several installers i've run have failed to install. they come back with a list of things in the /bin directory that for some reason they can't find. i can find them just fine. /bin/bash and /bin/sh are the most common ones. i've checked and they ARE there.... so... what gives?

How can we help you ?

Would it be so difficult to give at least the names of the installers, what you did exactly to use it and the exact messages you got ???

actually it has been a few packages. Adobe Flash Player for linux, both the rpm and the tgz files. whether i try to install from a command line using ./ or rpm (i got both the .tgz and the rpm), or using the GUI Kpackage. i have followed the recommended install processes for whatever package i am installing, and i seem to get the same errors. i've tried using su before the install, and using sudo to start the installer. other packages i have tried installing are Geda (a schematic capture and circuit simulation package) and the Java Runtime Environment. JRE gave me a list of about 30 executables it needed but couldn't find..... even though i could verify that they were indeed in /bin. a lot of the files listed that can't be found are libraries, and that type of error i understand, but not finding executeables that i can verify DO exist, is like a windows installer reporting "cannot find c:\windows\win.com" or "missing NTLDR.EXE". i am running these installs as root, and using su or sudo on top of that.....

i just did an install of Wine last night and it worked just fine. i did use the Wine installer for slackware. a lot of software has installers for Debian, Gentoo, Red Hat, etc... rarely do i find anything specifically for slackware. is there something different about the way these other linuxes are set up? i thought Linux was Linux, at least in basic structure.

linux isn't exactly new to me, since i've been using it as a troubleshooting tool for about 15 years, but i am far from an expert, and so there are some things that are a bit "new" to me in linux.

Slackware is different in that it does not do dependency checking.

For some level of automation you can try slackpkg but that will only work for packages that are in the official slackware tree.

To make building and installing packages easier on slackware you might visit slackbuilds.org or simply use sbopkg.

Please read the slackbook as it will answer many of your basic questions.

Installing rpm packages with the rpm command or kpackage
will return a text, that everything is missing, included
also /bin/sh.
Explanation : 'rpm' will look in the "rpm data base"
only, looking for installed dependencies.
"rpm data..." .. see /var/lib/rpm/.
And not having an rpm OS like e.g. Fedora, all dependecies
are marked as missing.
So do not install rpm packages.
( The command 'rpm2tgz' can convert an rpm package to a
Slackware package.tgz, but this is last resort ).


Java runtime is installed by default, or is on your
install cd 1, DVD. ( slackware/l )
All the packages are here
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ftp.slac...lackware-12.2/
'java' = jre-6u11-i586-1.tgz > >
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ftp.slac...2/slackware/l/
Other sources : http://slackbuilds.org/
and
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/
http://www.slacky.eu/aadm/pkgs/index.php?ver=6
.....

Hi Unclejed613,

There is no "base car" -- and there is no "base Linux" either.

Each version of each distribution is really a different system. They can have have components in common, as you would say the wheels or the alternator for cars -- that's it.

And as every distribution is a system - a set of interrelated components, among which a Linux kernel - for it to work care should be taken of the consistency of the system, i.e. check carefully that every interacting components fit together. This (difficult) integration work is IMHO one of the main added value of distribution packagers or maintainers.

Thus in order to keep your Slackware consistent - in other words, not to mess it up - you should take care not to add components (software packages) not intended for it.

So:

1) In order no to miss anything, always do a *full* install of Slackware as proposed by the installer.
2) If you need a piece of software, first check if there is an "official" Slackware package for it.
For instance Java Runtime Environment *is* included in a full install. If you didn't install it initially, it's easy to get afterward, more on that later.
3) If you do not find a software in Slackware, check the website http://slackbuilds.org. Very often they have a so called SlackBuild for it, which is a script that allows you to build yourself a Slackware package, which will fit with you system and be easily installed/uninstalled with the Slackware's packages tools. They do a very good job quality checking. Instructions on how-to use their SlackBuilds is on their website. It's easy. For instance they *have* SlackBuilds for Adobe Flash Player
4) If you still do not find the software you are looking for, try using a SlackBuild or a package for it on Robby Workman's or Alien BOB's repositories. Both are trustful Slackware contributors.
5) If still you can't find the package you are dreaming of, try using an available SlackBuild at http://slacky.eu. I wouldn't trust them as much as I do for aforementioned people/websites but they do have a lot of packages and are helpful people. Better check their SlackBuilds and use it to make your own package than installing theirs directly though. For instance they do have SlackBuilds for geda. If you use it, remove the line beginnning with "requirebuilder". It tries to do automatic dependency checking but you do not need it and can't run it as you don't have this software.
6) Never use directly a .deb or .rpm package unless you absolutely need it *and* you very well know what you are doing.

To install/upgrade/remove Slackware packages always use the Slackware tools: pkgtool, installpkg, upgradepkg, removepkg and slackpkg. All are installed if you make a full installation of Slackware 12.2 and are very well documented, e.g. try "man slackpkg", it is kind of a Swiss army knife for Slackware packages.

1 members found this post helpful.

so.... i have LTSpice running under Wine, and it would probably be best to install a windows circuit board design package under Wine, and skip the Geda package for now..... and continue to ignore the lack of a flash player plugin in Firefox

May be you are right. Unless you learn how to use Slackware

Out of curiosity: if you do not want to learn, why do you use it - there are plenty of other distributions out there

PS As already told, there is no lack of Flash player in Firefox: see here. And for Geda go there.

Take care,

i am learning... a lot in a very short time.... i've been using slackware for about 15 years, as i said, mostly as a diagnostic tool. i used to work in the banking equipment industry, and would get stacks of hard drives from the field techs. using slackware i was able to get most of them working again and test them. the field techs usually didn't have the time/expertise/tools to fix broken MBRs and partition tables on windows and os/2 systems in the field. so working with a "plain vanilla" install of slackware, i learned a lot about linux in general, but never learned much about software installs and upgrades. i'm working on some other projects now that are getting me back on the learning curve....

btw, while browsing this excellent forum, i saw something related to this subject, where somebody said that windows doesn't suffer from the same dependency problems. i beg to differ. windows DOES suffer from similar problems, it's just better at hiding them. these problems are, however also repaired without the user's knowledge in the form of windows updates, which operates as a background process. then every once in a while they issue a service pack. there are dependencies related to the service pack that will halt a software install if the required service pack hasn't yet been installed.

There are Service Packs for Slackware too

To get it, monitor http://slackware.com/changelog/stable.php?cpu=i386 then run as root:The difference being that this keep system consistent: usually no upgrade occur here but for fixing security holes and already installed software are not affected.