I think KDE fits perfectly with the Slackware philosophy; Pat provides the Slackware user base with many excellent DE/WMs and packages. It is your choice to install what you want on Slackware. I don't use KDE, but, I am happy that it is there for people to use.

As much as I hate KDE, I have to agree.....it's good to have the choice- especially for those who like it, who might not use Slackware, otherwise.

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One turboscrew asks more than 10 wise can answer...

I understand that 'installpkg' is a part of pkgtools?
Pkgtools handle packages in local directory?

Slackpkg is a front end to pkgtools? It downloads stuff from repo
to a local directory and uses installpkg to install them?

With SBo you by-pass the slackpkg and download sources directly in a local directory, run the scripts that make installable packages and then install the packages with installpkg?

Anywhere near the idea?

Is there a way to install from more generic sources? Like checkinstall, so you can remove the installed 10 000 files of the package, scattered all over the system, without having to remove them manually one by one?

Your summary/posings about pkgtools, slackpkg and SBo is correct, grasshopper.

I have not used checkinstall, but if I understand correctly, it "watches" what make (maybe other build systems?) actually install to your system, then creates a (Slackware or other) package from that. It then removes the installed files and installs the package, thus putting it under control of the native package manager.

In that case, as you correctly surmize, this would allow removal of the installed files simply because it does use the native package manager.

To my knowledge, there is no such mechanism built-in to Slackware, but it is almost always possible for make, cmake and other build systems, to install to an alternate location using build-time variables, and then use makepkg to create a package from that location... which puts you back under control of pkgtools (most slackbuilds do precisely this). Consequently, for the case where there is not an existing slackbuild script, it is usually easy enough to make your own from observing and scripting the build.

In my own case, the only non-slackbuild installer I have resorted to is the VirtualBox installer from Oracle. It is just easier to manage updates their way. In that case I limit system activity, use tree to generate a system tree immediately before installing and immediately afterward. The diff of these tells me what it did... mostly just a sanity check...

Hope this helps young padowan!

(((I read all this stuff, and I'm still clueless about 3rd. party package management in Slackware.... This is really the only part of Slackware that is hard for a noob. The rest is easy. )))

Yes, as are upgradepkg, removepkg, and explodepkg (don't sit too near your computer if you run that).
Run pkgtool in a terminal or the console and you get a ncurses GUI with a menu.

Mainly for security updates, also adding stuff you might have missed out through not doing a full install or totally new bits and pieces, and upgrading from one release to the next.
sbopkg downloads, builds, and installs stuff from slackbuilds.org.

removepkg usually removes all traces of any real Slackware package.

The best way to handle, create packages for software not offered in Slackware is to use the slackBuild scripts offered by the good people at slackbuilds.org. A good way to get started with slackbuild scripts is to download/install the sbopkg utility which makes it easy to download, create, and install 3rd party applications. The sbopkg utility provides an easy to use interface to enable you to work with the scripts at slackbuilds.org.

http://www.sbopkg.org/downloads.php

Have you had a look at the Slackware Documentation Project, link below in my signature? Get reading NOW!!!

You can also use slacktrack:
http://www.slackware.com/~mozes/

What I do is use my own script. All I really need is a list of files that were installed. So I just use find to make this list and save it to a file. I do not log things inside /etc, because removing things from there is dangerous, you should do this manually. In fact I only log things in /usr.

I have SBOpkg- that does make it easy if it has the programs you want.

I've also learned [I think ] from the help of others on here, that my best bet is probably to learn to make my own Slackbuilds.

Trouble with me is, I rarely install anything....but if/when I do, it's usually something non-mainstream- so I really do need to learn to do it from the ground, up. And being I rarely need to install anything, of course I tend to forget how to do things, just because I may go a year without ever installing anything.

Probably.

Trouble is, there are so many different options (Installpkg; Slackbuilds; Slapt-get; make-install; Slackpkg) and one only works with official Slackware pkgs, while one is for custom builds that others have made and one only works on the second Tuesday of months containing the letter R ....and one works with a .tgz but not a tar.gz .....

I mean, it's great to have plenty of options, but as a noob (and a barely computer-literate one at that) it just seems bewildering. I read the lit, but there are so many different things and different opinions and practices, that I feel like I don't know anything more after reading half of that stuff, than before I read it

I'm sure though, given enough time and experimentation, I'll figure it all out.

If I learn how to make my own Slackbuilds, I can pretty much do it all that way, right?

I LOVE Slackware- and everything else is easy....so this is the only hurdle I have to get over- and at least it'll force me to learn... (If it weren't for you guys/this forum though, I'd be in trouble! )

You can also give gnashley's utility a try. The src2pkg utility is a nifty program that takes source programs and creates installable Slackware packages.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/amigolinux/download/src2pkg/

OMG, I'm that much behind. I've been struggling with wifi.
After boot it works fine for maybe 30 mins or so, and then not so well.
(I'm writing this on another machine)

Nw the info about installing SW comes handy!

I've been trying to install wicd - maybe it works better.
After the first connection loss the net stays up for maybe a couple of minutes.
With xfce not even that much (using KDE by default).

The funny thing is that iwlist scanning keeps telling that wifi works fine.
Like it was just the browsers (Konqueror, Firefox) loose the connection.
Even disconnecting and reconnecting doesn't seem to help.

My wifi base station is Buffalo WHR G300N.
Using TKIP.

A couple of days ago I still run Mint 13 - no network problems, so I think the HW is OK.

The problem is that the net doesn't seem to work long enough to find instructions,
read the instructions and install.

Thanks. That sounds right up my alley. Does it log the stuff to /var/log and all, so as not to obfuscate the advantages of Slackware?

Does this look right?

Where should I find wicd (wicd-kde)?

In the network configuration I selected Network Manager.

...

This is what iwlist says - even when the connection is lost:
(Aha, it seems to select AES instead of TKIP - doesn't matter.)'
yep:
bash-4.2# ps axu | grep Network
root 671 0.0 0.6 51292 6612 ? Ssl 00:38 0:01 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager

Yeah, src2pkg creates proper Slackware packages, doesn't "obfuscate" anything, and it comes with plenty of documentation, and gnashley is one of the most helpful members on LQ. Get it.