If I were to speculate, I'd say Mr Volkerding is updating the versions of some core libraries (such as glib2) or build dependencies, requiring a complete rebuild and test of the whole system.

/me laughs

Now if only I could believe that you had a BananaPi. The thing is that I'm pretty sure that I'd know if anybody did because they'd have reported something very specific to me that only a Banana Pi owner would know ..

Uh, Oh... Like that it boot only from SD and is pure incapable to boot directly from HDD, like all Allwinner based boards? Or, that if you want some video displaying and even 3D, you should play with some linux-sunxi kernels and Linaro libs? Just saying...

Nope - U-boot is loaded from SD but the OS is only on HDD and boots from there.
Video is a bit sad, indeed!

I think the reason people are concerned about Patrick's well being is the periods of time between posts and the fact Robby and Eric seem to be more active, if not the LQ public faces of Slackware as of late.

Like anyone, I too have had my concerns about Patrick, but I have been on long enough to know Patrick goes for long periods of time off of LQ and deals with his personal life and other issues.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

Pure speculation on your part. You have no way of knowing PV's status unless you are in direct contact with him. Myself, I would rely on Eric's earlier statement more than your attempt to spread 'FUD';I am sure we all know that Eric has contact with PV! More so than you.

I'm not sure OP's intent was to spread FUD. I think a lot of us have noticed a lull in development and are just hoping everything is ok with Pat. I can live with slow development, no worries.

4 members found this post helpful.

This has happened before and I know what to do.
We must build a golden calf..............

3 members found this post helpful.

Of course, the real moral of that story is not "have faith", but rather, if you're a leader of a community, you can't just piss-off up a mountain for an unspecified period of time, send no word, and not expect to return to Shiny Bovines. All Moses had to do was tweet: "Back soon. Up a mountain, talking to a flaming shrubbery! LOL", and he would have been, er, golden!

You know those watchmen, the ones that used to patrol old-world cities crying stuff like, "3 bells and all's well"? Well, that was just as much about reassurance as it was time-keeping.

9 members found this post helpful.

I hope he is enjoying a fine beer right now.

2 members found this post helpful.

I hope to be enjoying a fine beer myself soon.

I am enjoying a fine beer right now!

People sometimes have to be reminded of what "it's ready when it's ready" actually means.
If there are no updates for a while, there will be a good reason. Whether that reason has anything to do with the distro itself, real life or a visit by aliens, is of no concern. Is it a matter of having faith? Well perhaps. Faith in the direction of the distro and faith in the ideas and focus of its developer.
Faith is something that comes into play when you don't have something tangible to hold on to. People have grown used to having distro git repositories, bug trackers, technical committees and outspoken leadership. Visible signs of progress, direction and opinion. Predictible activity.
Slackware is none of the above. Its development is not visible except in the -current ChangeLog.txt. It's a unique distro in that sense - part of the fun of running Slackware is that you can participate in the rumor mill every so often, while Pat works on the distro in seclusion.
There's no doubt that there will be a next update. As to what it encompasses... please roll the rumor mill a bit faster!

11 members found this post helpful.

systemd
a dancing paperclip
a fully-stocked bar
lap-dancers

2 members found this post helpful.

A fully stocked bar sounds perfect to me. I am very curious to see the updates.