[wellylug] Slackware packages

[Cliff Pratt]

Andrej wrote:
> On Thursday 13 September 2007 19:32, Cliff Pratt wrote:
>> Andre et al,
> 
>> How do you know what packages you have,
> ls /var/log/packages
>
OK, 'dpkg -l' or 'rpm -qa'.
 >
>> and how do you know 
>> what packages are available for Slack? 
> ls /cdrom/slackware/*/*tgz
> :)
> 
> Or a browse through PACKAGES.TXT on the slackware site... 
> http://mirror.pacific.net.au/linux/slackware/slackware-12.0/PACKAGES.TXT
> 
> And there's inofficial stuff on http://linuxpackages.net (which I 
> don't use) and some interesting (inofficial) stuff on 
> http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/
> that Pat hosts (and I trust Eric).
> 
I came across http://packages.slackware.it/
 >
>> How do you know that a package needs updating?
 >
> You mean for an upgrade or for security fixes?
> I'm subscribed to the slackware security mailing list, 
> and download new versions of stuff I have installed
> as the mail trickles in ... today for instance php 5.2.4,
> a new ssh and samba.  Others use scripts, or tools
> like slapt-get, swaret and the likes.
>
OK, I'll lok at those tools. What I meant was, I suppose, if something 
gets upgraded, and it is NOT a security issue, how do you know that 
there is a new version? What if you have an out of date Slack system, 
how do you bring it up to date?
 >
>> Is it purely manual using pkgtool, installpkg and so on?
 >
> I've never actually used pkgtool ... installpkg, upgradepkg
> and removepkg for me.
>
Will *any* tarball work? Eg FireFox 2 comes as a tarball. Do you just 
installpkg it?
 >
>> I'm looking to update my Slack installation (which lives in a
>> VM on my Ubuntu machine) after getting interested after
>> conversation with Andre here.
 >
> Ooops :}
> 
>> How many people started with Slackware many many years ago and
>> moved on to other distros?
 >
> I've migrated the other way ... little exposure to some early 
> Yggdrasil stuff that I never got into, and then from Mandrake and
> SuSE back in the late 90's to Slackware in 2000 (having had to
> work with SuSE, RH, Debian and varied commercial Unices), never
> looked back.
 >
 > We do have a debian box and a ubuntu machine here
> at home as well - but I still find them a pain in the proverbial,
> mostly because of the dependency checking and the package
> management systems.  Call me weird (I bet you did anyway :D).
>
Why are they a problem? Why do dependency checking yourself if the PMS 
can do it for you? I started on systems that didn't have any dependency 
checking and non-versioned libs. Sheer masochism. PMSs are the best 
thing since sliced bread.
 >
> Debian is on my server because Slack 11 didn't have an
> installable kernel image that supported both the SCSI and the
> RAID controller at the same time, and I needed a quick fix rather
> than starting to fart around with boot-floppies.  Slack12 may be
> different, with the huge-2.6 kernel which should pretty much 
> support anything the kernel could.
> 
Just looked at my Slack 11 and it has about 8 modules. Much fewer than 
I'd expect with a modern system. My Ubuntu system goes the other way 
with 115 modules loaded. Probably one or two more than I really need.... 
but still, the way to go is to modularise everything rather than 
multiple (relatively huge) monolithic kernels.

If I want to put a 2.6 kernel on my Slack 11, is that possible?

Cheers,

Cliff