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Slackware 8.1 is Released

Posted by timothy on from the free-toilet-paper-with-cd-purchase dept.

MrSnivvel writes: "Slackware 8.1 has been released. Highlights of this release include KDE 3.0.1, GNOME 1.4.1 (with new additions like Evolution), the long-awaited Mozilla 1.0 browser, support for many new filesystems like ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, and XFS, and support for several new SCSI and ATA RAID controllers. Remember to buy your copies at http://store.slackware.com. List of download mirrors here. Public releases of Mozilla AND Slackware in the same month, I'm so happy I've soiled myself."

34 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Nice! by bjtuna · · Score: 4, Informative

    I wonder how long till The Slackware Administrators' Security Toolkit will have an 8.1 version.

    Anyway, go Patrick!

    --
    Intercarve Networks, LLC
    1. Re:Nice! by bjtuna · · Score: 3, Informative

      erm, that should have been:

      www.sastk.org

      darn typos.

      --
      Intercarve Networks, LLC
  2. how many floppies by matthew.thompson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My first memory of Slackware was installing it off 30 odd floppies - how many does this come on?

    M@T :o)

    --
    Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
    1. Re:how many floppies by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Funny

      264. and they're not in sequential order, unless you opt to do ALL the packages. (...please insert disk 9....please insert disk 83....please insert disk 63...)i really wish my last CD-ROM drive hadn't died on me :(

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    2. Re:how many floppies by stikves · · Score: 4, Informative
      slackware no longer supports "any" floppy installation.


      It used to support full floppy installation before (I guess) 7.0. After that you could only install bas and network series with floppies.


      Now they have dropped all floppy support and merged a1, a2, a3.. into a. (a1 a2 were base system floppies).


      Anyways go try it. I used pre8.1 images from slackware-current. It realy rocks. If you need floppy installation, you have to copy everything to a hard drive and boot setup from floppies (almost every distro does it this way).

    3. Re:how many floppies by forged · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The first version of Slackware was based on SLS which I used at the time. The first Slaskware 1.x used to fit on ~30 floppies as you describe, and the later versions of the distro would require ~80.

      In the lot, there was always one or two floppies with bad sectors. So when we planned our install nights, it was always an event split in 2 parts! (We'd come back the following days with the missing/fixed floppies).

      A quick Google search revealed that some sites have (or rather, had) kept the historic distribution here. If you look at the directory structure, the relationship with Slackware is striking (it's the same tree).

  3. Whoa there... by Tranvisor · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm so happy I've soiled myself.

    That's what I call "to much information".

  4. Woody by ultrabot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm so excited I'm getting a Woody...

    Or not.

    Aagh, the temptation. I feel I *must* get a new distro soon (rh7.3 doesn't quite cut it), and Woody will probably never be released. It's Slackware for me, at least when it gets to the mirrors.

    --
    Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
    1. Re:Woody by BrokenHalo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I, too seriously considered Woody when I was last looking around for a "real" distro after an abortive foray into Mandrake; I don't have the bandwidth to download ISOs, so I mostly have to buy CDs. The simple fact is that Slack 8.0 was relatively current and available, but I couldn't find anybody here in Australia who was willing to take the time to answer enquiries for Woody CDs. As it happens, having revisited Slackware now that it's outgrown it's "satan worshipper" image, I'm glad I did - it's a fscking good distro.

  5. A good sign by analog_line · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Slackware Store has been slashdotted. Good job everyone who's making that server's life hell for a good cause!

  6. Timing is everything by mustprotectdata · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm glad to see a distribution that is releasing at "the right" time. RedHat, the normal distie of choice, if only because of it's market dominance, seems to have developed the knack of releasing just too early.

    i.e. - gcc (where is v3.1)?
    - mozilla (not v1)
    - kde 3.0.0 (effectively a late beta)

    etc...

    What I really want is the latest, reasonably stable version of everything. i.e I want to be current but not bleeding edge.

    Go Patrick

    1. Re:Timing is everything by Charm · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Really the best thing about Slackware is that it is like C. Not like assembly so that you have to do everything. But not like higher level languages where everthing is done with magic tricks. When was the last time you changed a setting and your distro changed it back. That sort of behaviour is unlikely on Slackware.

      The user has full control. There is no crappy config tools to get in the way. This is why it is so good for learning Unix and Linux because you have access to the raw system.

      In slackware if I want to change the bitdepth of X windows I have to edit it with a text file. At first this might seem silly but when a Redhat user is trying to do something complicated his fancy tools hold him back. Slack users do not have that problem, they understand how the system works.

      Slackware is also very stable thats why it doesn't use GCC 3.1 out of the box.

      --
      -- RTFM:Slackware::Beer:Saturday
    2. Re:Timing is everything by Charm · · Score: 3, Interesting
      When was the last time you changed a setting and your distro changed it back.
      Never saw that behavior with Red Hat. Is there a case of this happening with other distros, or are you making things up?

      I actually saw slackware do it to someone the other day. He changed MOTD and the system changed it back after a reboot. Because MOTD is built by a script in /etc/rc.d
      After the Script was altered it worked but he was confused nonetheless

      Slackware is also very stable thats why it doesn't use GCC 3.1 out of the box.
      That would probably also mean that Slackware is useless for C++ development. GCC 2.95 is just not very standards compliant for C++ development. But it is a very stable C compiler.

      Is there something about GCC 2.95 we should know. I assume you are talking about maybe a STL problem.

      --
      -- RTFM:Slackware::Beer:Saturday
  7. List of unofficial mirrors here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    rsync://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware-8 . /
    rsync://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware -8 . -iso/
    ftp://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware-8 .1 /
    ftp://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware-8 .1 -iso/

    rsync://rsync.devney.net/slackware/slackware-8.1 -i so/
    ftp://devney.net/slackware-8.1-iso/

    rsync://drazi.ifjf.uib.no/slackware/slackware-8. 1/
    rsync://drazi.ifjf.uib.no/slackware/slackware-8. 1- iso

    ftp://inferno.bioinformatics.vt.edu/linux-distro s/ slackware/slackware-8.1/
    ftp://inferno.bioinformatics.vt.edu/linux-distro s/ slackware/slackware-8.1-iso/

    rsync://rsync.rez-gif.supelec.fr/pub/slackware/s la ckware-current/
    ftp://ftp.rez-gif.supelec.fr/pub/slackware/slack wa re-current/

    rsync://closeedge.net/slackware/slackware-8.1/
    ftp://closeedge.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.slackware.co m/ slackware-8.1/

    ftp://ftp.linux.ucla.edu/pub/slackware/slackware -8 . /

    rsync://mindflux.dns2go.com/slackware/slackware- 8. 1/

    rsync://stalecracker.org/slackware/slackware-8.1 /
    ftp://stalecracker.org:2121/pub/slackware-8.1/
    rsync://diethanks.dyndns.org/slackware/

    rsync://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware -8 . /
    rsync://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware -8 . -iso/
    ftp://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware-8 .1 /
    ftp://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware-8 .1 -iso/

  8. Slackware is dead, my ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Linux how Linux was intended. A single CD of beautiful and clean functionality. Minimal, stable and secure - and yet manageable. Slackware should be required for all Linux newbies. AFTER learning to edit rc.files and inetd.conf with vi, AFTER you've mastered ls, AFTER you've learned to download and compile, THEN you may play with KDE. Think how much better the world would be.

    1. Re:Slackware is dead, my ass by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Slackware should be required for all Linux newbies.

      I disagree. Slackware was over my head whenever I tried it--7.x or something. The idea of a fistful of ASCII .conf files in standard locations that control everything was too simple and obvious for me to grasp. Forgive me, Father--I did Windows.
      Now that I have spent some time with a RH distro, and grasp *nix-think to a sufficient depth, I'm strongly considering a return to Slack...

      A question for the community: the reason to go for Slack over, say, Gentoo, is that Slack arrives as canned object files ready to install, whereas Gentoo assumes we have a pipe, time and skill to pull down all the source over TCP/IP and compile from scratch, no? In other words, Gentoo requires a higher level of skill than Slack to build and tweak?

      ...dons asbestos underwear...

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    2. Re:Slackware is dead, my ass by SealBeater · · Score: 3, Insightful


      This is actually the *problem* with Slackware/Debian. I want to learn, so I
      don't mind reading documentation, but most of the people I know don't care at
      all, they just want "click-n-run"

      This is going to be a long thread, I can tell. You shouldn't confuse
      "click-n-run" with "wanting to learn". I always recommend slackware if anyone
      asks me what is a good first distro, partially because it is less hand holding.
      I had a friend who went to a tech school and had a class on linux, they gave
      him mandrake. Do you know what the problem with that is? You don't learn
      "linux" per say, you learn a distribution. You don't learn fdisk, you learn
      disk-druid and drakeconf. You don't learn tar zxvf, you learn rpm -ui. You
      never learn how to do things without a gui, because as long as you are using
      these things, you are never faced with the need to. Slackware and LFS (as was
      mentioned earlier) will teach you "linux". If you want to learn to build a
      house, you don't go out and buy a house and walk around the inside examining
      it, you read a book and build a house. Granted, not everyone wants to learn
      the internals of an OS to a high degree, that's fine. But don't say a person
      wants to learn, when all they really want to do is get up and running. FYI,
      slackware is very easy to get up and running.

      SealBeater

      --
      -- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
    3. Re:Slackware is dead, my ass by Bandman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It just depends man. Many people ask me what version of linux would be right for them, and this is what I them: "Do you want to do, or do you want to know? Because if you just want a workable system, then use RedHat, because it will set everything up for you, and you'll have a good workable system. If you want to know how things work, /why/ they act the way they do, then you need to start on Slackware."

      Because in my mind, both are completly ok choices. There are some people who just want to use a computer. This is why Windows has such a huge market share. Most of the people don't care one way or another. And if RedHat can give them that, then there's nothing wrong with them using it. People like us though, we Slackware users, are a different breed :) We can't stand not to know how our OS works. The fact that we have ran slackware for any length of time is a testiment to that. Anyone who can spend more than a month using slackware should probably stay with it, becuase not much else would make them happy, or at least that's the way I feel.

      --
      Check out my sysadmin blog!
    4. Re:Slackware is dead, my ass by q-soe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "I started playing with Slackware 1.01 in early 1994 "

      But think for a second - in 1994 you would need to be more technically knowledgeable that you needed to be in 2002 - 1994 was pre windows 95 and the PC world was still DOS based - you needed to know what you were doing - and running a BBS was hardly a point and shoot thing...

      In other words dont you think that you may have had more knowledge of how a computer ticked than the average mum and dad these days ? Slackware is not forgiving if you have never used a command line - i put it to you that none of us had a problem but then i suggest you find your mum or your boss and give it to them and get them to run it - you may find what im getting at...

      I have been branded as a troll on here for expressing my opionion more times in the last week than in 5 years previously - so at risk of it again please understand that when i say Slackware is not a beginners OS i mean not someone who has only ever used windows and has NO understanding of how and OS actually works - Joe Average. Sometimes we all forget that we are a lot more techincally skilled than we realise.

      --
      I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
  9. Great by tsa · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just downloaded 8.0 for a colleague. Now we can start all over again... :-)

    --

    -- Cheers!

  10. A few pointers... by NoMercy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please do not download the ISO's from the primary slackware site, it only has a 6Mb/s bandwidth and all it takes is a few people with cable modems or DSL to totally flood it, then there is no bandwidth left for the mirrors to use and thus the rest of us have to wait longer, only check the primary site for checksums and file sizes so you can later check if your local mirror has got the full ISO transfered.

  11. Why as why? by sonnyjz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you joking?

    Slackware is easy as 1-2-3 to install and takes about 20 minutes to complete.

    You say it supports obsolete ext/2 fs? I beg to differ, supports all of the filesystems that the 2.4.x supports. READ THE README for more information. Or do you ignore documentation?

    You say you have to edit at least 2000 files? I also beg to differ. You don't have to edit a thing, but I suggest you edit a handful of the rc files to make sure you aren't loading a ton of unneccasary modules and services.

    Finally recompiling your kernel is a good idea. Or do you also ignore meaningless tasks like that?

    Doing all of the above is done in all distro's for any person that runs linux or is interested in running a tight ship for their favorite distro.

    As far are your *hints* go I got one for you.
    Read documentation and get a clue before you attempt to bash something you have no idea about.

    Believe me, you won't sound as simple as you really are.

    --
    - Sonnyjz
  12. Seems so long ago by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A week today it will be exactly 6 years since I first installed Linux. The distribution that I used was Slackware 3.

    After using it for a bit and becoming more acquainted with linux however, I could see that even the latest downloadable version of Slackware (I got 3.0.0 from the book "Linux Unleashed") had really old versions of things, so I "upgraded" to Redhat, which in those days, at least on #linux was the leetest of the leet.

    At this point I could ask if slackware is more up-to-date these days, but then that would be a very "Ask Slashdot" thing to do, since I could just go and check for myself.

    graspee

  13. ISO is missing some packages. by wackysootroom · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the readme in the 8.1-iso directory.

    Note that for space reasons, the KDEI (KDE i18n) series could not be
    included on this ISO, and I apologize for the inconvenience. If you need
    KDE translations, you can pick them up here:

    ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8. 1/slackware/kdei/

    Other things that aren't on this disc that you might need to pick up
    "a la carte" include the boot floppy images and rootdisks (if you can boot
    this CD-ROM, you won't need these), ZipSlack, and the source code. All
    of these extras are available from our FTP site:

    ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8. 1/

    Or, pick up the official 4 CD-ROM Slackware disc set here:

    http://store.slackware.com

    Enjoy!

    Patrick Volkerding
    volkerdi@slackware.com

  14. Please, enlighten me... by labratuk · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm so happy I've soiled myself

    Is that supposed to mean:

    - The fact that I've soiled myself brings me great pleasure.

    - My immense happiness has caused me to soil myself.

    ...?

    --
    Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
  15. Re:reinstall? by SealBeater · · Score: 3, Informative

    FYI, you can upgrade to ext3 without reformatting.

    SealBeater

    --
    -- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
  16. All Linux distributions need Kazaa-like installers by emil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Download a bootnet floppy or static Linux executible which checks a list of mirrors, tests bandwidth to find the fastest, and downloads the ISOs and/or does your install.

    RedHat up2date seems to use such a mechanism; download times off this network are much faster than updates.redhat.com.

    I screwed up my main Linux system this weekend, and hunting for a fast mirror on win98 is annoying.

  17. WAKE UP MODERATORS! by swagr · · Score: 3, Informative

    The parent post is currently rated "-1 Overated".

    Let me explain why the parent post is both humorous and insightfull.
    This post is a reply to the statement Cheers to the slackware developers. (note the s )
    Most Slackware users know that the Slackware distro is very much a one man show: "Patrick Volkerding".
    see this and you'll note that the rest of the team works on ports, the website, etc. but not the distro.

    The above poster saw an opportuinity to correct the first poster, AND do it in a humorous way. It's funny because it catches us off guard (we know there is only one developer but out of habit we just say "developers" because most distro's aren't a one man show). Furthermore, the author of this post was in no way rude or disrespectful to any poster, Patrick Volkerding or Slashdot.

    Anyway, I'm expecting my "offtopic" moderation any moment now.
    Standing up for poster's rights and active opponent of bad moderation since 2002.

    --

    -... --- .-. . -.. ..--..
  18. Re:About that 'mozilla' browser by schon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is it Slackware's browser, like Konqueror for KDE?

    Slackware doesn't have 'a' browser; in addition to Mozilla, it ships with Konqueror (if you installk KDE), Netscape 4.77, Lynx, Galeon, and others... all of which are optional - you're not forced to use (or even install) any of them.

  19. Re:Yeah, but what about by (startx) · · Score: 4, Informative

    rpm2tgz, then you can cd / ; tar -zxvf packagename.tgz. or if you want to install it rpm wise, use the force and nodeps options of rpm.

  20. Hooray! by Mister+Snee · · Score: 4, Informative

    And to think I just went and downloaded the entire slackware-current source tree to try out RC1 only three days ago. -_-

    Seriously though, Slack 8.1 looks great. There are a few little tweaks that really make a difference (for instance, I thought I saw ESD behaving at one point) and some of the stuff packaged with it is just cool (am I the only one who noticed the full-colour Lynx? :D).

    My only complaint is one I can't verify with the actual CD release of Slack 8.1, but at least with RC1 it was very very hard to do a clean "upgrade" of my current system. In fact I eventually had to back up all my important configuration files and delete the entire filesystem except for the directory where I'd made a copy of the -current tree and the utilities I needed to "installpkg". Nothing short of that would make it work cleanly. This isn't really a big deal for desktop systems but it makes me very nervous about upgrading my servers, most of which are running Slack 8.0 or 7.1.

    Still, a great release that was well worth the wait.

    1. Re:Hooray! by adolf · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The general trick with Slackware is to only upgrade those packages which need upgrading, with a "if it's not broke, don't fix it" mentality. Use upgradepkg, or removepkg/installpkg to get this done.

      I've been upgrading my Slackware desktop machine peicemeal since 3.0. It runs the latest, greatest versions of everything I care about, but I'm pretty sure I haven't upgraded awk, sed, ncurses or SVGAlib in years. Some more frequently-used software gets updated as often as Patrick releases it, such as X, and I keep a few smaller things on the bleeding edge (LAME, grip, etc) by compiling by hand.

      I don't care if I don't have the latest versions of esd, lpr, KDE, Gnome, or a slew of other random programs, because I seldom/never use them.

      Subscribe to the slackware-security list and you'll stay updated as to things which might need fixing, even if they're not broke.

      In my experience, old releases of slackware tend to cooperate very well with new binary packages of stuff.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
  21. Re:All Linux distributions need Kazaa-like install by Hard_Code · · Score: 3, Informative

    BitTorrent

    --

    It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
  22. Slackware 8.1.01 ... by leiz · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's been some last minute updates to slackware. From the changelog:

    Wed Jun 19 07:02:39 PDT 2002
    Slackware 8.1.01-stable is released.
    a/sysvinit-2.84-i386-19.tgz: Added -M to fix quotacheck for reiserfs.
    d/cvs-1.11.2-i386-2.tgz: Added docs in text format.
    n/apache-1.3.26-i386-1.tgz: Upgraded to apache-1.3.26.
    This fixes the issue described in:
    "CERT Advisory CA-2002-17 Apache Web Server Chunk Handling Vulnerability"
    While the impact of this issue is minimal on 32 bit Linux systems, we felt it
    was important enough to stop the presses and get these fixes in before sending
    the Slackware 8.1 discs in for replication.
    (* Security fix *)
    n/mod_ssl-2.8.9_1.3.26-i386-1.tgz: Upgraded to mod_ssl-2.8.9_1.3.26.
    rootdisks/rescue.dsk: Added network/pcmcia scripts.

    Tue Jun 18 10:47:47 PDT 2002
    Slackware 8.1-stable is released! :-)