Slack-current change logs--changeless in Feb?
 

I suppose this comes under the heading of idle curiosity...

I've noticed that the Slackware-current change logs have had
no entries since Jan 31, 2010. Since it is March now, this
has caused me to wonder if everything's alright with Pat V.
and the development of the next version of Slackware.

--Lawrence

This is an example of just how stable Slackware is. I believe there are some fairly major changes being developed at the moment but that they will not hit current until they are ready.

samac

Eric touched on this in a blog posting a few days back:
http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/slac...alling-or-not/

It sounds like there's lots going on in private, but it would seem that the team want to keep us in the dark till they've finished (much like what happened with the 64bit version).

I can understand that some changes take bucket loads of time and effort, identifying build orders, bugs, and lots of other stuff like that, but I don't understand why they're also being so tight lipped about what they're working on.

If this trend towards secrecy continues then it sounds like the end of current as we've known it, and taken to the extreme we might end up only getting to see current when it hits 'beta'/'release candidate' stage like the other commercial distros do things.

I respect the teams choice to approach Slackware development however they want, it is their project after all, but this recent trend towards secrecy does make me a little uncomfortable about the future.

I disagree, it would be mad to allow major structural changes to be released until they are in a state that is at least able to be used. Then release it to current to catch the elusive bugs. As I understand it Slackware is not a community led project, but it is a well led project with a good community. I am happy to see it done this way.

samac

Will you junkies please calm down =)

Nothing is wrong...

It's getting close...

It takes time...

It's not a secret...

There is no spoon...

Eric also mentions the behind-the-scenes work in this post here.

I wouldn't read too much into the "secrecy" of what they're working on. We know that KDE 4.4 has issues with inclusion in Slackware due to its new dependency on policykit. I'm assuming that they're working on how to get around that dependency that doesn't require introducing PAM or creating a new maintenance nightmare for every future version of Slackware with KDE >4.4.

Pat has historically communicated chiefly through changelog updates. The development team knows that they've got a lot more users running -current than ever before because of KDE 4.3. If we got daily or weekly snapshots of work-in-progress KDE 4.4 builds, as well as the other packages they're modifying to make it work, -current would probably stay broken. So, we haven't gotten many changelog updates and therefore not a lot of communication from Pat.

I realize that -current comes with no guarantees on stability, but I appreciate that they're not pushing out half-finished updates just so we can see what's going on. The 1-31-10 stopping point has been very stable for me. I was worried about when would be a good time to burn a DVD of -current with Eric's mirror-slackware-current script, and early February turned out to work well.

Please mRgOBLIN sir please feed my habit, I need what you, Pat, Eric, Robbie and the others feed us. PLLEEEEEAAAAAASSSEEEE!!!!

samac

You misunderstand me Samac. I don't want to see the changes before they're ready. I'm quite happy to wait however long it takes, but I wouldn't mind knowing what they're working on at a 'headline' level, so I can make sure I'm prepared for when the changes finally show up.

Are they working on KDE4.4 with policykit/consolekit? Is it a new X11 version that's taking up the time, a new gcc/libc, update to the latest kernel, a brand new package-manager with dependencies? (YIKES!!) Are they adding SELinux and creating a policy for it? Stuff like that.

lol. At least we're still interested.
It's when we stop asking questions you have to worry!

:)

OK GazL that would be quite good as, after all, Slackware is too damn stable and we need something to discuss at great length of the forum. Maybe someone should start a sweepstake thread and then the cat population of Oldham would have to worry again.

samac

Nope

I'll give that 5 out of 10 since you didn't mention Gnome3 or a graphical installer =)

I thought Pat was re-branding Windows Vista with a Penguin/Bob logo and offering it as the best operating system in the world ever! :)

samac

hehe. Yep, I pretty much knew it wasn't 4.4 as it's already been hinted in several places that 4.3.5 will be the KDE for the next release, which is fine by me.

I thought about adding Gnome to that list, but I thought it was already getting far too silly as it was. I also didn't include PAM as that would have just been ridiculous! ;)


Mind you, I don't know what I'm worried about. I normally just run 'stable' anyway.

I think its quite reasonable to be extra cautious with large updates in current furthermore now that the branch seems to be picked up by many more users than in the past, mostly KDE users, who are "sacrificing stability" for the extra features the newer KDE versions provide.

One advance warning:

When the new Slackware batch hatches, and all of you apply your patches, be extra careful if you are running Slackware64-current with multilib and/or my KDE 4.4.0 packages on top of Slackware-current.

There will be some package upgrades from my end to reflect the new state of -current. I'll post the details on my blog once the trigger has been pulled.

Eric

Thanks for the heads up Eric.

samac

Thanks to all who posted. My idle curiosity has been generously
fed full of info :-) I'm glad to see that all is well--developers
developing, and Slackware well on track. I'll look forward to when
that trigger is pulled.

--Lawrence

Have you looked recently?

I looked in 64bit current and there wasn't anything new there and thought what the hell is he on about. Then I checked 32bit! Yikes!

I normally pay close attention to the updates. With that lot I'm just going to have to go on blind trust and use a 'for blah in *.t?z' loop against the entire lot. Far too many changes to actually follow what's going on with.

Thankfully, it'll take a day or so for my local mirror to sync so I'll have time to get over the shock before I have to apply them. I don't even want to have to think about all those *.new's I'm gonna have to deal with!

I think the forum's are gonna be quiet tomorrow while everyone deals with these. :)

Thanks guys.

I will stop to hammer teh server... until tomorrow =]

Yes, mRgOBLIN, thanks for the clue. I just looked. The changelog does
indeed appear to have had at least a month's worth of changes by the
Slackware team added at Mar 1 22:43:53 UTC 2010. Current users may find
it interesting :-)

http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=i386

--Lawrence

After reviewing the changelog entry for today (March 1, 2010), I'm thinking maybe it would have been easier for Pat to tell us what hasn't changed. In 6 years of using Slack, I don't think I've ever seen a single changelog entry of this magnitude.

I just saw the changeLogs for 64current... THANK YOU!!!!1!

This is the first time in almost 8 years libjpeg got a new upstream release, let alone one with a soname bump.
Thats why sooner of later if Pat wanted to upgrade to it there would be a huge amount of rebuilds required.
It just happened to be now.

OMG! That's a lot

<sarcasm>
So, does anybody know when we'll start seeing some activity in the changelogs?
</sarcasm>

I'll get my coat.

I get the error: libgmp.so.10 is not found. So I terminated the slackpkg update-all process.

Now I can't run slackpkg, installpkg, upgradepkg because of the same error. I'm so excited to try the -current so I just symlinked the file to libgmp.so which is also a synlink to the real lib. Now I restarted the upgrade process. Hopefully it will work. (breaking the virtual machine first, before breaking my laptop :D)

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...7/#post3881963

You may find that thread handy (or informative at least) if you haven't yet read it.

Myself, I'm just curious how long it usually takes for the latest stuff (like as of the latest changelog) on the slackware ftp server to propagate to the various mirrors.... Any general idea anyone? I've tried 3 or 4 mirrors and so far nothing new.

just thanx for a month of hard work :)

My symlink work, but I prefer that thread you posted, it is more elegant. :D

Thanks,

I've always looked forward to applying new changes from -current, knowing that my system
was going to be even better and safer. This is the first time I've ever felt a sense of trepidation.
Maybe like jumping out of an aeroplane ? Anyone seen some sort of executive summary explaining
exactly what we can expect to happen - especially around the X-server stuff where most desktops
will be affected ?

If you are having second thoughts.. (and it looks like they are valid at this time =)), Then I'd give it a couple of days for the major kinks to be worked out.

Collecting them already. :D
Ch, ch, ch...here, kitty!
Are we nearly there yet???

anyone else find that dhclient no longer works?

it says i assume editing /sbin/dhclient-script and using the full path to those binaries would fix it, but this shouldnt need to be done

Maybe I'm just having a short-bus moment here, but can someone tell me why it is that, having just updated slackpkg (slackpkg update) using a -current mirror, the only new things I am told are available are slacktrack-2.07 and bash-completion-1.1 ??

I'm running 13.0 x86_64

I checked the ChangeLog I just received -- it is indeed filled with new goodies -- but.. WTH am I missing here? Is it my /etc/slackware-version file or what!?! :scratch: Why doesn't it tell me there are hundreds of new things to upgrade to? :cry:

Boohoo...

GrapefruitGirl... perhaps this happens becauase your slackpkg is pointing to a Slackware 13.0 mirror while all these new goodies are available for slackware-current?

Eric

I saw the same errors yesterday on an Acer Aspire One D250 laptop. I assumed my issues were wireless driver related (ath9k module with AR9285 card) until I switched from wicd/dhclient to inetd/dhcpcd and wireless worked.

@ Eric -- nope I don't think that's the problem; as mentioned, I changed my mirror file to point at a --current mirror, and I am getting a changelog (and the other files) from that very mirror, and it's the NEW changelog, dated early March (1st or 2nd of March).. So it all looks good so far. But when I do `slackpkg upgrade-all` or `slackpkg install-new`, there's nothing to do! I admit I'm a little spaced sometimes :p but this has me stumped still..

Sasha
Have you deleted the space as well as the hashmark from your chosen mirror?

Publishing unstable components is counter-productive.
Just be patient.

@ Brian - yes, just re-checked. No leading space. The funny thing is, the ChangeLog is the correct one, so the mirror itself doesn't seem to be the problem:

Still stumped.. :scratch:
I just tried `slackpkg upgrade-all` and still get only an offer of bash-completion and slacktrack.

I've just been having a quick look back through the ChangeLogs (current & stable), and didn't see those two items mentioned anywhere. Very strange, huh? :scratch:

Strange indeed! For the moment I guess I'll switch focus to my other ongoing situation RE: composite & multiple monitors, which is being chatted about in the "What are you doing now" thread.

Just a quick question here. In the slackpkg blacklist it quite clearly states that aaa_elflibs can't be updated and as such the blackist applies to them. Does the inclusion of them in this update now mean it is safe to remove the entry from the blacklist?

It is safe to comment that out if you are running -current. However, you don't want to update that package if you are running -stable.

Blacklisting elflibs is only valid for stable Slackware releases.
This also applies to every other file you blacklist in slackpkg AFAIK.
When you are using -current you are supposed to upgrade everything.