Alien Pastures

My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Month: October 2015 (Page 1 of 2)

Slackware-current got updated… 448 lines of ChangeLog

October 30, 2015 / / 41 Comments

Another big update to slackware-current today.

The ChangeLog.txt entry of “Thu Oct 29 20:12:14 UTC 2015” counts 448lines, and a little less than half of that number consists of updates to packages; the rest is rebuilds. A massive package recompilation occured because several core libraries got updated and Pat is quite conscientious in getting all the library dependency issues resolved properly.

Items of interest: this batch contains several security updates (gvfs, jasper, curl, ntp, php, mozilla-firefox).

The kernel got updated (from 4.1.6 to 4.1.12)! Perl was refreshed too (to 5.22.0 coming from 5.18.1). Scons got added. And ConsoleKit2 got added too folks! This replaces the unmaintained ConsoleKit.

The GTK/GLib subsystem got overhauled thanks to the hard work of  Robby. And then there’s Mesa which is now at 11.0.4 accompanied by X.Org 1.17.3 and libdrm 2.4.65.

In the KDE department, several components were updated to their most recent releases: KDEvelop is now at version 4.7.2, Calligra went up to 2.9.8. The various Long Term Support (LTS) packages are now at their final versions: kdelibs to 4.14.13, kdepim* to 4.14.10 and kde-workspace to 4.11.22. No further updates for KDE 4 are expected.

All in all a potentially disruptive update. I suggest that you upgrade with care, especially if you are running my Plasma 5 packages. I have not yet had the time to test whether recompilations are required, and I am pressed for time (delivering training courses to a new Helpdesk team this week and the next) so it may take several more days before I can come up with rebuilt Plasma packages.

If you want to dive right in and report the Plasma 5 packages that no longer work for you, I’d be grateful.

Have fun! Eric

OpenJDK updated to 7u91_b01

October 25, 2015 / / 1 Comment

icedteaVersion 2.6.2 of IcedTea was released last week. I am working on a cool new idea (no guarantees that this will ever go public but if it works, you’ll know it) so the announcement kind of slipped my attention.

The IcedTea “build harness” for OpenJDK will compile OpenJDK 7 “Update 91 Build 01“. In Slackware terminology: here is the package openjdk-7u91_b01. The release synchronizes with Oracle’s october updates to OpenJDK. Read more about the release on the blog of release maintainer Andrew Hughes.

As with every Java release, this one comes with a list of  security fixes and CVE‘s which have been addressed and fixed:

Note about usage:

Remember that I release packages for the JRE (runtime environment) and the JDK (development kit) simultaneously, but you only need to install one of the two. The JRE is sufficient if you only want to run Java programs (including Java web plugins). Only in case where you’d want to develop Java programs and need a Java compiler, you are in need of the JDK package.

The Java package (openjre as well as openjdk) has one dependency: rhino provides JavaScript support for OpenJDK.

Optionally: If you want to use Java in a web browser then you’ll have to install my icedtea-web package too. While Oracle’s JDK contains a browser plugin, that one is closed-source and therefore Icedtea offers an open source variant which does a decent job. Note that icedtea-web is a NPAPI plugin – this prevents use of Java in Chrome & Chromium because those browsers only support PPAPI plugins, but you’ll be OK with all Mozilla [-compatible] browsers of course.

Download locations:

Have fun! Eric

October ’15 security fixes for Adobe Flash

October 14, 2015 / / 5 Comments

adobe_flash_8s600x600_2Adobe released updated Flash player plugins yesterday, which adddress newly discovered vulnerabilities. I applied those updates to my repository and the packages are ready for you to download and install.

The updated Slackware package for chromium-pepperflash-plugin (to be used together with my chromium package) has version 19.0.0.207. The updated flashplayer-plugin has version 11.2.202.535.

The PepperFlash plugin is extracted from Google Chrome 46.0.2490.71 (first stable 46 release). The accompanying source code for Chromium has become available today, so I am going to compile that later into a chromium package for Slackware.

My download locations for the Flash plugin packages are as always:

If you are using the slackpkg+ extension for slackpkg, then you just run “slackpkg update && slackpkg update flash”. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my repository RSS feed to stay informed of any updates.

Eric

KDE 5_15.10 for Slackware-current brings Telepathy

October 13, 2015 / / 61 Comments

plasma5_startup It’s october, the leaves are falling, we had our first frost this week… and here is yet another KDE 5 release for Slackware to keep you warm and cozy. I am happy with my KDE 5_15.10 update. Again I waited until every KDE source was refreshed: this set contains Frameworks 5.15.0, Plasma 5.4.2 and Applications 15.08.2.

And you know what? The “progress bar issue” which has plagued me ever since the first Plasma 5.4 release could finally be resolved, thanks to  Gérard Monpontet who posted the solution in the comments section of previous Plasma 5 blog post. I love it when the Slackware community helps fixing issues well before they start bothering Pat. Apparently, desktop sessions not only need to be started using a ConsoleKit process but also using a DBus invocation.

plasma5_startup

But that’s not all; there is a bit more to tell about the October release.

What’s new in KDE 5_15.10?

  • Frameworks 5.15.0 is an enhancement release with no new Frameworks added. You can read the details on https://www.kde.org/announcements/kde-frameworks-5.15.0.php
  • Plasma 5.4.2 is a bugfix release and perhaps the last before 5.5.0, because 5.4.3 will only be released if there’s a need for it. See https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.4.2.php . New this month is that I enabled the compilation of the “plasma-mediacenter” application, which you may or may not like, but at least you can check it out now.
  • Applications 15.08.2 was just released today. It is a bugfix release – but for Slackware it means the sudden appearance of a lot more packages. Because:
  • I have finally enabled KDE Telepathy in my KDE.SlackBuild framework. That’s 14 new packages for you! Only the voice & video GUI is still missing, the KDE Telepathy developers are looking for someone knowledgeable to port the old KDE 4 version to Frameworks 5.
    And to support building them, I had to add yet another 18 packages in the “deps” section. You will find those dependencies all self-contained in a single “telepathy” subdirectory right below “deps”. That way, if you don’t care much for Telepathy you can easily skip these packages. Similarly, the new KDE Telepathy packages are all located in a subdirectory “telepathy” below “kde”. The full list of new Telepathy dependencies is : libotr, libnice, farstream, libaccounts-glib, libaccounts-qt5, signon, signon-plugin-oauth2, signon-ui, libsignon-glib, telepathy-glib, telepathy-farstream, telepathy-haze, telepathy-gabble, telepathy-qt5, telepathy-logger, telepathy-logger-qt5, telepathy-mission-control and telepathy-accounts-signon.
  • I added a new package to “plasma-extra” because I did not want to wait for Plasma 5.5 where this program will likely be included by default. It is called “xembed-sni-proxy” and on startup (automatically when you launch a Plasma 5 desktop session) it will dock into the Plasma system tray area and start listening for XEmbed requests. Tray icons for applications adhering to the “legacy” XEmbed protocol will be displayed seamlessly inside the Plasma tray area, courtesy of xembed-sni-proxy). There is no longer a need for external tray applications like trayer-srg or stalonetray.

Here is a screenshot which shows the (XEmbed) HP system tray icon – snugly placed inside the xembed-sni-proxy tray area. You’ll also notice the reddish avatar at the left – that is KDE Telepathy, its color informing me that it is does not have any account configured yet.

plasma5_xembed

Installing or upgrading Frameworks 5, Plasma 5 and Applications

The remainder of the article is mostly a re-hash, but I include it every time so that you do not have to search through this blog, and have everything together on a single page.

As always, the accompanying README file contains full installation & upgrade instructions. Note that the packages are available in several subdirectories below “kde”, instead of directly in “kde”. This makes it easier for me to do partial updates of packages. The subdirectories are “kde4”, “kde4-extragear”, “frameworks”, “kdepim”, “plasma”, “plasma-extra”, “applications” and “telepathy”.

Upgrading to this KDE 5 is not difficult, especially if you already are running KDE 5_15.09_02. You will have to remove old KDE 4 packages manually. If you do not have KDE 4 installed at all, you will have to install some of Slackware’s own KDE 4 packages manually.

Note:

If you are using slackpkg+, have already moved to KDE 5_15.09_02 and are adventurous, you can try upgrading using the following set of commands. This should work but feel free to send me improved instructions if needed (assuming in this example that you tagged my KDE 5 repository with the name “ktown_testing” in the configuration file “/etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf“):
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown_testing (to get the newly added packages from my repo)
# slackpkg install-new (to get the new official Slackware packages that were part of my deps previously)
# slackpkg upgrade ktown_testing (upgrade all existing packages to their latest versions)
# slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade the remaining dependencies that were part of my repo previously)

And doublecheck that you have not inadvertently blacklisted my packages in “/etc/slackpkg/blacklist“! Check for the existence of a line in that blacklist file that looks like “[0-9]+alien” and remove it if you find it!

Recommended reading material

There have been several posts now about KDE 5 for Slackware-current. All of them contain useful information, tips and gotchas that I do not want to repeat here, but if you want to read them, here they are: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/tag/kde5/

A note on Frameworks

The KDE Frameworks are extensions on top of Qt 5.x and their usability is not limited to the KDE Software Collection. There are other projects which rely (in part) on the KDE Frameworks, and if you are looking for a proper Frameworks repository which is compatible with Slackware package managers such as slackpkg+, then you can use these URL’s to assure yourself of the latest Frameworks packages for Slackware-current (indeed, this is a sub-tree of my KDE 5 “testing” repository):

Where to get the new packages for Plasma 5

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/5/ and packages in /current/5/ subdirectories). If you are interested in the development of KDE 5 for Slackware, you can peek at my git repository too.

Using a mirror is preferred because you get more bandwidth from a mirror and it’s friendlier to the owners of the master server!

Have fun! Eric

Wine 1.7.52 with additional patch set

October 12, 2015 / / 26 Comments

I uploaded a new set of Wine packages. I know that Wine HQ itself is offering Wine packages for Slackware (see this sourceforge.net link) but being the control freak that I am, I want to know exactly what I am using. I am using my own build script.

My Wine package needs some explanation. As you know, Wine traditionally was meant to run Windows software – 32bit Windows software. Therefore it will run fine on 32bit Slackware but if your computer is equipped with 64bit Slackware, you need to enhance it with multilib capabilities to make this 32bit software work on a 64bit OS.

Microsoft caved in at some point and started offering 64bit versions of their Windows OS. The 64bit MS Windows can run 32bit software out of the box… a wise move since a lot of Windows software is still 32bit binary code. They made this work transparently by adding something akin to our multilib. Microsoft calls it WoW64 or “Windows on Windows 64”.

The Wine package I provide for the 64bit Slackware therefore mimicks this WoW64 configuration and offers both a 32bit “wine” and a 64bit “wine64” environment. You still need multilib to make this work on Slackware64 but you will be able to run 64bit Windows binaries just as easily as 32bit Windows programs.

Now, recent versions of my package have been enhanced again. You may recall that I offer a “pipelight” package which allows you to use MS Windows browser plugins with your Slackware Firefox. Pipelight uses a patched version of Wine. This patch set was orginally called “Wine Compholio” but as more and more people saw how useful these patches were for regular Wine users, an effort was made to formalize these patches and make them more widely known – and used. Nowadays, this patch set is known as “wine-staging” and on 25 September the team announced their integration into WineHQ, making wine-staging a structural part of the Wine development process. I have decided to apply the wine-staging patch set to my Wine package by default since the 1.7.51 release. Fedora does this too for their package.

And with my 1.7.52 package I have added a second patch set which should bring near-native performance to Direct 3D 9 applications in Wine. This patch set is called “direct3d9” and leverages the new “d3dadapter” of the mesa package (provided by the Gallium Nine state tracker of Mesa). The d3dadapter library has been enabled in the mesa package of Slackware-current. My wine.SlackBuild script checks for this library and applies the direct3d9 patch set if that library is found. The wine-1.7.52 packages for Slackware 14.1 and -current are therefore different.

I noticed that there is some overlap between the wine-staging the direct3d9 patch sets. After applying wine-staging there are some chunks of the direct3d9 patches that fail to apply. I do not know if this will have any adverse effects when running Windows applications. I checked with other distros and found that Arch Linux is also applying both patch sets in their “wine-staging-d3dadapter” and don’t seem to be bothered by failing patch-chunks. If you are on Slackware-current and want to (re-)compile Wine without the direct3d9 patch set, you can simply run the SlackBuild script like so:

# USE_NINE=NO ./wine.SlackBuild

I would like to hear from you if these patch sets are making a difference in running your Windows games and other programs.

Cheers, Eric

 

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