LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] In need of a Slackware guru

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In need of a Slackware guru

I have a few questions, First an overview; I have installed CLFS 64, and have everything basic. I have all runlevel init's installed and have the dhcp up and running.

I have installed pkgtools. I have never used Slackware's pkgtools before so I have a few questions.

1- When ever I install a package with "installpkg" I get this error:

Code:

WARNING: pkgtools are unstable with tar > 1.13.

        You should provide a "tar-1.13" in your $PATH.

2 - Is Slackware64 FHS compliant with the /lib directories. Meaning is Slackware64 have a /lib or a /lib64...? And if so, would a sym link work.

3 - How can I install a Slackware groups (i.e. a, ap, e, n, etc...)...? If possible...

I wanna get X installed and a few other apps using pkgtools. And I am a complete novice with Slackware package management.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manwithaplan (Post 3702967)

1- When ever I install a package with "installpkg" I get this error:

Code:

WARNING: pkgtools are unstable with tar > 1.13.

        You should provide a "tar-1.13" in your $PATH.

Upgrade tar manually from sources, if pkgtools are not working for You.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manwithaplan (Post 3702967)

2 - Is Slackware64 FHS compliant with the /lib directories. Meaning is Slackware64 have a /lib or a /lib64...? And if so, would a sym link work.

Slackware64 is multilib OS, and those directories have different meanings - in /usr/lib are 32-bit compatibility libraries, and lib64 is for 64-bit libraries. This is for coexistence of the same libraries compiled with different achitecture.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manwithaplan (Post 3702967)

3 - How can I install a Slackware groups (i.e. a, ap, e, n, etc...)...? If possible...

upgradepkg --install-new --reinstall {a,ap,e,n,etc}/*.t?z

or write small script for this ;)

Code:

for i in {a,ap,e,n,etc}; do

  upgradepkg --install-new --reinstall $i/*.t?z

done

Quote:

Originally Posted by manwithaplan (Post 3702967)

I wanna get X installed and a few other apps using pkgtools. And I am a complete novice with Slackware package management.

If You have complete tree of slackware packages repository (ie. DVD, or You have mirrored it from web), You can use pkgtool - read manpage for help.

If You still have problems, consider of reinstalling whole system from DVD.

Enjoy, and good luck :)

Your error gives you the answer, you need a tar-1.13 executable in /bin, once you have done this pkgtools should work and you will be able to use installpkg.

samac

Quote:

Originally Posted by samac (Post 3703089)

Your error gives you the answer, you need a tar-1.13 executable in /bin, once you have done this pkgtools should work and you will be able to use installpkg.

samac

Ya .. I do have a tar-1.13 in my /bin ... This is why I am confused about this error. I even looked and edited installpkg, still no luck.

Whose tar-1.13 do you have? Be sure to use the original sources from Slackware -they are bundled with the normal, modern tar version.

I had this problem a while back. My recollection is that it was looking for a link/reference to tar 13, which was fixed with a symbolic link alias; I'm using tar 1.16.1. Sorry I can't give you any more than that. My memory fails me.

It doesn't work to use an alias or link. The pkgtools explicitly test the version of tar using 'tar --version'. And they are not kidding about other versions of tar not being supported -tar-1.13 has some specific beahviours which affect the way packages get constructed and installed. And some of the tar-1.13 options called by pkgtools have completely different behaviour with later versions of tar. I strongly recommend that you build tar from the official slackware sources so that tar-1.13 gets properly installed.

Using any other version of tar can cause corrupted database files when installing packages. This means that when you try to uninstall a package, the files don't really get removed at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnashley (Post 3704028)

Thanks, for the explanation, I was using the official gnu release 1.22, I'll grab the Slack source and compile & test.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manwithaplan View Post
3 - How can I install a Slackware groups (i.e. a, ap, e, n, etc...)...? If possible...

Code:

#!/bin/bash

MT=$(mktemp -d -t) # create a temporary directory for the mount point

# lets say we have the slackware-13 iso saved in the /tmp directory

mount /tmp/slackware-13.0-install-dvd.iso $MT -o loop # mount slack to mount point via loop device

pkgtool -sets T#Y -source_mounted -source_dir $MT/slackware # use pkgtool for slackware sets t and y

umount $MT # get rid of mounted slackware iso

rmdir $MT  # get rid of mount point directory

This should illustrate ways of using pkgtool to install package sets following the included tagfile. You can do all this with installpkg using the "-menu" and "-priority " flags but pkgtool does it all for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgeddy (Post 3704381)

You can do this with one of the more obscure options of pkgtool that is the "-sets" parameter. Here is a little script to illustrate this, This will install the t and y sets as if they where selected from the setup asking for optional files and automatically installing required ones. It does this by following the tagfiles on the install disk image :

This should illustrate ways of using pkgtool to install package sets following the included tagfile. You can do all this with installpkg using the "-menu" and "-priority " flags but pkgtool does it all for you.

This is a great answer to my post. I was looking for a way to install the sets. Thanks