hmm, the last version of Slack I used was 9.0 ... after which I got a laptop and moved for a few years, so stuck to Windows ... Now, im back home and in possession of some free time, I was looking to do a little fiddling around with setting up a webserver on an old PC here ... a friend recommended I get Ubuntu Server, because that comes with LAMP preloaded and saved me the hassle of setting everything up manually and let me instead focus on getting the server running rather than installing stuff ... blah blah blah, got Ubuntu, ran it for a cpl days, decided I needed Slack to be comfortable ... so downloading Slack now ...

while I wait for it to complete, a few questions bout whats happened over the last few years ...

1) Last I heard Pat V was unwell ... He obviously seems to have recovered now, anybody want to shed some light? (pls dont tell me to google ... !)

2) I had heard of slapt-get which was allegedly the equivalent of apt-get on Slackware, but Id never used it ... I tended to always compile from source ... The one thing I liked about ubuntu was the apt-get stuff... So, whats the current posish on package management with slack? Is it still completely manual? or does slapt-get actually exist and work? and whats the slackbuild thing all about? In short, do I have any 'automation' options available?

3) I have ZERO knowledge of web-related stuff ... Linux, fairly competent with the CLI, kernel compiling and getting lil things to work, like DSL modems and Wireless, which are usually notoriously difficulty ... But when it comes to the web-world, clueless ... XAMPP is apparently a good place to start, but when I get Slack 12.2 and install EVERYTHING, do I need XAMPP? Basically, I need to setup a fileserver, and then get eprints (http://www.eprints.org) running on it, so that some buddies and I can share files that we are collaborating on ... Any pointers on how to get started would be appreciated ...

4) ah ... what drove me crazy on Ubuntu and got me to 'realise my folly and get back to Slack' was its incessant 'paranoia' ... I KNOW root for everything is NOT a good idea ... at the same time, the system Im building is more of a testbed, I want to experiment, make mistakes and learn!!! I am NOT guarding state secrets on it ... meaning to HELL with any 'security measures' that presume to know better than me ... Ubuntu discourages and ENFORCES a 'no root' policy, which pissed me off to no end ... getting root on the console was simple enough, but once thats done, to CONTINUE to deny me root on the GUI was a piss-off ... having to type my password for every single move I made on the system was ... well, WORSE than using Vista!!! Atleast Vista just made me click on Yes to everything, this makes me TYPE my password for everything ... I KNOW I can enable root access on the GUI too, but as a matter of principle, I just don't appreciate that concept ... What Im getting at is this ---- PLEASE TELL ME SLACK HAS NOT ALSO TURNED PSYCHO SECURE WITH MEANINGLESS ROUTINES LIKE THIS!!!

thats about it I guess ... by this time morrow, I should have replaced Ubuntu with Slack, and hopefully will also have enough replies here to get started with the webserver work ...

Sorry about the length of this post ... Its good to be back here ...
Cheers,
Karthik

1) AFAIK Pat is OK now.

2) It is still pkgtool, without dependency checking. Yes, there's slapt-get and some other package management systems. There are also sites with binary packages or even better, with Slackbuilds. The one that I use is sbopkg, which automatically gets the slackbuilds from slackbuilds.org and compiles/installs the software as a tgz package.

3) The installer is almost the same as what you've seen in 9.0, so the ethernet connection setup should be simple and familiar. For wireless, I recommend using wicd (found in extras/), it makes wireless connection management rather easy. I don't know much about file sharing stuff but Slack has SAMBA and Apache, they probably can answer your needs.

4) No - with Slack you can simply 'su' into the root account and that's it.

Slackpkg is part of the main distribution now and as Ilgar mentioned there is Slackbuilds.org and sbopkg both of which are highly recommended.

For the webserver stuff, if you do a full install you should have everything you need to get LAMP system up and running. PHP, Apache httpd and MySQL are all part of the main distribution.

Surviving Ubuntu
1. You can easily get root, use one of the options
...a. sudo su == root
...b. visudo and add your username to the NOPASSWD group: username ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL
2. There are resources available, tutorials, etc.
...a. Ubuntu forums
...b. Linuxquestions

Wasn't trying to answer your questions by the numbers...

On Slackware
XAMPP? Perl, Python, and PHP are available among MySQL and Sql Lite.
There are numerous multitudes of resources available out there on google.
I don't think Python includes the odbc driver for Mysql, but I could be wrong.
You can easily develop a nice web application with php and or perl though.

slaptget can point to package sites. I trust linuxpackages and slackey about like I trust debian sites. Kind of, maybe, and sometimes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapt-get

Anyway welcome home.


--fun facts: ubuntu, the user user's id is 999 on the livecd. Which some biblical say is the actual mark of the beast.
Everything derived from the distribution uses this, ie. kubuntu's kubuntu user uses 999.
u + b = 6 u + n = 6 and t + u = 6
21/2 = 10.5 21/14 = 1.5 20/21 = 0.952

Add all that up 12.952
Subtract it all 8.048

4.904 when subtracted from each other

21 derived when added together

Bingo, Blackjack!

Just kidding. Maybe there is actually some fact there. I mean ubuntu really does make using a laptop much easier, too easy.
Maybe it's just that puritan sense of hardship instilled in my protestant upbringing. Never tried the server version.


Peace

Slackware stays out of your way, so how you use the system is up to you. This includes running as root...

Why are you using the root account under the GUI? You should only be using the root account for system administration tasks and nothing else.

ive used xampp in windows before.apache and mysql are already included if you did a full install as what mRgOBLIN said.what ive added is just the phpmyadmin.

ah, thanks a load for the inputs ... Still havent completed downloading the ISO, my connection is not the fastest in the world, and I had to stop the torrent during the day to use the net for other matters ... Should be done downloading tonight ...

So, Slackbuilds and sbopkg should be my first stop in the pkg mgmt arena with slack, followed by slapt-get, I presume ... Its good to know that there are pkg tools available, whatever ppl say about the 'dangers of automated installations', I feel its a natural step forward to evolve the OS ... Dependency resolution is a PAIN and something thats just wayyyyyyy too intimidating for the casual user to bother with ... Im curious to try out these tools ... especially slapt-get with gslapt or whatever its called, which is supposedly like synaptic ...

rkelsen ... why GUI in root ... mainly coz, like I said, its a testbed, and I will be quite frequently experimenting with various software installations etc ... for the console, NO WAY I will bother with anything but root ... and for the GUI too, atleast till I have tried out a bunch of differnt applications and decided on the combination that I like, I have no interest in entering my passwd every half hour!!! And again, ultimately, this is neither my regular machine, nor something on which Im conducting sensitive research ... If it gets broke, it gets broke, and I have the pleasure of going thru the entire installation all over again, meaning anohter opportunity for me to 'practice' and improve my admin skills ...

and stupid as it may sound, to contest on ego with a machine, I JUST WANNA DO WHAT I WANNA DO WITHOUT MY MACHINE PREACHIN TO ME!!!!!!!!

the webserver stuff, honestly, I have ZERO exposure to its various components, so for example, I dont even know what phpmyadmin does, or how to write an interface with php/perl etc ... Hopefully, I should be coming back here often in the future for input s on how to progress ...

And its good to be back home, Salemboot ...

You should primarily use slackpkg (included in 12.2) for updating the stock provided programs. SlackBuilds is the resource for adding other applications which you may need that are not in 12.2....and sbopkg is the tool for updating those items. I would stay away
from slapt-get/gslapt...just my personal opinion...has worked ok for some.

duly noted ... I had to restart the Slack download due to some ... conflicts with regards internet usage at home ... Meaning its going to be another cpl days before I have Slack running ...

Keep the faith...the end result will be an os that will be truly yours and a thing of simple beauty!

I hope you're using bittorrent or at least a download manager.

TORRENT!!! There is no other way to download, PERIOD!!! Its done finally, I was out of town for a cpl days, so haven't burnt it yet ... my weekend project, to get the server up ...

Welcome back to slackware. i am a newbie in linux . i tried many distros including ubuntu. now i am settled with slackware. since it is a very clean, fast and stable. and i do get quite a learning compared to other distros.

as for the packaging system slackbuilds have done a great job. it is easy to create the package and keep those packages for future use incase as compared to ubuntu we have to do the istallation online although there are other options.

wireless is pretty much easy to set up is u read alien bobs wiki on wire less. there he has done a pretty great job explaining from the basics.thanks to him. about other net stuff i don't hav that much knowledge.

i hope u downloaded the latest stable release of slackware that is 12.2 any ways enjoy...