SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Welcome to the Slackware Live Edition! This is a version of Slackware 14.2 (and newer), that can be run from a DVD or a USB stick. It is an ISO image meant to be a showcase of what Slackware is about. You get the default install, no custom packages or kernel, but with all the power of Slackware. The ISO is created from scratch using a Slackware package mirror, by the "liveslak" scripts. Slackware Live Edition does not have to be installed to a computer hard drive (however you do have that choice if you want to: using the setup2hd script). You can carry the USB stick version with you in your pocket. You'll have a pre-configured Slackware OS up & running in a minute wherever you can get your hands on a computer with a USB port. The USB version is "persistent" - meaning that the OS stores your updates on the USB stick. The CD/DVD versions (and the USB stick if you configure it accordingly) operate without persistence, which means that all the changes you make to the OS are lost when you reboot. In order to protect your sensitive private data in case you lose your USB stick (or in case it gets stolen) you can enhance your persistent USB Live OS with an encrypted homedirectory and/or an encrypted persistence file, to be unlocked on boot with a passphrase that only you know.
===== Why yet another Slackware Live =====
The reasons I had for creating the Slackware Live Edition are as follows: - Provide a Live version of Slackware proper; i.e. show Slackware as it is, but without having to install it. No hiding of kernel messages scrolling across the screen at boot; no custom wallpapers, etcetera. Meant for educational, evaluation and demonstration purposes. - The target should be slackware-current, the bleeding edge. Many people want to know what Slackware's development edition looks like but are hesitant to install slackware-current for fear that it breaks stuff and causes productivity loss. - Provide a way to generate a Live ISO with just a mirror of Slackware's packages as the source, fully scripted and deterministic. - Still be able to customize its content. For instance provide stripped-down or minimalist versions of Slackware but also allow for the inclusion of 3rd party packages. - Option to create a bootable USB stick running Slackware Live (which is different from 'dd'-ing the hybrid ISO to a USB stick!) - KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid! ==== ISO variants ==== The "liveslak" scripts can generate a variety of Slackware flavors: - a complete 64bit Slackware-current Live Edition (in a 3.1 GB ISO); - a slimmed-down XFCE ISO (700 MB) with XDM as the graphical login manager. It fits on a CDROM medium or a 1 GB USB stick; - a ISO image (4.6 GB) of Slackware64-current containing Plasma 5 instead of KDE 4, with an addition of several other packages from the alienBOB repositories: vlc, libreoffice, calibre, qbittorrent, ffmpeg, chromium, openjdk, veracrypt. - a Mate variant (2.1 GB) where KDE 4 has been replaced by Mate (a Gnome 2 fork); - a Cinnamon flavour (a fork of the Gnome 3 Shell replacing Slackware's KDE 4). - a Dlackware variant, which is Gnome3 + PAM + systemd on top of Slackware and stripped of KDE4. - a StudioWare edition containing all the project's audio, video and photo editing software packages. - a "Custom" variant which you can give your own name, its own package list and custom post-install configuration.
===== Downloading ISO images =====
The ISO images are hybrid, which means you can either burn them to DVD, or use 'dd' or 'cp' to copy the ISO to a USB stick. Both methods will give you a live environment which will allow you to make changes and seemingly "write them to disk". The changes will actually be kept in a RAM disk, so a reboot will "reset" the live OS to its original default state. In other words, there is no persistence of data. Slackware Live Edition knows two user accounts: "root" and "live". They have passwords, and by default these are... you guessed: "root" and "live". Also by default, the ISOs will boot into runlevel 4, i.e. you will get a graphical login. The bootloader allows you to pick a non-US language and/or keyboard layout and (on boot of an UEFI system) a custom timezone. Slackware Live Edition deviates as little as possible from a regular Slackware boot. Once you have passed the initial Liveboot stage and brought up the actual OS, you login as user "live". From that moment onwards, you are in a regular Slackware environment.
Alien's tools ============= Here, you'll find scripts and programs that I wrote and use on my own computers. They may be useful for you, too. I appreciate feedback if you do find something useful. Eric Hameleers < alien at slackware dot com >
You can use his mirror-slackware-current.sh to create you own current ISO of choice. If you pass the '-w' to the mirror-slackware-current.sh you will create a 'mirror-slackware-current.conf' file that is well documented to allow you to create the ISO of choice for '-current'. That way you will have the choice to keep a tree plus the ISO of choice locally.
EDIT: If you choose to use Slackware '-current' then it is suggest that you do not use on a production system or in a production environment in case you get into a trouble spot that could cause issues. Personally, I have no issue when using '-current' but I have been using Slackware since PV's first release and feel that I have enough experience to get me out of trouble. BTW, backup your systems in case you do have an issue so a valid restore can be performed be it a '-current' install or a full Slackware install.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy Slackware!
Last edited by onebuck; 10-01-2020 at 11:00 AM.
Reason: add comment
What hardware are you running 32 bit Slackware on? I'd be curious to hear how well it runs.
You weren't asking me but I thought you might find my experience useful or at least interesting. Until just two years ago I always ran 32 bit Slackware even on my 64bit machines. One reason is that frankly as good as it is and no offense to AlienBob as he didn't create the issues (just a solid workaround fix) but MultiLib is a bit of a PITA and for a long time with very little advantage for most users.
64bit is NOT appreciably faster than 32bit excepting just a very few applications and there are still a LOT of 32bit only applications. Eliminating extra MultiLib steps v ery much simplifies things for people who use such 32bit apps regularly. That includes Steam and WINE but not limited to those 2 by any means.
Two years ago I started trying out 64bit MultiLib and now it is my go to system, but I still have a multiboot system and one of those is 32 bit and a year ago I decided to try Trinity (the KDE-3x type DE) on it and it is still blindingly fast and elegantly simple. It just no longer runs some things I like and at some point 32bit only will become "hen's teeth" but not because it performs badly. Quite the contrary.
14.2 is the latest stable release right now. The next release will be 15.0, but we don't know when that will happen. -current, which is the development tree of Slackware and will eventually lead to the next stable release, is a common version people use who need newer hardware support or newer software. However, even though -current itself is pretty stable, it can have changes that will break 3rd-party programs and it isn't supported by SBo (although, ponce maintains a forked version of the SBo repo that typically works with -current).
There are unofficial -current ISOs provided by Alien Bob and mirrored on many servers.
14.2 is the latest stable release right now. The next release will be 15.0, but we don't know when that will happen. -current, which is the development tree of Slackware and will eventually lead to the next stable release, is a common version people use who need newer hardware support or newer software. However, even though -current itself is pretty stable, it can have changes that will break 3rd-party programs and it isn't supported by SBo (although, ponce maintains a forked version of the SBo repo that typically works with -current).
There are unofficial -current ISOs provided by Alien Bob and mirrored on many servers.
Thanks for the info. I will fix the current installation.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
