Ive been using xfce with Slackware 11 and all is well. Id just like to try installing and trying something else just as an exercise. Like maybe IceWM.
How would one go about this.
Install the .tgz file to /usr/local and then do installpkg. That should work shouldn't it?? Or should it be in /usr/X11R6/bin?
So then this leads me to another question. Which should be the favoured directory to install new applications? I have always used /usr/local and they don't always work!
But then what about /usr/local/bin
Then there's also /bin
And when thre are dependancies, do you just stick them all in /usr/local?

Spose what Im getting at is: Is there a rule?
phil
///

If you've downloaded a Slackware package, you just run installpkg and install it. You don't need to put it anywhere specific. The files will in the package will be put in the "right" place.

OK great. Thanks for that.
I tried it and of course it works. Only thing is that IceWM didnt pitch up in place of xfce when I reboot. It shows up on the xwmconfig selection screen, but does not replace xfce as window manager.
But can I re-ask the question: say I download a .tar.gz file, where should it be processed? In /usr/local or some bin directory.
Is there a webpage that I can read up on this kind of stuff.
phil
^^^^

edit your .xinitrc file to use icewm instead of xfce

OK. But just for the record - I have changed window manager before from KDE and Gnome and xfce just by doing
# xwmconfig
and selecting the WM of choice, and next time I reboot there it is.
Is it now necessary to edit .xinitrc file to activate icewm instead of xfce
phil
^^^^

If you want to compile source code (your tar.gz's) this is usually done after extracting them to /usr/src/name_of_the_program.

So you can choose icewm in xwmconfig, but still xfce is started? Then you should really check if your .xinitrc is causing that. You could just rename the file and do a startx again if you are afraid to look into it

Edit: Oh, and did you download an official slackware package? Because if you didn't it might also be the package causing the problem.

Though one should note that it isn't necessary to extract the sources to any particular location before compiling and installing.

That's right for sure. Though one should note that it is necessary to extract the sources to the desired location before compiling and installing.

But it makes it more organized than having a crap load of directories in your home folder full of source code

OK. I agree its a pain to have your home directory full of zipped or unzipped files. So what are the desired destinations for new applications. Is it different for window managers and other system files?
Is it /usr/local or /usr/bin or /usr/share?
Or maybe /bin?
Phil

You are still not understanding... where you compile sources has nothing to do with where they get installed. And where a pre-made package is located also has nothing to do with where it gets installed to.
A pre-made package already contains the directory structure of where it will install to when you run installpkg. This is nearly always with prefix=/usr, which means that the binaries will install to /usr/bin, shared files will be installed to /usr/share, man-pages to /usr/man... etc. When you compile sources they will usually install to /usr/local (bin, share, man etc) unless you pass another prefix option to configure. Sources don't get installed anywhere until you give the 'make install' command. If you are installing software this way you should really use the default --prefix=/usr/local since this will keep them separated from *packaged* software which is usually in /usr. Installing from source will not make the software show up in pkgtool. Keeping them separate in /usr/local makes it easier to see what you have installed that way. And the only way to uninstall such software is by running 'make uninstall' in the original sources, which means you shouldn't delete or move them. This really not a very good way to keep track of software.
When you use installpkg to install a pre-made package, the package can be located anywhere -even on a read-only CD. installpkg uncompresses the package to the right place and creates an entry in the package database, so you can easily remove or upgrade the package using pkgtool(installpkg, upgradepkg or removepkg.

If you want or need to install something that must be compiled first, you really ought to use something like my 'src2pkg' program which will create a proper slackware-compatible installable package for you from the compiled sources. Making a proper package is not really easy. The location where you unpack and compile the sources is not the same as where it will be installed. You can, in theory, unpack and compile sources anywhere on your system, but there are really only a few places where you *should* do it. The first place is in your $HOME directory -especially if your are manually compiling and installing using 'make install'. If you are compiling sources and then creating installable package from that, you probably should do that while logged in as 'root' and unpack/compile them in a separate directory under /usr/src or in /tmp, or on some partition where you have space -especially if you are going to do several packages.
You really ought to try using src2pkg as it will 'just do it' in the right way ad without clogging up your $HOME or trashing your system ('make install' can cause a lot of havoc if you don'Ät know what you are doing.
If you want to try it, just download the src2pkg package to your $HOME directory or anywhere else, then cd into the directory where it is located and run:
'installpkg src2pkg*.tgz'.
The to use it, just cd into the directory where the source tarball you want to compile is located and run: 'src2pkg name-of-tarball'. By default src2pkg will unpack and compile the sources uner /tmp and create the final installable package there as well. To install the package, just cd into /tmp,find the finished package and install t to your system using 'installpkg name-of-package.tgz'. Or you can have src2pkg install it for you by using the '-I' option (src2pkg -I name-of-tarball'.
You can get the latest installable package of src2pkg here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...kg-1.6.tar.bz2
You can search the forum here for 'src2pkg' to find out more about the program and what many other slackers think of it.

gnashley, thats a nice program you got, I'm installing it now , I wish I heard of that sooner