I'm trying to upgrade gxine for Slackware, but I need to upgrade GTK first. I installed glib the base for GTK, but when I try to install the ATK library it gives me this error message.
*** 'pkg-config --modversion glib-2.0' returned 2.6.1, but GLIB (2.8.6)
*** was found! If pkg-config was correct, then it is best
*** to remove the old version of GLib.
What is pkg-config? How do I uninstall glib without knowing what files to delete? Thanks.

In order to remove an existing package, you can just use the "removepkg" utility, and likewise you can use the "upgradepkg" utility to upgrade an existing package. Similarly you can use a GUI based app (eg, KPackage) to perform the same action)

Regarding pkg-config, have you checked the man pages? There's quite a bit of useful info there.

Thanks, I went to a website on Slackware.com where it gave some information on the pkgtool utility that Slackware offers. I have already tried using this thing once to uninstall the old package, but completely messed up my system. /sbin was gone! I'm going to try again but be a bit more careful. I deleted the glibc packages rather than the glib packages. One other question though.

If I want to install from source, should I compile it then package it then install it? Is that the only way I will be able to uninstall the stuff later? Thanks.

It's a good way to package the stuff you compiled from source, yes. This said, there is sometimes an "make uninstall" option in the Makefile, so if you want the program to be uninstalled, the files will get deleted with this. But not all Makefiles have this build in.
You can use checkinstall for this. You find it on the second Slackware CD or on any Slackware mirror in the /extra folder. Then you do "./configure" and "make" as usual, the last step is "checkinstall" which will execute the "make install" command and package your software.
If you are becoming more familiar with Linux you can try writing your own Slackbuild scripts to automate the compiling and packaging of software.

EDIT: Not sure any more if it's on the second CD, but it IS in the extra folder

It seems like making my own packages is the way to go.

I reinstalled Linux and successfully removed their versions of glib, gtk+, pango, atk, gxine, and xine-lib. I reinstalled glib using the updated version and the install works just fine. Once again ATK complains, but only that it thinks glib does not exist (It thought both the original and new versions were installed before). I need to package up the glib library so that it installs correctly and that pkg-config believes it is installed.

I looked on the Slackware 10.1 disc for checkinstall, but was not able to locate it. Slackware and the manpage on makepkg do not give any examples of how to make a package. Can someone point me to a good resource for this or share their knowledge. Thank you.

checkinstall from one of the Slackware mirrors:
ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/...a/checkinstall

To build your own packages take a look at some of the original buildscripts, I suggest to take some rather easy ones like
ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/...rce/xap/xchat/

There is also a section on http://www.linuxpackages.net about package creation. And here on LQ was a nice thread that you can read if you are familiar with the basic of package creation:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=365655

EDIT: changed the link to original slackbuild, because the new one seems more appropriate as example.

Thank you for all your help titopoquito. It's all starting to come together now. Why do other tutorial sites on Linux not cover the creation of packages! This is so important and so overlooked. Everything should be packaged before installed. Anyways I got a little work to do. Don't forget about my thread though. I need you. Thanks a lot.

Glad I could help -- you're welcome