graphical package manager
 

A few years ago, someone took a graphical version of slackpg and I replied with a small patch that allowed to use kdialog instead of dialog. Of course no one, not even me, has never used this patch because useless.
Now it was being planned to start developing something.
The plan for now is only a concept; I think it's just a wrapper slackpkg+ based on kdialog (not a simple replacement of dialog with kdialog but not something elaborated based on languages and API that I do not know).
Before we begin, however, I would like to be sure that someone has not already done something to not end up with yet another package manager.

Obviously I do not guarantee anything.

If I understand your question correctly, then yes, there is one that would probably work for Slack. It is GNOME Software, and I'm pretty sure it runs on Slack.

If you're asking about a GUI front-end to slackpkg+, I don't know of any that exist.

The only UI based package manager for any Slackware or Slackware-based system is gslapt which uses slapt-get. SalixOS uses it. http://software.jaos.org/

also:

http://gnome-pkgtool.sourceforge.net/

hasn't been in development for 10 years, but it still compiles fine :)

I would like such project! A nice little GUI for slackpkg/slackpkg+ would be really awesome! QTGZManager is OK'ish, but has some rough edges. It lacks ability to register as a handling program for .tgz, .txz types, so you have to use in program file browser to locate custom packages. And it does not read mirror list that is actually used by slackpkg. Separate list has to be maintained. And such. I didn't try gnome-pkgtool yet, but it doesn't sound too promising.

It sounds like the options presented in this thread are not GUI frontends for slackpkg, rather they are either frontends for just pkgtool and don't provide updates, or they implement their own way of providing updates to the system outside of using slackpkg.

Although, I haven't used any of the above-mentioned programs, so I may be wrong...

gnome-software works perfectly with slackpkg, thats gtk+3

I will see if I can post some screenshot of it in the next couple of days.

Does it support the unofficial slackpkg+ extension?

KDE once had a package manager that ran very well with Slackware. I can't remember why it is no longer used.

@zerouno

I'd be happy to test your concept of a graphical wrapper around slackpkg+ (kdialog or whatever).

I want to test software reported and see if it's possible to work with slackpkg+ before starting a new project.

PackageKit works
 

I was interested in this and found that packagekit has support for slackpkg.

The Dropline GNOME team created a backend for packagekit which is included called: Katja.

Here is the svn on sourceforge: here.

I built PackageKit 1.0.6 and used bartgymnast's slackbuild but disabled systemd support and commented out the systemd patch in the slackbuild.

Here is the github for bartgymnast's slackbuild.

I then found Apper which is a Qt based PackageKit appliction, which I got the source code from the kde website here.

Apper requires the Qt bindings for PackageKit called PackageKit-Qt, I used version 0.9.5.

I installed PackageKit, PackageKit-Qt and Apper and it works.

I can't see installed software as it says not supported by the backend, but the software groups work and updating works.

I took some screenshots.

Regards,

We used to have KPackage back in KDE-3.x which had hooks for pkgtools. When 4.x came out, KPackage wasn't maintained and I think support was dropped for it eventually. Technically, pkgtools does have a UI, but it's ncurses based.

However, OP is looking for a frontend for slackpkg, including the slackpkg+ extension, not pkgtools.

Put me on your list if you still need people for that project. Kdialog will be just fine, but it will limit its application to only those people who have KDE installed (and a lot of people do not install that because they think it is bloatware).
I have long sought for a reason to start learning Python and PyQt would be a nice basis for a graphical frontend to slackpkg with slackpkg+ (and every other extension people might want to add in future).
I have some ideas.

Eric

If you want to start a project in PyQt (that I known it's better than kdialog and many other gui languages) you're welcome!
(Un)fortunately I don't know Python and I don't want/I don't have time to learn it (I don't like it).

xdialog is better than kdialog (obviously less than PyQt) because it is best compatible with dialog and contains some major feature, but it's out of official repository (even if presents in your repository); also kdialog supports --passivepopup useful for notification in system tray.



But before to start with *dialog/PyQt/other I want to try some already existent projects mentioned in this thread; I want to known if these can works with slackpkg+


some years ago (before slackpkg+) I wrote http://www.slacky.eu/slacky/Slackware_Updates_Checker (italian site) that simply check via slackpkg for news changelog and notify it in system tray). It should works with slackpkg. On my pc I've a most recent (2013) version of that script but I'm not using that so I dont remember if it works well.

phenixia2003 suggests a row for crontab to notify updates: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi....php?p=5146591

sorry for confusion in this post. I don't know what I will do.
In first post I ask for the existence of 'somethink' not necessary slackpkg wrapper, just to known what already exists. Obviously I prefer slackpkg+ :) because I can manage directly it if needed.

Is there a GUI (Gtk or QT) for sbopkg?

Using zenity or even better: yad (an improved fork of zenity which does not require libgnomecanvas like zenity does) is also an option.
It is the GTK equivalent of Kdialog. It does not have any external dependencies and should run on any Slackware. I just built it on slackware64-13.37 in a couple of seconds.

Yes, I know.
this solve the problem:
if [ -x yad ];then
use yad
elif [ -x kdialog ];then
use kdialog
...
...
else
use dialog
fi
solve any problem since are all dialog semi-compatible.

No! It uses "dialog", just type "sbopkg" as root and there is it.

I don't understand, what is root?

Unfortunately I've to learn python now.
To experiment it I decided to return to this project.

Currently here is a draft not-working of the slackpkg+ configurator, written in PyGObject. I'm not sure to continue using GTK+3 or switch to QT (I'm waiting for qt5 natively in slackware). For now the project works with both python2 and python3, but since some days ago I can opt to totally switch to python3, and since I'm starting to learn python, I think that I will study python3, so this project may be not compatible with slackware 14.2
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the goal now is only to learn Python.

There is SUN for that purpose: https://github.com/dslackw/sun

You may be thinking of the original KPackage from KDE 3x. I love that app and still use it rather regularly, not for installation but as a one-stop shop for viewing installed packages and especially all the files installed for each package and at what location. It is also handy for uninstalling packages. Kpackage was entirely castrated in KDE v4x but the original will run with just a few old libraries that can neatly be installed in /opt or /usr/local to avoid any confusion. I suppose the original worked at one time for installing but it never seemed advantageous in that area to me so I only used it as I've stated which works out well since it can still do those things precisely and visibly.

I use QTGZManager sometimes it is very good for find file,lib,..... in the package ;)

https://qtgzmanager.wordpress.com/

can you share instructions on how to do that?

I covered them in a previous discussion enorbet and I had on the matter :)

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post5611700

It was really easy for me to continue using Kpackage from V3 KDE in early v4, because I was still using 32bit 14.0 until a few months ago. Bassmadrigal solved the 64bit and Multilib 14.2 issues quickly and perfectly. Works great! I thanked him then and I do so again now... "Thank you mathed man" (some minor credit for that last bit of "pun-ishment for Lenny Bruce :) )

Yes, there is "sbopkg_gui":
http://www.gernot-walzl.at/index.php...e%2Fsbopkg_gui

Anyone else had luck with PackageKit?
I installed it from SlackBuilds and can't get it fully working.
E.g., can't get `command-not-found` functionality working:

Eric, was there any progress with this? Just asking, not demanding.:)

I'm pretty sure that was the original KPackage from v3x KDE, and yes, it is compatible with Pkgtools. KDE altered it for v4 which IMHO made it nearly useless and it soon ceased to exist. I installed a few KDE3 libraries in /opt/kde3 just to continue to use the original. I find it particularly useful as the GUI is divided vertically into two columns with the far right column having two tabs, one for package description details, and the other for a complete list, including full path, of installed files from that package. It isn't as fast at installing as a simple terminal but it is very handy for uninstalling and for showing multiple versions, conflicting or overlapping files, all at a glance and nicely organized, etc.

Here is an example -----

https://i.imgur.com/raWnSL7.png