[SOLVED] Quick slackware start for debian users?

Hi there,

I just installed slackware and want to start using it as my default system.

The problem is that I've been using debian for a couple of years now and maybe that made me some sort of "unexperienced" although I know Linux since ~1995 (starting with SuSE 4.2)

Well, the first thing I want to achieve is to set up the network so that I'm able to use thunderbird and firefox for my net things.

Do you know some sort of 'quick start' document?

TIA

Gregor

what sort of network, wifi? or ethernet? the easy way for noobs would be just run startx to get a desktop then the network manager applet should be by the clock (if you did a full or mostly full install)

pkgtool is also helpful too for many things, sounds like you are familiar with linux, you just need to learn the slackware way of running linux (which is my favorite distro)

welcome to the slackware forum

http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide

http://docs.slackware.com/

http://www.slackbook.org/beta/

I was a Debian user for about four months before I attempted to install Slackware. I still run Debian on my primary machine and have three Slackware installs [two laptops, one VM]. All machines bar the VM pretty much get daily use. My first attempt at using Slackware as a daily driver failed. I then came back five months later and tried again. It took more time, more concentration, and more effort but I got to where I wanted to get eventually. The learning curve from Debian to Slackware was steep for me, but scalable.

I wrote a post about moving from Debian to Slackware [or in my case, learning Slackware in parallel] on the Debian forums: what I feel it involves and necessitates for a newcomer or novice. It may be worth having a read of it:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...137939#p676308

In short, take it slow and be methodical. I would not recommend forcing yourself to learn Slackware on your primary machine if you are not experienced with it or not experienced with Linux/Unix. Also, toss a few preconceptions about Linux systems out the window - Slackware will not hold your hand or assume things for you, but these things are benefits. Use Slackware in a VM or on a secondary machine until you are very comfortable with it and you know it does what you want it to do - and keep using it - the more you do so, the more you will learn.

Most importantly, don't give up. Post here for assistance and continue learning, asking questions and applying your knowledge.

Hey gregors,

Welcome to the official Slackware forum!
Further to the links provided by ponce: reading all of the ample, available documentation is a very good way to ensure a successful first installation of Slackware.
You will enjoy a feeling of success and accomplishment when you become familiar with Slackware.

Thank you for your answers!

Being some kind of de-experienced user it feels quite strange to boot into slackware. Well, I hope it won't take too long to get familiar with slackware and its tools. And I hope there won't be some major change that forces me to look for some other distribution (like it happened with debian (systemd)).

Just some other questions:
Is there a tool like apt that I can use to check if there are updates to installed software packages and to install them? I used to 'aptitude update; aptitude upgrade' to keep my system up-to-date. And is there any security mailing list that I should subscribe?

Thanks again!

Gregor

slackpkg is slackware's method checking and installing updates read the man page and you will have to select a mirror in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors

Originally Posted by gregors Just some other questions: Is there a tool like apt that I can use to check if there are updates to installed software packages and to install them? Thanks again! Gregor

Slackware uses the slackpkg utility to download, install security patches as they become available.

https://slackpkg.org/documentation.html

Originally Posted by gregors Just some other questions: Is there a tool like apt that I can use to check if there are updates to installed software packages and to install them? I used to 'aptitude update; aptitude upgrade' to keep my system up-to-date. And is there any security mailing list that I should subscribe?

There are two kinds of packages, official packages which you can update with [as root]:

slackpkg update gpg
slackpkg update
slackpkg upgrade-all

Then there are third-party packages which are those which you install through slackbuilds.org. I use sbopkg to check for updates with those [but I would first, if I were you, learn how to install them manually].

slackpkg is a lot easier than installing third-party updates since there is no automated dependency resolution with Slackbuilds. But you'll get to that.

Mailing list for official packages:

http://www.slackware.com/lists/

Update feed for Slackbuilds:

https://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/14.2/ChangeLog.txt

Greetings and welcome to Slackware! I should mention that I have spent hundreds of hours in various releases of Debian since it has been my opinion that it has always been a serious distro that, much like Slackware, doesn't assume how the end user will employ it. Most recently I spent a little over a month in Stretch before "upgrading" to Buster.

I put the term "upgrading" in quotes for an important reason. It certainly wasn't because of any failure but on the contrary because of it's success. Both worked fine but there is extremely little functional difference between the two other than app versions, which, since both functioned just fine, was no big deal to me. With the occasional exception of a few apps that were only available to Buster, Stretch was not any sort of upgrade I could "feel", or even really take any notice of.

The slackpkg app has become increasingly popular and is now included as an optional tool in the Official Release. I don't and likely won't ever use it. Installing packages and updates is something I am more than willing to do manually for the added control and sense of "Nothing happens unless I initiate it, and that is almost always one thing at a time". Yes it does take a little more time than automated but it can also save a great deal of time on maintenance and troubleshooting. I prefer knowing precisely where to look if anything "screws up" (which though rare, for me consists of an app that won't run or won't run the way I want it to). The base system is NEVER at risk.

The value of such control, simplicity and sanity far outweighs any marginal value some update may actually offer.

If you have the disk space, it might be fun and educational to install two instances of Slack and go Old Skool on one just to see for yourself.

If you do not want to compile software from source there is also slackonly.com that provides precompiled binaries based on the slackbuilds.org build scripts. Install the slackpkg+ add on for slackpkg and there are a number of other 3rd party repositories available as well.

https://slackonly.com
http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+.html

Originally Posted by gregors And is there any security mailing list that I should subscribe? Thanks again! Gregor

Surf the Slackware Site and you can find mailing list to subscribe to

google for sbotools i like them a lot

also i like the handy slaptget from jaos.org

just my 2c