1' you will find in #1 the updated link to Dugan's new guide. Plus if you wish to follow things for 13.37 within ' Beautiful Fonts in 12.1', start your work at post #212.

Dugan's new guide is the best way to get your fonts tweaked to have a great looking Desktop. Plus if you want a good looking console, Dugan provides a sound method.

I plan on trying Infinality using my fonts;

Quote:

excerpt from Dugan's new guide;
If you’re using a set of fonts that you’ve copied from a Windows (Vista or newer) or OS X installation, then use the local.conf file provided by infinality.net. It works very well with the lcdfilter packages.

One suggestion is to not watch the Super Bowl when attempting this.

NFC again!

Kudos to Dugan 'Dugan's new guide' & Daedra for all the great work/help within ' Beautiful Fonts in 12.1'.

My one suggestion would be to change the thread title to reflect 'Beautiful Fonts for Slackware 12.1 and beyond' or something to reflect the guide is for 12.1 to 13.37/'-current'.
Just my $.02.

onebuck · 02-07-2012, 10:45 AM

Hi,

I am still tweaking things for my new Dell Laptop. I really did not like the appearance for Firefox 10 when visiting other sites. After searching & experimentation with Preferences settings for Firefox. The default settings using Microsoft fonts since most web sites use these font settings. While in Firefox do: Edit> Preferences;

Quote:

Default font: Times New Roman Size: 16 <<<<<Personal setting preference, most use Size: 13

Pick <Advanced>
Proportional: Serif Size:16 <<some defaults are 13
Serif: Times New Roman
Sans-Serif: Arial
Monospace: Courier New Size:13

Minimum Font Size:13

Pick OK then pick Close

You should see noticeable changes. As I stated before that Dugan's new guide is great for setting up fonts.

onebuck · 02-14-2012, 01:08 PM

Hi,

I am still tweaking things on my New/Refurbished Dell M5030 Laptop. For my KDE 4.5.5 looking through KDE sites and configurations for ATI related to 'Desktop Effects'. 'System Settings'> 'Desktop Effects' will get you too the window to allow setting varied assignments. The <General Tab> has the radio button 'Enable Desktop effects'.

If this button is grayed out then you can possibly enable by editing '~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc';

Quote:

[Compositing]
AnimationSpeed=3
Backend=OpenGL
CheckIsSafe=true #@start by default KDE checks OpenGL support, if fail then OpenGlIsUnsafe=true is set
DisableChecks=true #On some ATI Graphics cards this will work if KDE startup cks are disabled: DisableChecks=true
Enabled=true
GLDirect=true
GLMode=TFP
GLTextureFilter=1
GLVSync=true
HiddenPreviews=5
OpenGLIsUnsafe=false #if =true then KDE starts enable 3D effects greyed out
XRenderSmoothScale=false

[Desktops]
Name_1=LQ
Name_2=Personal
Name_3=Utility
Name_4=General
Name_5=Code
Name_6=Experimentation/kernel/system
Name_7=Install/Upgrade
Name_8=System Monitor/Display
Number=8

I have been doing searches to get the parameters for 'kwinrc'. Most of what I now have is from LQ, KDE & various other sites. No where can I find the source for this list of definitions for the Option/parameters.

If you need on the fly use then look at 'Toggle-Compositing 0.2.3' once you have compositing setup this plasmoid is useful;

Quote:

Description:Toggle-Compositing is a little button that you can conveniently put anywhere in your plasma panel or desktop and it allows you to switch with ease, between KWin's compositing and traditional mode.

This all started because of my needs to have a good Desktop widget for my Dell's system monitor. I have kludged ' System-Supervisor-Clear' SuperKaramba widget for my 'Slackware -current' system. Laptop still needs to have the 'Fan' interface configured for this Dell M5030. Super I/O chip is a National Semiconductor unknown chip with 0xfc11 ID for 'sensor-detect' output.

I found 'dellfand' which is a daemon for displaying/controlling the fan on certain Dell laptops. Looking at the source it does seem to be a way to get the fan updates after I kludge the code to allow monitoring laptop fan. You can get the source tarball: dellfand-0.9.tar.bz2. If you decide to use this daemon as is then be sure to read the cautions;

Quote:

Notes

for safety the daemon will set the fan to low on interrupt or normal exit if it is not already on. The fan will remain high if it is high when the daemon exits.
I don't recommend terminating the daemon with any signal other than INT.
dellfand will only control fan 0, even if more fans are present, as is the case with some Dell laptops. I have no value to work off to decide when the second fan should be running. If you have any ideas let me know...
I recommend restarting your laptop if you terminate dellfand because otherwise the BIOS may not take over fan regulation again and the laptop may overheat.

I do plan on providing information as related to the Dell Laptop. Also include general information for other users. My other big concern is to get the TouchPad working properly with 'Synaptics' or 'ALPS';

Code:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices 

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0001       Version=0000N: Name="PS/2 Generic Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input13
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse1 event13 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

Mouse is the primary device but the touchpad should have all functions. Right now touchpad has limited functionality.
HTH!

onebuck · 02-15-2012, 10:40 AM

Hi,

To configure & tweak your Slackware fonts then look at: How to Optimize Fonts in Slackware which is the new title for 'Beautiful Fonts in 12.1' by Daedra

onebuck · 02-16-2012, 10:03 AM

Hi,

So you need to get back those Firefox & Thunderbird Address book, Bookmarks, data,files, settings or whatever. You backup the system right!

While experimenting with tweaking of my New Dell Laptop, I have found it necessary to revert some things. System backups are great but overkill when I am tweaking applications & settings. So I will do;

Code:

For Mozilla;
tar cvfz mymozilla_bkup.tar.gz /home/myaccount/.mozilla/

For Thunderbird;
tar cvfz mythunder_bkup.tar.gz /home/myaccount/.thunderbird/

If you wish to restore the archive to '/home/username' then;

Code:

For Mozilla;
tar xvf mymozilla_bkup.tar.gz

For Thunderbird;
 tar xvf mythunder_bkup.tar.gz

Of course you can just view the archive;

Code:

For Mozilla;
tar -tf mymozilla_bkup.tar.gz

For Thunderbird;
tar -tf mythunder_bkup.tar.gz

I do suggest that new users should do 'man tar' to understand operations, options & Other options;

Quote:

excerpt from 'man tar';
FUNCTION LETTERS
One of the following options must be used:

-A, --catenate, --concatenate
append tar files to an archive

-c, --create
create a new archive

-d, --diff, --compare
find differences between archive and file system

--delete
delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)

-r, --append
append files to the end of an archive

-t, --list
list the contents of an archive

-u, --update
only append files that are newer than copy in archive

-x, --extract, --get
extract files from an archive

OTHER OPTIONS
....

You can look at 'Slackware® Linux Essentials (Slackbook) which is the Slackware Official Guide, see section: 15 Archive Files: subsection: 15.3 tar.

Another good resource is Rute Tutorial & Exposition section: 4.17 Archives and Backups. Remember that 'tar' is a very useful tool so look at the above resources to learn more ways to enhance your usage.

HTH!

onebuck · 02-20-2012, 10:56 PM

Hi,

KDE-4.8.0 has been available since early Feb/12;

Quote:

Excerpt from Alien_Pastures;
The release schedule could have told you in advance – here we have the first installment in the KDE 4.8 series! The Slackware KDE 4.8.0 packages are ready for your enjoyment.
A good primer on the how and why of the modularization of KDE, resulting in an abundance of smaller packages compared to the big meta packages of Slackware 13.37, please read my earlier post about KDE 4.7.0.
My packages have been compiled on Slackware-current. There has been an incompatible update to slackware-current recently (the glibc package). If you consider using KDE 4.8.0 on one of Slackware’s earlier (stable) releases, then you have no other option than to compile packages yourself. I have written down the guidelines in another blog post..
Read the accompanying README file for installation and upgrade instructions!

Just getting back to my TODO list.

I have been using KDE for awhile now. Upgrade to KDE-4.6.5 to see what everyone was talking about. Feels crisp!

KDE 4.7.4/ is available too.

Be sure to read the 'README.txt' within each KDE version.

So I guess that my new Dell Laptop should go back an use '-current'. There were some early issues with the hardware so I rolled back to 13.37.

Looks like my kernel will need to be 3.2.2 so some of the hardware will be recognized and work properly. Darn Alps touchpad is not fully functional. Looking at the drivers for 3.2.2 it seems to have the proper device models within psmouse.ko module.

HTH!

brianL · 02-22-2012, 06:03 AM

Hi Gary,
Have you read the PM I sent you about the URL's for SlackWiki on the Slackware Links page?
Brian

onebuck · 02-27-2012, 04:01 PM

Hi,

Still working to get the Alps touchpad working for my Dell Inspiron M5030 fully functional. Downloaded kernel 3.3-rc4. Untarred to get too;

Code:

alps.c  alps.h psmouse-base.c  psmouse.h

First try I just copied the 'static const struct alps_model alps_model_data over to my 3.2.7. No real change. I then previewed the 3.3-rc4 alps code. This seemed to handle the Alps id better. So I backup my 'linux-3.2.7' alps.c alps.h psmouse.c psmouse.h psmouse.ko' files for safety. Copied the 3.3-rc4 files: alps.c alps.h psmouse-base.c psmouse.h to 'linux/drivers/input/mouse'. Then

Code:

make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd' psmouse.ko  <<<<create new module
rmmod psmouse     <<<<remove old module
cp psmouse.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/input/mouse    <<<copy the module
modprobe psmouse    <<<install mod

After doing a lot of debug time to create a good '/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf' file;

Code:

Section "InputClass"
       Identifier "touchpad catchall"
       Driver "synaptics"
       MatchIsTouchpad "on"
       MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
#02-27-12 11:19 gws
             Option "PalmDetect"         "on"      #PalmDetect (Bool)If palm detection should be enabled. Note that this also
                                                   #requires hardware/firmware support from the touchpad.
             Option "PalmMinWidth"       "30"      #PalmMinWidth (Integer)Minimum finger width at which touch is considered a palm.
             Option "PalmMinZ"           "10"      #Minimum finger pressure at which touch is considered a palm
             Option "CircularScrolling"  "on"      #
             Option "CircScrollTrigger"  "2"
             Option "FingerLow"          "7"       #FingerLow (Integer) When finger pressure drops below this value, the driver counts it as a release.
             Option "FingerHigh"         "14"      #FingerHigh (Integer) When finger pressure goes above this value, the driver counts it as a touch.

#02-27-12 12:00 gws
             Option  "MaxTapTime"    "90"          #
             Option  "MaxTapMove"    "5"           #
             Option "MaxDoubleTapTime"     "180"   #
             Option "SingleTapTimeout"     "180"   #
             Option "ClickTime"            "100"   #ClickTime (Integer) The duration of the mouse click generated by tapping
             Option "FastTaps"             "1"     #FastTaps (Bool) Makes the driver react faster to a single tap, but also
                                                   # makes double clicks caused by double tapping slower.
             Option  "VertScrollDelta"     "10"    #VertScrollDelta (Integer) Move distance of the finger for a scroll event
             Option  "HorizScrollDelta"    "10"    #HorizScrollDelta (Integer) Move distance of the finger for a scroll event
             Option "VertEdgeScroll"       "true"
             Option "HorizEdgeScroll"      "true"  #

#02-27-12 12:00 gws end

             Option "MinSpeed"    "1.1"   #MinSpeed (Float) Minimum speed factor.
             Option "MaxSpeed"    "1.8"   #MaxSpeed (Float) Maximum speed factor.
             Option "AccelFactor" "0.3"   #AccelFactor (Float) Acceleration factor.
             Option "SHMConfig"    "on"   #SHMConfig (Bool) Switch on/off shared memory for configuration.
#02-27-12 11:19 gws end
 Option "TapButton1" "1"      #TapButton1 (Integer) Which mouse button is reported on a
             Option "TapButton2" "2"      #TapButton2 (Integer) non-corner three-finger tap.
             Option "TapButton3" "3"      #TapButton3 (Integer) Set to 0 to disable.
 EndSection

You will notice that there are no devices identified above. Non in the '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' file either. Let Xorg take care of identifications.

Code:

xinput list --short
â¡ Virtual core pointer                         id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
â   â³ Virtual core XTEST pointer               id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ Microsoft MicrosoftÂ® Nano Transceiver v2.0      id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ Microsoft MicrosoftÂ® Nano Transceiver v2.0      id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ DualPoint Stick                          id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad         id=15   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â£ Virtual core keyboard                        id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    â³ Virtual core XTEST keyboard              id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ Power Button                             id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ Power Button                             id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ Sleep Button                             id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ Microsoft MicrosoftÂ® Nano Transceiver v2.0      id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_0.3M            id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard             id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    â³ Dell WMI hotkeys                         id=16   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Code:

xinput list-props '15'
Device 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad':
        Device Enabled (130):   1
        Coordinate Transformation Matrix (132): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
        Device Accel Profile (256):     1
        Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257):       1.000000
        Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258):       1.000000
        Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259):    12.500000
        Synaptics Edges (296):  300, 1700, 210, 1190
        Synaptics Finger (297): 7, 8, 127
        Synaptics Tap Time (298):       180
        Synaptics Tap Move (299):       5
        Synaptics Tap Durations (300):  180, 180, 100
        Synaptics Tap FastTap (301):    1
        Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (302):  75
        Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (303):    139
        Synaptics Two-Finger Width (304):       7
        Synaptics Scrolling Distance (305):     10, 10
        Synaptics Edge Scrolling (306): 1, 1, 0
        Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (307):   1, 0
        Synaptics Move Speed (308):     1.000000, 1.636364, 0.300000, 40.000000
        Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure (309):   14, 79
        Synaptics Edge Motion Speed (310):      1, 195
        Synaptics Edge Motion Always (311):     0
        Synaptics Off (312):    0
        Synaptics Locked Drags (313):   0
        Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (314):   5000
        Synaptics Tap Action (315):     0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3
        Synaptics Click Action (316):   1, 1, 1
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling (317):     1
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (318):    0.100000
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (319):     2
        Synaptics Circular Pad (320):   0
        Synaptics Palm Detection (321): 0
        Synaptics Palm Dimensions (322):        10, 99
        Synaptics Coasting Speed (323): 20.000000, 50.000000
        Synaptics Pressure Motion (324):        14, 79
        Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (325): 1.000000, 1.000000
        Synaptics Grab Event Device (326):      1
        Synaptics Gestures (327):       1
        Synaptics Capabilities (328):   1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0
        Synaptics Pad Resolution (329): 1, 1
        Synaptics Area (330):   0, 0, 0, 0
        Synaptics Noise Cancellation (331):     12, 12

Or just do this;

Code:

xinput list --short | grep -i 'touchpad' | grep -o '=[0-9]*' | cut -d'=' -f2 | xargs -t xinput list-props

Device 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad':
        Device Enabled (130):   1
        Coordinate Transformation Matrix (132): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
        Device Accel Profile (256):     1
        Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257):       1.000000
        Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258):       1.000000
        Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259):    12.500000
        Synaptics Edges (296):  300, 1700, 210, 1190
        Synaptics Finger (297): 7, 8, 127
        Synaptics Tap Time (298):       180
        Synaptics Tap Move (299):       5
        Synaptics Tap Durations (300):  180, 180, 100
        Synaptics Tap FastTap (301):    1
        Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (302):  75
        Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (303):    139
        Synaptics Two-Finger Width (304):       7
        Synaptics Scrolling Distance (305):     10, 10
        Synaptics Edge Scrolling (306): 1, 1, 0
        Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (307):   1, 0
        Synaptics Move Speed (308):     1.000000, 1.636364, 0.300000, 40.000000
        Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure (309):   14, 79
        Synaptics Edge Motion Speed (310):      1, 195
        Synaptics Edge Motion Always (311):     0
        Synaptics Off (312):    0
        Synaptics Locked Drags (313):   0
        Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (314):   5000
        Synaptics Tap Action (315):     0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3
        Synaptics Click Action (316):   1, 1, 1
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling (317):     1
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (318):    0.100000
        Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (319):     2
        Synaptics Circular Pad (320):   0
        Synaptics Palm Detection (321): 0
        Synaptics Palm Dimensions (322):        10, 99
        Synaptics Coasting Speed (323): 20.000000, 50.000000
        Synaptics Pressure Motion (324):        14, 79
        Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (325): 1.000000, 1.000000
        Synaptics Grab Event Device (326):      1
        Synaptics Gestures (327):       1
        Synaptics Capabilities (328):   1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0
        Synaptics Pad Resolution (329): 1, 1
        Synaptics Area (330):   0, 0, 0, 0
        Synaptics Noise Cancellation (331):     12, 12

The above synaptics information is valuable to tweak the touchpad. Plus be sure to use 'man synaptics' to get useful information. I have spent a lot of time to get this damn 'Alps TouchPad' working. I guess that the 3.3-rc4 or now 3.3-rc5 would have settled things but I really want to stick with 3.2 for a while. Dell Inspiron Laptop touchpad now works. Hope this helps other members. Next task is to create a touchpad.desktop enable/disable when I do not want the touchpad operable.

onebuck · 02-28-2012, 04:14 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL

Hi Gary,
Have you read the PM I sent you about the URL's for SlackWiki on the Slackware Links page?
Brian

I sent a PM to confirm the changes.
Thanks!

01micko · 03-09-2012, 08:13 PM

Hi everybody,

I just installed and configured alienbob's latest current iso on an old r51 thinkpad and everything works ootb using the huge.s kernel, the second choice as my centrino cpu doesn't support PAE, that's ok, I only have 512MB RAM anyway. Runs really well with xfce, but I think I'll compile lxde. I also installed wicd (extras) for a painless wireless experience.

Thanks to Pat, alienbob and the crew.

Mick