Alien Pastures

 The glibc packages in Slackware -current were updated to 2.14.1 a few days ago. Unfortunately, a couple of issues were reported, you will find them in this LinuxQuestions thread. Since I had to compile my multilib version of glibc still, I decided to wait a bit with releasing them, and that allowed me to find [...]

… perhaps even to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Just kidding of course. From today’s ChangeLog.txt for Slackware “current“: Sun Mar 27 08:28:47 UTC 2011 There have been quite a few changes so we will have one more release candidate:  Slackware 13.37 RC 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716. Very close now!  But we’ll likely hold [...]

We have progressed to the second release candidate for the upcoming release of Slackware stable (version 13.37 no less). There is probably not going to be a lot of other updates before final release; the TODO list should be quite short now. The only one to know for sure is Pat Volkerding… I am only [...]

Hi folks! Slackware -current’s kernel has been updated to 2.6.37.3 (something many of you probably did not expect) as part of the large update leading to the first release candidate for Slackware 13.37. This newer kernel seems to work better on all the developers’ computers especially for X sessions.Also speakup (a kernel driver for speech [...]

Barely a week has passed, and we have yet another local root hole in glibc that needed patching. The Slackware ChangeLog said it like this: a/glibc-solibs-2.12.1-x86_64-3.txz: Rebuilt. Patched “The GNU C library dynamic linker will dlopen arbitrary DSOs during setuid loads.” This security issue allows a local attacker to gain root by specifying an unsafe [...]

New glibc packages for Slackware arrived on the mirrors last night. They close a serious local root hole. From the ChangeLog: Patched “dynamic linker expands $ORIGIN in setuid library search path”. This security issue allows a local attacker to gain root if they can create a hard link to a setuid root binary.  Thanks to [...]

As you may have noticed already, there are interesting updates in the Slackware ChangeLog.txt ! A new kernel, and new glibc plus gcc packages means there has to be an updated set of multilib packages too or else you bunch of hybrid lovers would be left out in the cold. Well actually there is an [...]

Hi folks As the Slackware ChangeLog states: Fri May 14 19:37:13 UTC 2010 Good hello! We will call this update Slackware 13.1 RC1. With this, the kernel, compiler, and glibc versions are “golden”, and everything is pretty much ready to release. Last call for bug reports… I’m in the process of building the multilib versions [...]

… Ok, ok, it is not so bad actually! Au contraire! Slackware Linux development made a big leap today, when Pat Volkerding updated the distro’s “vital organs” of kernel, glibc and gcc. The “dull” phase of the slackware-current development cycle is over hopefully, and it’s back to the bleeding edge. To be fair, gcc 4.4.2 [...]

By now, the world will be well aware that there was a new release of Slackware Linux last week. Yes, Slackware 13.0 is there… just when I was enjoying a quiet holiday at the french coast. A pity that the release date slipped past the start of my vacation, I always enjoy the virtual “party” [...]