Desktop Slackware 11

shepper · 07-17-2006, 02:20 PM

Slackware 11 is neigh and I have been building my XFCE desktop from a current(July 10, 2006) DVD iso.

I ran into the following problems installing the latest version of my favorite apps and have some solutions for most of the problems. To the moderator: I was trying to figure out how to organize this so solutions by packages could be updated and easily found by the linuxquestions search engine. Be nice to have a subsections for various Slackware releases/Packages ie: Slackware 10.2/Qcad 2.0.5.0-1 Slackware 11.0/libexif-gtk-0.3.5 etc. Hopefully this post will serve as a start.

1) DRI is broken with vanilla kernel 2.4.32 for all except Nvidea users.

Quote:

The name of the big kernel with many built-in options has been changed from
test26.s to huge26.s to reflect that Slackware 11.0 will consider the
2.6.16.x kernel series to be a supported kernel series. However, I'm
probably going to leave the bare.i 2.4.32 kernel as the default kernel (or
perhaps sata.i?) as it has very good performance and probably better security
due to the simpler and longer-tested design. I might apply or at least make
available in the kernel-source package for 2.4.32 a patch to fix direct
rendering with 2.4.x kernels and X.Org 6.9.0 or newer. Since anyone using
Slackware for server use isn't likely to be loading the DRI modules, it's
untouched code on those machines and won't affect server stability (well,
depending on what, if anything, outside of the module is changed in the
kernel). It is probably a safe enough patch to apply. I'd rather ship 100%
vanilla kernels (and might, with the patch "on the side"), but DRI does not
work without the patch past X.Org 6.8.2. Is this enough text here?

Solution: Apply the latest hotfix patches to the kernel and compile a new kernel.
Lotta work but gotta have googleearth, pppracer and flightgear.

2) Jpilot will compile with GTK2 but not run.
Solution: Compile with gtk1 or use jpilot cvs or apply this freebsd patch
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/f...0/jpilot.c.bin

3) Qcad community source edition will not build using the standard build shell script
Solution: ./build_qcad.sh notrans
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.cad.qcad.user

4) Gtkam-0.1.13 will not build without libexif-gtk. I have not been able to find a working
patch to fix this known issue. Tried Debian unstable patch libexif-gtk_0.3.5-3.diff.gz
and a freebsd patch which did not work
Present Solution: Use gtkam-0.1.12

5) libgphoto2-2.2.1 will not compile http://www.nabble.com/Re:--Gphoto-us...-t1801961.html
Solution: See bottom of above link.

6) Abiword was taken out due to the distro adapting the gnomeprinter interface rather than
than the developers continuing to write there own. (Not sure about the wisdom of this
as other GTK apps (Gimp) are toying with adapting this interface and it is about 6mb of libs
to install. Slackware has no stand alone word processor. The following link lists the
needed dependencies about 1/4 the way down
http://www.linuxpackages.net/forum/v...89945529221d40
Plus gnumeric then goes in easily.

Bruce Hill · 07-17-2006, 06:44 PM

1 - It's not broken for Nvidia users, because the Nvidia driver does not use DRI. In fact, the NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set README and Installation Guide tells you to remove dri.

And notice the dri issue only applies for the 2.4 kernels, not the 2.6 kernels.

And 2 - 6 --- I suspect there will be increasing problems for Gnome based apps, since Pat dropped Gnome from Slackware.

6 - I've found that OpenOffice and KWord both do better work that Abiword.

rkelsen · 07-17-2006, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

5) libgphoto2-2.2.1 will not compile

Is that a Slackware problem? I've never had problems with earlier versions. I'll download 2.2.1 and try it.

Note that all of the independant GNOME distributions for Slackware include libgphoto and gtkam.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

Slackware has no stand alone word processor.

Abiword isn't stand-alone. It requires GNOME libraries.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinaman

I've found that OpenOffice and KWord both do better work that Abiword.

Agreed.

shepper · 07-17-2006, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Is that a Slackware problem?

Most of the issues I raised are not Slackware problems although for a distro that tries to avoid bloat I am suprised at the SeaMonkey dependency.

Quote:

6 - I've found that OpenOffice and KWord both do better work that Abiword

Koffice and OpenOffice do not come as stand alone word processors and Abiword has alot of features that neither OpenOffice or Koffice presently offer.
Abiword.http://developers.slashdot.org/artic...12216&from=rss

Quote:

Note that all of the independant GNOME distributions for Slackware include libgphoto and gtkam.

I was using Gware Gnome before the rebuild and just double checked their sources. Libgphoto2, gphoto2 and gtkam are not provided by Gware. I know FreeRock is more popular but I am not familiar with FreeRock.

Bruce Hill · 07-17-2006, 08:32 PM

I don't mean it rude at all, but I think Patrick has made it clear that Slackware is through with Gnome. Therefore, if you want Gnome apps, you're rather 'on your own'.

There are not many apps one can't run on Slackware, though. I have QEMU, which I use to run Windoze inside Slackware. There is software designed for Windoze for which there is no suitable open source replacement. The two main apps for which I use QEMU are Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. But before I install it I always check to see what dependencies it needs. I wouldn't consider it a fault of Slackware if I had to get another app to run it, as I already get kqemu (the accelerator) to make it faster.

So sometimes we're using apps that are 'outside the box' for Slackware, which means we might have to find and compile dependencies, for libs, etc. which aren't included in the distribution. I think it's good that you're posting these solutions, but IMO they aren't 'Slackware solutions' at all.

The way I see it, these 2 - 6 problems are not Slackware problems, but perhaps, Gware Gnome problems.

I used Abiword a little, and didn't notice any word processor features it had which OOo doesn't have. I did have printing problems with Abiword, though I can't recall what they were at the moment.

rkelsen · 07-17-2006, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

Most of the issues I raised are not Slackware problems although for a distro that tries to avoid bloat I am suprised at the SeaMonkey dependency.

What is dependant upon SeaMonkey?? AFAIK, you can safely remove it from Slackware and everything else will work just fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

Koffice and OpenOffice do not come as stand alone word processors

Openoffice is a complete stand-alone package. It depends upon neither KDE nor GNOME.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

and Abiword has alot of features that neither OpenOffice or Koffice presently offer.

Oh please. Grammar checkers never work anyway. It is always the first "feature" I turn off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

I know FreeRock is more popular but I am not familiar with FreeRock.

It's all GNOME. Know one, know them all...

jimX86 · 07-17-2006, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

Most of the issues I raised are not Slackware problems although for a distro that tries to avoid bloat I am suprised at the SeaMonkey dependency.

I don't think ANY of these issues are Slackware problems. (And only #6 is related to Gnome.)

1. Unless you're running googleearth, pppracer, and flightgear on your server, it would make sense to use the 2.6 kernel.
2. If you do a full install of current, gtk-1 is already installed, so jpilot compiles correctly by default.
3. The notrans option just keeps qcad from installing translations. Isn't the real issue that you need the QT3.3.4 developer edition to compile this? It's been like that for a while.
4. On Slackware 10.2, I installed libexif-gtk to run gtkam-0.1.13. Libexif-gtk is just a widget library to display EXIF tags in GTK programs.
5. This will be fixed in libgphoto2-2.2. It has nothing to do with Slackware.
6. Abiword no longer compiles without lots of Gnome libraries.

shepper · 07-17-2006, 09:54 PM

No offense taken from anyone. My goal was to help those who tweak there own desktop and perhaps start a section where those tweaks are readily available. Also kinda highlights some of the issues Pat goes through. My systems run well with the older kernel but eventually I will have to make the switch. I kinda inclined to go over to the 2.6 kernel when Pat starts using 2.6 kernel headers.

Also want to share an email from Pat regarding the SeaMonkey dependency

Quote:

> Pat
>
> You may be aware of this but since the Gxine-5* series Spidermonkey/js was removed and
> builds look for an external js. Your seamonkey build generated the needed js library but it does
> not come with the firefox built from a binary. Your build scripts do not run unless Seamonkey is
> installed and the resultant build will not run without Seamonkey installed. Seamonkey is essentially
> a huge dependency for gxine.
>
> I think there are several option to fix this
> 1) Use gxi;ne 4.9
> 2) Build your own firefox with embedded js
> 3) Install spidernonkey/js as a separate, required lib and build gxine with the separate js lib
> specified in the .config file. Someone has built a spidermonkey package (with included
> build script) at linuxpackages. It is the option I picked when setting up a lightweight system.

Yes, SeaMonkey is also a dependency for GAIM. That's just the way it is (it used to be that Mozilla was the dependency) -- I don't intend to split SeaMonkey up or to install the bloated GNUTLS until I'm forced to. What's so bad about having to install SeaMonkey? (oh yeah, bloat ;-)

I may consider the spidermonkey/js option for 11.1 (maybe rolled into the gxine package like it was before), or perhaps someone could nudge the gxine folks to restore it upstream, but I think the situation will likely remain as-is for 11.0 since a full installation does work. Thanks for pointing out the other options that are out there, though, since I wasn't aware of those options. I do think 2) is out of the question though, as much as I'd like to be able to build my own Firefox I cannot do so while remaining within their trademark usage guidelines. I'd have to call it something else and remove the logos. Besides, with as many releases as they've been having I'd need a new compile farm just for that. ;-)

Take care,

Pat

liquidtenmilion · 07-17-2006, 10:12 PM

All he has to do is email the firefox developers and they will almost definately say that he can.

It's what gentoo/debian/ubuntu/Dropline/Mandrake/Redhat/DSL/FreeBSD/Arch/..., ok, I think you get the idea.

MannyNix · 07-17-2006, 11:37 PM

Great post shepper, thanks for taking the time , and all other Slackers for improving it

folkenfanel · 07-30-2006, 01:47 AM

Hi there

Changing the default bookmarks is considered to be in violation of the licenses? (I mean, for redistribution). I hate having the RSS bookmark pointing to BBC so I have to change that in the bookmarks file manually. Otherwise, (from within Firefox) I would have to do that for every user in this PC.

OK I know there are many British slackers out there but there are also American slackers (and many non-American, non-British that prefer, let's say CNN...) Wouldn't it be nice to be able to choose CNN?

folkenfanel · 07-30-2006, 01:51 AM

P.S.

I built my own SeaMonkey optimized for i686 and broke yelp. Will try to build it again just in case I missed something.

gnashley · 07-30-2006, 04:25 AM

A little note about programs which can be compiled with either GTK1 or GTK2: most configure scripts use detection to decide which to use. Some may let you choose, but it may not work properly. This is because of pkgconfig.
pkgconfig came out with GTK2, so many configure scripts check for pkgconfig as a way of deciding that you 'have' GTK2. In order to be sure that something really is GTK1-only I always uninstall both GTK2 and pkgconfig. You can and should leave the GLIB2 libs installed, though.

One more observation, Slackware is not rwally completely free of gnome stuff. GTK2 and gnome are not really separable. I mean there are lots of libs still in Slackware which are actually part of the gnome project. I see that now they divide the software into categories like 'platform' and 'desktop'. Slackware still has stuff from gnome platform. GTK2 really started out as a gnome-related project. gnome1 had been written to depend on GTK1. People and ideas merged into the GTK2 and GNOME2 projects. I maintain a lot of software written from those days and have even back-ported a few from GTK2 to GTK-1.2, including the Mozilla Minimo browser

Anonymo · 07-30-2006, 12:31 PM

can you build the minimo browser to run on slackware?

zborgerd · 07-30-2006, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shepper

No offense taken from anyone. My goal was to help those who tweak there own desktop and perhaps start a section where those tweaks are readily available. Also kinda highlights some of the issues Pat goes through. My systems run well with the older kernel but eventually I will have to make the switch. I kinda inclined to go over to the 2.6 kernel when Pat starts using 2.6 kernel headers.

Also want to share an email from Pat regarding the SeaMonkey dependency

I suspect a bit of misunderstanding here. Building and distributing your own Firefox build is only a matter of:

a) Filling out a request form via their Bugzilla tool (which is how they had us do it a year and a half ago).
b) Keeping your Firefox build within specified trademark usage guidelines: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/
c) Continue to ship the latest stable version (optional, according to them, but who wants software without security updates?).

The Mozilla Firefox guys just want to ensure that everyone has a consistent experience with their work.

The Dropline Firefox build works with our GAIM build (in addition to other things like Yelp, Liferea, and Epiphany). It saves a lot of trouble to simply ask Mozilla.org permission to distribute your own Firefox build if you need it as a unified backend for your other software... Not to mention, it eliminates the need for the Mozilla suite or Seamonkey.