upgrading,installing and x apps questions
 

I've install slackware 11.0 on my old computer and i was wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade it and if so how? i can't burn any cd's because i don't have a cd burner hence i installed 11.0 (the cd was with a library book).

also when i try to start firefox or some of the other x apps they just don't start. i've tried it in fluxbox and blackbox. oh and when i try to start xfce it starts to load but the goes back to the command line.

one final thing when i try to do slackpkg install-new on every package it says it can't install it because the package is in the .txz format instead of the .tgz format. the uncommented mirror in the slackpkg mirrors file is the 13.0 version.the specs of the computer:

IBM R40e 2684 L9G
2.4GHz Intel celeron processor
128MB ram
ATI radeon 330M 16MB integrated
30GB hard drive
DVD rom drive

If it's worth depends on your needs. If you feel fine with your system and everything is running properly, you could keep 11.0. But if you want to use some new programs you could update.

I think your system should be OK, even for Xfce.

You won't need a CD or DVD to install it. Download a current iso and mount it:
The problem with .tgz and .txz is, that Pat has changed the package format. You can still install packages with tgz but on new releases you will get tgz.

However, mount the iso and cd into it's mount point. There is a UPGRADE.TXT which contains information how to update. If you follow these instructions you should be successful.

I would recommend adding some RAM, if possible. 512MB would be good enough, even 256 by far better than 128.

IMHO upgrading from 11.0 to 13.1 would be far too much of a hassle. Upgrading is supposed to be done from a release to the very next one, certainly not jumping from 11.0 directly to 13.1

And you should not install packages intended for a newer version, even if you could they wouldn't work.

To install Slackware-13.1 you could mount an ISO image with loopback in Slackware-11 as Squall90 pointed out. Instructions are here.

Or you could make an USB boot stick then grab the packages from your other computer see there

First off, you may be missing only one or two library dependencies to start xfce4 or firefox. If you try to start firefox from an xterm, the error message will tell you the library (or the first library, if more than one) that the executable is failing to find. Download and install the 11.0 package that includes the missing library, and try it again from an xterm.

Secondly, the package format changed between 12.2 and 13.0 You would need to download, then upgrade or install the four package installer specific packages listed in UPGRADE.TXT under /slackware-13.0/ in order to be able to be able to use the newer format.

Thirdly, there were an awful lot of big changes incorporated between 11.0 and 13.0. As the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT for 13.0 says: "Note that upgrading from a Slackware version earlier than 12.2 is NOT supported at all and will most likely not work." If you wish to try "island-hopping" to a more current version using something like slackpkg, then your next stop from 11.0 will be 12.0.

It might take less time (and be more reliable) to get a cheap Slackware 13.0 or 13.1 DVD from some place like cheapbytes.com or the local equivalent (or have a friend burn a DVD iso, or installation set of CD isos, downloaded from an internet mirror), and do a clean install with the version you want.

11.0 used a 2.4 kernel by default and an awful lot changed between 11.0 and 12.0. You would definitely have to at least upgrade to 12.0 and then to 13.1 (though note that you may have difficulty since only incremental upgrades are supported/described, though it is possible to upgrade through multiple releases provided you keep in mind everything in each UPGRADE.TXT and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT for each release you are skipping). I upgraded a box from 12.2 to 13.1 without much difficulty, and certainly 12.1 to 12.2 wasn't much hassle, so 12.1 to 13.1 is certainly possible. 12.0 to 13.1 is a little more involved but doable. 11.0 straight to 13.1 is a death sentence for your computer IMO.

If you don't know what you're doing, it is probably best to either create a USB boot stick and install over a network or other partition (if possible), or perhaps order a 13.1 CD/DVD set.

so would it be possible to install 13.1 by booting from the iso on a different partition? without needing to boot from anything else?