Hi

I have tried to install madwifi as per the instructions on AlienBob's site. I get pretty far but then am confronted with the following message, please note that the package loaded:

Package creation complete.

/tmp/build/package-madwifi
bash-3.1# installpkg madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz
Cannot install madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz: package does not end in .tgz

bash-3.1#

Please tell me what this means. As a newbie I was quite pleased with myself for getting this far and then only to be foiled...well, it was frustrating. I also tried to install wicd from Slackbuilds and got the same message.

My wired connection is working great; now I want wireless.

Thanks for any help.

Check the name very closely, the error means that you have mispelled the name.

The correct name is madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz,
so a misspelled name is not the problem.

You don't need to build that package, just download and install it.

The question is, does it match the kernel version you're running?

What is the output of "uname -a" ?

Duh ... and are you running Slackware-12.1? "cat /etc/slackware-version"

Hi

I built it following the instructions on his site so I am not sure how what I did was different. Here's the link: http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...i_on_slackware

Here's the output from uname -a:

bash-3.1# uname -a
Linux christian 2.6.24.5-smp #2 SMP Wed Apr 30 13:41:38 CDT 2008 i686 Mobile Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
bash-3.1#

And yes I am running 12.1:
bash-3.1# cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 12.1.0

Thanks for any help

You don't need to build the package, since Eric has
already built it for Slackware-12.1 and kernel
2.6.24.5_smp.

Just download the package from the link I gave you,
and then install it as root:
And btw -- the "Duh" was meant for me; I had not asked
for that output, and edited my post to include it. That
was not a remark towards you.

Hi

No harm done--it sounded like a you were talking to yourself and not me.

So, I will go and download it and try again tonight. But out of curiosity and from someone who's just learning this stuff: did I not already build the package and thus should it not be in my filesystem ready to install? The output I pasted below was a result of using installpkg with the package built from Eric's site. I am not arguing, but sincerely interested in understanding.

Also, where is it best to download packages? By default they go to the desktop and then I open them in /home. Is that right? I have gotten pretty good at downloading and installing stuff in Ubuntu but am still navigating Slackware.

Many thanks again

You can build it if you like, but there really is no point
for this package IMO. Eric's packages are reliable, and he
has already built one for that Slackware version and kernel.

Eric is on the Slackware core team, and he writes and keeps
a good number of the scripts updated. You will find his name
in the ChangeLogs and Release notes.

For my personal preference, if Slackware does not have an
official package, then I look to Eric's repository. If he
does not have it, then I build it myself. I don't use any
other Slackware packages. That is just my opinion, based
on the fact that no one else has shown me the excellence
and track record that Pat and Eric have shown.

For building packages you need a SlackBuild script. Eric
has created Alien's SlackBuild Toolkit to help guys like
me create a SlackBuild script. It's a starting point, and
usually needs a little bit of editing. That's what I do,
and am prepared for every Tom, Dick and Harry to come out
of the woodwork and tell me their method, why it's better
than mine, or preferred by them.

That's the beauty of Linux ... choices, many choices.

Do you need the package from the SVN branch, or will
the stable one do for you? Just curious.

As for packages ... we can all do it differently.

I backup all the PCs on this LAN to my server every night,
so I build everything under my /home directory. I have a
directory named ~/build/ which holds all the subdirectories
of different software. I also have ~/kernel/ which holds
all the kernels I build. When one is obsolete, I will
remove it.

Hi

Thanks again. As for: "Do you need the package from the SVN branch, or will
the stable one do for you? Just curious." Stable is fine.

Your thoughts on the packages are appreciated. I will try again using the link you sent and hope that my wireless gets up and running before too long.

And indeed: the many choices is what I like too. It feels like my computer and not someone elses.

best wishes and thanks for help. I'll be back I'm sure

If you can post the command lines from your history that show the download, build and installation of that package I can see if that gives any clues.
Check the output of for all the commands you've been using and post those here. The error usually means that the file argument to installpkg is strange (never mind the actual "does not end in .tgz")


Eric

Is the tgz-package really in that location? When I use slackbuilds from Sbo, it will be found directly under /tmp. And if it´s not there, I have usually made some brainfart-related mistake

from a

Jan-Christer

Hi

I downloaded madwifi from the link and this is what happens:

bash-3.1# installpkg madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz
Cannot install madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz: package does not end in .tgz
bash-3.1#

This is the name of the file:

tar:/home/christian/Desktop/madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz/

When I extract it to /home this is what it lookslike:

/home/christian/madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien (note that there is no extension).

Am I missing something? I fear there is something painfully obvious going on here that I do not get.

Thanks for the help

Hi

I ran history and the output is so long for the download, build, and installation info that LQ would not allow me to post it.

Thanks

Warning! This post is about to get patronising. I mean no offence by it, just need to make sure you've got the basics down ...

Do you know about/use tab-complete? If not, that might help. I'm with Jan, I think you need to ensure you're giving installpkg the right path, and I think you're not doing this because of an unfamiliarity with the command line.

Regardless of the package creation method (download or self-build; kudos for doing that so early on, it'll pay dividends later!) don't untar the package, just find it's location and install it from there.

When I try and install a package that doesn't exist, I get this too:

Without a path, installpkg will look in your present working directory (you can get this with `pwd`). `ls` that directory to make sure your tgz package actually *is* where you think it is, and installpkg madwi<press tab> should come up with the full (or at least most of) the package name. Double tap tab to list all matches with that (it'll show folder names as well).

If you can't see any madwifi tgz file, then you're looking in the wrong place!

Some final points:

/home is different to $HOME, ~/ and /home/christian/ (the latter three being the same as each other on your machine). You say you download to Desktop and move to /home, you probably mean: ~/Desktop and ~/ respectively.

If you know where it is, then provide the full path to installpkg: `installpkg /home/imaginaryuser/some/sub/dir/tree/thispackageexists.tgz`

If I'm totally off-track and actually all I've managed to do is get you irritated for patronising you ... I can only apologise and wish you the best of luck with this one!

- Piete.

Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, I'm assuming you have been untarring (extracting) the .tgz package. installpkg does this for you automatically, so you should just use the full filename as an argument to installpkg. Based on your earlier posts, I think I may be wrong in my assumption, but figured I would mention it just in case. Other than that, piete has some good advice about making sure you are in the correct directory when running the installpkg command.

[edit]Unless that's a typo, it looks like /home/christian/Desktop/madwifi-r3856_20080903_2.6.24.5_smp-i486-1alien.tgz/ is a directory...is that because you untarred it, or am I imagining things?[/edit]

Looking at your other post regarding your inability to create a wicd package, I think you need to read a bit in the Slackware Book so that you get a better grasp of Linux basics.
The information you show, make me think that you access these directories using a graphical file manager. Try to use a terminal application instead - working with the "installpkg" program and installing packages should not be done using a graphical browser.

Eric