FreeType 2.10.2
Change log and download links, https://sourceforge.net/projects/fre...etype2/2.10.2/

Slackware is one of the few distros without openldap-server package.
In my opinion a openldap-server package in testing, is not a bad idea.
The current had all requirements: sasl and krb5.

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Dear Slackware Developers,

I very much appreciate your work on Slackware. I would like to suggest an improvement on Slackware installer, or at least ask a question for clarification.
I just would like to ask question about the setup “Select Prompting Mode” step. The menu and the options have been changed, and I think the older version was better.
In an older version of Slackware Install the options and the explanations were these:

menu Choose groups of packages from interactive menus
expert Choose individual packages from interactive menus.

I’m referring to the old installer, please see on the Slackbook webpage 3.4.7:

On the other hand, the newer and current version of Installer says this:

menu Choose individual packages from interactive menus
expert This is actually the same as the “menu” option

I think the old version was better: it was more clear and it offered two genuinely different options: selection of groups of packages vs selections of individual packages. Why it has been changed?
Also, I think it would be better if the users had this option as well. Is it possible to, say, in next release of Slackware (15.0) we’ll get the old install options again with two different and clearly distinguishable options?

In sum, I think the current installer is either a bit confusing or redundant. Also, I don’t see at all an improvement here from the newer version.

I think there are two sensible options:

1. If there is currently no real difference between the “menu” and “expert” options, then there is no reason to keep both of them. I would suggest to keep only one of those with the explanation as follows: “Choose individual packages from interactive menus”.

2. If, however, there is or should be a real difference and choice between individual vs groups of packages, then the old version of installer should be used.

I would go for (2), the old version, since the explanation is clear, it offers an extra option and more flexibility in installing.

Thank you for clarification.

For me I say the latter, particularly between menu and expert - hence why perhaps at least menu or expert should have the output changed to terse the very least.

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The last version where the maketag and maketag.ez menus were any different was Slackware 11.0.

Granted. So, this change has been implemented almost 14 years ago. However, my main concern wasn't about that which version of the installer is the older one. Slackware isn't the best simply because this is the oldest active Linux distribution. Rather because of its features and principles. My question/concern was about those.

@HPeter82: Why bother?

1. Tagfiles (as package series) are a remnant of the floppy disks era, which is long gone.
2. Why would someone use the expert mode nowadays is beyond me. If you can list the packages you want to install, just type installpkg <list>. Or write a custom tagfile if you really like them.
3. There are things done or named nobody remembers why, that's life. Does anyone remember why the mount point of the root partition of the to_be_installed_Slackware_system is named T_PX?

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I install slackware only with tagfiles, I love them

That was the variable name used in the old SLS install scripts. My best guess was it meant "target partition".

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Re: pango, there has been quite a debacle on the Internet over the past little while about pango 1.44 majorly breaking font rendering in freetype.

I hope Pat holds off on upgrading until it's sorted out. Some people are genuinely angry about this and are calling for a fork.

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/pango/issues/463

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NordVPN has announced they now support WireGuard.
They claim it is "faster" and more "secure."
https://nordvpn.com/blog/major-upgra...ynxIntro_Gold1
It would be nice to have that added to Slackware64-current.
I guess one could build their own 5.6 kernel.

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you actually can use wireguard also on older kernels via the wireguard-linux-compat kernel module

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...-linux-compat/
https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...reguard-tools/

FWIW the above packages build just fine on current.

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Yes, I was working on that before I placed the previous message.
Downloaded and installed, but couldn't get it to work.
I'm usually up before the chickens, so I'll try tinkering with it again tomorrow morning.

brctl on the slackware install initrd doesn't work. It runs OK, but it can't create a bridge. It gives the error:
Initially I thought I might be missing the bridge module, but it seems it isn't included at:
/lib/modules/5.4.40/kernel/net/bridge.ko

(or anywhere else in the modules directory).

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I've been using the NordVPN WireGuard, "NordLynx", on Windows and Mac and it certainly handshakes faster than OpenVPN. Certainly I haven't noticed any worse performance in use than OpenVPN so even if all does is improve set up time that's a win.
My vote is for it to be in Slackware 15.0 in some manner.
See also:
https://nordvpn.com/blog/nordlynx-pr...125.1584305730

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