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I've read almost the entirely thread to know how to be a Slacker. But something still unclear for me. I'm a long time Slackware user, but I'm not a developer, I work with Networking and a (poorly) sysadmin. But I want to make more for Slackware, what I need to know to improve my skills, much as like what is happening in the this two threads: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-a-4175620463/ & https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ls-4175561999/
I need to turn a dev, or dev high skills to help with something like this?
PS. I'm already started to localize (improve what already is done) docs.slackware.com to my native language, so the docs is something I'm reading constantly.
The advice I can give is don't be afraid to be an experimentalist. And if it comes to that don't be wary of ripping things apart. Of-course then learn to put them together. SW is IMO one of the easier distros to mod around with and play with. I would also add that reading only gets you so far. You need to get your hands dirty. This is a mantra widely employed by many dumbass sysadmins who are themselves a fairly illiterate bunch of the crop. It's quite a bit more about doing rather than reading.
Second, find problems with your distro and work on them.
Having said all this, when you put your computer to good use, the distro is the last thing that should be getting in your way. A computer is put to much better use when you're not there fixing problems with its operation 24/7. It's a tool after all.
I have uploaded a fresh set of ISOs for the Slackware Live Edition. They are all based on my 'liveslak' scripts and contain the latest Slackware-current dated "Sat Jun 23 04:57:41 UTC 2018").
The available ISO variants on https://slackware.nl/slackware-live/latest/ (remember to add support for CACert to your system if you see certificate warnings!) are:
Full unmodified Slackware (32bit and 64bit).
Stripped-down XFCE (32bit as well as 64bit), this ISO will fit on a CDROM medium.
Slackware with MATE 1.20 instead of KDE4 (64bit). Thanks to Willy Sudiarto Raharjo for the packaging.
Slackware with Plasma 5 instead of KDE4 (64bit) to showcase the Plasma 5.13.1 release. This ISO also contains LibreOffice 6.0.4 and VLC 3.0.3 among many others.
The new liveslak version 1.2.0 has a couple of updates, most related to changes in package lists and work to keep the XFCE ISO below 700 MB, but there is one update that I should mention. I have added - but have not yet tested myself - the possibility to create a configuration file "/liveslak/slackware_os.cfg" and in that file, define some of the variables you would otherwise have to set through boot commandline parameters. Those variables are: BLACKLIST, INIT, KEYMAP, LIVE_HOSTNAME, LOAD, LOCALE, LUKSVOL, NOLOAD, RUNLEVEL, TWEAKS, TZ, XKB and you define them, each on their own line, as "VARIABLE=value"
If you wish to receive announcements from Alien Bob's Blog then I suggest that you sign up via; https://alien.slackbook.org/blog/
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
I am having issues with Tabs not completing on start/restart. I can not use Tab sessions or the current Firefox restore sessions. As like earlier releases, my add-ons are not always supported. Migration is slow for the add-ons. So I remain at mozilla-firefox-60.0.1-x86_64-1ro.tgz. It works but security concerns still are in the back of my mind. Yes, my firewall has been working OK to date but I still wonder.
I have not found a way to disable the Firefox update sensing, not a real priority to me at this time.
Anyone else experiencing Firefox issues with '-current'?
It is part metaphysics on the Unix Philosophy which Slackware of all the distributions most adheres too. One could argue it is a Stoic philosophy. When one understands the why, then sometimes the how becomes apparent.
I have noticed a lot of requests for Slackware ISO images. You can always go to;
Quote:
Get Slack <- SlackwareŽ Linux Project Referenced mirrors
Or SlackwareŽ Mirrors: Official List of Mirrors LinuxQuestions.org > ISOs > SlackwareŽ elektroni <-FTP Oregon State <- FTP/HTTP + Open Source Lab + Hosting Policy + bandwidth of over 1 gigabit per second AlienBase <- Alien_Bob's mirror + 'via http' + rsync://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/ + 'The physical server is on a gigabit Internet connection, so I guess I can offer a speedy mirror service! In fact, the mirrors are already complete. With a re-sync of several times a day, I hope to offer an up to date service.' Read the intro + Alien has always been unselfish when it comes to Slackware The Linux Mirror Project <- Categories: Distributions, kernel & Applications
Or you can use Alien Bob's;
Quote:
SlackwareŽ: -current <- 'You can use Alien_Bob's-script -mirror-slackware-current.sh <- To download -current, create cdrom/dvd Or Alien_Bob's-script -mirror-slackware-current.sh <- UK backup of script script to download the '-current' of choice ( 'x86' meaning 32bit or 'x86_64' meaning 64bit). + You can either pass parameters or edit the script to create the 'ISO' medium of choice. + Plus select a mirror to use. Or create a 'mirror-slackware-current.conf' by passing '-w' to the mirror-slackware-current.sh, the .conf file will be created in the same directory as the script file. You can edit 'mirror-slackware-current.conf' to suit your needs since the file is well documented. The script mirror-slackware-current.sh is well documented to allow you choices if you desire this route. + Alien_Bob is a SlackwareŽ contributor and has graciously provided the scripts/tools. So an ata-boy and a big Thank You to Alien_Bob.
Notice you can create a ''mirror-slackware-current.conf' by passing '-w' to the mirror-slackware-current.sh. Once you have that configuration file there are several ways to generate your ISO of choice. The script is well documented so you can create an ISO of choice, not just for '-current'.
If you wish to create a 14.2 ISO image you can do so by changing this;
Quote:
# The slackware release we're mirroring (defaults to 'current').
# You can use the script's '-r' switch to alter this to another release,
# for instance mirror Slackware 13.37 by passing '-r 13.37' to the script.
RELEASE="current"
Just replace this to RELEASE="14.2"
Please be sure to select a mirror in mirror section. You will also need to configure your storage media at the start. As always the script is well documented by Eric and you should be able to use it to fill the needs.
You may wish to exclude 'source' to limit the space for ISO image so it will fit on the media;
Quote:
# The value of EXCLUDES is what the script will exclude from the mirroring
# process; there is no parameter for the script to change this value, but you
# can use '-X excludefile' to define more excluded directories/files if you
# wish. Or directly edit the line below of course:
EXCLUDES="--exclude pasture"
# By default we do not use an 'excludes' file to rsync, but you can override
# that by using the '-X' parameter or set EXCLUDEFILE to a filename:
# By default the script does not mirror /pasture , use '-X none' (the 'none'
# is taken as a special value by the script) to also mirror /pasture .
EXCLUDEFILE=""
# If you want to exclude more from the DVD ISO than just the ./testing
# directory, you can add the directories to DVD_EXCLUDES.
# The pathnames must be local to the top level and must start with ./
#DVD_EXCLUDES=""
You can always pass arguments to the script but I prefer editing the file so I can denote any changes via comments and I know what is going on using my changes.
So before you post a request for Slackware ISO images then consider this. Big plus is you will have a copy of the tree locally.You will need at least 12-14GB to store everything. You can create a mini-install.ISO CD/USB to boot your install to use the Install-DVD.ISO on a loop device so you will only use bandwidth.
I execute my script on a direct wired Laptop via 'ssh' with 1TB backup storage so I can access anywhere on my LAN.
Also known to many as "The Man" and as Slackware's BDFL, without Patrick, there would be no Slackware. He has worked for many years and continues to work on this popular and extremely stable distribution. Patrick earned his BS in Computer Science from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1993.
On going discussion for; Donating to Slackware has opened eyes for terrible actions at The Slackware Store and result for any of the donations made to Patrick via the store.
Patrick first posted this in the LQ Slackware forum;
Quote:
Originally Posted by volkerdi
I told them to take it down or I'd suspend the DNS for the store.
I've been mulling over exactly how to tell you all this, and I guess this is as good a place as any. The store has been ripping me off horribly, and I'm very nearly broke. I have no evidence that they've ever done anything with donations besides line their own pockets. I've not been paid any money by them in two years. That was upon the 14.2 release (and followed another long period of time with no income). The 14.2 release generated nearly $100K in revenue. The store gave me $15K, and later said that I was "overpaid".
When I agreed to set up the store, it was structured as a company where they owned 60%, and my wife and I owned 40%. I had not yet escaped California and would have quickly gone broke there with a house underwater had I not taken the deal. And 60% seemed fair, since the idea was that the company would be providing health insurance, paying for the production of the goods, and handling shipping and related customer service. And when my daughter was born and needed surgery and continuing medical attention I could hardly jeopardize our insurance in the days before the ACA. I was between a rock and a hard place like many residents of the US. Since then, the store has ceased to provide any benefits, and shouldn't even be getting a 50/50 split in my opinion, much less looting the coffers for 81+% (anything they want to spend money on is an expense, apparently, while any expenses I have to support the actual project come out of the peanuts they toss me). I only found out about how bad it really was last year when I finally managed to get some numbers out of them. I thought the sales were just that bad, and was really rather depressed about it. Another side note - the ownership of the 60% portion of the store changed hands behind my back. Nobody thought they needed to tell me about this. At that point I'd say things got considerably worse for me.
Still not sure how to move forward, but I have some hope that the community might think that my work is and has been worth supporting. If at all possible I'd like to get away from replicating physical media which seems to be a lost cause. T-shirts? Well, maybe, but I don't see that providing a reasonable income either. I'm wondering how Patreon would do. It would at least be better than nothing, which is where I am now.
Through all of this I have continued to work hard towards getting Slackware 15.0 released because I believe it will be by far the best release we've ever had, and because I'm dedicated to my work and the community that uses it. I've never really been in this for the money. At any given juncture (including now) I've had numerous opportunities that would support me and my family far better and would provide us with the things that we need rather desperately. I mean, I'm sitting here in a house with a giant hole in the roof, a broken door sealed with duct tape, and a failed air conditioning condenser that I can't afford to fix, my wife has been driving on a spare tire for weeks, my teeth need serious attention again, and I only just got a machine here with UEFI for the first time (bought a used machine... really out of my budget but it had to be done).
I'm open to suggestions at this point. As far as Slackware 15.0 goes, I've been testing PAM and Kerberos here and have given quite some thought to trying to get them merged (or at least in /testing) so that we can have proper support for Active Directory and NFS. Plasma 5 has been a consideration as well, although frankly it's grown much larger than GNOME was back when I decided that should be spun off for third party maintenance. If that's going in, we really need to analyze which dependencies would not be used outside of Plasma and stick all of those in the KDE series. I'm as tired of the pollution of the L series as the rest of you are.
"I did this 'cause Linux gives me a woody. It doesn't generate revenue."
-- Dave '-ddt->` Taylor, announcing DOOM for Linux
A later response
Quote:
Originally Posted by volkerdi
Bitcoins can indeed go to that address, just like donations used to be able to go to the store.
IT'S NOT ME. Folks, I'm still reading this long and remarkable thread and will try to comment on it about more than this, but needed to head this one off at the pass. As I commented there, I wasn't really ready to post yet when I did (wanted to set up a Patreon or something first), but really couldn't let the store just keep on collecting donations when I had little faith that I'd ever see any of them. Of course, NOW the store says they'll be sending me the collected funds, but I'll believe that when I see it.
I'd still like to get a Patreon, or a more official PayPal than my personal one. And I need to follow up on some ideas that landed in my email. Plus my air conditioning repair I got yesterday lasted about an hour and my machine has already overheated and locked up once today. Pretty sure the hard drive is about to fail even though SMART doesn't think so.
Anyway, the reason I'm leaning towards Patreon is that it might be a more predictable source of income that would allow me to focus on the project rather than having fund drives all the time. Though I do love public radio - there's nothing wrong with a good fund drive. I already got a couple of PayPal donations from friends who knew my PayPal link already, so I'll be having to figure out how to pay taxes on my PayPal income anyway. So it would probably be fine to use that now, but I'd rather have a better plan. Like I said, I still need to catch up on this thread.
Yes, I have been a Slackware user and happily using it since Patrick's first release in 1993. To me it is a shame that someone so dedicated has fallen into this state. I know that a lot of the members in the LQ Slackware forum will be helping as much as they can. I just believe everyone here at LQ should be made aware of this situation. I created a thread in <Linux General> to bring other LQ members up to date with this situation; Father of the earliest Distribution in need of help.
Fri Jul 27 21:01:22 UTC 2018
Hey folks, my first order of business here needs to be a huge thank you to
everyone who has donated at https://paypal.me/volkerdi to help keep this
project going. As most of you are already aware by now, the financal situation
here at Slackware HQ has not been great for many years, including not getting
any pay for the last two years and forcing me (and my family) to live very
frugally while I continued to work on the project hoping I'd figure out a way
to actually monitize it by the time that Slackware 15.0 is ready for release.
I'm not trying to cast any blame regarding the situation. Really, I can only
blame myself for not trying to build my own ship years ago when things began
to not really work out. I'm still looking into sustainable funding options
such as Patreon or Liberapay (or perhaps both), and I'm open to other ideas.
I'm no longer in immediate danger of going broke, and I'm no longer
entertaining the notion of joining my friends at the local potato chip factory
in order to pay my bills. My family is grateful and humbled by the support
we've received. Hope we'll be able to keep this project going for a long time.
Also, I realize that the website lacks updates and needs attention and I will
need to find some time to devote to that. I've never been much of a website
designer, and the slackware.com site is basically left over from work done by
former Walnut Creek / BSDi employees. I've never seen able to make much sense
of the SQL backend. The interface to edit and post articles is clunky (and
I'm not sure the PHP for that even works any more). When I've posted articles
in recent years, I've done so by editing the main page already processed from
PHP into HTML, which is pretty darn messy as I'm sure you can imagine. I tend
to prioritize the distribution itself over other demands on my time - that's
clearly a lot to do with how things ended up the way they did.
So, I guess that's the report for now. Lots more work to do and not enough
time to do it in... that part I don't see changing moving forward.
Thanks very much again. I'll do my best to keep you all posted.
- Pat
EDIT: To add PV's last comment on 07-31-2018, 12:21 ;
Quote:
Originally Posted by volkerdi
I lived in the Bay Area for only five years, but made a lot of friends among families who were natives to the area, so I can certainly understand those residents who don't have warm fuzzies for the the tech industry. It's caused the rents and real estate prices to be the highest in the world (along with the cost of everything else) and greatly increased the density of the self-absorbed jerk population (although the majority of the people I knew in tech were nice folks, I also ran across a few examples of the opposite).
I'm trying to clean up years of neglecting everything other than Slackware here. I've had a lot of mail pour in that I haven't ACKed yet (much of it important). My wife and daughter got their eyeglass prescriptions yesterday which was long overdue (and they say thanks!).
But I'm not too lazy to walk a couple of blocks to PO BOX 172, Sebeka, MN 56477 either. That's my usual mailing address, as we don't have street delivery here in this town. It's also been publicly listed in the whois information for the slackware.com domain for many years.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
Last edited by onebuck; 07-31-2018 at 02:42 PM.
Reason: add link & comment
At first I thought it to be click bait. But I found our Slackware member responses very interesting. Very intellectual responses and reflections without political infusions or damnation.
Very happy and proud our Slackware members carried things very well!
Eric Hameleers has unofficially contributed to Slackware for what feels like forever. He not only runs his blog Alien Pastures dedicated to Slackware and offers a huge selection of packages pre-compiled on his vanilla systems, readily available for our perusal. He also offers the Ktown repository with updated packages of KDE4 and the next generation Plasma desktop for both the stable and testing branches of Slackware. He also started the Slackware Live project based on his own LiveSlak scripts to give people an opportunity to run Slackware current without committing to an install and to get an idea what the next version will be like.
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