Installing and Maintaining Slackware 10.0 ========================================= THIS PARTITION HAS CEASED TO FUCTION SO THERE WILL BE NO MORE UPDATES TO THIS FILE. I'M CURRENTLY SETTING UP SLACKWARE 11.0 TO USE. To do ASAP: Fix the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules files. General Linux frustration To get many aspects of Linux to work properly--notably, multimedia--one has to install a lot of interdependent software and do a lot of configuration; all of which requires an exorbitant amount of reading, time, and effort. This can be very rewarding if you count your time for nothing and enjoy making tools but not using them. If you just want to actually use the computer for something try Mac OS 10 or Windoze. For the more masochistic of us the following notes may help a little. Linux can, in 2005, almost do some of the multimedia things that Windoze 3.11 could do in 1994. In short, Linux does a subset of Windoze desktop apps, but does it in a more stable fashion--at least at the OS level; some of the apps still need a lot of work. However, with GPLed software you, generally, get your money's worth. Chronic problems: o Finding information - how to install new fonts in Firefox. SOLUTION: set up Xft properly. See my web page about installing fonts on X11. o Getting xine/gxine to work. o Getting mlterm to use fribidi. This is necessary for R to L languages like Arabic. SOLUTION: This seems to have been solved 2005-10-07. See fribidi and mlterm installs. o Getting wine to actually work with AutoCad or any software, for that matter. o Consistently being able to read a Compact Flash card with usb reader. SOLUTION: use a 2.6.x kernel. I still use 2.4.x and haven't been able to read the card with that version. 2.6.x works ok on this. o Setting up and actually use music software. This is a never ending pain in the ass. SOLUTION: Got timidity to work after downloading mma. Mma makes midi files. Timidity is needed to convert them to wav files. See various notes on music software that I have compiled or attempted to compile. o Firefox seems to get bigger, slower, and less stable with every release. Flash sometimes crashes firefox; this seems to be dependent on the version of firefox. SOLUTION: I finally just gave up using all firefox extensions; they really slow things down. Don't use flash plugin: there's not enough real content delivered with flash to bother with it. o Blackbox loads slowly and xterms load slowly if user environment is utf-8. Check periodically to see if this is fixed by the blackbox guys. SOLUTION: installed blackbox-0.70.1 from source. o Broken compiles or just bad stuff: lyx-1.3.6 rosegarden-1.0 inkscape-0.41 audacity-1.2.3 - had to use slackware package Kernel: * 2.4.26 Original to Slackware 10.0 * 2.4.29 [2005-02-06] * 2.4.31 [2005-09-16] Some problem with sound mixer (aumix runs from my ~/.bashrc). This problem was fixed by installing alsa and using its driver modules. Each time the kernel is compiled alsa drivers (modules) have to be re-installed. * 2.4.32 [2005-11-26] Alsa drivers have to be re-compiled and re-installed when a kernel version is changed. The following are notes on installing certain packages, configuration notes, and files that will need attention. * File system /etc/fstab * Networking /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf * Admin /etc/sudoer * GPM /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm Add "-r 25" to the command line to make cursor/mouse more responsive on my machine. YMMV * Apache /etc/apache/httpd.conf Add to use directory ~/public_html with SSI: Options +Includes Options +ExecCGI Uncomment the following to use CGI scripts: AddHandler cgi-script .cgi Uncomment the following to use SSI: AddType text/html .shtml AddHandler server-parsed .shtml Uncomment the following to use PHP and ssl: Include /etc/apache/mod_php.conf Include /etc/apache/mod_ssl.conf * Updatedb (slocate) /etc/updatedb.conf Add/subtract from PRUNEFS and PRUNEPATHS as necessary. * PATHS: o MANPATH General: check all man page location and verify that MANPATH includes all of them by adding scripts to /etc/profile.d/ for new MANPATHs. Specific problem: Edit /etc/profile.d/kde.* adding missing MANPATH. o PATH General: Add scripts to /etc/profile.d/ for paths to new programs if necessary. o INFOPATH General: Add scripts to /etc/profile.d/ for paths to new info documents. In this case make it a generized script for all new info directories since this seems to be the first instance of INFOPATH to be defined. In this case I created infopath.sh and infopath.csh. * FreeType See information in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/freetype-2.1.7/TRUETYPE. This may be the information to solve some font problems. freetype *+ 2.1.10 [2005-10-13] updated libs edit include/freetype/config/ftoption.h and make the following happen: "#define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER" ./configure --prefix=/usr * Fonts - see my web page: Installing Fonts on X * man/troff fix [2005-12-02] - Problem: can't see hyphens in man pages when using utf-8 as my working language environment. If you have "LANG=en_US.utf8" in your ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc and you don't see hyphens when using man then try this: edit /usr/share/groff/{version}/tmac/troffrc and add: .if '\*[.T]'utf8' \{\ . char \- \N'45' . char - \N'45' . char ' \N'39' .\} Up against the left margin, PLEASE! This should fix man on the console and in an xterm. * rsync rsync -avuz --exclude '*~' --delete-after /directory/ /backup_dir * ssh - set up to use rsync with crontab without a password 1. Client side: /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t rsa1 /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t dsa /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t rsa will produce: ~/.ssh/identity.pub ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 2. Copy these to the ~/.ssh/ on the server machine. 3. Server side: cat identity.pub id_dsa.pub id_rsa.pub > authorized_keys rm *.pub Set permissions so that only the owner can read/write these files. 4. Restart the sshd on both machines. Now ssh should connect from the client to the host without prompting for a password. Additional software - the following is new software not included with Slackware 10.0 or source updates to packages supplied with Slackware. Legend: *+ (installed); *- (removed; didn't like of something); ** (work in progress); *~ (to do) ALSA drivers Note: ALSA drivers are not a part of the kernel distibution. It is necessary to compile the drivers and install them. They will go in the /lib/modules/{current kernel directory} by default. Uninstall the original alsa stuff from Slackware packages: alsa-driver-1.0.5a-i486-2 alsa-lib-1.0.5-i486-1 alsa-oss-1.0.5-i486-1 alsa-utils-1.0.5-i486-1 Install new alsa stuff: ALSA-1.0.9 [2005-09-17] *+ driver: ./configure --with-cards=maestro3 --with-sequencer=yes \ --with-isapnp=no make make install If this is the first install: ./snddevices chmod 666 /dev/snd/* *+ lib: ./configure make make install *+ util: ./configure make make install *+ oss: ./configure make make install chmod 666 /dev/mixer* /dev/midi* /dev/dsp* /dev/sequencer* alsaconf - will write /etc/modules.conf and run amixer amixer - command line mixer alsamixer - ncurses mixer ------------------------- DATABASE SOFTWARE ------------------------- Postgresql - Note: Postgresql is one of the most reliable compiles available for linux. I've never had a compile fail. And it's a really good SQL database. Kicks MySQL butt. *- 8.0.0 [2005-01-29] *- 8.0.3 [2005-09-17] *- 8.1.0 [2005-11-17] *- 8.1.1 [2005-12-26] *+ 8.1.3 [2006-05-07] 1. Compiled with: ./configure \ --enable-nls \ --with-perl \ --with-python \ --with-tcl \ --with-openssl \ --enable-thread-safety \ CFLAGS='-O2 -pipe' make make check [If 'make check' is OK then uninstall older version before installing new version. Be especially careful to backup any db data so it can be restored.] make install 2. Post install: adduser postgres mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data [create a "postgres" group] # this is optional but useful chown postgres[.postgres] /usr/local/pgsql/data chmod 0700 /usr/local/pgsql/data # this is very important su - postgres # Initialize the db using utf-8 encoding /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data \ --encoding=UTF8 --locale=en_US.utf8 3. Server side setup: Note: -i param to postmaster is deprecated. Change postgresql.conf listen_addresses and port, instead: /usr/local/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf listen_addresses = '*' port = 5432 /usr/local/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf host all all 192.168.100.0/24 trust /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster -D /usr/local/pgsql/data >logfile 2>&1 & /usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb test /usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql test 4. Post install, specific to Slackware: Create appropriate boot start up file (/etc/rc.d/rc.postgres) to start/stop the server. Modify rc.6 and rc.M to shutdown and start rc.postgres. Add new script to /etc/profile.d for new MANPATH and PATH. pgadmin *+ 3-1.4.1 [2005-12-26] Slackware package- sqlite *+ 3.2.6 [2005-09-18] The executable is named "sqlite3". ---------------------- MISCELLANEOUS SOFTWARE ---------------------- sylpheed *- 1.0.0 claws - problems, uninstalled and reverted to plain sylpheed *- 2.0.0beta6 [2005-07-15] *- 2.0.2 [2005-10-12] *- 2.0.4 [2005-11-28] *- 2.2.4 [2006-04-12] - To do: figure out how to use gnupg with this. *+ 2.2.10 [2006-12-01] - To do: figure out how to use gnupg with this. fontforge *- 20050117 *- 20050209 *- 20050310 [2005-03-14] *- 20050624 [2005-07-04] *- 20050831 [2005-08-31] *- 20050929 [2005-10-12] *- 20051115 [2005-11-29] *- 20051205 [2005-12-25] *+ 20060115 [2006-01-16] ./configure --with-freetype-bytecode --with-x \ --with-freetype-src=/usr/local/src/freetype-2.1.10 umap *+ 030116 [2005-12-01] Place the source code in same directory as fontforge and make with top level Makefile. potrace (used by fontforge; nice program; I prefer it to autotrace) *- 1.5 [2005-02-03] *+ 1.7 [2005-10-12] libuninameslist (used by fontforge) *+ 040707 [2005.03.14] Acroread *+ 5.0.10 - still use for printing. *+ 7.0 - can't get it to print to printer. Left both 5 and 7 installed. 7.0 doesn't present a printer menu and seems to have become an "environment" for all kinds of things. I still use xpdf for most things. Scribus *- 1.2.1 Add script to /etc/profile.d for MANPATH to /usr/local/share/man. See note above on FreeType compile. *+ 1.2.2.1 [2005-08-27] Lyx *+ 1.3.1 [2005-02-03] Configure was unhappy about not finding xforms (libforms, libxforms, and forms.h) so configure'd with `--with-frontend=qt'. ** 1.3.6 [2005-12-26] ./configure --with-frontend=qt BROKE ON MAKE! But not before wasting 147 minutes of CPU time compiling. This seems to be the future of complex apps on Linux. POVray *+ 3.6.1 [2005-02-07] Povray is necessary for kpovmodeler and a neat little program in its own right. fyre *+ 0.9 [2005-02-07] wine ** Results of `make check' . . . fixme:wave:DSD_CreateSecondaryBuffer (0x403a9270,0x406bfb08,10000,0, \ 0x412364d4,0x403aab9c,0x412364b0): stub fixme:mmtime:timeEndPeriod Stub; we set our timer resolution at minimum make[3]: *** [dsound.ok] Error 8 make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/wine-20050211/dlls/dsound/tests' make[2]: *** [tests/__test__] Error 2 make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/wine-20050211/dlls/dsound' make[1]: *** [dsound/__test__] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/wine-20050211/dlls' make: *** [dlls/__test__] Error 2 Installed from Slackware package. Haven't configured or used, yet. lprng [needs updating] ** Requires: libpng-1.2.8 (currently 1.2.5) zlib-1.2.1 (currently 1.2.1.1 - OK) jpegsrc.v6b (currently 6b - OK) lprng-3.8.28 (currently 3.8.27) ghostscript ** 8.50 (currently 7.07.1) ghostscript-fonts-std ** 8.11 LPRngTool *- 7.2.6 Added 05.02.18; REMOVED! Not particularly finished. apsfilter ** 7.2.6 (currently 7.2.6) emacs- *+ 21.4a [05-02-20] leim- *+ 21.4 [05-02-20] This extracts itself into emacs 21.4 directory for compiling. emacs-lisp-intro *+ 2.04 gimp ** 2.2.3 - broken compile. I still use 2.0.2 that came with slack 10.0. jpilot *+ 0.99.7 [2005-03-10], no problems cabextract *+ 1.1 [2005-03-12] This program is for extracting MS cabinet (.cab) files. It does zip .exe files also. To extract core fonts to a specific directory, with lower case names, and only the files with .ttf extensions: cabextract -d directory_name -L -F *.ttf andale32.exe nfbtrans - National Federation of the Blind Translator *+ 7.74 [2005-03-14] - braille translator unzip nfbtr774.zip mv MAKEFILE Makefile make lowercase make linux strip nfbtrans [optional] cp nfbtrans /usr/local/bin/ cp nfbtrans.cnf back.tab english.dic spell.dat braille.tab /usr/local/lib Make the documentation (makedoc didn't work; but the commands at the end of the makedoc file worked with bash): echo '~0 ~-pw=80 ~-ls=99 ~-pl=56 ~-if=12 ~-fc=. ~o5 ~p- ~-ip=0 \ ~-oc=1' >temp.$$$ cat temp.$$$ nfbtrans.fmt > nfbprint.fmt rm temp.$$$ nfbtrans ob=oc=15 nfbprint.fmt >nfbtrans.txt rm nfbprint.fmt fribidi - needed by mlterm *- 0.10.4 [2005-01-28] *+ 0.10.5 [2005-08-18] mlterm - needs fribidi *+ 2.9.2 [2005-10-07] fribidi - yes libind - no Arabic works properly (r - l) as of [2005-10-07]. *- 2.9.2 [2006-03-29] recompiled with: ./configure --with-x --enable-fribidi --enable-ind \ --with-type-engines=xcore,xft but "xft" type was not recognized and there was a problem with the the width of the window. inkscape *- 0.41 dependency hell; libsigc++-2.0 *- gc6.4 required by inkscape Decided not to mess with inkscape because it's too much trouble to get all the denpendencies installed. ** xine-lib-1.0.2 [2005-09-11] ./configure --with-w32-path=/usr/local/lib/codecs (see essential below) Note: up to now--2005-09-11--xine has been complete crap on my machine. ** essential-20050412 CODEC package from http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html placed all in /usr/local/lib/codecs/ *- gxine-0.4.7 [2005-09-10] removed gxine-0.3.3 slackware package *- totem slackware package removed I no longer try to install much video/multimedia stuff on Linux. firefox *- 1.0.3 [2005-04-25] *- 1.0.6 [2005-07-21] *- 1.0.7 [2005-09-22] still installed; not used [2005-01-05] Removed all extensions after upgrading one and adding another. They seem to be causing problems. *- 1.5 [2006-01-07] still installed; not used *- 1.5.0.1 [2006-02-15] macromedia flash - used by firefox *+ 7 (For firefox.) Java runtime plugin works fine. Just download it, install it, and make proper link to it in firefox-x.x.x/plugin/ directory. Flash plugin work fine but most flash is such crap you may want to not use it. *+ 2.0.0.2 [2007-03-09] I installed java run-time and link in plugin directory. It works, but java is ssssllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwww. I quit installing flash. Too many crashes for browser with 2.0 pstotext *+ 1.9 [2006-04-14] Obtained from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/pstotext.htm Manually installed executable in /usr/local/src/ and man page in /usr/local/man/man1/. gopher *+ 3.0.6 FurryTerror [2005-06-27] SDF still supports gopher, so I installed this to check it out. pygopherd ** 2.0.13 Unsuccessful on first attempt. Installed but gives errors. OpenOffice *- 1.1.5 [2005-09-19] *+ 2.0 [2005-11-18] From Slackware pkg. Wish I'd left the older version. Release was in RPM crap and I see no reason to put that on my machine. sql-ledger *+ 2.4.16 [2005-10-02] Very clean, straight forward, web based bookkeeping software. Supports postgresql and other db servers. Downside: written in perl. But it seems to work very well. If I needed bookkeeping for a small or small medium business I'd give this a test drive before any other free stuff I've seen. worker *+ 2.10.0 - this serves little purpose. It's like mc only with more features. It's a tour de force of 1970's style curses programming to make the command line habitable by mere mortals. xkeycaps- *+ 2.46 [2005-03-16] Installed as /usr/X11R6/bin/xkeycaps; Failed to make manpage; downloaded html version and installed it. yudit *- 2.7.6 [2005-01-28] *+ 2.7.8 [2005-10-14] The file `unifont.hex' has to be in ~/.yudit/fonts/ directory. It can be obtained from several places on the internet. Python *- 2.3.x removed slackware package *+ 2.4.2 [2005-11-21] - Had to update for "mma". tor - requires libevent; uses privoxy *- 0.1.0.16 [2006-02-15] Removed tor because it relied on privoxy, which was removed. See below. libevent - required by tor *+ 1.1a [2006-02-15] privoxy - recommended to be used with tor *- 3.0.3-stable [2006-02-16] Removed privoxy when there was trouble shutting down machine. Felt it wasn't worth debugging the problem. sane-backends *+ 1.0.17 [2006-03-06] groupadd scanner add users to scanner group in /etc/group Copy the libsane.usermap and libusbscanner files from this directory to /etc/hotplug/usb/ Add scanner to /etc/hotplug/blacklist Add scanner definition to /etc/hotplug/usb/libsane.usermap Edit /etc/hotplug/usb/libusbscanner according to info from sane-find-scanner. Example: "libusb:001:002" means "/proc/bus/usb/001/002" xsane *+ 0.991 [2006-03-06] mup *+ 5.2 [2006-03-06] Change in makefile: BINDIR=/usr/local/bin Change in makefile: CC=gcc make install gnupg *- removed Slack packages *- 1.4.3 [2006-04-12] - installed from source *+ gnupg-1.4.4-i486-1_slack10.0.tgz [2006-06-28] - installed from package plan9port - Plan 9 from User Space ** [2006-06-25] mkdir /usr/local/plan9 cd /usr/local/plan9/ ./INSTALL -b ./INSTALL -c WordNet *+ WordNet-2.1 [2006-08-24] ZoneMinder Is it worth it? See below. ** 1.22.3 Dependencies: *- libarch-perl (0.4.5-1) FAILED A BUNCH OF TESTS! mysql ffmpeg - libavcodec and libavformat files PHP xawtv *- xawtv-3.94 *+ xawtv-3.95 [2007-03-09] webcam - Works for ftp, ssh, and to file. Needs absolute path to write to a file; absolute path is OK for ssh but need to check ftp. ZoneMinder Is it worth it? See below. ** 1.22.3 Dependencies: *- libarch-perl (0.4.5-1) FAILED A BUNCH OF TESTS! mysql ffmpeg - libavcodec and libavformat files PHP -------------------------- WINDOW MANAGERS ------------------------- blackbox *- uninstall slackware package - old version had a problem with utf-8 locale *+ blackbox-0.70.1 [2006-07-02] seems OK pawm *+ 2.0.3 ./configure --disable-xft (on Slackware) icewm *- 1.2.20 [2005-01-30] *+ 1.2.23 [2005-10-13] -------------------------- SOUND SOFTWARE -------------------------- Rosegarden-4 (can't remember why I removed it) *- -0.9.91 [2005-02-07] I installed rosegarden in /usr/local instead of the kde dirs. Do the following to make it work: export KDEDIRS=/usr/local ** 1.0 [2005-11-21] WOULD NOT COMPILE! Had to link /usr/lib/libstdc++.la -> /usr/local/lib/libstdc++.la in an attempt to compile. lilypond FUBAR - lilypond is for people with a LOT of time to waste on installions. From source you get this warning (and they mean it): "Building LilyPond is an involved process. If possible, download a precompiled binary for your platform." Like a lot of the music-oriented apps for Linux, lilypond is nice when it's up and running but don't get too attached because once you upgrade your system you may never get it working again. Last time I had it going was 2 years ago. For what it does, lilypond compilation is WAY too complex. If you really need music software get yourself an Apple. Note to developers: To encourage someone to load your software from a package--RPM, APT-GET, or whatever--is just plain dumb. Packages should only be required for the lamist dumbasses--who should be using Windoze in the first place. If it's too complex to compile: FIX IT! mma *- 0.18 [2005-11-21] - add "timidity" to convert midi file output from mma to ogg, alsa, etc. *- 0.19 [2005-12-28] *- 0.21 [2006-04-07] *- 0.21 [2006-06-28] *- 1.0-rc1 [2006-10-04] *+ 1.0 [2006-11-15] TiMidity++ - MIDI-to-WAVE converter and player *+ 2.13.1 [2005-11-21] - required because of "mma" - originally, used patches and cfg from: http://home.swipnet.se/~w-10694/docs/timidity.cfg and http://www.csee.umbc.edu/pub/midia/instruments.tar.gz - now, use patches and cfg from: http://dodo.nurs.or.jp/~iz/guspat/tim-patches.html wxGTK required by audacity *- 2.6.2 - [2005-11-22] - removed to avoid conflict with 2.4.x which was needed by slackware package of audacity. See "audacity". wxGTK required by slackware pkg of audacity *+ 2.4.2 - [2005-11-27] - would not configure with unicode audacity - Graphical cross-platform audio edit *+ ???? - from slackware pkg [2005-11-27] This required an older library of wxGTK than was on the machine; see "wxGTK". Bad programming? This version of audacity needed a specific wxGTK 2.4.x lib and couldn't recognize 2.6.x as a contender? Oh, well, it works. The music guys don't seem too fussy. ** 1.2.3 from source: WOULD NOT COMPILE! Requires wxWidgets Cannot be compiled in a seperate "build" directory. Set environment variable for -L/usr/lib/ ./configure --with-portaudio=v19 Had to repair bad Makefiles after "configure": replace "cc" with $(CC) in one; redefine cc in another. Still had more problems. Gave up on compile error when it couldn't find an installed library even when it was PATH'ed using an environment variable. lame - create mp3 audio files *+ 3.96.1 [2007-02-10] - needed to convert wav to mp3. Actually, it's needed by sox, also. Recompile sox to use it. #!/bin/bash /usr/local/bin/lame track$1\.cdda\.wav -o $1_$2\.mp3 /bin/rm track$1\.cdda\.wav ./wav2mp3 01 Melanie=The_Nickel_Song to convert 'track01.cdda.wav' into '01_Melanie=The_Nickel_Song.mp3' sox - Sound eXchange : universal sound sample translator *+ 12.18.2 [2007-02-11] compiled to include mp3 support--and added lame. First, uninstall slack sox pkg. grip - front-end for ripping CDs to mp3, ogg, etc. *+ 3.2.0 [2007-02-12] Try scsi emu on ide cdrom drive: hdb=ide-scsi - in kernel boot params For the purposes of configuring grip: /dev/sr0 - will be the "CDRom device" /dev/sg0 - will be the "Generic SCSI device" Remember to set the permissions on both devices so they can be used by the appropriate users. I usually set the device to be owned by root and group cdrom; set permissions to ug+rw; and add to user to /etc/group. NOTE: Using scsi emulation for ide drives seems to be justified for 2.4.x kernels but not necessary for 2.6.x kernels. I got similar rip test times with 2.6.x kernel and ide hd as I did with 2.4.x kernel with scsi emulation for ide. 2.4.x ide rip was significantly slower than scsi emu. -------------- COMPILE AND PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION TOOLS -------------- valgrind *- 2.2.0 [2005-01-29] *- 3.0.1 [2005-09-01] *+ 3.1.0 [2006-01-10] cgic *+ 2.05 [2005-02-01] help2man - needed for my software developement. *+ 1.35.1 [2005-02-03] gettext *+ 1.04 - Required by help2man perl Makefile.PL make make install Then `configure', `make', and `make install' for help2man cvs *- 1.11.19 [2005-02-22] upgrade *+ 1.11.21 [2005-12-26]downloaded. need to compile doxygen *- 1.3.7 removed slack pkg *+ 1.4.4 [2005-09-04] graphviz - used by doxygen *+ 2.6 [2005-09-04] ---------------------------- END OF FILE ----------------------------