Before I switch to Slackware.....
 

Hey, I have been using Linux for one year now. Started from Mandrake, Redhat, Debian, to Fedora. Now I am considering to switch to Slackware. There's nothing wrong with other distroes. Now I use Fedora. There's nothing wrong with Fedora. But I want to try Slackware. I am interested in simplicity philosophy from Slackware distro. There is no hundred or thousand software pre-bundled in Slackware like in Debian, or Fedora with apt-get. I find my self wasting my time playing with software in Debian and Fedora. So I think Slackware simpilicity will save my time. Ok, there's something wrong but not with Fedora but in me. In Fedora I use apt-get to upgrade my system and install programs. By the way, I mix third party repositories and official one. I like to compile from sources too. I think I have install and uninstall program a lot in Fedora. I like to try fresh softwares as many as I can do. Then you can imagine my Fedora system is like a broken ship. Now I want to start from beginning. I want to make my system clean. Instead install Fedora again, I want to try Slackware for simpilicity reason. So I have some questions.

First. I am tired to install, reinstall, uninstall software. Or tweaking desktop. Or tweaking system. So here's my plan. I want to minimize my time tweaking or configuring Linux. I hope Slackware saves my time.Install Slackware. Configure. I heard a lot that you have to edit file by hand in Slackware. Is it true? But that would not be problem. I have done this before in Debian. When you have lived with Debian for months, there's nothing scare you anymore in Linux world. Ok, I have finished configured X or network for Slackware. Now I am happy. Right now, I don't want to try any fresh software anymore. I don't want to install programs that I don't need. My system is clean. Instead playing around in Linux ( install eyecandy, fresh softwares, tweaking KDE or Gnome ), I want to get work. I wan to learn programming. That means I don't need apt-get again. I don't need a hundred software anymore. Use only softwares from Slackware Cd. But wait..... what about upgrade? Now I want to regularly upgrade my system. There's no apt-get in Slackware. But hey, there's slapt-get ( http://software.jaos.org/ ). But now I don't want to mix the repositories ( is it the correct term? ). I only want to use official repositories. The packages that comes from Slackware distro are fine but there are some programs that not come from Slackware distro. They are Ogle, Mplayer, VideoLan, k3b, wp_tray, gtkmm, gnucash, amsn. Luckily I found this website: http://www.linuxpackages.net/ . The good guys there have packaged programs that I need in tgz Slackware format except for VideoLan and wp_tray. I have read in http://software.jaos.org/ that I can use slapt-get to install programs from http://www.linuxpackages.net/ . Is that right? Now what I want to asked is if I can use slapt-get to use programs from http://www.linuxpackages.net/ , how can I avoid mix the package from the official site? I want to upgrade my programs that come from Slackware CD from the official site not from third party site but I want to install programs that not included in Slackware CD directly with slapt-get from third-party. Can I do it with slapt-get????

Second. Wp_tray and VideoLan are not included in http://www.linuxpackages.net/ . I will not get troubled to install wp_tray because it is just a small program. But VideoLan....... there are 26 libraries that this program depends. It is not fun at all to compile 26 libraries and one program. There is no VideoLan in Slackware package format. http://www.videolan.org . Do you know where can I find VideoLan program in Slackware package format????

Thanx guyzzz!!!!

You can install a more basic slack install. If you choose the menu mode when it's time to install the system you can pick and choose what binaries you'd like installed.

Personally, I went with the "full option" but deselected KDE and GNOME. I wound up with a choice of fluxbox,blackbox, etc as the default WM and the system came with enough utilities to get things started.

Swaret is a good program too and probably more often referenced here at LQ than slapt-get.

Swaret works just like apt-get. You can add in any repositories you'd like. The most popular ones are listed at http://www.swaret.org/?menu=sp you can also change the swaret.conf file to "current" instead of 9.1 and it'll download newer packages as they come out.

It's a good system.

I installed Slackware 9.1 a few days ago. The install was very easy: the only thing I had trouble with was manually creating my partitions (go easy on me, the only other Linux I've installed is Mandrake).

As for the configuration, I've had to edit a few files by hand when Slack hasn't recognized my hardware correctly. For a newb like me, it's kind of daunting, but if you have any idea of what you're doing, it shouldn't be too bad (and if you don't know what you're doing --like me-- you'll learn quick).

:newbie:

Give slack a shot.. if you run into a problem post here, someone will give you a hand.

The only issue I ever run into when installing Slack (and I installed and reinstalled a few times when learning ;) ) was my network card wasn't autoconfigured. It required a driver download in 2.4.22 but when I upgraded to 2.6.0 one of the kernel drivers works great.

Also, if there's something about your system that you know is likely to be problematic (particularly if you've run into problems regarding it before), it's a good idea to do a quick search here on LQ for it and see if anyone else has ever run into a similar situation and how they dealt with it.

So far, in spite of having been registered here for several months now, I have yet to actually post a question of my own.

Every single thing I have had a question about has already been asked here, and I've easily found answers in just a minute or two of searching.

Seriously.

Hope this helps. :) :cool:

If the reason you need VideoLan is to watch DVD you can do that easily in Slackware by installing the libdvdcss package from the VideoLan website. Then gxine will be able to play DVD's.

The other option is to compile mplayer from scratch (really not that hard)

To compile mplayer is not that hard. What makes your life hard is to upgrade mplayer. Imagine you have installed mplayer by source. And now you want to upgrade your mplayer. I think it is not safe to overwrite your mplayer binary. So you have to remove the binary first. Removing the binary that come from compiling source is ridiculous. Ok, I have heard that good people make checkinstall program that make your life easier if you like to install program by compiling from source. ( http://asic-linux.com.mx/~izto/checkinstall/index.php ) But again, it is more complicated than install package. But that would not be a problem. libdvdcss and mplayer had been packaged in http://www.linuxpackages.net/ .

I have compared the packages in http://www.slackware.com and http://www.linuxpackages.net/ . They both have gaim and abiword package. Let's say if I want to update my abiword, what scared me if I use swaret or slapt-get to update abiword is swaret or slapt-get will use package from http://www.linuxpackages.net/ not from http://www.slackware.com . I don't want to mix my system. What I want is if the package that I want to update comes from Slackware CD, swaret or slapt-get will use the package from http://www.slackware.com not from third party site like http://www.linuxpackages.net/ . But if the package does not include in Slackware CD like k3b, swaret or slapt-get will use the third party site.

Can swaret or slapt-get do what I want????

Thank you.

I had installed though the source of mplayer a while back. I wanted to update to the latest version. all I did to upgrade was install the mplayer package from linuxpackages with pkgtool and I didn't have to do anything after that. It works great.