I uninstalled the following packages from slack 10 using pkgtool: apache, openssl, openssl-solibs, j2sdk. I then proceeded to install the latest versions of apache, openssl and j2sdk. The next time I booted up, gnome would not start and the message pointed me to ~/.xsession-errors. When I open it up, it reads:

stderr is not a tty - where are you?
gnome session: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I'm guessing I should not have uninstalled the openssl-solibs package.

A more general question: how do I reinstall items to slackware that I uninstalled, or never installed in the first place? Also, once I update something that came with Slack, such as Apache, is it still safe for me to use pkgtool to uninstall the older version? While we're on the subject, how do I uninstall programs that didn't come with Slack (don't show up when I run pkgtool)?

Thank you so much for all of your help. I'm so lost right now...

Daniel

first you should use upgradepkg for upgrades.

second gnome uses stuff from those packages you removed and upgraded, at this point you will probably need to reinstall gnome for it to work again.

if you boot with your slackware CD and run setup you can add packages. i use a tool www.webmin.com it has a nice software packages gui that works well.

Things to look at:
slapt-get = tool i use to keep my slackware machines up to date
www.webmin.com = general admin tool
www.linuxpackages.net = slackware package site