Resolution to the Linux 2.6.7, Dropline 2.8.0, ATI, and X.org problem
 

After 1 month of being in Windows hell, I've decided to come back to linux. This is, of course, of all the complications there has been in the past 2-3 months: 1. Pat's health, 2. Todd Kulesza's farewell to dropline, 3. X.org 6.8.1, and of course 4. The future of Slackware-Gnome.

I remember downloading the lastest dropline 2.8 in october and seeing a message for I don't have a Linux 2.6 to run HAL. So I tried out Linux 2.6.9, not knowing how unstable it was. I had a perfect Dropline 2.6.2 and Linux 2.4.26 setup, but I compromised all that for a simple upgrade (and all fall down).

So, after my recent return to slackware, I realized that the ATI drivers were not compatible with X.org 6.8.1, and I know Dropline 2.8 came with X.org 6.8.1, which would not go well. Also, with the help of distrowatch, I found out that /testing included the very stable 2.6.7 kernel, which led me to believe that hopefully I will never ever have to compile my own kernel. I know that Pat's direction is most likely a wise one, but I also know the dropline community is not dead and for all those slackware-dropline deserters who are only looking for a clean Gnome, that's now what it's all about. Shame on all those who have defected to Gentoo, Arch, Debian/Ubuntu, and FreeBSD. So after much ardous searching for answers on many forums, I have found a way to get Dropline 2.8 to run on my slackware box with ATI drivers, Linux 2.6, and, yes, X.org.

For Newbies and Experts alike:

Step 1: Install Slackware 10. I don't care if you guys do a full install. As long as you have your
essential packages, that's fine. You'll have to go back to the slackware CD later.

Step 2: Install Linux 2.6.7. There's a great writeup on how to do this using Slackware's very own /testing directory on CD 2. Here it is: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20040628
Don't forget to install "kernel-generic" + "alsa-driver" (if you use alsa) + "kernel-headers" + "kernel-modules" and + "kernel-source" (this somehow helps for ATI installation and nvidia nforce installation)

Step 3: I don't have support for NVIDIA cards, but I do have support for ATI. Run through the standard
rpm2tgz fglrx-XXX.rpm
installpkg fglrx-XXX.tgz
updatedb
cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/ (You don't need to patch anything)
sh make.sh
cd ..
sh make_install.sh
open up fstab and add the following:
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
save and close
mount /dev/shm
mount | grep "shm" (You'll get what it says in /etc/fstab)
reboot
Don't configure the driver yet (You have X.org 6.7)

Step 4: Now comes Dropline. Get the latest installer for 2.8.0 (although 2.8.2 is due to release soon) I'm not sure if seeds are up for the ISO torrent although I have a CD and could host it for you guys. We'll see about that.
Do a full install
It should replace X.org 6.7 with 6.8.1
Dropline should finish knowing you have Linux 2.6.7 installed.
I know now that ATI is not compatible with x.org 6.8.1
The funny thing is when I installed dropline and started, I couldn't get into dropline it would crash and give me init font path errors and when I started a much lighter fluxbox interface, I was not getting any acceleration and glxgears and fgl_glxgears would lock up my system. So , now the comes the conclusion.

Step 5: Uninstall x.org 6.8.1, reinstall x.org 6.7, and configure ATI

If you can get into X, get out and type pkgtool
There should be only 1 set of X packages installed. This is X.org 6.8.1. Uninstall all those packages selected them with the spacebar and removing
Having X.org 6.8.1 uninstalled, you might think dropline won't work. Get your slackware CD 1, cd into the slackware/x directory and run pkgtool again.
Install all the packages in the current directory with pkgtool.
Having X.org 6.7 installed, run fglrxconfig
mv /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/xorg.conf
vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf
For input section on the keyboard, change:
Driver "keyboard" ----------> Driver "kbd" (so that X.org can recognize it)

Well, I startx into dropline and guess what, there's no crashing at all. Seems like Dropline should not have upgraded to X.org 6.8.1 in the first place. This solved my 3D acceleration problems and booted up Dropline with ease. I was getting so desperate that I was going to switch to Enlightenment, which also looks quite beautiful, but now that Dropline 2.8 is working, I'm homefree!

Hope this helps you guys. This will bring some resolution to all the distress my fellow slackers have been experiencing this past 2 months. Gimme some feedback.

Viva la Dropline, Viva la Pat, and Viva la Slackware!

You have an excellent guide here. One question though: Why exactly do you need the 2.6.7 kernel source? Did you throw that in there just in case the user wants to compile their kernel at a later date?

I'll be quite honest: I was one of those people. Debian is treating me nicely, but I still have Slack on my other machines!

By the way... how is Dropline these days? Does it still remove "obsolete software?" I used to love 2.6. =D

The funny thing is when I installed the kernel source, it somehow led the NVIDIA nforce installer to believe that the source is in /usr/src and that the modules should be compiled. I don't know, but just to be on the safe side it worked for me. I thought ATI had a dependence on it, but then realized that the ATI package I got from linuxpackages.net was no good. Don't use that one. Do the rpm2tgz to the one from the ATI. They're the same, but I think linuxpackages.net tweaked a little bit. This is, of course, not relevant to your question. But basically, yeah, it's a good idea just to be on the safe side and what is some hard drive space going to hurt anyway? I have 80 GB to spare. Now that you mentioned, if anyone would also like to know my partition scheme for my ideal setup on a 80 GB maxtor, here's what I went with using cfdisk:

/ - 4 GB (Has The Bootable Tag) - Primary
swap - 2 GB (Because I have 1 GB RAM) - Primary
/usr - 25 GB - Primary
/boot - 40 MB (This is probably excessive; You can use 10 MB) - Logical
/tmp - 256 MB (Good enough unless you're running a server) - Logical
/var - 512 MB (Same as above) - Logical
/home - The rest of the space - Logical

I know I have digressed infinitely, but I just want to make sure other slackers don't suffer like I did before I had this ideal system running. To answer the Dropline question, I'd say it is as good swaret in updating the most used software. Swaret is still better, but if people don't need it if they're looking for everything they need in Dropline. I only hope it continues to flourish with the wide user base it has. I just hope, you'll agree, it doesn't turn into bloatware like Fedora and Mandrake. Happy Slacking!

Welcome back! :)

If you'd like to test (break your meachine) with Dropline Gnome 2.8.2-RC1, you can get a torrent to download the ISO that we released yesterday.

http://www.borgerding.org/dropline/d...r1.iso.torrent

I must mention that we are still using X.org 6.8.1, with some patches that aren't in the DLG 2.8.0 version. I regret that ATI doesn't yet properly support it, but if we all had to wait for ATI's Linux support... Well. ;)

I hope you enjoy this release.

Zach

Thanks a lot! Will try to get it and give feedback.

I am a recent debian convert from slack. The thing that forced my hand was easy upgrading and package installation. I know you can do it by hand in slack using the upgrade.txt guide but why? Plus Pat dropped gnome support and I find that DLG is sluggish. I am running slack in CLI only on my "practicing for the LPI exam" box. I am going to try out the upgrade.txt method of updating the slack install on it.

It's too bad Pat might eventually drop support for Gnome, but that'll give Dropline even a bigger reason to be around. I'd actually like to see more questions posed about Dropline in this forum.

The only thing I've had a problem so far is with printing in slackware, which I think where Debian/Ubuntu shines. Anyways, instead of using upgrade.txt for upgrading, why don't you just use swaret? Also, the packages at linuxpackages.net are a breeze to install. For someone who works on CLI, this shouldn't be that hard to do. Also, I'd say the best alternative to Dropline would be something like Enlightenment. You're right about it being a bit sluggish, because I've been experiencing that as well. It could just be crappy ATI drivers unless you use another card, which would prove me wrong.

Also, to the dropline developer who invited me to download 2.8.2, I was wondering if you guys are going to have Firefox and Thunderbird instead of just Mozilla. It's really annoying to have Mozilla and Firefox installed. And for epiphany, is there anyway to get epiphany to run without mozilla installed. It seems that it only works, if mozilla is installed? Thanks

bump

Printing in Dropline is now quite simple with gnome-cups-manager. Alternately (assuming that rc.cups i set to execute on startup) you can browse to http://localhost:631 to use CUPS' own browser-based configurator and have it running within minutes (just installed an Epson printer that way).

As for Mozilla, we've stopped including it. Everything that's used it in the past can now build against Firefox instead. In fact, we've got Firefox, Thunderbird, and Epiphany all working quite nicely together. GAIM and Evolution even use Firefox for its NSS crypto libraries. You can, at your own discretion, remove Mozilla in Dropline 2.8.2. In fact, I've done it on my machine... And it will never try to install it again.

Thanks, dude. I'm just glad I don't need to fetch the firefox package for myself off linuxpackages.net. Also, I feel like epiphany is such a useless browser. Is it really even worth having it installed? Firefox beats it in all ways.

I actually prefer Epiphany because of its simplicity and speed, and the way it handles tabs. Firefox is a more feature-rich browser, but a lot of the features aren't needed for most users. We'll probably continue to include it (Epiphany) because it is the official Gnome browser.