My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Preparing for a release is tedious

Now that Slackware is nearing a new release (that would be 13.1 of course), it is again obvious how tedious this process of finalizing is. Even though I am not the maintainer, just someone on the side (albeit pretty close to the fire) there are so many small issues to be taken care of… I am glad about all the people installing the release candidate and reporting their findings through http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/ , Freenode’s ##slackware channel and other means (email, this and other  blogs). It’s typical that there is always a flurry of bug reports right before a release. Apparently many folks out there are triggered by the message “this is Release Candidate…” and decide that Slackware-current is stable enough to try it out.

I welcome any remarks about installing slackware-current over a network (NFS/HTTP/FTP/Samba) and using LVM/LUKS. If anything should be added to the README files, this is the moment, and it will pass soon.

There are (again) several items on my private TODO list which I did not find time for during this release cycle… I want to write a script to create a Live DVD out of the installation ISO (for demonstration purposes) – nothing like the Linux-Live scripts which enable you to convert a running Linux system to a Live CD… those scripts are awfully complicated and I want to have something basic. I also wanted to work on the mkinitrd_command_generator.sh and the liloconfig scripts – I want to make it easier to create an initrd.gz during installation, for use with the generic kernel and especially in those cases where an initrd is required like when you are using LVM, or LUKS encryption.

Something needs to be left for the future I guess, so that I have something to look forward to 🙂

On the other hand, I am glad that I managed to update the usbimg2disk.sh script though so that you can create a complete USB installer for Slackware quite easily now (without destroying the data on your USB stick even, if you want). Read my old blog post for usage instructions. The move to KDE SC 4.4.3 in Slackware 13.1 is something I am delighted by as well – I had not thought Pat Volkerding would accept this version into 13.1. Perhaps I should now shift my attention to the development of KDE 4.5 packages…

On another note, the http://slackbuilds.org/ site has closed the submission form in anticipation of the new Slackware release. The admin team needs time to get the database ready for accepting new entries and there are very interesting new features coming up. Be sure to watch the site closely in the near future!

Have fun, Eric

5 Comments

  1. dolphin77

    Hi Eric. Thanks for all your work, which I appreciate as probably many Slackers do.

    There is a typing mistake above.

    >The move to Slackware 4.4.3 in Slackware 13.1 is something I am delighted by as well
    Should be
    The move to KDE 4.4.3 in Slackware 13.1 is something I am delighted by as well,
    I think ^)

  2. alienbob

    Hmmm indeed, thanks. Fixed.

  3. escaflown

    Hi Eric. Concerning LVM/LUKS, will Slackware 13.1 support the unlocking mechanism of root partition through keyfile on usb stick?

  4. alienbob

    @escaflown – indeed all the requirements for using a LUKS keyfile on external USB stick are satisfied in the mkinitrd package of Slackware 13.1. The new “-K” parameter allows you to specify the FAT label and the full path to the keyfile on the stick, like this:
    -K LABEL=ALIENUSB:/private/laptop.key
    You still have to manually add the keyfile into one of the free LUKS keyslots using cryptsetup of course. It is recommended to have a normal passphrase in the first slot so that you can always decrypt your hard drive even if you lose your USB stick.

    Eric

  5. escaflown

    Thanks Eric!

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