Slackware is getting better and better

[billy_gates]

After many hours of toil and formatting I figured out the solution to all of my problems
KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid
After repeated failed attepmts at rebuilding the kernel (so easy in RH, so hard in Slack) and several problems with gaim and nvidia drivers.  I decided to reformat.
I then installed the nvidia drivers from source, worked perfectly.  I then installed GAIM with a brand new trick I learned for compiling software:
./configure --prefix=/apps/gaim
so now I have the equivilant of an applications folder on my linux system (although, its only for my custom insalled apps)

So i can run at 1280x1024 and use GAIM, and somehow GAIM fixed my fonts, so now a lot of stuff is smooth as silk.  Still not perfect, there is slight overlapping sometimes, buts its better than out of the box.

Gnome was too slow, so I use window maker with nautilus in the background for file browsing.  Does anyone know where I can get the true window maker file browser?  I found an icon set for nautilus that is a copy of my icon set for my OSX machine.  So i feel closer to home.

Linux is very intimading to get started.  But I have a feeling that once I am done setting this machine up and installing all my apps.  I will use it more than winblows.  Especially since now it is faster than my Win2K.  With RH it was slower.

This is getting better and better.
My next project is to fix my mouse so the scroll wheel works.  Then the fonts will be after that.

P.S. If someone will tell me how to take screenshots in windowmaker, that would be great.

[Doctor V]

Gratz on getting Slack setup and further freeing yourself from that bug ridden piece of horseshit OS from Redmond.

With that said, I have never used slackware.  I hear it has no package manager, is this still true.  Do you still have to install everything using tar-configure-make-make install?  Doesn't that become a pain after a while?  Especially if there are dependancies to deal with for a package, I could see it becomming a real piece of work.  Just my impression.

[billy_gates]

there technically is a package manager.  I used it.  Its much easier and faster than RPM, but much harder to find packages.  I have only installed Ogle, Mplayer, and GAIM.  All of the libs for Ogle were packages, but I built the actualy program.  I also built mplayer, and GAIM.

in Ogle I can't get sound to work, and in mplayer when i do the -skin option to load a skin I downloaded it doesn't recognize the option... even though it clearly states it in the MAN file.

More troublshooting ahead.

[shuiend]

yah slackware is a bitch to get up and running but once you got it working it just works.Slack package manager are .tgz files. They are easy to install but most programmers dont make those types of packages. Jeffberg y did u compile gaim? It is on the cd with in a package. That gaim works fine for me. Also i cant get gmplayer to work either. Mplayer works fine but i cant get skins

[billy_gates]

quote:Originally posted by wild_jester / BOB:
yah slackware is a bitch to get up and running but once you got it working it just works.Slack package manager are .tgz files. They are easy to install but most programmers dont make those types of packages. Jeffberg y did u compile gaim? It is on the cd with in a package. That gaim works fine for me. Also i cant get gmplayer to work either. Mplayer works fine but i cant get skins

my slack came with gaim .60 but gaim .68 is far superior.  So I built it.

I got mplayer to work:
first i had to uninstall it (not sure if I had to or not... i just did)
then i did ./configure --enable-gui
then I ran gmlayer and it said there were no skins.  So i went to www.mplayerhq.hu and downloaded the skin blue.  I put it into the mplayer skin folder.  ran gmplayer, no default skin.  rename Blue to default.  opened gmplayer
it opened but then said I had no ~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf.  So I went into the fonts folder for x11r6, forgot the exact path.  and did ln -s realfont /home/jeffberg/.mplayer/subfont.ttf

no more errors.  I havn't played a video on it, but it seems to work.

[billy_gates]

I just realised a fatal error in my prefix settings.  All my apps should have the same prefix.  I realised this after xine kept complaining about files not being there.  So I have to go uninstall all of my apps (only 4... thankfully) and then set the prefix to /apps , not /apps/appname

Fortunately I'm going back to my Mac, so I don't have to deal with it for another week.

[insomnia]

quote:Originally posted by jeffberg: Mac Capitalist:
I just realised a fatal error in my prefix settings.  All my apps should have the same prefix.  I realised this after xine kept complaining about files not being there.  So I have to go uninstall all of my apps (only 4... thankfully) and then set the prefix to /apps , not /apps/appname

Fortunately I'm going back to my Mac, so I don't have to deal with it for another week.

I know it can be irritating to get it fully configured.
But once it's stable, you'll really love it. Slackware still shows all the basics from Linux.  

[suselinux]

Slack was one of the first distros, was it not?

[jtpenrod]

quote:
Slack was one of the first distros, was it not?

Indeed it was. I have Slack 9.0, and it makes an excellent platform for programming. I use 'Drake for most common needs: 'Net surfing, sending/receiving E-Mail, etc. However, I do all development work on Slack, as it provides all the really terrific development aids.
__________________________________________
Live Free or Die: Linux

"There: now you'll never have to look at those dirty Windows anymore"
      --Daffy Duck

[Doctor V]

Sounds interesting.  If I ever lose broadband, I think I'll use slack.

[flap]

quote:it provides all the really terrific development aids.

Such as?

[slave]

SUCH as it actually lets you compile programs without errors unlike a certain distro that begins with an R and ends with a T.

[flap]

And what about Red Hat makes it more difficult to compile programs?

[Calum]

all it'sfiddly nonstandard shit.

and the fact thatred hat's fiddlynonstandard shit has become the new standards means that other distros such as suse and mandrake have their own fiddlynonstandard shit that is incompatible (but only just) with red hat's and each other's fiddlynonstandard shit.

slackware sticks to a no nonsense approach. nothing nonstandard, everything designed to fit in with the normal unix way of doing stuff.

re: packages: discover the commands installpkg and pkgtool, and go and download the program pkhtool2 also.

and go to tchelinux and linuxpackages.net for all your package needs.