Slackware - InstallationThis forum is for the discussion of installation issues with Slackware.
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Very pleased with Slackware-good installation. Purchased 4 cd set for the source code cd's.How do you install the source code, and once installed how do you find it? Basically a newbie question, but I could use the help. Thanks-- lmellen
So, some of the packages from the cd you want to install from source?
I can't remember the directory structure for slack but for example, say we want to install ispell
the source file will be someplace like /somedir/source/ap/ispell
copy the ispell-*.tar.gz file into your home directory: cp ispell-*.tar.gz ~
then you can go to your home directory: cd~
extract the archive: tar zxvf ispell-*.tar.gz
move to that directory and there will usually be an INSTALL or other text file with some instructions. It will probably say to execute the commands:
./configure
make
make install
This will detect your system setting, compile the program, and make install will copy the files to the appropriate place on your system. It will probably put the executables in a directory that is you PATH so you executing it will be done by typing in the name from any directory. Ex. ispell would start up ispell. If want to know where it puts the files at you can pipe the make install text into a file and view it later to see where it copied files to: make install > ispell.ins.log
You can also use the find command to find where it puts stuff.. knowing that the package is called ispell you could run:
find / -name 'ispell*' -print
and that will list the files starting with ispell.
Thanks for the reply hypeXR, but that's not the problem. I installed Slackware on a IBM t22 Thinkpad about a week ago. The installation seems to be good installation.-- Is not Linux supposed to be "open source"? When I purchased the 4 cd set from Slackware 2 cds were for installing the OS, and the other 2 were for the source code. I thought that meant you could see the code that actually built the OS. I might be wrong, but the last 2 cds are the ones I can't seem to install. Again, I'm still basically a newbie and might not know exactly what I'm talking about! Thanks for the help--lmellen
I am still not sure about your question, but I will give one more try at an answer.
Slackware does not let you do an install where it takes the source code and compiles it all to make the system (distributions like Gentoo let you do this). This can only be done if you install the base system and then take each package off of the cd that you want and compile it like I mentioned in the last post.
The source code on the 2 cds is the source code for linux and all of the packages that Slackware distributes with it. If you wanted to get the source code to see it, change it, or compile it just grab the .tar.gz file extract it and you are good to go.
Greetings HypeXR, thanks for the reply. Apparently my assesment was correct, I don't know what I'm talking about. I thought the source code cd was for viewing the code. You're saying it's for installing packages from source. Again, my mistake. I thought there was a way to access the code on the OS from command line.I thought you had to downloaded the code from the cd's first. Anyway, I don't know how to extract the .tar files. I assume their on the Source Code CD? If you have the time and you don't mind walking me through this I'd appreciate it. Thanks again, lmellen
The source code cd's certanly do contain the source code, the source code used to build the slackware version that they came with - however - the source code is contained in compressed archives, just as they were downloaded from the net, along with every thing else you need to customise the way they were built into slackware packages, have a look at file:/mnt/cdrom/source/a/cups in konqueror as an example, we have 5 files,
1) cups-1.1.19-source.tar.bz2
2) cups-samba-1.1.18.tar.gz
3) cups.SlackBuild
4) doinst.sh.gz
5) slack-desc
The first file, cups-1.1.19-source.tar.bz2, is the cups source code v1.1.19 as it is when it was downloaded - a 'vanilla' source as it were. Next we have some cups samba windows drivers in cups-samba-1.1.18.tar.gz, the third file is the slackware build script, open this in a text editor to see how it does what it does, you can even customise them - I sometimes modify them to build for a specific processor. The fourth file, doinst.sh.gz, is a gzipped script of things that have to be done when the slackware package is installed, you'd see this file (and the next) if you opened a slackware .tgz package from the first or second disk. The last file, slack-desc, is simply a text file that contains the description of the completed slackware package as seen during the install....breifly :-)
So, to view the source code for cups-1.1.19 you need to extract the files contained in cups-1.1.19-source.tar.bz2 to your home directory and look at them in the editor of your choice.
Thanks Bern, but I couldn't find the files you mention. I cd to /mnt/cdrom, use ls -a and all I get is the 2 hidden files? How do you get to cups? Sorry, but I am a newbie. Thanks--Larry
Originally posted by lmellen Thanks Bern, but I couldn't find the files you mention. I cd to /mnt/cdrom, use ls -a and all I get is the 2 hidden files? How do you get to cups? Sorry, but I am a newbie. Thanks--Larry
I think that your cdrom many not have been mounted.
When you are in /mnt type
Code:
mount ./cdrom
Then the directories described should now appear in cdrom.
To extract the cups-1.1.19-source.tar.bz2 like Aussie described you need to run two programs one to uncompress and one to extract:
uncompress: bunzip2 cups-1.1.19-source.tar.bz2
extract: tar xvf cups-1.1.19-source.tar
or the tar command also has an option to uncompress before it extracts. This will do the same thing:
tar jxvf cups-1.1.19-source.tar.bz2
This will create a new directory probably called cups-1.1.19 or something. You can go to that directory and the source files will be in there or in a different directory from there for you to get a look at.
Best of luck!
Thanks again HypeXR but I think I'm too much of a newbie. I understand the uncompress and extraction code, but I still can't get to the source code on the cd. If I start from my home directory and cd to /mnt/cdrom, then type mount ./cdrom & enter I get " can't find ./cdrom in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab. Again, I'm a newbie, so please keep it basic, and again I do appreciate the help.--Thank you Larry
Berhanie- Thank you, that worked well. That's what I needed to know!
As far as Aussies instructions I get as far as /mnt/cdrom/source and cannot find the "a" directory? I tried to open a man file-"man-1.51.tar.bz2" using tar jxvf and it would'nt let me do it. So how do I get to cups?
Also,(dumb newbie question)- How do you unmount the cdrom?
Thanks Aussie, that is what I needed to know! I can now view the source code. I do appreciate the help. One quick question if you have the time. What do the different directory or file colors signify? I believe directories are blue, nornal files are white, but some are red-orange and some are lime green. What are they? Also, I'm pretty much finished with this thread, am I supposed to unsubscribe from it?
Have a look at file:/etc/DIR_COLORS to see exactly what colors represent, you can edit this file to specify your own colors if you want. You can unsubscribe from a thread in your User CP (Control Panel), there is a button at the top of the page ^^^.
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