Slackware package management
 

Hi I recently installed Slack 12.2. I chose to include everything in the install. Now I want to clean up a whole bunch packages that I am not going to need. The pkgtool utility does not give a clear description of what I am removing. For example, a list of package names such kaffeine, Audacity, Amrok etc..

OK, pkgtool does show package names such as Amorak but stuff like aaa_elibs confuses me. Additionally, I can see KAudioCreator on my programs list but not pkgtools.

So there is not only a danger of unintentionally removing important packages but some no possibility of removing unnecessary ones.

Hi
Information about installed packages is stored in /var/log/packages.
For each package there is a file which stores following information:
0) package description (optional)
1) list of files included in package
2) sizes (installed size, compressed size)
3) where package was installed from.

To see what package does, you'll need to view description. You can do it by opening file directly, or by selecting "view" option in pkgtool.

KAudioCreator is part of kde. Most KDE software is bundled (with a lot of other programs) in one or two base packages, those programs don't have separate packages. KAudioCreator is probably part of kdemultimedia package.

There is a possibility of removing unnecessary ones. The problem is that kde stores many programs in one package.

Thanks man, that was very useful!

Oops, I must have removed something important. I just rebooted the machine and I see I have lost KDE. I get "log in to X" and it logs me in with both user and root. But all my desktop icons are gone.

I can get kpgtool up dont know where to install from or what to install.

I have the slackboot disk kpgtool has option to install from current directory or "other"
shows please enter the name of the dir you wish to install packages from: whatever i use to refer to the cdrom is not accepted. /hdc /cdrom....

How can i restore kde???

You can see all the removed packages in /var/log/removed_packages, try to guess which package can cause this kind of problem.

If this can't help, you can send the list of removed packages to us, and we try to guess. Or if you did not delete too much packages install all of them again.

Find kde packages on slackware dvd and install them with installpkg command (as root, of course).

I had the same idé a while ago. Back then I made a full install and used the installation normally for a few weeks. Later I made a script that compared all last access dates of every file in every package. If none of the file had been accessed since I installed my system, I could assume I wouldn't need it. The script then printed the package name to a file called remove.log. If some files had been accessed after the installation, the script would print the packagename to keep.log.

I didn't use this information directly and removed every package in remove.log. I used the file as a foundation for package removing. I kept a lot of libraries and some packages i didn't know was was for.

I would guess this is a pretty nasty way of sorting out useless packages, as some of them are rarely used and could cause dependency nightmare at a later point. It worked pretty well until I reinstalled the system. When I did a reinstall I saved the remaining packages to tagfiles, and used the tagfiles during the next installation process. At that point it didn't work anymore. I was missing stuff after upgrading. Nothing major, but it's still PITA to find the missing packages.

What about none slackware packages such as the free version or real player, flash player..
They don't show up in slackpkg or pkgtools in case i need to reinstall.

I I successfully mangaged to install the latter but difficulties with real player.

I doownloaded RealPlayer11Gold.bin did chmod a+x
then ran the install script and it did seem to agree to licence and install. The icon is undr my program list. But When I try to open BBC radio I get an error

"cold not find appropriate hxplay or realplay in the path to use as an embedded player.

When I try to re-run the install script from console I get error


"realplay shell script should export Helix_LIBS environment variable and be used to launch realplayer"

Script file: /home/siawash/RealPlayer/realplay

this is the realplay file:

#!/bin/bash

# To install this script, create a symlink to it from somewhere in your
# path. Do *not* move the script out of the player directory, since
# it relies on the true location of hxplay to derive the location of the
# player directory

ARG0=$0

# Bugbuggy has been causing a lot of trouble with desktop stability. Disable it.
export GNOME_DISABLE_CRASH_DIALOG=1

if [ "${OSTYPE:0:7}" = "solaris" ] ; then
# Solaris requires this setup to use POSIX utilities.
PATH=/usr/xpg4/bin:${PATH}
fi


if [ -d "$HELIX_LIBS" ] ; then
true
elif [ "$HELIX_LIBS" = "" -a -L ${ARG0} ] ; then
HELIX_LIBS=$(readlink ${ARG0})
HELIX_LIBS=${HELIX_LIBS%/*} # Delete trailing file name.
elif [ "$HELIX_LIBS" = "" -a -f ${ARG0} ] ; then
HELIX_LIBS=$ARG0
HELIX_LIBS=${HELIX_LIBS%/*} # Delete trailing file name.
HELIX_LIBS=$(cd $HELIX_LIBS; pwd)
elif [ -z "$HELIX_LIBS" ]; then
echo "\$HELIX_LIBS is not set"
else
echo "\$HELIX_LIBS points to a directory that does not exist ($HELIX_LIBS)"
fi

export HELIX_LIBS

if [ -n "$HELIX_LIBS" -a -d "$HELIX_LIBS" ]; then
# See if LD_PRELOAD contains any of the sound server libs. If so, remove them.
LD_PRELOAD=`echo $LD_PRELOAD | sed -e 's/\([^:]*libesd[^:]*\|[^:]*libarts[^:]*\):\?//g'`
export LD_PRELOAD

if [ -n "$LD_PRELOAD" ]; then
echo "Warning: LD_PRELOAD=\"$LD_PRELOAD\""
fi

if [ -z "GTK_MODULES" ]; then
# Enable accessibility
export GTK_MODULES="gail:atk-bridge"
fi

while /bin/true; do
# Restart the player if exit code is 10 (player reset)
$HELIX_LIBS/realplay.bin "$@"
if [ $? -ne 10 ]; then
break
fi
done
fi

How would i be able to uninstall none slackware packages such as RealPlayer. It did't come with an uninstaller. I don't see it under pkgtools.

That is kind of the point of packages...
 

To uninstall non-Slackware apps you need to know what files were installed by the original installer, and any other changes made to your configuration - and then remove them.

For non-Slackware apps it is worth the trouble to explore the app's installer and figure out how to install it to a directory structure of your choice and create your own package from there, as it will then contain a complete file list and you would be able to uninstall when needed.

See this page from the helix player faq:
https://player.helixcommunity.org/20...playerfaq.html
As per the faq, Real Player should be installed to /opt/real/RealPlayer. And there should be an uninstall script that you can run in /opt/real/RealPlayer/postinst/postuninst.sh.
Or, as per the faq just do:
I have never used Real Player in linux. I really don't see the need for it. There are many great media players for linux like mplayer, kaffeine, xine, and many others. Check out the multimedia repository at slackbuilds.org.

This caught my eye the other day. Interesting concept if you want to throw multiple versions of things around. Especially toolchain components.

For future installs, you can get a Slackware-ready Realplayer from slacky.eu. They supply both a package and a SlackBuild.

Hi folks, thank you for the input. I am increasingly getting the impression that cockups with party package installations could be terminal requiring a rebuild. I.e. there is no built-in cleanup utility, which is unfortunate. As a relative newbie I don't understand

rm -rf /opt/real/RealPlayer/ does

I normally chmod then use ./ to install and choose the default path for target directory

The reason I am so eager to use RealPlayer is that it seems be compatible with the BBC iPlayer. I welcome any instructions on how to use alternatives. I listen to 3 radio stations and all recomend Realplayer.

So will slackpkg recognize realplayer if I download it from eSlacker.eu?

slackpkg (or any of the Slackware package tools) can only work with software that was installed via a proper Slackware package. Anything else you install, be it from a source tarball (make install) or from an installer script (like Flash) will not be reflected.

That is why it is important to always install software from Slackware packages. Either find a pre-made package online, or better yet, build your own package through the use of SlackBuilds or software like src2pkg or even just makepkg.