Rebuilt multilib gcc compiler suite for slackware-current

There were many updates for Slackware-current last night. One of them was a rebuilt gcc compiler suite, and therefore an updated multilib compiler set was due as well.

The new multilib gcc packages are now online, The set of 32-bit “compat32” packages for slackware64-current has also been refreshed. The gcc packages had to be rebuilt because of other package updates causing library version bumps, but Pat took the opportunity to add two shell scripts “c89” and “c99” that are part of POSIX standard – they call the compiler with additional compatibility parameters. This was necessitated by the fact that recent git checkouts of the VLC mediaplayer would not compile on Slackware because the VLC developers started enforcing a check on the availability of the “c99” command.

You can obtain the updated multilib packages from the URLs below or from any other mirror near you that carries copies of my repositories:

• http://www.slackware.com/~alien/multilib/current/ (the primary server)
• http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/current/ (my fast mirror)

A refresher on “multilib” for new users of Slackware: if you want to use (binary-only) 32-bit software on a 64-bit Slackware installation then that is not possible out of the box, because Slackware64 is a pure 64-bit OS. You need to expand the OS with “multilib capability” so that the OS can run (and compile) 32-bit programs as well. Examples of 32-bit (closed-source) programs are Skype, Valve’s Steam Client, the WINE emulator, the Pipelight browser plugin, Citrix client etc.

Instructions on how to add or update multilib on your 64-bit Slackware can be found on the Slackware Documentation Project. Also, the slackpkg+ extension to Slackware’s own slackpkg contains the script “setupmultilib.sh” which can help you in setting up multilib properly. With slackpkg+ it is then trivial to keep your multilib installation up to date when updates occur.

Security tip:

One note on the side about last night’s Slackware -current update. The work on this update was supposed to take a while longer because Pat wants to update additional packages and a proper integration is important so that things don’t break due to library incompatibilities. But the update to the mozilla-firefox package addresses a serious and critical security issue. This security fix needed to get out to you people as fast as possible. The exploit (which was found in the wild by an attentive Firefox user and then reported to Mozilla) uses Firefox’s internal PDF viewer implementation to gain access to your local files, and uploads e.g. your ssh configuration and keys, the password file, pidgin and psi configuration files to a Russian server – pretty sensitive things.

If you have been using Firefox 38 or 39 (normal or ESR versions) on your Linux computer and visited dodgy sites recently, and you have ssh keys for accessing remote servers without a password, you may want to consider replacing these ssh keys with fresh ones.

Enjoy! Eric