About
Hi!
I am Eric Hameleers, or AlienBOB as Slackware users know me. I maintain a Wiki, and a website where I publish Slackware scripts and other goodies, but I lacked a place where I could comment freely on all my activities.
This nice Wordpress blog using sqlite database proved as portable as my Wiki, and I am glad I created it.
I hope you find what you search for.
Comments
Comment from Willy Sudiarto Raharjo
Time September 13, 2008 at 08:35
It seems that more and more Slackware users are open to the public 
Comment from AlienBOB
Time September 13, 2008 at 13:08
I think it is important to show people what goes on in the world of Slackware. We have a semi-closed development model here (only one person commits changes to the tree) and this is often used in discussions to show that Slackware’s development is “non-democratic”. There is no bugzilla, no mailing lists where people can interact with the development team.
So, I try to address this “ivory tower” feeling by showing more about myself and by writing about Slackware in this blog.
My posts on Linuxquestions.org and the articles in my Wiki are focused on helping people by closing the knowledge gaps. By starting a blog I try to reach out to the community in a very different way.
Thanks both of you for taking the time to comment
Eric
Comment from antler
Time February 19, 2009 at 04:15
Thank you for all your Slackware-related work, AlienBOB. Your scripts and your how-tos help me a lot. I really appreciate the time you devote to making Slackware more accessible to both new and experienced users alike.
I regard you as a pillar in the community and often think I’m using alien technology whenever I run your scripts. I don’t know how they work, I just know they work well.
So, thanks again.
antler
Comment from Cuetzpallin
Time March 4, 2009 at 22:17
Hello Eric:
Nice site, I think you are one of the Pillar of this distribution.
I follow your slackbuilds releases and also from slackbuild.org
Thank you four your time and share your knowledge.
Jose
Comment from Ken
Time May 4, 2009 at 04:29
Eric,
I love the site and visit often. How can I get involved in the Slackware development process, I’d like to contribute or help if possible. I know that it’s a close knit group, any pointers?
Thanks,
Ken
Comment from alienbob
Time May 4, 2009 at 16:25
Hi Ken
Slackware has no “open development” in the sense that the core team works on Slackware in private. But input from the community is always welcome, and the core team has grown over the past years by accepting several frequent contributors of patches, packages, scripts and ideas (me included).
The best you can do as an “outsider” is install slackware-current, work with it, find bugs, solve these and submit the patches to Pat Volkerding or mention your ideas in the ##slackware channel on Freenode IRC, and join the community at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/.
You’ve probably seen in the ChangeLog.txt that appreciation for good bugfixes is shown by mentioning the contributor in the log.
Comment from Bruce Hill
Time July 2, 2009 at 08:35
Eric,
If it weren\’t for you, we probably would have gone back to … the darkside. Thanks for your help all these years, and for opening up the World of Slackware to us.
You have truly given sacrificially, without asking for anything in return … and often not getting it. Did Robby even buy you a meal in Brazil?
Best regards,
Bruce
Comment from John
Time September 27, 2009 at 21:07
Hi Eric,
Just added the compat libraries to my Slackware system, following your instructions – all went well! Thanks for that.
I do have a problem though: It seems that there is no provision to update /etc/pango/pango.modules. This files is updated on reboot (I think), and contains only links to the 64 bit modules for Pango.
The net result is that Google Earth won’t install (maybe others too), as this installer uses 32 bit packages.
Did you ever stumble over this problem?
Again, thanks for the 32 bit instructions.
Comment from alienbob
Time September 27, 2009 at 22:54
Hi John
If you have an up-to-date Slackware64 13.0 you should find that the boot script “/etc/rc.d/rc.M” calls “update-pango-querymodules”. That script regognizes a multilib setup ad will update the pango modules for i486 as well as x86_64 architectures.
You should be aware that the 32bit directory in Slackware 13.0 is now “/etc/pango/i486/pango.modules”. Did you merge all the *.new files (in case you did an upgrade instead of a fresh install)?
Comment from Norton Luiz
Time November 1, 2009 at 08:49
Hi, Eric
Good job on slackware and i hope long years with project.
Comment from jaredan
Time November 6, 2009 at 12:55
Hello Eric,
I just wanted to drop by and say thank you very much with the great work on Slackware. The new computers are starting to ship with x86_64 by default and I really don’t know what would’ve happen without you. Please keep up the great work!
Comment from gar0t0
Time November 15, 2009 at 08:03
Hi Eric,
thank you for all scripts and packages, You make a great work on slackware and the community
Thanks you
gar0t0
Comment from sid wilroy
Time November 18, 2009 at 15:57
Thanks a ton for your contributions on linuxquestions.org – I had a sendmail issue and your advice fixed it…
Comment from rogue_coder
Time November 18, 2009 at 19:00
Your article on a multilib setup for Slackware64 was great!
Comment from John H
Time December 12, 2009 at 20:50
Thank you for doing an absolutely fantastic job with your multilib setup! Apart from a few minor problems – because I hadn’t RTFMed carefully enough, it was a breeze getting it set up.
Do you still use rsnapshot for your backups? I have been looking at the backup solutions out there, and to say I am more than a little confused is an understatement!
Once again thank you for all your efforts to make Slackware the great distro it is!
Comment from jaredan
Time December 24, 2009 at 11:35
Thank you for the multilib setup tutorial for slackware64 but I wish it would be enabled by default. Seems to be a lot of trouble for some odd reason in not including it since most of us would need it anyway.
Comment from alienbob
Time December 24, 2009 at 15:49
Hi Jaredan
Slackware64 is, and will probably remain, a pure 64-bit distribution. We took good care to make it easy adding 32-bit support on top (i.e. make it multilib).
If you really can not do without 32-bit software, perhaps the “normal” 32-bit Slackware would be better for you?
Cheers, Eric
Comment from phrag
Time December 31, 2009 at 14:17
nice site mate, keep up the good work =)
Comment from tim (timsoft)
Time February 10, 2010 at 17:42
the links on the right hand side on your blog all show a tool-tip saying they were created in 1970. – i presume this is a default 0 for the date value, so thought i’d mention it in case it is considered a bug.
Comment from Sub
Time February 15, 2010 at 20:21
Hello AlienBOB and thanks for the great work you’ve done!
Right now I’m playing with KDE 4.4.0 and just found that the kio_sftp is not compiled. I searched the Internet and found this http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=84694&start=0 :
“It is possible that libssh was not available when your distribution configured and built the KDE 4.4 Beta packages.”
Is it possible to be added in a future package build?
Thanks,
Sub
Comment from neuronos
Time February 20, 2010 at 10:17
Salut AlienBOB ! Salve Slakware !
i’m from Romania
i try live slax, zenwalk, mint, kiwi and installed ubuntu !
Those build on Slakware i like the most !
It work so fast even on USB much faster than ubuntu on hard drive !
I’m a neuro-null and i was not able to instal a persistant firewall, IM, VoIP on live distributin based on Slakware !
Cu respect !
Comment from Станислав Атанасов
Time March 15, 2010 at 14:56
Hi, AlienBOB can I ask you fo a favour?
I’m starting a slackware wiki in my native language. Can I use materials from yours?
Comment from alienbob
Time March 19, 2010 at 12:14
Sure, if you copy (parts of) my articles and write in a footnote where you obtained your information (link to my original article) than that would be no problem at all.
Eric
Comment from Vedette
Time May 6, 2010 at 14:28
Slackware users are like cancer, spreading and spreading. I like it too.
Slackware rocks!
Comment from samac
Time May 9, 2010 at 09:44
Hi, will your 32-bit compatibility layer be re-compiled with the 2.6.33.x kernel, glibc, gcc & binutils that are included in the Slackware 13.1 release?
Comment from alienbob
Time May 11, 2010 at 12:35
@samac: there is nothing to be recompiled, because all those compatibility packages are created from original 32bit packages. You can do that yourself if you want, or wait for Slackware 13.1
Comment from samac
Time May 11, 2010 at 14:08
Sorry I probably used the wrong terminology, not the libraries but the gcc and glibc bit of the 32-bit compatibility.
samac
Comment from alienbob
Time May 13, 2010 at 16:09
The multilib versions of the gcc and glibc packages will be rebuilt or upgraded every time Slackware’s original packages are rebuilt or upgraded. You can get the versions of these packages compatible with Slackware 13.1 (mine were built at the same time as those in Slackware-current) from here: http://slackware.com/~alien/multilib/13.1/
Eric
Comment from Darmawan
Time May 14, 2010 at 14:46
Just dropping by to say thanks for the multilib articles, hints and packages. This is very helpful as I’m migrating from Slamd64 12.1 to Slackware64. Well, the glibc in Slamd64 is not thread safe, which is why I decided to migrate 
.
Comment from Hasan SAHIN
Time May 18, 2010 at 09:02
Hi Eric,
I believe Slackware will never die
and also I always wanted to have a bugzilla, development team, development list and etc…
Comment from alienbob
Time May 18, 2010 at 10:00
Hi Hasan
What will never change as long as Pat Volkerding maintains Slackware is that there will not be a public bugtracker or a community based development team like Debian has for instance.
Eric
Comment from Hasan SAHIN
Time May 19, 2010 at 07:58
Yes, unfortunatelly you are right :/
So I’d like to ask a question; if you were founder of slackware, do you have any idea above-mentioned issuies?
Comment from Paul Harper
Time May 30, 2010 at 03:48
I just want to thank you for your assistance in the past with DM-Crypt and LUKS.
Slackware while challenging initially is well documented and has a great community.
Comment from Russ Whitaker
Time June 6, 2010 at 03:24
I’ve been using your mirror script lately – very nice.
Years ago I sent Pat an email suggesting a change from i386 to i486. He replied, pooh-poohing the idea. Six months later he went to i486. Now I think it is about time to go to i586. Makes a nice speed increase.
On the coreboot.org’s mailing list someone commented he was having trouble with gcc-4.4.
So I tried using gcc-4.4.4 to compile glibc with
march=i586. It quit with a strange error message.
Making no other changes I switched to gcc-4.3.5.
Compiled fine, passed the test suite, installed it and it’s working.
That’s it for now.
Russ
Comment from grissiom
Time June 8, 2010 at 13:30
When I submit a comment on your blog in a recent post, I forgot to enter the Security Code. But the my comment appeared on the page… I think it’s a bug
Comment from grissiom
Time June 8, 2010 at 13:33
I succeeded to post last comment without entering Security Code 
Comment from Wed
Time July 10, 2010 at 10:56
Your link to the PXE-boot seems dead
Comment from C. Wizard
Time July 23, 2010 at 02:51
AlienBob,
Does your latest WINE build now support sound?
Many Thanks.
Comment from slack fan
Time August 2, 2010 at 17:10
I came across this comment, and would like to invite your attention to reply to this comment. many are looking forward to your reply.
Comment from alienbob
Time August 2, 2010 at 22:09
Ay yes, I had seen that site before. It aggregates articles that have been published by other people before. I had not seen nor expected that someone would post a comment there.
I think the reply is unnecessarily harsh. It;’s OK if you do not like Slackware – for whatever reason. But there is no need for all this anger. I do not force you to use Slackware… my article was meant to make you curious about it and risk a trial run. And for people who already use Slackware, it was meant to provide some more background about myself, my role as a Slackware team member and Slackware in general.
Even though Acid_Test may be right about Kword – the Koffice suite went through a major re-write – I think the KDE4 version of Koffice was worth adding to give it more exposure. This is not a core part of Slackware we are talking about and there are alternatives if you are not happy with it. Sticking with the KDE3 version of koffice – or even, sticking with KDE3 – would not have made any sense. Those programs are not being developed any longer. If you need KDE3 for its functionality or its (perceived) stability, then by all means stay with Slackware 12.2. That release of Slackware gets its security upgrades just as quickly as 13.1.
The rant about kpackage and knetworkmanager strike me as strange. We do not endorse kpackage, and its developers never contacted any of the Slackware team (to my best knowledge) in order to co-operate and make it actually work. And knetworkmanager is pretty useless without networkmanager which we do not ship.
And what about PAM? We did not “re-write” software to get rid of PAM. Functionality was added to PolicyKit (by a Slackware user) to allow the use of another authentication backend than just PAM. I thought that was brilliant, and the patch has since then been incorporated into the PolicyKit source tree. That is how free software development works – by co-operating and enhancing stuff!
You know, I have been working with KDE4 exclusively as my Linux desktop environment since summer of 2008. The 2008 release had its quirks, but I could work around them, and since then a lot of effort went into its development to make it an absolutely _stable_ environment to work in. I wonder if Acid_Test has been running Slackware 13.x at all. If you do not like KDE, there is a choice! Use XFCE, or if that is too barebones for your tastes, get GnomeSlackBuild. It’s not like we do not have an active community where you can seek assistance if things don’t work for you.
However, it _really_ does not help to throw about all these insinuations and innuendo accusations. I wrote this response only because you asked for it ’slack fan’, and because you deserve an answer. Otherwise I would just have ignored that post if I had come across it.
Trolls are everywhere.
Eric
Comment from alienbob
Time August 3, 2010 at 11:41
@linux fan:
Apparently the moderator of that site decided not to post my comment there, in which I point to this blog for a further discussion. A bit of a shame really. If you want to post a comment over there to tell Acid_Test that my reaction is here, that may help.
Eric
Comment from http://pearlin.info
Time August 5, 2010 at 12:08
hi,
your comments are posted on http://pearlin.info by the webmaster
Comment from Rajat
Time August 15, 2010 at 09:12
Hey AliuenBOB ….
I don’t have words to thank you…Don’t know what I would have done without your wiki and multilib packages.
Slackware Rules !!
Comment from Rajat
Time August 15, 2010 at 09:14
Sorry for the Spelling mistake
Comment from William B. Doyle
Time August 29, 2010 at 02:43
Okay, now I have to do my homework since I found this by accident. What the heck is “slackware”??? Never heard of it-just an enduser of stuff not a developer. I’ll google it and find out. Wow, a whole new world here…
Comment from Sid Stautzenberger
Time September 8, 2008 at 05:55
Very good website. I’m a long time user of Slackware and I really appreciate the extra packages and scripts that you provide.
Sid