Hello

I am a old linux user (manly mandrake)

But I'm ready to take the next step i like mandrake but would like more flexibility and less GUI interaction. One thing i like about mandrake is been able to find anything thru URPMI. i love the fact that i can install and manage my packages thru URPMI.

I would like to know if slackware has this same feature. I can find and install anything thru URPMI both free and pay for apps thru the plf sites. does slackware offer all this?

What i really want to know is if slackware has the same available software and easy to install such software like in mandrake?

i am DLING the 2 slackware install Cd's ATM but before i install i would like to know the ins and out about software installation and update thru slackware. thanks in advace

LC

use pkgtool to manage slackware packages (.tgz) or commands like installpkg, removepkg, explodepkg. Man pages are very helpful. And you can convert rpm packages to tgz with rpm2tgz command

And no...rpm's won't do it in Slackware.

Most of the time you will have to compile from the source.

Maybe not all rpm's but allways can try

Well, I wouldn't want to pollute my installation with rpms when I can make my own packages suited for Slackware...

does swaret also take care of dependencies for software i install like urpmi does?

thanks for the quick replys

Slack moto is keep it simple. The package system follows suit with that idea. No dependency checking. It's not as bad as it sounds though. Actually I prefer it to things like rpm. I think swaret or slackpkg do some dependency checking but only for the base packages of slack. You could use the ldd tool to check for dependencies. That is what I do. Simple.

As far as adding additional packages outside of the slack I just download the source and read the README file and make sure I got the neccessary stuff and then build it. Never had any big problems yet.

Swaret does some dependency resolution but not to the extent of urpmi, so you may have to install the missing dependencies yourself, but this has only happened to me a few times.

my first step is to check the slackpkg mirrors. a simple:

slackpkg install udev

for instance. if what i'm looking for isn't hosted there, i'll check freshmeat for a .tgz which i can install with

installpkg package.tgz

if it's not on freshmeat, or not available in .tgz, then i'll download the source (and frequently i use this method regardless) tar.gz package and i can install it like this:

tar -xvzf package.tar.gz
cd package
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/share
make
checkinstall


checkinstall allows you to keep track of programs you compile from source as if they were normal slack packages. ie, anything installed that way can be removed using removepkg, or pkgtool -> remove.

dependencies you'll have to deal with yourself, but since slack is so stable and "standard" that it's nowhere near as difficult as with other distros. usually i'll run ./configure on something, get an error that such-and-such can't be found so i find that, download it, install it, and pick up where i left off.

^^ Agreed.
One last note with checkinstall it also creates a package to use later. It is in the source directory for the program. Comes in handy.