I broke slack I used instructions found on this http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide to update slack packages then did installpkg *.txz on the folder and in the sources folder now I can't login as root or user and no root commands (commands at all for that matter work)

I will probably need to reinstall slack . All I wanted to do was update security fixes

Mark
Quicken2k

Security fixes are installed easily with slackpkg. Just set the mirror and follow the help and you are all set.

All of us have, at one time or another, destroyed our slack machine beyond fixing... esp when we were starting out, welcome to the club For this reason, I keep my /home mounted on a separate partition from root as that will let me reinstall and not lose my personal files, etc. Just something to consider if you are going to blow it away anyway and set it up again.

Looking at the guide tho, I don't see where it had you 'installpkg *.txz' anywhere? Is there some other guide you were following?

You didn't download and install packages for the wrong architecture, did you?

You don't "installpkg" from the source directory. When you did, it should have failed gracefully.

Further to WhiteWolf1776's excellent post to set up slackpkg please follow these steps.

Navigate to /etc/slackpkg/mirrors using a text editor of your choice. Scroll down the list and uncomment one and only one mirror, that is, remove the # in front of the mirror. Save and exit. Then issue these commands in order to apply security updates.

P.S. The slackpkg install-new command is useful even for Slackware stable. Patrick on rare occasions does add new applications to the stable branch.

P.P.S. Once in awhile it is also a good idea to run #slackware clean-system to remove obsolete programs.

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And to add to my friend hitest's post... be sure you setup the /etc/slackpkg/blacklist file prior to running that 'clean-system' command...

Welcome to the club


For me it was three times, or more. Living and learning I must have a lot of libs and
other files from "configure && make && make install" on my system, from before I started to follow
the rule of thumb: install only from SlackBuilds, or AlienBob, rpm2txz, or others.

1 members found this post helpful.

You broke Slackware!!??!! HERACY!!! Get the spiky paddle of painful bottoms!!! Ye shalt learn thine place infidel!

I'm joking, hahaha

Anyways, maybe a reinstall might work, (you could always try to chroot back in from a Live disk or another Linux OS and run the updates and see if it fixes it) but do follow the tips above from hitest about updating.

Linux does not stop you from doing stupid things .... because to do so would stop you from doing smart things !

And therein lies the fundamental difference between Unix/Linux and the other schmucks (windows/mac-os).

You live, you learn. You probably installed packages for the wrong architecture. But, since it's a rather new install... don't give yourself a headache, just re-install Slack.

1 members found this post helpful.

Mac-OS X does a good job of keeping the user away from the internals of the system but ... Windows? Windows encourages the user to do stupid things. Windows is like that 'expert' friend that's always trying to give good advice but in reality has no clue what he's talking about.

Start slackware from installation disk and try to fix manually. This way you should be able to mount your slackware partiton and at least backup important files. Probably you will be able to do much more: fix the problem with root password. The great problem really appears when the slackware patition cannot be mount as rw (read&write). I've got such isue sometime ago with JFS filesystem (i'm great fan of JFS). Then I was to histericall to realize that even though i could make a copy of what is really important. So maybe the first thing is: do not panic! Give youself some time. You are not the first person with such problem. Reinstalling is probably the last thing you should think of.

The good part is, Slackware only takes about 20-40 minutes to re-install on a moderately fast system, so you can get back up and running quickly.

I second ReaperX7.

And it's even more quick when you have a local repository for the updates

That's what I do now when I install Slackware :

- Boot off the USB installer
- Retrieve all the packages from my local Apache server
- Reboot
- Perform updates that are retrieved from the local server as well

Done.

Welcome to the Slackware learning curve! LOL!
When I first started using the Mighty Slack I screwed my box up so many times that I could do a hose & reload with out even thinking about it.
After you do it enough times you will get to where you can fix anything you screw up. And then, your addicted..

Which package did you install? The asterisk is probably the important bit.