Hi!
I am Eric Hameleers, or AlienBOB as Slackware users know me.
I live in the Netherlands, have a day job at the IT department of a lithography company which I enjoy a lot, and I consider my contributions to making Slackware better as ‘just a hobby‘ albeit one that consumes most of my spare time.
I created and maintain the Slackware Documentation Wiki along with many contributors.
I also maintain a personal wiki (wiki.slackware.nl) and a website (slackware.nl) where I publish Slackware scripts, lots of packages and other goodies that make your life as a Slackware user more agreeable. And of course I occupy a spot on the Slackware server.
But I lacked a place where I could comment freely on all my activities. Like a blog.
This nice WordPress blog using a Sqlite database as its back-end proved as portable as my Wiki, and I am glad I created it.
I hope you find what you search for. If you want to give feedback and don’t want to write a comment on the blog, then you can always email me: alien at slackware dot com.
If you want, there’s room for general feedback on the Feedback Page. and of course in the comments section of any of my blog articles if you have something specific to say about the topic.
Very good website. I’m a long time user of Slackware and I really appreciate the extra packages and scripts that you provide.
Sid
It seems that more and more Slackware users are open to the public 🙂
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
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
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
Eric, you’re my hero. 😉
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
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.
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
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.
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)?
Hi, Eric
Good job on slackware and i hope long years with project.
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!
Hi Eric,
thank you for all scripts and packages, You make a great work on slackware and the community 🙂
Thanks you
gar0t0
Thanks a ton for your contributions on linuxquestions.org – I had a sendmail issue and your advice fixed it…
Your article on a multilib setup for Slackware64 was great!
AlienBOB, you kinda look like the Mac guy.
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!
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.
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
nice site mate, keep up the good work =)
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.
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
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 !
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?
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
Slackware users are like cancer, spreading and spreading. I like it too.
Slackware rocks!
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?
@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
Sorry I probably used the wrong terminology, not the libraries but the gcc and glibc bit of the 32-bit compatibility.
samac
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
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 ;).
Hi Eric,
I believe Slackware will never die 🙂
and also I always wanted to have a bugzilla, development team, development list and etc…
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
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?
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.
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
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 😉
I succeeded to post last comment without entering Security Code 😛
Your link to the PXE-boot seems dead
AlienBob,
Does your latest WINE build now support sound?
Many Thanks.
I came across this comment, and would like to invite your attention to reply to this comment. many are looking forward to your reply.
the url is
http://pearlin.info/eric-hameleers-slackware-does-exactly-what-i-want-it-to-do-13-1-questions-to-alienbob-on-the-occasion-of-slackware-13-1-release/
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
@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
hi,
your comments are posted on http://pearlin.info by the webmaster
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 !!
Sorry for the Spelling mistake 😛
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…
Hello,
I was wondering if you accept guest post for your blog. If you do, I would like to submit a few. You can see a sample of my work at LaptopComputers.org under the author James Mowery. I’ve also written for several high-profile blogs like Mashable, Performancing, and CMSWire. Thank you for your time.
– James
Have you considered starting your own fork of Slackware? Your versions of the SlackBuild’s are highly functional when compared to the distributions’ and SlackBuild.org’s versions. A high level of automation is nice.
@staticcola –
Why should I do such a thing? Since I am already member of the core Slackware team, why would I break up and create a fork?
I have no desire to do so and scatter the Slackware community even more.
Eric
Thank you for doing an absolutely fantastic job for slackware.. thanks you provide a good information about the blog as well as you are accepting guest posts also thats very fine to us…
Can you please provide your blog details, then we can follow your blog for slackware news. I was seen here you are accepting guest posting in your blogs.
I said I was considering guest postings but have not decided yet. And seeing the hidden spam attempt by linking your names to commercial sites, I will not likely say ‘yes’ either. Possibly I will even remove the previous two comments.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Just calling to express my thanks for your rc scripts. My Latitude C400 is better for my legs than my Win98 desktop. After switching to static IPs I had the problem that I could access my LAN if I stopped eth0, but I couldn’t browse. Your scripts have fixed it, but I still don’t know what was spooking Firefox & Konqueror. Thanks, Ken.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your labour, your advices help.
I am a beginner in Slackware ,english too bad know beside me on computer is installed Slackware13.1. For interest has installed VirtualBox4 and created the virtual machine (video 128 Mb and RAM 1024 Mb) with Slackware13.1×86 current. XFCE works fine, but KDE 4.5.4 gives the mistake to segmentings and is not loaded.Prompt please that possible to do.
Hey, I’m a Slackware user now studying C and when I’ve improved I would like to contribute to Slackware development.
Thanks for the scripts and the work on Slackware
Hello, I’ve a little observation, the only thing I have noticed Slackware lacks is a dlna server package; I would recommend adding a build for some good package for example minidlna is a good and light (very basic) project or mediatomb also, which is another c++ developed package which might be added.
In another side, thanks a lot for all your work!
Hi Carlos
I have a package for minidlna myself since I used it: http://slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/minidlna/ but since then I have been working with mediatomb for which you’ll find a SlackBuild here: http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.1/network/mediatomb/ and a sbopkg (see http://sbopkg.org/) build queue-file for mediatomb is here: http://gitorious.org/sbopkg-slackware-queues/sbopkg-slackware-queues/trees/master .
Cheers, Eric
Hello there, i’m using your kde 4.6 for slackware current, but now i’m having problems with gtk apps, i remember kde had a “gtk styles and fonts” option on system preferences but i can’t find it on kde 4.6. am i missing something? do i need to install something else?
Hi again Eric, many thanks for the links! 🙂
btw, do you have any plans to develop a slackpkg-compat32 version? (so a simple update/upgrade process would keep the 32bit libs synced)
Best wishes,
Carlos
Been a huge supporter of slackware since day one. Love your KDE work. Just wanted to give kudos to a really great project.
Thanks,
Maureen
Hi Eric, just want to give you lots of encouragement to keep up the good work! I’m a long-time slackware user, software developer, slack is the only linux distribution I can stand using. Really really love the kde 4.6 stuff, using it as my main work desktop. Also better say a big thanks to Pat V while I’m here! Cheers!
Thank you
Eric,
Thanks for all that you do. You and Robby and others put a face on Slackware and make it tad more approachable by the non-guru GNU/Linux user.
Regards,
~Eric, the Nocturnal Slacker
Hi,
Nice post, You make a great work on slackware and the community. So thank you.
Sincerelly
Locksmiths Kensington
Hello , alienbob.
One thing that shocked me was reading somewhere Pat was not making Slackware x86_64 fully multilib because it could kill Slackware x86.
It makes no very much sense, really. 75% of Linux users are said to use x86 software, most of the rest use x86_64. That’s a evidence of x86_64 versions letting live the rest. Anyway, your works in Slackware multilib have proven unable to take Slackware x86 away!
I would dare to say that, by keeping Slackware as a pure 64 bits beast, you are most likely to kill x86_64 version. I myself follow a strict rule: if it is unnofficial, compile it by yourself or don’t install it at all. I know of many people following the same code. That leaves your work out of the question, sorry! That also means I would need to do all the work by hand, which is possible, but not very appealing for me… Yes, I am so stuborn. I learnt it from my horses.
Would it be really so much of a mess to include the few packages needed for enabling a multilib Slackware in an official release? Its not a request, is a question. If your multilib packages work, would be there any thecnologic problem to include them in a folder inside the DVD release? Maybe /testing/multilib?
Maybe you could bribe Pat with a barrel full of beer to accept multilibrering Slacware x86_64? : ^)
Hi,
i am new to qemu vde.
i am using qemu with bridge.
i am a little confuse, why we need firewall/routing to setup qemu-vde-bridge?
below is the link to diagram what was i am thinking, is that correct and doable?
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4631/networkingqemuvdebridge.png
thank you
Najib, if you bridge your connection to the VM you do not need any firewall rules. Those would be needed to setup a NAT connection.
I have the exact setup on my server that you show in your diagram. This is what I use; a modification to rc.inet1 that allows for the setup of a bridge interface:
http://slackware.com/~alien/rc_scripts/bridging/
And I use a rc script to configure VDE and add the tun interface to the bridge:
http://slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/qemu-kvm/build/rc.vdenetwork
Eric
Eric, thanks for the scripts 😀
I have simplified steps as what I understood here: http://selamatpagicikgu.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/quickhowto-qemu-networking-using-vde-tuntap-and-bridge/
Awesome stuff! As a Linux noob (mostly used Ubuntu) Slackware can be a daunting yet satisfying journey and with the scripts and tips here it becomes so much easier, thanks!
Just a quick note of thanks on your blog and of course the work on Slackware. I, like many Slack users, am an old timer, indeed been using Slack since kernel 0.9x pl15f, I remember labeling the floppy disk … at least …
Hi Eric,
A big fat THANK YOU for the multilib stuff for Slackware64. I just had to configure a Brother laser printer that refused to work correctly on a Slackware64 server with any driver except those provided – only for 32bit systems – by the Brother website. So I just added the basic multilib packages, and now the printer works like a charm.
To update “flashplayer-plugin-11_rc1.090611-i686-1.txz” with upgradepkg you must rename the file as “flash-player-plugin-11_rc1.090611-i686-1.txz”.
@Allesandro
That is wrong if you were upgrading from my previous package. You are somewhat right if you are upgrading from the package created by the script from SBo at http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.37/multimedia/flash-player-plugin/
If you want to upgrade from theirs to mine, you can run (note the ‘%’ inbetween the old and new package):
# upgradepkg flash-player-plugin%flashplayer-plugin-11_rc1.090611-i686-1.txz
Eric
Thanks for the explanation.
You are legendary, Eric.
hi eric, is there any chance of you updating the qemu package to v0.15.0, as your current one appears to be v0.10
thanks
Hi tim
I am focusing on qemu-kvm instead which is a patched version of qemu which works with the Linux Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM). I think the original qemu may have absorbed all their patches by now, I really should check that. The qemu package in my repository is a bit outdated indeed.
Eric
Hi Eric,
This is Cristian. I am having a problem with the restricted VLC build for version 1.1.12. This problem seems to be present in 1.1.11 and 1.1.10 versions too.
The problem I have is that I can not encode in MP3/AAC formats.
I tried the VLC 1.0.6 build under http://slackware.org.uk/people/alien/restricted_slackbuilds/vlc/pkg/13.0/ and I am able to encode in MP3/AAC. For whatever reason the builds under 13.1 and 13.37 seem broken in this regard.
Can you please verify and see if you’re able to encode MP3/AAC with these builds and fix them if they are broken?
Thanks!
Hi Christian
I could successfully transcode an audio track inside a movie to MP3 using my “restricted” version of vlc-1-1.12 as well as using a vlcgit 20111006 snapshot. Both are 64bit versions because I do not run a 32bit Slackware anywhere, but I verified that the Slackware 13.37 package at http://slackware.org.uk/people/alien/restricted_slackbuilds/vlc/pkg/13.37/ is indeed the package with MP3/AAC encoding capability builtin. I checked this by comparing the MD5 sum of the package against the one in my local repository and by examining that package’s build log.
How do you try encoding to MP3 ? Perhaps there is something you should do differently.
Eric
Hi Eric, is there any chance of your vlc package being built with the option to allow root usage (–enable-run-as-root passed to configure)? I regularly use a test machine to test customers hard drives and can’t check the media as root anymore.
Hi tim
My VLC packages have been built with “–enable-run-as-root ” for a long time now. I checked my installed vlc-1.1.12 package and that runs nicely as root. What version of VLC are you using?
Eric
woops i’m running 1.0.0 .
You’re right, it works fine with 1.12 (my main test pc is slack 12.2 which I haven’t upgraded because I prefer konqueror to dolphin and kde 3.4 is quicker than kde4) I’ll just have to try getting v1.12 to work on slack 12.2
Hi Eric!…
I’m trying to compile the FFADO “trunk” version… I’ve installed everything is listed as a dependency… also “libconfig” (from source)… but SCons keep me asking “libconfig++” (which I supposed was included in “libconfig”)… any suggestion?…
Thanks in advance 🙂
Stewie
@Stewie
Unfortunately this blog is not a full-blown Slackware Linux help forum. If you need help compiling ffado (software which I have never looked at and probably never will) then you might want to state your issue over at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/ where it will have a better chance at being answered.
Eric
You’re right…
I’m sorry: I was only hoping that you already knew how to install the “libconfig++” library and could point me in the right direction… I was asking here because I searched quite well on the web (so also “linuxquestions.org”) and couldn’t come to a solution…
I’ll look better in the section you linked, or I’ll open a specific thread about it…
This is the second time I ask an “unrelated” question (I also asked something about a “Slackware-current setup”); I hope I didn’t bother too much… 🙂
Thanks anyway…
Stewie
Hi Stewie
Well, not everything you ask is unrelated! Your previous question was well worth answering. It’s just that I can not give adequate answers to software related issues when I have never touched that software and most likely never will.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Is your vlc/mplayer package support playing video file encoded with AVC Hi10p (10 bit)?
Hi Pangky Kurniawan
I tried my own MPlayer package (not the version in Slackware) as well as my VLC 1.1.12 and a version I compiled from git (http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/restricted_slackbuilds/vlcgit/) and all of them playback a Hi10p video sample which I downloaded from http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=search&cats=0_0&filter=0&term=Hi10P
The VLC 1.1.12 version shows blocky artefacts in playback but both MPlayer and VLC 1.2.0git play the Hi10p video just fine.
One remark about subtitles for Hi10p video: the VLC version built from git (the future 1.2.0 release) will not display subtitles for Hi10p videos, unless you set the Video Output to OpenGL. In VLC’s preferences goto Video > Output modules and select “GLX video output (XCB)”. After you select this output mode instead of “default”, close VLC and start it again. The subtitles will show now.
See also this bug report: http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/5477
Eric
Hi!…
I’m glad to know that I didn’t bother with my first question… 🙂
For the second one I’ll follow your advice: I’ll open a thread on linuxquestions.org…
Bye…
Stewie
Thanks for the response Eric, you’re the best, upgrading MPlayer now
Hello, Eric.
I understand that my question may be left without an answer, yet still I just don’t know whom else I could ask ((
It’s been a while since we’ve last seen some major updates in slackware-current branch. I mean such updates as new kernels, your kde packages and others. I remember you mentioning that Patrick has some personal business to take care about but time passes and we still don’t see any serious changes in -current tree.
I understand that sometimes we all have personal matters to take care of and it would be wrong to push with it with questions like “Why?” and “When?”, yet maybe you can say just a few words so we could know if we should expect any major updates shortly?
Need a usable version of Quanta+ to run on a Slackware 13.37 installation. I tried trinity but the graphical display part of Quanta is blank. Been chasing my tail on this for many moons.
Is there a download page?
Hi John
I wrote about the new Quanta Plus in this blog post: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/quanta-plus-for-kde4/.
Basically, if you install my KDE 4.7.x package set (follow the instructions in the README closely) you will have this new Quanta Plus in KDE’s “Applications > Development” menu.
Whether it is functional enough for you, I can not say. It is an alpha release, but the base on which it is built (kdevelop) is mature.
The article in which I announce my KDE 4.7.3 package set is here: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/kde-updated-to-4-7-3/ and it has links to download mirrors as well as the instructional README.
Good luck, let me know how it worked out. If you should have any issues with the KDE upgrade, please discuss them in the aforementioned KDE blog post so that we can set you straight.
Eric
Hi Makkuro
I am afraid I can not give you any news on Slackware’s ongoing development. That is really Pat Volkerding’s call.
And while he is “busy with life”, I will keep updating my stuff at least.
Eric
will be there slackware with gnu/hurd kernel in
the future ?
and thank you very much
Not likely ma131d… there is no interest at all to go into that direction.
Eric
Hello alienbob
Can you tell to us some notice about the slackware current? is it frozen? Some problem at Pat? We can help with some thing?
Slackware is alive, updates are pending, I am about to test kernel 3.2.2.
Pat requires time for his family and that has impacted the speed of development in Slackware. In the meantime, you can keep yourself busy with my KDE…
Eric
Thanks I really appreciate your work for the project. I’m using kde4,8 and testing the new kernel 3.2.2 from sources.
Thank you so much for your wonderful work in support of Slackware, from which I have benefited greatly. I visit your site daily.
Though Slackware is the oldest Linux distribution, it is still with me. And i highly appreciate it for the old fashioned virtues of simplicity!
hi Eric, i write here because i cant fit email to you:
there is remedy for problem you describe here:
http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=slackware:setup
please look:
http://nil-techno.blogspot.com/2009/10/lilo-warning-initial-ram-disk-is-too.html
Hi Kamil
My email address should be easy to find, I have several and they are all over the internet. But I am glad you posted here, so that I can give an answer that will also help other people
To me that link does not offer a real solution. You would have to recompile your kernel every time you need to change your initrd? Not a realistic option.
The guy in that link talks about “adding more and more functions to his kernel” which causes his kernel to become so huge that it no longer fits into the 15M memory hole together with an initial ramdisk. My question would be: why then do you still use a ramdisk if you are compiling everything into the kernel anyway? Looks terribly inefficient.
The best method is still:
Build your kernel as modular as possible. An initrd is only used to make your root filesystem available to the kernel. All the other kernel modules are not loaded when the kernel boots. As a consequence, a small, modularized kernel (like Slackware’s own “generic” kernel) can use a _big_ initrd and still fit in the 15M memory hole.
Eric
hi,
first:
my problem is to change /dev/sdX in lilo.conf and fstab to UUIDs to make possible adding and removing disks without changing these files.
there is:
/dev/sda – sdf – SATA disks
/dev/sdg – sdh – PATA disks
when remove one of SATA, then /dev/sdg becomes sdf and system cant boot.
i dont have all options compiled in kernel, only requied options without HID, USB, Firewire, Video4Linux etc. 🙂
second:
solution from this guy, does not work for me.
Hi, Eric.
First of all, thanks for KDE 4.8.1 packages, I’m always impressed with how fast you react on new KDE releases. Keep it up, you’re the best.
I wanted to ask you something. In your KDE 4.8.1 news post you’ve written that you had a discussion with Patrick and with high probability we may soon see fresh KDE release in -current branch. So my question is “Are there any assumptions concerning XFCE 4.8 ?”. It had been released quite long ago and lots of users were expecting to see it in Slackware 13.37 but that was not the case, unfortunatelly.
If Pat had told you anything about it, I would be most greatful if you shared it with us.
Thanks in advance,
Best regards.
Hi, Eric!
First of all I’d like to thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with us. Slackware rules!!
Best Regards,
Grace
Hi Eric and thank you for the great job you perform on line. I’m a proud Slackware user and I just compiled KDE 4.8.1 with your script…
Hi.
I appreciate the work you do. It benifits me greatly.
I have a question. When I installed slackware 13.37, I did not install any of the kde stuff. My version is now operating at greater speed than before and I also have no issues with installing programs.
Why is that I wonder?
John.
Please give me a link to latest libreoffice-3.4 for x86_64 (after upgrade to 3.5.2 I cant use “search” in Base; the same problem – in AgiliaLinux, PCLinuxOS, Sabayon & Window$)
Well guys, I guess we finally have a Troll in a blog ))
Troll posts as well as spam posts get removed. Some spam posts are almost indistinguishable from troll posts.
Eric
Hi Eric, have you tried Slackware on Raspberry Pi yet?
I still do not own a Raspberry-Pi…
Eric
Eric,
I want to start by thanking you for all your contributions to the slackware community. I am using unRAID for my fileserver, which is basically slackware-lite, and have found many of your builds to be extremely helpful when trying to add functionality to my NAS. Recently I downloaded and began using your latest Handbrake build 0.9.6 from http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/handbrake/ . It works perfectly (after I installed some extra dependencies not native to my particular install). However, since that stable version, the Handbrake team has introduced PGS subtitle support in Blu-Rays that I desperately need. Is there anyway I could get you to grab one of the latest nightly Ubuntu builds from https://launchpad.net/~stebbins/+archive/handbrake-snapshots/+packages and make it into a Slackware package? I just don’t have the skills necessary to cross the Debian barrier. Or, if there’s a specific method I should follow to try and build my own package, that would be terrific since these are nightly builds, basically beta code.
I’ll update my request to “Could you build a Handbrake 0.9.8 for Slackware”? Handbrake is now on version 0.9.8 as a stable build. Would be awesome to have this for Slackware. Thanks.
Bob, I just checked your slackbuilds section on slackware.com… what can I say? Thank you so much! Is there some other communication method you prefer over someone posting to your personal board? Thanks again!
Well, that is why I just opened the http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/your-feedback/ page – it shows up at the top of the blog’s left sidebar. That’s where the feedback/ideas/requests can go in future.
Cheers, Eric
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I have joined your feed and stay up for in the hunt for extra of your fantastic post. Also, I have shared your website in my social networks.
just beginning to use slackware, and I find this site, thanks for all the info, I am on the lookout for your new post, thanks 🙂
Are you going to make a Trinity Desktop Environment for slackware 14.0?
Hi Jesus
No sorry, not interested… I always hated the looks of KDE3. KDE4 is so much better, also with regard to functionality.
Cheers, Eric
hi allien bobo i need your help on instalation about slackware 14 with usb from windows
i canot please send me images , i dont understand very well your tutorial , excuseme help meeee
Hi AlienBob,
Sorry for the newbish question: Are your Handbrake and VLC packages stand-alone, or do I need to install the dependancies as well?
Cheers,
Rob
Hi rkelsen
VLC is a standalone package without dependencies. You only need libdvdcss additionally if you want to watch an encrypted DVD disk.
The same is true for Handbrake. It works without the need for additional packages, but if you want it to rip an encrypted DVD you have to install libdvdcss.
Eric
Thanks Man!
Great site contratulations.
Hi Alien, I’m Giorgio from Italy and great fan of Slackware. Can you explain me step by step how you got the file
libreoffice-4.1.2-i486-1alien.txz etc… ?
Hi Eric. I think you may have forgotten the pipelight package. The dependencies appear in your SlackBuilds but not pipleight. Or am I looking in the wrong place:-(
Mike
Hi Mike,
You are right, I wanted to save the pipelight to be released along with the article I just published… the Slackware 14.1 release got in the way. It should not have been mentioned in the ChangeLog.txt yet…
The package will soon appear in the repository.
Eric
Beaut. Thanks
Hi Eric,
I tried install today multilib on 14.1 and I am getting on some packages error for md5.
http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/14.1/gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz: download error
gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz: md5sum
I tries calculate md5 also manually it not match.
Seems that you forgot to update md5.
Thanks,
Rasto.
Perhaps you have a bad download? There is nothing wrong on the server:
Eric
hmmm … seems that slackpkg+ not checking md5 in CHECKSUMS.md5, because thare is correct checksum, but compare checksum with gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz.md5, and that’s the reason. So what is wrong, slackpkg+ or gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz.md5 ?
S rass@rass-work:~/Downloads$ md5sum glibc-zoneinfo-2013d_multilib-noarch-7alien.txz
7c0e80111ac8ffe73cbdfa73e3ec36a9 glibc-zoneinfo-2013d_multilib-noarch-7alien.txz
S rass@rass-work:~/Downloads$ cat glibc-zoneinfo-2013d_multilib-noarch-7alien.txz.md5
7c0e80111ac8ffe73cbdfa73e3ec36a9 glibc-zoneinfo-2013d_multilib-noarch-7alien.txz
S rass@rass-work:~/Downloads$ md5sum gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz
S rass@rass-work:~/Downloads$ cat gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz.md5
aff5fedba07b5b46dd274d9ec4b7e94b gcc-4.8.2_multilib-x86_64-1alien.txz
aha last post was wrong …my md5 not much … hmm strange … maybe bad package here http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/14.1/
so last post .,.. sorry … everything is okej … we have here some troubles with downloads …
please delete last two posts … seems something is wrong with slackpkg+, because md5 is ok on your side … I am trying to debug slackpkg+,
Hi AlienBob
thanks for the support of slackware.
grettings from Brazil
I very very very thank you for your work with slackware.
Thank you
Hallo Eric,
maybe this is the wrong place, but I don’t know which is the good one 🙂
I want just to point you out that there’s a new minor mirall release that seems quite important, ‘couse avoid that the user password is stored in clear in the configuration file.
http://owncloud.org/sync-clients/releases/
Thanks
Hi Michelino
There is a nice link at the top left of my blog, called “Your Feedback” which is meant for feedback like yours… but most people seem to overlook it.
Anyway, the bug you are talking about (credentials are stored in clear text in the mirall config file) has another bug-number than the one mentioned in the miral changelog… they made a typo there.
The actual bug report is https://github.com/owncloud/mirall/issues/1458
The issue is, that mirall now depends on a package “qtkeychain” which is used to store your credentials in the KDE Wallet (if you are running KDE) or Gnome Keyring (if you are running any other Desktop Environment). If you fail to install the qtkeychain package, then mirall will store your credentials in its own configiration file instead… in clear text. This potential security issue was fixed in 1.5.2 but that had side effects which were then fixed in 1.5.3.
I noticed that my repository ChangeLog.txt properly mentions (Fri Feb 14 22:27:55 UTC 2014) that qtkeychain is now required for mirall 1.5.x, but that the package’s “slack-required” and .dep files do not mention it yet.
If you have qtkeychain installed, then the clear text password issue does not apply to you.
I will nevertheless update my mirall package and also update the dependency list to include qtkeychain.
Cheers, Eric
Hallo,
sorry for the bad place for feedback, I’ll definitely use the right one in the future, I promise!!! 🙂
Anyway, notwithstanding the lack of qtkeychain in your “slack-required”, I’ve installed it, but I’ve nevertheless had the problem, probabily due to the fact that my kwallet is disabled (if I’ve understood your explanation).
I’ve ri-compiled the new release with your slackbuild and the problem disappeared, also with kwallet disabled.
I hope that my thought is clear notwithstanding my bad english.
Thanks for all, obviously!
Was wondering if you’d be willing to do an interview about slackware with us at some point. As a long time slackware user myself, id love for it to get some fresh attention. Ive tried to contact Pat, but have been unable to connect with him, and imho you’re the next in line as far as Slackware royality, lol.
If this is something you’d be interested in doing, or if you’d rather defer to Pat and could put us in touch with him that’d be awesome.
I really appreciate your longstanding support and work with Slackware, guys like you are why i just can never leave the slackware side of things.
-Jt
Hello Eric.
Post chromium-pdf-plugin slackbuid to users of 13.37, version 35.0.1916.1531.
regards.
Alien Bob,
Are you aware various subjects on your blog are being spammed?
If you noticed that, you must also have noticed that I remove the spam when I see it being posted.
The spammers are finding ever better ways to thwart my anti-spam measures (akismet is a pretty decent spamkiller).
The spam gets forwarded to me before you get a chance to remove it, so, no I didn’t notice it was being removed. 🙂
Hello Alien, how are you? do you have any intention of bring to us the latest KDE4 version that is the 4.14.6 today? Thank you for your work with the Slackware family
There is no KDE KDE 4.14.6. There are a few updates in KDE Applications 14.12.3 which have version number 4.14.6 and which could be used with KDE4 (kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdepim-runtime) Along with kde-workspace 4.11.17 which is also part of KDE Applications 14.12.3.
Perhaps I will add these to my ktown repository for slackware-current, but I am waiting to see if the latest KDE 4 gets added to slackware-current officially. If that does not happen soon, I will see what I can do. No promises though.
RE: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/a-journey-into-recording-sound-video-in-slackware/
Hi,
This is maybe a question for the Firefox folks, but since it occurs on one of your web pages and you are a knowledgeable guy I will ask you.
The web page of yours which I mention in the URL field causes my machine to eat a full CPU equivalent on my system even when the page is doing nothing but sitting there on my screen. I have 4 CPUs so your page eats a solid 25% of available CPU on gkrellm system monitor. Start that page and there is a bump up which levels out at 25%. Kill that page and CPU usage drops like a rock.
Firefox in many cases does not use more than one CPU, so the aforementioned page soaks up every scrap of time available competing with other pages and slowing down everything. There are many other web pages out there which do the same thing. I am just as happy that Firefox mostly uses just one CPU because if it could acquire more CPUs it would probably overheat my CPU chip. I looked at some of your other pages. Your “About” page, for example, does not sit there and eat CPU.
BTW, this page of yours is especially interesting in this regard. I have used the Firefox extension “Remove This Permanently” to remove parts of other pages. Sooner or later I find the offending part by removing it, and the CPU usage drops down. In the case of your page, I removed everything right down to a bare tab and it still chewed time. Only when I killed the tab did the CPU usage drop down.
So, I am wondering, do you know WHY that page of yours eats time? And, if so, what, if anything, I can do about it? If nothing else I’d like to have something solid to send to the Firefox folks. I have seen pages all over the place which do this. When my CPU is needlessly busy it eats more power for no good cause. Multiply that by hundreds of millions of computers running similar code in their web pages and you will see that this sort of bad programming is actually eating lots of electricity and contributing to Global Warming.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff B.
Hi Jeff
It’s funny, I usually do not use Firefox but Chromium and that does not have any issue with the page, CPU-wise.
When I loaded the blog URL into Firefox, the CPU usage went up to more than 100% (more than one of my cores was only working on that page!) and that remained unchanged for minutes, until I opened some other pages in the same Firefox tab at which point CPU usage went back to normal levels. When I re-opened te blog URL in that Firefox tab, there was NO CPU spike on this second visit to the page. And Firefox stayed at a few percent, no matter how I scrolled through the page.
Seems to be a bug in Firefox. Feel free to mention the page URL when you submit a bug report.
Dear Eric,
Thank you for supporting SL community, and projects the way you do.
I am very concern about the current status of Freedom, privacy, rights and information management.
Eu neighboors aren’t doing the right thing. Right ?
Rights ?! Freedom ?!?
#You can contact me for another alive peer in Bx, belgium.
#+you own any rights on this post 🙂
Hi alien,
We are using slackware about 5 years. now we need to run the salckware 14.1 in HVM. is it possible? I could find any links about discussed.
Sagi, what do you mean by HVM? Hardware Virtual Machine? That should not be hard to do, right? Did you try installing from a Slackware ISO to a virtual machine? What is your stumbling block?
Hi Eric,
Many thanks for all your work.
Infact the ISO from taper.alienbase.nl got me hooked on the slackware stuff.
Also your slackbuilds and scripts came in very handy.
Thanks again and much appreciated.
<3
Hi Eric,
What to say? just thank you thank you thank you for the magnificent work you’re doing for slackware!
I started using linux with redhat 5.2, back in 1995, I came to 7.2 after which I began, with great satisfaction, to use slackware. Now use the 14.1 64-bit with your very useful 32-bit compatibility libraries.
Hi, Eric.
Many thanks for all your work. You’ve been quite inspirational to contributors to the Puppy Linux ‘Slacko’ series…..and many packages, which work perfectly, have made an otherwise ‘good’ distro’ into a ‘great’ one.
Cheers!
Superb work Eric, I am at awe of your contribution and development of slackware. I check this blog everyday. For some reason, the blog is blank this morning, must be a glitch somewhere.
Hi Eric,
I seems to have restored; may be a glitch on my end.
Large data transfers to or from the server this blog is hosted on, may cause timeouts in displaying blog pages. The result would be a blanco page.
Thanks for the update of your repository for Slackware 14.2.
I’m looking at bear.alienbase.nl mirror and it seems that checksum files, filelist and GPG-key are missing in sbrepos.
gegechris99, I forgot to sync and I was at a bbq slash party… just returned and the repository content has now been synced, and all the official Slackware 14.2 stuff including Live ISO has been brought online as well.
Hello Eric,
It seems that ffmpeg is not updated to 3.1.1 in restricted repo for 14.2 and current. It’s however updated for 14.1.
Fixed.
Dank u
Hi, thanks therefore I have the version @live plasma, and I want to make an inquiry .
what would be the right mirror for slackpkg not to step on the version I have?
slackpkg an example by running upgrade- all want me to update dolphin -plugins- 4.14.3 and have dolphin -plugins -16.04.2 .
thank you very much and sorry for my English
Hi Rocks,
Please understand that slackpkg only works with the official Slackware packages. That is why you need the “slackpkg+” extension which adds the capability to work with 3rd party packages as well. The “slackpkg+” extension is already installed in the Live version of my Plasma5. But you need to configure it first so that slackpkg+ gives preference to my ‘ktown’ packages over the official Slackware packages with the same name. Otherwise the situation like you describe can occur, where slackpkg wants to replace my “dolphin -plugins” package with the official Slackware package of the same name.
The slackpkg+ configuration file is: /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf
Hello!! thanks for responding , I have uncommented in mirrors
http://ftp.osuosl.org/.2/slackware/slackware64-14.2/
and slackpkgplus
# Slackware 14.2 – x86_64
MIRRORPLUS [ \’ multilib \’] = http : //bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/14.2/
MIRRORPLUS [ \’ alienbob \’] = http : //bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/sbrepos/14.2/x86_64/
MIRRORPLUS[\’restricted\’]=http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/restricted_sbrepos/14.2/x86_64/.
not where the bad
Rocks. you REALLY should read the documentation for slackpkg+ and get an understanding of the prioritization process. See http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+/src/README and look for the section “PRIORITY CONFIGURATION”
An error occurred while accessing ‘sandisk64’, the system responded: The requested operation has failed: Error mounting /dev/sdd1 at /run/media/live/sandisk64: Command-line `mount -t “xfs” -o “uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid” “/dev/sdd1” “/run/media/live/sandisk64″‘ exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: mount /dev/sdd1 on /run/media/live/sandisk64 failed: Structure needs cleaning
Xavier, thanks for posting, but your text is absolutely useless. I can not comment on it unless you explain what you werre doing and what you expected to happen. Also, please post any Slackware Live related question in the comments section of the latest Slackware Live post, in order to avoid clogging the “About” page. Also, there’s a specific FEEDBACK page for generic feedback, which is linked from the top left sidebar.
Hi Eric, just curious about your geographical location. Where is the location shown in the picture at the top? I am a long-time Slackware user – remember 386 PC’s? I ran Slackware for YEARS on an old 486. The only reason I stopped using that PC was because the HDD controller failed. Now running Slackware 14.2 on a new HP desktop and 14.1 on an HP 6710b laptop. I am visiting your website as a follow-on from looking at your instructions on creating a Slackware USB boot image.
Hi David – I hope you will stay with Slackware for a long time to come. Despite the aura that surrounds the distro (“it’s a thing from the past”) it adapts itself all the time, and remains as relevant as ever.
To come back to your question about geography – the picture in my blog’s banner has no relevance to where i live. It is a picture taken when I worked for Greenpeace, during an “IT skill share” week when we visited Hamburg, Germany in 2006. I took this particular photo from the back window of the Greenpeace warehouse building somewhere in the harbour area. You can see the masts of the decommissioned ‘Beluga’ and a big sheet-metal plate with a cut-out whale and the text “Save The Whales”.
It ‘s a bit difficult to see, but it was so cold that the harbour had frozen over and the passage of ships would break the ice.
Hi Eric, I visited your page in the past. And I am interested in a site that you promoted at that time which I currently can not find here. It’s about bringing all my internet identities under in one place. I hope you can remember and could point me into where to find it. I could have overlooked it. Anyway I cant remember the name of that site. I hope you can help me. Friendly greets
Hi Remon, I do not know what you mean by “bringing all my internet identities under in one place”. And please ask questions in the “Your feedback” section of this blog, do not use the “About” section for that.
Hey Eric,
Thanks so much for all the work you do for the Slackware community. You are a star. There are so many times that I have been stuck on getting something to work and coming here is always the right fix. My latest was getting MythTV to compile. Qt5 and Qt5WebKit just would not compile no matter how much I tweaked it. Yours worked. Thanks for being a Slackware STAR!
Hi Steven, same advice to you as I wrote in the post right above yours: please post generic feedback and comments in the “Your feedback” section of the blog, not in this “About” section.
I’d say you are extremely laconic about yourself.
I like your website.
I think it’s time to update the theme and use a responsive one.
Like slackbuilds.org ?
What’s so fucking difficult to understand about my request to post comments in the “Your feedback” section?
I don’t care about “responsive” themes, alright?