Slackware 10.2 or 11 won't have gnome as part of slackware so how will everyone be able to upgrade gnome without it? If someone know tell me how. Will they have to use Dropline?

Thanks Jack

You can use dropline or the numerous Slackware GNOME build systems available.

there's gonna be a slackware 10.2?

According to the official Slackware-current changelog, yes....

http://gsb.sf.net/
http://gware.sf.net/
http://www.dropline.net/gnome/

Dropline is quite intrusive (e.g. it replaces X.org with its own version, and installs PAM), so if you want to keep your system close to Slackware it is better to go for gsb or gware. The recent Slack 10.1 review on Mad Penguin covers the current GNOME situation and reviews Freerock GNOME (GSB-based) a bit:

http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=4723

People who need Gnome will probably use Dropline, Gnome-SlackBuild, or maybe even compile it from source.

There are also a number of other window managers and DE's available which work, too. You could try one of them, instead.

i really need to start paying closer attention to those things...

A correction to the DLG link:
http://dropline-gnome.sourceforge.net/

I've used Dropline Gnome and GSB, both are VERY good but Dropline, even with replacing X and PAM, is the better of the two, IMHO. I haven't tried GWare or the Linuce packaged Gnome so I can't comment on those.

Later,
MMYoung

Let's also not forget about

http://linuce.free.fr/slackware/10.1/gnome-2.8.3+/

http://linuce.free.fr/slackware/10.1/gnome-2.10.1+/


This should be a sticky I think..... So many Gnome questions over the past few months...

I've switched to KDE already, but if you want to stick with gnome I'd pick Freerock Gnome (a downloadable iso of a Gsb build I think) over Dropline.

I don't know what dropline is like now (been a year or so), but I had some trouble with it in the past. Due to it's intrusiveness, it broke compatibility with a lot of packages built for "clean" slackware.

i would vote freerock too, works a treat, just make sure you have a 2.6 kernel if you want all of the features to work.
i had a 2.4.29 kernel and the automounting of usb devices wasnt working (my usb key), as soon as i upgraded it no problems.

I've got both on my PC, I do some package building for a couple of software projects (GnomeBaker and Gramps) and I want to make sure that my packages will work for either Gnome build system. Basically the only difference between the two is:

1. Dropline is built with i686 optimization.
2. Dropline includes it's own build of Xorg.
3. Dropline includes PAM.

I haven't installed GWare or linuce, but have looked at what packages that GWare replaces and they are "similar" to what Dropline and Freerock replace. I like Dropline and doubt that I'll change just because of the above reasons. I really don't understand the whole PAM thing either, as most (not all but most) of the people that complain about it are like me and don't really even know what PAM is or what it does. I don't run a server, just a desktop, so it ain't that big of a deal, IMHO. They (DLG) have a F.U.Q. that explains their reasoning for adding PAM and replacing Xorg. From what I've read they are very sound reasons. I've build packages on Dropline that work just as well on Freerock, as long as you don't build to PAM there really is no difference.

Having said that, I really like Freerock Gnome as well. Very simple install, just download the ISO, loop mount it and run the install script and answer a couple of questions about whether you want a patched version of this, or the unstable release of that. Really sweet.

I just wish the Gnome devs would give us back our menu editing!

Just my thoughts,
MMYoung

I strongly recommend dropline gnome. A lot of people dislike the fact that it replaces Xorg with a newer, faster, optimized xorg with the bytecode interpretor compiled in(better fonts), and adding in PAM, which actually if you read up on will most likely make your box more secure.

I'm compiling a list of the various packages that we replace vs. some of the alternative third-party GNOME desktops.

We do indeed replace more items than the other third-party GNOME desktops, but it's actually quite minimal. You won't magically get PAM support for other programs unless you compile all of your other applications to make use of it, so it's really a non-issue in most respects. The X11 packages have i686 optimizations, support for multi-button input devices, and a few bugfixes that would normally cripple GNOME features. These bugfixes won't be found in X11 until their next release (e.g. the fonts:// bug).

The majority of replaced items are GNOME applications like AbiWord/GIMP/GAIM/Gnumeric/Xchat... The rest are multimedia libraries that are required by the GSTreamer framework.

You will find that, in the future, the other alternative GNOME desktops will likely replace as many items as Dropline. The general GNOME and GSTreamer framework will require this (provided you actually want things to work properly). In fact, I've watched the package listings of the other projects grow in a similar fashion to what MMYoung describes. As it currently stands, we only replace 10 more packages than the most used alternative Slackware GNOME desktop, and the gap is growing much smaller. Dropline GNOME is the result of building and optimizing a GNOME desktop since 2002, and the project has been through the growing pains that are required to make *everything* work properly. We do not install anything without a good reason. You *can't* know what is required unless you build it and tweak it yourself. The other projects are getting a taste of it firsthand and I would hope that they would tend to agree with me now (where they might not have last winter).

Additionally, the former Dropline maintainer used to support multiple versions of Slackware. After taking over the project in November, we've since switched to supporting only the current stable version (e.g. 10.1 right now), and were able to include fewer replacement libraries than ever before.

If anyone really has such phobias over the included the PAM and improved X11 packages, then they can be omitted. Frankly, I'm not quite sure why people are so concerned about them. Most folks don't even have any idea what they do or how they work, or it wouldn't likely be an issue. Besides... Slackware will be forced to include PAM and OpenLDAP eventually (as more programs will require them). It's just a matter of time. Then we won't have to hear this "intrusive" thing anymore.

We want everything to work properly. The GNOME desktop builds upon a lot of Slackware framework that is sometimes too old, inappropriate, or unpatched. When you're stuck building a a free desktop for an existing distribution, you're left making decisions that not everyone will understand.

I hope that everyone tries Dropline GNOME before making any assumptions about it. I know that we cannot please everyone, but we work on this project because we love Slackware and GNOME, and want to share our work with the community. Our 2.10.2 release rivals the best GNOME desktops in the business (in my honest opinion). We work on this because we enjoy building a desktop that "just works", and love sharing this work with others.

http://droplinegnome.net

I have a question:
As dropline replaces the shadow package, is the original slackware
/etc/shadow file compatible with the new dropline shadow package ?