LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Slackware 13

- Slackware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/)

- - Slackware 13 - The Odyssey (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/slackware-13-the-odyssey-764887/)

Slackware 13 - The Odyssey

My name is Josh and this is my first post here at LQ.

Below is a post I've written about the past week of my life:

Objective:
To chronicle my installation of Slackware 13 and configuration of a usable and attractive desktop environment.

Purpose:
To help others who are new to Slackware and to get advice from the community.

History:
I have been using Linux for several years as a second operating system with dual boot setup WinXP/Ubuntu. My interest has been purely of a hobbyist nature until a recent decision to use GNU/Linux as the primary/sole OS on my laptop. I have most recently been using *buntu based (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu) distros for various reasons, but mostly the community was attractively active.

My decision to install Slackware 13 was made after installing Kubuntu and using it for about 2 weeks. I began to dislike the relative instability of it's 'stable' releases and updates (the constant updates and bug fixes seemed to break my machine more often than not) and began to search the internet for something more rock solid and less automated. After reading several opinion pieces on the subject I came to the decision that Slackware 13 offered more of what I was looking for than other "top" distros. Also, the opportunity to be more "hands on" was appealing.

Rig:
HP Pavilion dv5000 Laptop
nvidia GeForce Go 7400
Intel Centrino Duo 1.8ghz
1 Gb RAM
80 Gb SATA HDD

Installation:
There are several guides to the initial installation of Slackware 13. I read many of them before installing, and I suggest you google it first because:

a) the installation process is 'old school' and not at all similar to the LiveCD installs of other distros you may be accustomed to.

b) this is your first opportunity to make a mistake.

I downloaded the installation DVD here:
http://www.slackware.com/getslack/

I set my Boot order in BIOS to CD first and the DVD booted me to the installation shell.

From here I used cfdisk to partition my hard drive. I created a SWAP partition of twice my ram (2gb) which I read somewhere was a good guideline. I have no idea if double your ram is still a good guideline but for some reason it has stuck in my mind so I have continued to use it. I dedicated the rest of my drive to a standard Linux partition. Note: During the install I chose EXT4 for my file system.

The installation was a bit intimidating. The lack of a GUI environment and plethora of options made me feel somehow more of a computer genius after a successful completion. While performing it, I was transported back to 1999 and my first installation of Redhat Linux. I was terriably afraid of making a mistake, as I remember painful missteps in that early attempt at installing.

I chose KDE as my default Desktop Environment.

Truthfully the installation was straightforward and informative enough to help if you get stuck on your choices. A couple of the guides I read beforehand are: http://xlayn.blogspot.com/2009/07/sl...d-64-bits.html and http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfec...op_slackware12 (which is for Slackware 12, but I HIGHLY recommend reading as it helped me a great deal)

Post Installation:
The first thing I did after the installation completed and I logged in as root was execute:

Code:

adduser josh

This took me through some simple options of password etc. and finally before I created the user I was asked about groups. If you press the up arrow on your keyboard, audio video cdrom plugdev and netdev appear on the command line. Press enter and your user will be added to these groups. This is important to do, as my first user account I did not and had to go back and repair this issue.

Next I added my user name to the sudo list by editing the /etc/sudoers file (note: visudo did not work for me, and so I eventually used pico):

Code:

pico sudoers

and adding the line:

Code:

josh All=(All)All

where 'josh' is my user name that I created with the 'adduser' command.

Starting X:
Next I wanted to get X up and running so I typed:

Code:

startx

KDE started up and I was greeted with some Akondai error messages and KDE Migrator errors.

I decided error messages were bad, especially in root, so I closed the errors, logged out of X and dropped to command line.

I typed:

Code:

logout

and logged back in as the 'josh' user and executed the startx command.

This time there were no errors. Even now, if I log into X as Root, I get these same errors. I have experienced no problems running X as a normal user and have no clue why I get them as Root. I do not use X as Root and advise anyone who reads this not to, not because of the errors I experienced but because there is no point, and it is by and large a dangerous habit to get into.

Wifi and the Internet:
Now that X was up and running, I wanted to get online. I hit the ADD WIDGET button on my desktop and could not find 'Network Manager' which I have used for some time in the past on Kubuntu installations.

I did a bit of reading and was pointed to the /EXTRAS folder on my installation DVD where I found a folder called wicd.

I copied the WICD folder to my /home directory and opened a terminal in KDE (under Utilities in the K-Launcher).

I executed a 'SU' command and entered my password to switch to Root. Then I entered the following from my /home/wicd directory:

Code:

installpkg wicd-1.6.2.1-i486-1.txz

Installpkg is the package manager for Slackware 13 and executing this line installed wicd on my machine.

After a reboot into KDE the wicd icon was in my system tray. With a click I was able to search for and detect my wireless router and clicking the connect button got me online.

NOTE: It is important to note that wicd weirdly detects some non-hidden networks as hidden networks and will not connect to them. I have found and have used the following commands to connect to these misidentified networks:

Code:

iwconfig wlan0 essid JoshWireless

where 'JoshWireless' is the name of your network (or essid, for instance what the name of the network is when detected by other devices)

followed by:

Code:

dhcpcd wlan0

You have to know the name of the network you are attempting to connect to but after executing these commands in a shell prompt, your wicd will be connected to the offending network.

Update/Installation of Programs and SlackBuilds.org:
Slackware 13 comes with plenty of pre-installed programs and apps, but I needed to install a few more to make my life easier. I wanted:

Updated Slackware Packages from Slackware.com

The Nvidia Driver - Necessary to get my graphics card working properly and to enable desktop effects.

Daisy Plasma Applet - A attractive 'OSX' style app launcher.

OpenOffice - A very good alternative to KOffice (the pre-installed office software on Slackware 13)

Flash-Plugin for Firefox - Necessary to view Flash media in Firefox.

Conky - Highly customizable system monitor and much more.

Adobe Reader - .pdf reader by Adobe.

Skype - VoIP client.

Wine - Runs Microsoft Windows applications in Linux without a Virtual Machine.

Yakuake - Drop-down 'Quake-style' terminal for KDE.

VLC - THE Video Player imho.

GTK-QT-Engine - Conforms GTK apps to match your QT themes in KDE.

To update my included Slackware 13 packages I did the following which is a direct quote from http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfec...slackware12_p3:

Quote:

Note Start. Feb 15 2008... If you don't want to download updates one at a time then you may use wget to download all the updates at once. Select a local mirror from http://www.slackware.com/getslack/.
1.Open a terminal and "su" to root.

2.To download only the updates run the following command substituting my pseudo path with the path for your local mirror. Remember, Slackware updates are kept in the following directory, /patches/packages/ on all mirrors.

#wget ftp://localmirrors/pathToSlack12/sla...packages/*.tgz

3. Now that all the updates have been downloaded you can upgrade all your packages at once with the following command:
# upgradepkg *.tgz

4. You're finished. Just make a note of the packages you've updated. That way you won't have to unnecessarily update the same package again.

I did exactly the above but changed the ftp location to my local US mirror and the path to the Slackware 13.0 directory.

Code:

wget ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/slackware/slackware/patches/packages/*.txz

followed by:

Code:

upgradepkg *.txz

both executed from a directory which I made in my /home folder called 'home/josh/Downloads/updates'

After the update, I found http://www.SlackBuilds.org

I am very impressed with this site. Apparently Slackware 13 users and developers have repackaged the source of lots of software you might want to use (I haven't come across anything I wanted that it didn't have) into tarballs that are designed for use with the 'installpkg' package manager mentioned above.

To me this is great because it will help keep my computer well organized and properly managed if I install everything strictly with 'installpkg'

Steps to using SlackBuilds.org:

1) Download the SlackBuild archive to your /home directory. (or subfolder like mine home/josh/Downloads/slacbuilds),

2) Download the source (convieniently found on the same page as the SlackBuild archive),

3) Open Dolphin and extract the SlackBuild Archive by right clicking on the the archive and using the 'detect subfolder' option,

4) Move the source code tarball to the SlackBuild Archive folder you just unzipped,

5) Open a terminal and switch to root with SU command,

6) Run the SlackBuild script and the intallpkg command:

*I have used yakuake as my example bellow*

Switch directories to the extracted slackbuild folder

Code:

cd /home/josh/Downloads/slackbuilds/yakuake

Execute the .SlackBuild script

Code:

./yakuake.SlackBuild

Switch directories to /tmp

Code:

cd /tmp

Use 'installpkg' to install the package

Code:

installpkg yakuake-2.9.6-i486-1_SBo.tgz

Auto-complete tabbing is very useful for streamlining this process. If you are unfamiliar google it, it's great.

All of the above instructions can be found in the How-To section of the SlackBuilds.org website.

*A Few Notes: I used SlackBuilds for all of the programs and apps listed at the beginning of this section including:

The Nvidia Driver (Don't forget to install Nvidia-Kernel as well as Nvidia-Driver from SlackBuilds.org, after installing the Driver then the kernel slackbuild scripts, the driver started fine I now have all the cool desktop effects you could ask for)

Daisy Plasma Applet (installed with no setup or problems)

OpenOffice (installed with no setup or problems)

Flash-Plugin for Firefox (installed with no setup or problems)

Conky (see section bellow on conky)

Adobe Reader (installed with no setup or problems)

Skype (installed with no setup or problems)

Wine (after installing wine I also installed: q4wine which is a graphical interface for wine)

Yakuake (to configure Yakuake I added the -l tag to the 'command' box under the 'General' tab, ie: '/bin/bash -l')

GTK-QT-Engine (makes GTK programs conform to QT themes in KDE4, I installed the package, I think it's working but I'm not sure how to confirm it exactly, everything looks uniform, including Firefox, and that is my basis for saying it is in fact working, any help or suggestions about this would be welcome)

VLC (installed with no setup or problems)

Sbopkg
After installing all of the packages listed here, I was introduced to a program named 'Sbopkg'

Sbopkg is a program you run from terminal that syncs your computer with the Slackbuilds.org website, allows you to search/browse Slackbuilds.org, searches Slackbuild.org for potential updates to currently installed SlackBuilds and downloads/builds/installs packages from the comfort of a simple to use 'curse' style interface (curse is old school graphics in terminal, like the installer you use to install Slackware 13)

Sbopkg comes in an already ready already package: Sbopkg Slackware Package

Download the above into your home directory, then run the following as superuser:

Code:

installpkg sbopkg-0.30.1-noarch-1-cng.tgz

Then, still as SU, run:

Code:

sbopkg

A good introduction and guide for this program can be found here: http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/148826

(Thanks Escaflown for the suggestion)

RunLevel 4
Once I finished the major installs that I wanted, I switched the default runlevel for my linux install to runlevel 4. I did this by editing the /etc/inittab file:

Code:

pico /etc/inittab

The default runlevel for Slackware 13 is runlevel 3 which boots you to the terminal login.

Switching from runlevel 3 to runlevel 4 automatically boots you into an X environment.
*Note: ctl-alt-f6 switches to a terminal session in case X is somehow broken or not loading properly and you need to get back to a command prompt. To switch back to X use ctl-alt-f7.

Reorginization of Desktop
It took me an hour or so to setup my KDE desktop to my liking. Essentially I turned on the Daisy Widget and set it to Horizontal mode from round. Then I added my /home folder to the desktop with the 'Folder View' Widget in the style of Kubuntu 9.4. I relocated my taskbar from the bottom of my screen to the top and added all of the widgets that had previously been on the bottom (now removed) taskbar to the (new) top taskbar. I'm very pleased with the look of it.

Sound
Initially I didn't have to configure ALSA manually after my installation, but I would point you to http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfec...slackware12_p2 for an easy to follow tutorial.

I did have one hiccup with my sound: It is too soft. Not so soft that I can't hear it, but much softer than it is supposed to be.

I ran:

Code:

alsamixer

Code:

alsactl store

which saved my alsamixer settings.

I then exited out of super user:

Code:

exit

and closed my terminal and rebooted for good measure. When my computer rebooted and I logged into KDE I ran Amarock to test out my sound and, after some fiddling with kmix setting (the speaker with soundwaves on your taskbar) my sounds is much louder, and I am much happier!

TouchPad & HAL
Slackware 13 knew how to operate my Logitech wirelss mouse out of the box with no setup. (All buttons worked including 'back' and 'forward' buttons as well as the mouse wheel scroll function)

Unfortunately my TouchPad on my laptop lacked the scroll functionality usually associated with the right side of the TouchPad.

To fix this I read Lufbery's Thread where w1k0 detailed a .fdi script for HAL.

If I'm not mistaken, HAL breaks the configuration of your X settings into individual files as opposed to the "old" xorg.conf single file for all settings.

I created a new text document in my home directory named 'x11-synaptics.fdi' in dolphin by right clicking -> Create New -> Text File. When prompted for the name I typed in x11-synaptics.fdi

After this I opened my new file and inserted the following code (thanks to w1k0):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<deviceinfo version="0.2">

  <device>

    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">

        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">true</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.MaxTapMove" type="string">2000</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">true</merge>

        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizEdgeScroll" type="string">true</merge>

    </match>

  </device>

</deviceinfo>

once the file was created I needed to move it to the correct directory (as root) so I opened Terminal and SU'd to Root. From my /home directory I executed:

Code:

mv x11-synaptics.fdi /etc/hal/fdi/policy

which placed the file into my /etc/hal/fdi/policy folder.

After which I rebooted, and voila: Scroll functionality in TouchPad!

Thanks Lufbery for pointing me in the right direction.

Firewall and iptables
At the suggestion of hoodooman I've been giving some time to finding an effective firewall for my Slackware 13 laptop. This seemed very important for me because using unsecure public wifi networks is going to be one of the intended functions of my laptop.

After a very short time of reading on the subject I learned that 'iptables' is a pre-installed program which, if configured correctly, will act as a very strong firewall for my system.

First I looked for a graphical KDE friendly configuration tool for iptables. But, the more I looked into the issue, the more I came across pre-made scripts that configured iptables for you. I liked the idea of a script I could edit and adjust as I learned more on the subject. Soon I ran across RC.FIREWALL by author/maintainer Scott Bartlett. (Thanks samac for your post in this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...64-13.-762195/)

I downloaded the firewall_install.sh (v1.1) from the above link.

I then followed these instructions from the RC.FIREWALL website:

Quote:

1. Download the latest installer from the project homepage. It comes packaged with the latest rc.firewall.
2. Open a shell prompt.
3. Make the file executable [chmod +x ./firewall_install.sh]
4. Become root [su -]
5. Run the installer [./firewall_install.sh]
6. Follow the instruction.
7. Optional - Submit comments and suggestions via E-mail or on the messageboard.

The installation GUI was very simple. It asked a few questions, and if you are like me and not hosting any servers on your Slackware machine, be sure to select the 'stand-alone' or 'single machine' setup. That setup rejects any incoming traffic to your machine, which should be ideal for day to day computing.

After installing the firewall, I restarted my computer. If you read the start-up text as it scrolls up your screen after the reboot you should see a few lines indicating that your firewall is being started on your machine.

I logged into KDE and opened firefox. I navigated to Gibson Research and selected the 'File Sharing/Common Ports/Service Ports' tests which all reported:

Quote:

Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating.

My computer is now MUCH more secure and protected from outside attack.

Conky
I have always wanted to get Conky up and running on my desktop but never had the time. I have never been satisfied with the System Monitor Plasmoid Widget and have always liked the look of Conky in screenshots of various Linux desktops.

First I downloaded the SlackBuild as outlined above.

Second I downloaded the .conkyrc file from: http://sqdnguns.deviantart.com/art/S...onky-104492049 and saved it into my /home directory.

I decided this was a good starting point for my Conky because it was written for a slackware machine and didn't include weather or other scripts to get it up and running.

After some adjustment I have come up with the following .conkyrc file:

Code:

# Hack your own Conky, don't leech, LEARN!!

# http://conky.sourceforge.net/

# http://conky.sourceforge.net/config_settings.html

# http://conky.sourceforge.net/variables.html

# http://conky.sourceforge.net/docs.html

# RTFM....................

#

# SquadronGuns at GMail dot com

#

# Reading all the documentation, looking @ other .conkyrc's

# and general knowledge of Linux will help you tweak this

# or create your own.

#

use_xft yes

xftfont DejaVu Sans:size=8

xftalpha 0.8

text_buffer_size 2048



update_interval 1



total_run_times 0



own_window yes

own_window_transparent yes

own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar



double_buffer yes



minimum_size 200 0



draw_shades yes



draw_outline no



draw_borders no



stippled_borders 0



border_margin 5



border_width 1



default_color white

default_shade_color black

default_outline_color black

own_window_colour white



alignment top_right



no_buffers yes



uppercase no



cpu_avg_samples 2



net_avg_samples 2



override_utf8_locale yes



use_spacer none



TEXT

${alignc 35}${font DejaVu Sans:size=14}${execi 1 cat /etc/slackware-version}${font}

${alignc 25}${font DejaVu Sans:size=12}Melkoren${font}



Changelog: ${execi 1 lynx -dump ftp://slackware.oregonstate.edu/pub/slackware/slackware-12.1/ChangeLog.txt | head -1}



SYSTEM  ${hr 1}



Kernel: ${alignr}${kernel}

Uptime: ${alignr}${uptime}



Core 1:    ${cpu cpu0}% ${alignr}${freq_g cpu0} GHz

Core 2:    ${cpu cpu1}% ${alignr}${freq_g cpu1} GHz



Load Averages: ${alignr}$loadavg



Top 5 Processes                PID  CPU%  MEM%

${top name 1} ${alignr}${top pid 1}    ${top cpu 1}    ${top mem 1}

${top name 2} ${alignr}${top pid 2}    ${top cpu 2}    ${top mem 2}

${top name 3} ${alignr}${top pid 3}    ${top cpu 3}    ${top mem 3}

${top name 4} ${alignr}${top pid 4}    ${top cpu 4}    ${top mem 4}

${top name 5} ${alignr}${top pid 5}    ${top cpu 5}    ${top mem 5}



GPU Temp: ${alignr}${execi 20 nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp |grep Attribute |awk '{print $4}' |cut -c1-2} C



RAM:  ${alignr}$mem  /  ${alignr}$memmax

$membar

SWAP: ${alignr}$swap  /  ${alignr}$swapmax

$swapbar



MOUNT / HDD's  ${hr 1}



Root:      ${alignr}${fs_used /}  /  ${alignr}${fs_size /}

Available:  ${fs_free_perc /}%



NETWORK  ${hr 1}



Up:    ${alignr}${upspeed wlan0}KB/s

Total:  ${alignr}${totalup wlan0}

$downspeedgraph wlan0 red blue 400

Down:  ${alignr}${downspeed wlan0}KB/s

Total:  ${alignr}${totaldown wlan0}

${hr 1}



${font DejaVu Sans:size=12}${time %H:%M:%S}${alignr}${time %A, %D}${font}



${font DejaVu Sans:size=10}${alignc} ${exec whoami} @ $nodename${font}

After running Conky:

Code:

conky

I was alarmed to see that my Conky was not transparent on my Desktop.

so I shut conky down:

Code:

pkill conky

After some research I found some information about getting Conky to work with KDE 4.3 by using a program called 'feh' and adding some code to an auto-start script that would start Conky automatically every time I started KDE (by adding the script to System Settings -> Advabced Tab -> Autostart). I created the following script which I found on a blog called My Little Desktop and named it .conky_start.sh:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

feh --bg-scale "`grep 'wallpaper=' ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletsrc | tail --bytes=+11`"

sleep 15

conky -&

I then installed 'feh'. If you read the feh info on SlackBuilds.org you learn:

Quote:

NOTE: feh requires giblib and imlib2, both available on SlackBuilds.org.
When compiling, the order must be imlib2, then giblib, then feh.

So before I installed feh, I installed giblib and then imlib2. After said installations I installed feh and rebooted my machine.

PRESTO! Conky is working and transparent.

Only a few problems:

a) It is registering my CPU frequencies as 1ghz each which is incorrect.

b) I also appear to be running two instances of Conky, which I believe has to do with the my .conky_start.sh script

c) In addition, I can't seem to get the downspeedgraph to graph anything.

I'd also like to get the weather running in Conky and also for Conky to display the name and information about songs playing in Amarock.

Currently this is what I'm working on. My next post will include a screenshot of my current Desktop.

El Fin?
Well, that about catches everyone up to speed. Please offer suggestions on things I should be including on my Slackware 13 machine or advice on Conky or anything I've talked about here or maybe haven't talked about.

This is my first experience with Slackware and I'd like to make it the Best Little Linux Box in town. If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time.

I plan on updating this thread over time in Work-In-Progress style.

**Edit: Fixed some errors and attached a screenshot of my Desktop!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3734629)

My name is Josh and this is my first post here at LQ.

Below is a post I've written about the past week of my life:

<snip>

Thanks for the write-up Josh and a very nice desktop it looks too! I'm also just getting to grips with Slackware and I can't see myself going back to any other distro.

A very nice HOWTO for newcomers to Slackware.I would suggest a chapter on setting up Slackware for your location/language and also some security tips to provide a more comprehensive guide,eg packages to install such as chkrootkit and firewall.Also a part on keeping slack up to date with Slackpkg.Good stuff though.

Welcome to LQ!

You might want to consider this as a Linux Answer. Thanks, it looks good

Thanks
Thanks for the suggestions and welcome! I am interested in adding programs to make my computer more secure, but haven't given the time to looking at what programs would best secure my laptop, especially while connected to wireless networks I don't have control over (coffee houses/school/libraries etc.) any suggestions would be welcome, meanwhile I'll do some internet research. The only thing I know about regional/language settings at this point is that that (strangely) is the place in kde settings that you change your clock from 24-hour to 12-hour am/pm.

Sound
Initially I didn't have to configure ALSA manually after my installation, but I would point you to http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfec...slackware12_p2 for an easy to follow tutorial.

I do have one hiccup with my sound: It is too soft. Not so soft that I can't hear it, but much softer than it is supposed to be.

I ran:

Code:

alsamixer

as super user and found that my PCM volume was set to 12, despite kmix telling me it was turned up to max. I upped my PCM to 100 (in terminal with alsamixer) and my sound increased to appropriate levels.

As soon as I adjusted my master volume with the Volume +/- on my laptop keyboard, PCM jumped down to 12 again.

I read over my rc.alsa file and PCM appears to be set to 90%.

So I dropped to root and ran:

Code:

alsaconf

to try to repair the problem by going through the manual setup, but no dice.

I'll edit this post with more info as I find it.

** EDIT

Foolishly I failed to save my alsamixer settings:

Code:

alsactl store

I opened alsamixer again, upped the PCM to 100 and then su'd to Root and executed 'alsactl store', rebooted and the sound was fixed!

Adding this section to the body of the original post.

Jpcrow,

This is an excellent introduction to Slackware that will be a valuable resource for new users.

How well is your mouse or touch pad working? One of the changes in Slackware 13 is that one generally doesn't need an xorg.conf file any more to correctly set up video and mouse. Further, if one wants to do something special, one can use a HAL policy to do it.

I have a short thread about setting up a HAL policy to get my Thinkpad scroll button to work. I you want to fine-tune your mouse, that may be a good place to start.

Regards,

That is a great write up - I just wish it existed when I started out!

Only one comment, it's best to use a mirror or better still a torrent rather than download ISOs from slackware.com.

Thanks Lufbery

The scroll functions of my touchpad were infact not working. Usually I use a Logitech wireless mouse (the scroll button on my mouse functioned correctly without adjustment) but not always, and it bothered me that the scroll on the touchpad did not work.

After reading your thread I made a x11-synaptics.fdi file and this solved the problem.

I'm adding how to do this to the main article

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3735667)

You're welcome. Thanks for writing about your experiences.

By the way, are you a Penn Stater? I noticed you chose the PSU CAC link as your mirror for updates.

Regards,

I'm from Texas! I go to a UT school.

I just checked Slackware.com and the reason I chose PSU CAC was because it was the first ftp on the list and I'm lazy!

Thanks for the help with HAL, next I'll be putting together a script on turning the touchpad on and off, I've done this before but I'll have to track down the tutorial I used last time.

@jpcrow: your article is very helpful.

@conky section
~/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletsrc does not work on my laptop (transparency), but when i change plasma-appletsrc to plasma-desktop-appletsrc, it works.

my start conky script is

#!/bin/sh

feh --bg-scale "`grep 'wallpaper=' ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc | tail --lines=1 | sed 's/wallpaper=//'`/contents/images/1280x800.jpg"

conky

Good job. Very nice step by step tutorial. sbopkg should be added as a good companion for slackbuilds.org

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3735709)

I'm from Texas! I go to a UT school.

I just checked Slackware.com and the reason I chose PSU CAC was because it was the first ftp on the list and I'm lazy!

Um ... oh well, Go Lions! :D

thach.trung.ngoc,

do you find that you have multiple instances of conky running?

right now a ctl+esc shows me 5 instances running... I guess on top of one another.

I ask because I'm wondering if it's my startup script that is launching multiples or what?

i found only one instance of conky running

But one thing is very weird, whenever i click on desktop, conky disappear. I dont know how to fix it

Added a section on Sbopkg, I left in the the instructions on manually installing SlackBuilds because I'm glad I learned how to do that first, but sbopkg is a welcome addition. Thanks for the suggestion Escaflown.

Still working on conky (about to test out thach.trung.ngoc's startup script) and reading reviews of security software.

One thing I see you didn't mention is switching to a -generic kernel from the default huge kernel.
This is recommended but not necessary.
/boot/README.initrd is a good place to start.

Solved the issue of multiple Conky instances. Every time I logged out of KDE4 the session manager was saving my session, and every time I logged back in it was starting a new conky instance.

Simple solution:

System Settings -> Advanced -> Session Manager -> 'Start with and empty session'

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3735966)

You have multiple instances because by default KDE tries to recover all the applications that have not been closed from the previous login session. To fix this, you should have a logout script for killing the process related to conky when you're logging out of KDE. As I couldn't find where the KDE logout scripts are located, I simply did the trick in my conky_auto_start.sh script bellow:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

killall conky > /dev/null 2>&1

feh --bg-scale "`grep 'wallpaper=' ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletsrc | tail --bytes=+11`"

sleep 15

conky -&

Hi,

Welcome to LQ & Slackware!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3734629)

Josh, I would like to reference this post in 'Slackware-Links' & 'So you want to be a Slacker! What do I do next?' with your permission.

Your writing style and techniques will aid new users too Slackware. I hope you will have one of the 'Best Little Linux Boxen in town'. Meaning that you should share with friends and others. :)

That laptop will be singing for you for a long time!

Again, Welcome and I for one am looking forward to your additions here on the Slackware LQ Forum.

:hattip:

Just a few links to aid you in the future;

Slackware® Essentials
Slackware® Basics
Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Utimate Linux Newbie Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Virtualiation- Top 10

The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Feel free to reference this post.

I'm glad to help others who are new like me. All written out in a row like this, its hard to realize this took me several days to figure everything out. (Well, still figuring out.) It was alot of fun and I encourage 1st timer Slackers to read as much as possible while they create their own experience with Slackware 13.

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3738346)

Thanks!

Hopefully your Slackware experiences continue. Especially with the sharing part. I know that's one of my driving points is to aid those that are unaware and sometimes frustrated. As for the reading part, I too think everyone should continue to grow therefore reading will be at the forefront.

Recently I had a individual who was referenced a wiki by 'Alien Bob'. The OP came back with that the pages were to complicated and could not continue. Alien Bob's wiki and other information is straight forward with limited tech speak. Written for understanding for everyone. I stated as such to the OP and said if he could not understand that then hand holding would do him no good since instructions would be along the same. My point is to reinforce your statement about 'reading'. Documentation can be dry but the Slackware team is good at writing the information for understanding therefore the first place anyone should go for Slackware issues is the Documentation.

I look forward to working with you or assisting you in the future as I'm sure our paths will cross. :)

:hattip:

Added a section on installing RC.FIREWALL on my machine. Thanks hoodooman and samac for getting me thinking about setting up a firewall and pointing me to a solid iptables configuration script.

Thanks Scott Bartlett for a great firewall, and thanks ledow for preserving this for the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3739390)

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cautionary.png

Good writeup, Josh. A few points here and there:

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3734629)

Next I added my user name to the sudo list by editing the /etc/sudoers file (note: visudo did not work for me, and so I eventually used pico):

Code:

pico sudoers

Hrm, that reminds me - I meant to look into building sudo with the --with-env-editor flag so that you can set VISUAL or EDITOR in your environment and have visudo use that as the editor.

Using visudo instead of editing the file directly allows for syntax checking of the file before it's written out to disk.

Quote:

NOTE: It is important to note that wicd weirdly detects some non-hidden networks as hidden networks and will not connect to them.

That's a bug in the wicd version shipped with 13.0 - you can upgrade to the version in -current (normally it's not advisable to do that, but in this case, it's okay). You'll need to remove /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf or fix the essid line for the appropriate AP though.

Quote:

Then, still as SU

Nitpick: you're *root* - you just got there using the "su" command. You don't do anything *as* su.

Quote:

Code:

pico /etc/inittab

Learn vi. :-) Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rworkman (Post 3741214)

Learn vi. :-) Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

You might consider printing out a copy of the vi-vim-cheat-sheet and keeping it handy as you learn vi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rworkman (Post 3741214)

Learn vi. :-) Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

... or Emacs. ;)

Josh,

You've done a great job with your write-up and with keeping it up-to-date.

Thanks,

Josh,

Perfect write up/tutorial. I am up and running and have a far better understanding of a lot of topics. Kudos.

Excellent work! :hattip:

I was actually think of doing something similar now that I have some time over the Holidays. Perhaps I won't.

Granted, I did want to add some sort of intro to the Linux commands as well.

Just wanted to say thanks for the write up. I've used your work several times as a reference with setting up my slack system. After looking at manual iptables configuration vs. rc.firewall I just had to say thank you. Iptables IS something I actually want to take the time to understand, but at this moment I don't have those hours to dedicate. rc.firewall has me at "superstealth" according to Gibson research, while keeping all my lan services in tact in about 10 minutes from download to tested.

Thanks. It's nice to have all this slack-noob reference in a single place.

A remarkably useful thread Josh. Thanks very much :)
One question about the firewall stuff. You say this:

Quote:

To me a stand-alone is exactly that, it is never intended to connect to the internet for security reasons, but you clearly are connecting to the internet, so why did you choose this option?

Once again, this is one of the most useful threads I've seen, it's helped me a lot :)

Thanks again,

mute

Superbly laid out post, thanks for chronically your efforts. Many thanks from those of us who go through the same trials. There are some great pointers here, thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcrow (Post 3734629)

Conky

Second I downloaded the .conkyrc file from: http://sqdnguns.deviantart.com/art/S...onky-104492049 and saved it into my /home directory.

Very good write up, hopefully it help others in the future.

Nice to see someone using my .conkyrc :)

If you want to get rid of all the 0's from the Slackware version that is called upon in the script, edit the /etc/slackware-version file. I have changed mine to "Slackware64 13.0"

Quote:

Originally Posted by SqdnGuns (Post 3809475)

Or use:

Code:

{execi 999 cat /etc/slackware-version | cut -c 1-14}

This way no need to modify release version and everytime you upgrade the version will automatically be updated.

"KDE started up and I was greeted with some Akondai error messages and KDE Migrator errors." This was caused because your Akondai was using MySQL which won't allow root login. So, as long as you are using root login, you will met the error.

Sum it up, please ignore the error when you login root GUI.

Howdy from TX,

Happy holidays, and thanks for all the posts,

A quick thanks to SqdnGuns:

Quote:

Nice to see someone using my .conkyrc

A good, easy to understand jumping point for my first .conkyrc, truth is all I needed to do was tailor it for my machine and now I have all of the important info I need right on my desktop, many thanks!

Also, thanks for the info hughszg,

Quote:

This was caused because your Akondai was using MySQL which won't allow root login. So, as long as you are using root login, you will met the error.

It always bothered me that I didn't know the reason for those errors, knowledge is power.

Thanks to everyone who posted!

Have a great 2010,

-Josh

I'd just like to say thanks for this thread and all its wonderful replies from a brand new slacker. This thread pretty much served as my guide to getting slackware 13 installed on my eeepc.

Heres a screenshot of what i've come up with

Thanks everyone! :)

nice topic.Thank you.