Language Selection

English French German Italian Portuguese Spanish

Slackware 10.2

Submitted by srlinuxx on Friday 16th of September 2005 01:41:24 AM Filed under
Reviews
Slack
-s

It's no secret that Slackware 10.2 was released yesterday. This was big news and headlined many sites as well as being announced on DistroWatch with the links to download torrents. Slackware puts out a new release once or maybe twice a year if the community is lucky, so when they do release a new version, it's big news. I, like many of you, have been on pins and needles for several weeks now since hints of a impending new release leaked out. Then anticipation grew when the changelog of last week made the press announcing 10.2 was almost ready and should be out probably by Tuesday. Torrents were made public yesterday and I grabbed my place in line. Excitement overwhelmed me as I booted the install disk. I was not disappointed in what I found.

The announcement included such goodies as Support for fully encrypted network connections with OpenSSL, OpenSSH, and GnuPG; New development tools, including Perl 5.8.7, Python 2.4.1, Subversion 1.2.3, and graphical tools like Qt designer and KDevelop; and an Updated versions of the Slackware package management tools make it easy to add, remove, upgrade, and make your own Slackware packages.

The most exciting news to me in the announcement was the availability of the 2.6.13 kernel. Slackware installs the 2.4.31 kernel as default and functions very well at that. However, if one mounts the 2nd install cdrom, they can install the 2.6.13 kernel using installpkg.


mount -t auto /dev/hd<x> /mnt/cdrom

where the cdrom is the 2nd install disk. Then simply issue the following command:

installpkg /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-source-2.6.13-noarch-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-modules-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-headers-2.6.13-i386-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-generic-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/alsa-driver-1.0.9b_2.6.13-i486.1.tgz

Then you are going to need to make an initrd image as well if you installed onto any kind of filesystem other than ext2, unless you'd rather rebuild the kernel. In this case I chose to install mkinitrd and make the initrd image. So mount the first install disk and:

installpkg /mnt/cdrom/slackware/a/mkinitrd-1.0.1-i486-3.tgz

Next you need to make your initrd image. For example:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.13 -m reiserfs

Then put an entry in /etc/lilo.conf (or grub files), run lilo, and reboot. For example, my lilo entry looks like this:


image=/boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.13
label="slack-10.2"
root=/dev/hda17
initrd=/boot/initrd-generic-2.6.13.img
append="resume=/dev/hda7"
vga=791
read-only

After boot you get all of slack's goodness. This go around they have included xfce4 as well as some of the other popular window managers such as Fluxbox and Blackbox. Included versions are xfce4-4.2.2, windowmaker 0.92.0 and kde 3.4.2.

    

    

In the past I enjoyed Slackware for it's ease of configuration, all set up nice and easy in a few start up files. But these days, one really doesn't have to mess with that too much. I personally didn't have to change a thing. All my hardware was detected properly and functioned perfectly upon boot.

The changelog is chocked full of version upgrades and bug fixes, but also some new additions as well. Some of highlights include:

  • d/subversion-1.2.3-i486-1.tgz: Added subversion-1.2.3.

  • l/jre-1_5_0_04-i586-2.tgz: Added /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory with a link to the Java plugin.
  • ap/vorbis-tools-1.1.1-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to vorbis-tools-1.1.1.
  • kde/kdebase-3.4.2-i486-2.tgz: Patched a bug in Konqueror
  • kde/kdebase-3.4.2-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to KDE 3.4.2.
  • extra/bash-completion/bash-completion-20050721-noarch-1.tgz:
    Upgraded to bash-completion-20050721.

  • testing/packages/php-5.0.5/php-5.0.5-i486-4.tgz:
    Upgraded to php-5.0.5

  • testing/packages/linux-2.6.13/kernel-source-2.6.13-noarch-1.tgz:
    Upgraded to Linux 2.6.13

  • ap/mysql-4.1.14-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to mysql-4.1.14.
  • d/gcc-3.3.6-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to gcc-3.3.6.
  • x/x11-6.8.2-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to X11R6.8.2.
  • Full Changelog HERE

So, there were some exciting changes and yet it was still the same reliable stable Slackware. If you've never tried Slackware, there isn't a better time than the present.

»

Correction

Submitted by Devnet on Saturday 17th of September 2005 02:26:07 AM.

Just a quick correction...

installpkg /mnt/cdrom/kernel-2.6.13/kernel-source-2.6.13-noarch-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/kernel-2.6.13/kernel-modules-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/kernel-2.6.13/kernel-headers-2.6.13-i386-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/kernel-2.6.13/kernel-generic-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/kernel-2.6.13/alsa-driver-1.0.9b_2.6.13-i486.1.tgz

Should be

installpkg /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-source-2.6.13-noarch-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-modules-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-headers-2.6.13-i386-1.tgz /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-generic-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/alsa-driver-1.0.9b_2.6.13-i486.1.tgz

Insert_Ending_Here

re: Correction

Submitted by srlinuxx on Monday 19th of September 2005 01:36:16 AM.

ohhh, ok, I finally see the difference. lol... I looked at your post many times and just could not see it. Blushing

Thanks! Smile

----
You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?

Another correction...

Submitted by Devnet on Saturday 17th of September 2005 02:40:16 AM.

image=/boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.13
label="slack-10.2"
root=/dev/hda17
initrd=/boot/initrd-generic-2.6.13.img
append="resume=/dev/hda7"
vga=791
read-only

Should be:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.13
label="slack-10.2"
root=/dev/hda17
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
append="resume=/dev/hda7"
vga=791
read-only

Insert_Ending_Here

re: vga=791

Submitted by srlinuxx on Monday 19th of September 2005 12:38:03 AM.

yeah, it's a real nice "resolution" for the terminal on a 17" monitor. Booting looks nice at that setting as well, but I use it mainly cuz it' makes the terminal so much more useful for me. ...amounts to more screen real estate and the fonts look nicer too. Thanks for saying. Smile

----
You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?

re: initrd

Submitted by srlinuxx on Monday 19th of September 2005 12:50:38 AM.

as far as the initrd-generic-2.6.13.img, it's what I named mine cuz as you might imagine, my boot partition is overflowing with files - I have to name things kinda distinctively - if they aren't already.

----
You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

More in Tux Machines

today's howtos

Review: Linuxfx 10.6

The Linuxfx distribution, which is sometimes referred to as "Windowsfx" on the project's website and in various applications, is based on Linux Mint and appears to one have overarching goal: to look and act as much like Microsoft Windows 10 as possible. The distribution does this by adjusting the desktop, theme, icons, and settings panel to look as much like Microsoft's operating system as possible. The project then adds in WINE, a virtual assistant application, and adjusts application launchers to resemble those used by Windows. Under the hood though Linuxfx is still very much running Linux Mint packages as its base with the Cinnamon desktop environment. I was surprised to find the distribution's recent stable release, 10.5, has been removed from the project's download mirrors. The only edition available to me was a new version labablled 10.6 which runs on 64-bit (x86_64) machines exclusively. The download for this live media is 3.8GB in size. Note: Following writing this review, just before publication, the Linuxfx team removed the free downloads for version 10.6 (and earlier versions of the distribution) from their website. The distribution is now a commercial offering. Read more

LibreOffice 10th Anniversary

Today is LibreOffice 10th Anniversary: it is a significant achievement for the project, and a date to remember for all community members. We have created a video based on pictures of community members and a few events, in two versions: a long one, for blogs and websites, and a short version for social media. Read more

Linux 5.9 RC7

  • Linux 5.9-rc7
    So we finally have all the issues I know about sorted out - the fix
for the VM issue I mentioned in the rc6 announcement is here, as is
the fix for the slab corruption issue that was separately discussed,
along with another silly page locking bug one-liner fix.

But while I do now know of any remaining gating issues any more, the
fixes came in fairly late. So unless I feel insanely optimistic and/or
a burning bush tells me that everything is bug-free, my plan right now
is that I'll do another rc next Sunday rather than the final 5.9
release. And btw, please no more burning bushes. We're kind of
sensitive about those on the West coast right now.

Anyway, while the MM side is what kept me on my toes last week, most
of the changes here are actually drivers and networking. And
networking drivers. With a small smattering of documentation and
filesystem fixes and other noise thrown in.

Shortlog appended, but what I really hope you all will do is to give
it a nice good testing. One extra week or rc kernels will help, but
only if people actually try this out.

So.. Please?

              Linus
  • Kernel prepatch 5.9-rc7

    The 5.9-rc7 kernel prepatch is out for testing. "But while I do now know of any remaining gating issues any more, the fixes came in fairly late. So unless I feel insanely optimistic and/or a burning bush tells me that everything is bug-free, my plan right now is that I'll do another rc next Sunday rather than the final 5.9 release. And btw, please no more burning bushes. We're kind of sensitive about those on the West coast right now."

  • Linux 5.9 Stable Expected In Two Weeks, But For Now Is Linux 5.9-rc7

    Linus Torvalds just released Linux 5.9-rc7 as the newest weekly test candidate for Linux 5.9. Due to the regressions encountered this cycle and prominent issues being resolved late, he's looking at releasing Linux 5.9 in two weeks time rather than next week.

More on Tux Machines: About ● Gallery ● Forum ● Blogs ● Search ● News ● RSS Feed

Part of Bytes Media ● Sister sites below.

TechBytes Techrights button

Powered by Drupal, an open source content management system

Content available under CC-BY-SA CC

© by original authors

Powered by CentOS 6.5 (GNU/Linux), Varnish, and Drupal 6