LinuxQuestions.org - Upgrading KDE, and Slackware

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Upgrading KDE, and Slackware

Hi, all. I'm new here, and also new to Linux. I guess I wanted to slowly figure out how this all works, mainly because I'm sick of Microsoft, and the BS software they release.

So, I'm biting the bullet and learning Slackware, and enjoying the cool things about KDE.

I just have a simple question regarding the new Slackware release. Is it possible to upgrade? I'm not sure how upgrading works at all - do I have to burn a CD with the recent release, and then boot up with it? Will that upgrade the slackware version?

IN any case, I look forward to posting on here! It's a great community, and I have found pretty much every answer to any question I had regarding issues with Linux. Thanks!!!!

-Shat

Welcome to the forums,

Probably the easiest way to upgrade if your already running 9.1 is swaret. All you have to do is install it, make sure 9.1 is totally up to date by doing a swaret --update; swaret --upgrade -a. Then change the line that says your version of slackware is 9.1 to slackware-current (otherwise known as slack 10). Then just do swaret --update; swaret --upgrade -a again. This may take a long time and may or may not bork your system. I've never had problems with swaret but many other people have. Also, you'll need to update your kernel to 2.4.26 or 2.6.7 for the full slack 10 expirience :cool: . I wouldn't suggest doing this via swaret but do it manually.

Read up on swaret before trying this though. There are other things you may want to know like what is on the exclude list of swaret.conf by default (off the top of my head I think it is lilo, alsa, and the kernel). So you have to update those things manually.

Hi.

Thanks for the reply! I installed this with no problem, and my Slack 9.1 installation is completely up to date.

Now, what you are saying is that I have to edit my .conf file and put the number '10' in the version line, and then update/upgrade again?

How do I go about upgrading my kernel manually?

Thanks for the help!! It runs really well.

Welcome to LQ. You have made an excellent choice with Slack. My recommendation to you would be to first spend a little time getting familiar with Slack v9.1, and then after playing with it a few weeks, then decide about upgrading/changing to Slack v10.0. Note also that Slack v10.0 just got released only about a week ago, so you it's not exactly like you're running an outdated version.

As for compiliing your own kernel, you would want to go to www.kernel.org to download the latest version, and then for instructions, I would recommend DaOne's posts in the Slackware forum. (They're sticky posts at the top. Go to LQ > Forums > Distributions > Slackware) Good luck with it -- J.W.

Thanks for the response. I am still learning about Kernel's, etc. But, I'm proud of myself b/c I've pretty much been able to solve every problem on my own, using the help of this forum and reading up about what everything means. All the folders in the /* folder still make my eyes wide, but I'm getting the hang of it. Mostly, small things like sound, resolution, etc. have been my primary concern.

Generally, I have my own private web server that I would like to get php, apache, and mysql running so that I can have something that's stable and NOT windows. As I'm constantly fiddling, it seems that the interface is really well done.

I am interested in getting the new 'cool stuff' in the newest KDE release. Is it possible to run the newest version of KDE using Slack 9.x?

I look forward to participating in the forums! THanks for the support and welcoming!

You could use swaret or you could use this way, streight from "UPGRADE.TXT" on the ISO.

Quote:

Slackware 9.1 to 10.0 Upgrade HOWTO <volkerdi@slackware.com>

This document explains how to upgrade from Slackware 9.1 to Slackware 10.0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before you begin, I would strongly recommend making a backup of your
system, or, if not the entire system, at least the /etc directory. You
might find that you need to refer to a few things about the upgrade
process is complete. Back it up, or take your chances.

OK, now that everything is safely backed up, let's proceed. :-)

To do this, you'll need the Slackware 10.0 packages. If these are on a CD,
create a new directory to mount the CD on so that it doesn't get in the
way during the upgrade:

mkdir /packages
mount /dev/cdrom /packages

The packages don't have to be on a CD-ROM, as an alternative you could
copy the slackware directory (the one with the various package
subdirectories in it, basically the "slackware" directory from the install
CD) to someplace like /root/slackware/. The important thing is that you
know where the slackware packages directory is. We'll use /root/slackware
in the following examples.

0. Put your machine in single-user mode:
telinit 1

1. Upgrade your glibc shared libraries. This is important, or things
might go haywire during the first part of the upgrade:

upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/glibc-solibs-*.tgz

2. Upgrade your package utilities:

upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/pkgtools-*.tgz

3. Install sed. You should already have this, but since it's used by
the package utilities it is best to be sure:

upgradepkg --install-new /root/slackware/a/sed-*.tgz

4. Upgrade everything else (and install new packages):

upgradepkg --install-new /root/slackware/*/*.tgz

5. Make sure your system will boot. If you use LILO, make sure the
paths in /etc/lilo.conf point to a valid kernel and then type 'lilo'
to reinstall LILO. If you use a bootdisk, you'll need to use
makebootdisk to make a new bootdisk using the kernel in /boot.

6. Fix your config files. Some of the config files in /etc are going to
need your attention. You'll find the new incoming config files on
your system with the ".new" extension. You may need to fill these in
with information from your old config files and then move them over.

Feel brave? You can use this little script to install all of the
.new config files in /etc. If you've made any local changes you'll
need to add them to the newly installed files. Your old config files
will be copied to *.bak. Anyway, it might be an easier starting
point. Here it is:

#!/bin/sh
cd /etc
find . -name "*.new" | while read configfile ; do
if [ ! "$configfile" = "./rc.d/rc.inet1.conf.new" \
-a ! "$configfile" = "./group.new" \
-a ! "$configfile" = "./passwd.new" \
-a ! "$configfile" = "./shadow.new" ]; then
cp -a $(echo $configfile | rev | cut -f 2- -d . | rev) \
$(echo $configfile | rev | cut -f 2- -d . | rev).bak 2> /dev/null
mv $configfile $(echo $configfile | rev | cut -f 2- -d . | rev)
fi
done

You'll probably also want to either remove your old
/etc/X11/XF86Config or move it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. It's probably
best to start with one of the new examples or xorgconfig, though, as
there are a few minor config file changes (easily spotted by diffing
the supplied sample config files, if you're interested).

7. Return to multi-user mode:
telinit 3

8. Remove obsolete packages.

If you go into /var/log/packages and take a look at the package list:

ls -lt | less

You may spot some old, obsolete, or discontinued packages. If so,
you can remove these using 'removepkg'. Here's a command line to
remove all the packages from Slackware 9.1 that are now obsolete:

removepkg devfsd elflibs oggutils acme gal2 gnome-extra-themes \
linc kde-i18n-af kde-i18n-eo kde-i18n-mk kde-i18n-mt \
kde-i18n-nso kde-i18n-se kde-i18n-ss kde-i18n-th kde-i18n-ven \
kde-i18n-vi kde-i18n-xh kde-i18n-zu koffice-i18n-ar \
koffice-i18n-bs koffice-i18n-lt koffice-i18n-lv \
koffice-i18n-uk db1 db2 libgr ttf-bitstream-vera xfree86 \
xfree86-devel xfree86-docs xfree86-docs-html \
xfree86-fonts-100dpi xfree86-fonts-cyrillic \
xfree86-fonts-misc xfree86-fonts-scale xfree86-xnest \
xfree86-xprt xfree86-xvfb

9. Remove KDE language bloat. By upgrading all packages using
--install-new you've probably installed all of the KDE language
translations from the KDEI series, which will use up about
500MB. If you need only US English, you may remove the KDE
language packs like this:

cd /var/log/packages
removepkg kde-i18n* koffice-i18n*

Even if you need one of these, it might be best to start by
removing them all, and then go back and install the ones you
need with installpkg.

At this point you should be running Slackware 10.0. :-)

I wish everyone good luck with this!

---
Patrick Volkerding
volkerdi@slackware.com

Although the easiest thing to do would be to just back up, boot from the ISO and reformat. About running the newest KDE on Slack 9.1, yes it's possible but it's time consuming. I've done it but it took me a while. You have to go to www.kde.org and download the source. Then you have to compile it and chase down all the dependincies (it'll tell you if you don't have something when you do the "./configure"). There's plenty of documentation on the KDE website if you choose to go that way... it'll be a lot easier to upgrade to Slack 10.0 though.

is it possible or even feasible to upgrade from slack 9.0 to 10.0 by following these steps? I've been running this install of 9.0 since it was released and some things that I haven't updated myself are starting to get pretty out of date.

It may be possible to "jump" over a release, but in my experience, it is better to do a fresh install rather than to do an upgrade. The main issue is simply that the latest version usually will create a certain amount of "digital debris", meaning that due to imperfect upgrade/cleanup routines, your machine will be left with various abandoned files, which no longer are being referenced by the current set of packages, but also didn't get removed during the upgrade. Others may disagree, but for me, just save your important data, then do a clean install.

Note: I want to emphasize that I would advise this for ANY operating system upgrade. It's not just for Slack, but also for Suse, Redhat, even Windows. Fresh installs always seem to just work better than upgrading from, for example, Windows 98 to XP, or from Redhat 8 to Redhat 9, etc. -- J.W.

I've done successful upgrades from 8.1 to 9.1 on
the fly (no reboot required) in Slack, and don't think
that a clean install is necessary at all ;)

Cheers,
Tink