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The Stealth Desktop: Sight and Sound With Slackware
sombragris writes "Many people think of Slackware as a distribution oriented to servers and experienced users. However, here's an article that shows how to configure sound and the X Window System in Slack, in a newbie-friendly way and oriented towards desktop usage. The article is a follow-up to Part I of the series, where the author introduced his vision of Slackware as a desktop. Enjoy!"
Slack is a great distro... last year my university used it as the distro on our laptops for the computer science peeps for their programming. I found that it was a good system that was easily configured, but somewhat lacks in the port department. My suggestion: Install slack 10, then get either Gentoo's portage, or Debian's apt-get and install them. I am sure portage works in other distros and even in FreeBSD... not too sure about apt-get (allthough there should be no reason why it won't work).
Also, don't use KDE... I know you have a slick setup, but that WM is annoyingly simular to windows. Try one of the Window maker clones or if you don't like the minimulist approach, try Gnome... stable and sleek... and easy to install.
while(1) { fork(); };
So, when Windows doesn't work with sound or video out of the box, it's not newbie friendly?
Nice troll.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
True, but getting the sound working isn't hard.
Compile in sound drivers into the kernel, add the sound module to the startup scripts, and then find some easy to use interface... I used some obsure little program that was a series of command line statements like cvol 100 or cvol -r 100 for full or full right channel respectivly.
Slack however is one of the most compatable distros out there... I have not had many problems installing programs with it.
A thought just crossed my mind... Since when is Slackware... or any distro other than Fedora, Suse, or Linspire User-Friendly??? Oh well... One more setup guide helps us all... cudos to the author... we need more peeps like him.
while(1) { fork(); };
Initial configuration may be a problem, but you have to do it only one time, I still think slackware major problem is its bad binaries support.
I'm ok in promoting slackware for small office desktop (very limited applications, like a word processor and browser), but in such ocassions will not be the end user who will install/configure, but the support guy.
A while back (whenever 8.1 came out) I decided to try linux. I read a few reviews, and what not. I first tested out mandrake. I had bought it at the store for a couple of dollars (less then $40, maybe less). I played with it for a while, but it just did not feel right.
I tried Debian next, but apparently thats above my head cause when I got to the dselect area I was overwhelmed. Decided, perhaps not for me.
Finally I tried slackware. What I really liked from the start was they had an entire book, for free, on their website that I could read for help. Although when I started the installation, I did not really need any help. Slackware has a great menu-driven installer. With some previous computer experience, and a little network know how, installation was a breeze.
At the time the kernel supported my sound card, but did not compile in the drive automatically. Before I realized I could of just built the module and used it that way, I decided to recompile the kernel. Also a very easy task in slackware.
Ultimately, I love the distribution, and have been using it since. I have a subscription so I get the latest distro in the mail a few days after it is released. Although truth be known I have no reason to even break the plastic on 10 because I have kept myself patched up and just do not need anything new. It does feel good to support Patrick and the slackware team. They deserve that, and much more.
I will say you have to be willing to read and learn (which means 99% of the world just won't like it) to use slackware. But, once you have learned how, you realize just how great Slackware is.
Brendan
p.s. www.linuxquestions.com has distro specific forums. If you need help, try their first.
Throwing in a shameless plug here. Myself and some of the other BOZOs on alt.os.linux.slackware have been sort on-again off-again working on an updated release of that book. You can find that project here.
Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
Yes,
if ANY OS needs sound configured when it comes out of the box, it is not newbie friendly. That is exacly what I said.
who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
Yep, aside from changing permissions on halt and reboot to allow regular users to use them (*glare*), Dropline-GNOME is the best thing since sliced bread. It's made me enjoy GNOME, which I really didn't like before I installed Dropline.
The problem with Dropline from my experience is that it changes so much of your system, including glibc that it makes compiling other non-dropline packages very difficult or impossible. So, if you want to use just the Dropline stuff and nothing else, it is worth a try. If you want to compile a lot of your own stuff, then you're better off without it. And, like gonnorhea, it's a lot easier to get than it is to get rid of (pam?).
First of all, it isn't made _by_ slackers, but _for_ slackers, and second the 'programmers and designers' are actually one man.
On a more serious note, I've had slackware on application servers (serving thin clients) and have never had any hassle. The 'lack of automation' is basically sticking to the KISS philosophy, and to be perfectly honest, personally I find that it's the other distro's who's toolsets are bloated, not slackware's limited. Then again, it's probably a matter of taste...
Ask 8 slackers a question, get 10 awnsers (a citation, but I can't remember from who)
Funnily enough, I installed Slack on my laptop 3 days ago. All went hunky dory... sort of.
I use Fluxbox as desktopWM, and it all worked great - unless I fired up a KDE/Gnome app - then fonts went HUGE (Mozilla here)
Buit, having a few years ;) experience with Linux, I re-ran /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config and sorted.
BTW, pre-compiled Slackware is soooooo fast - nearly as fast as Gentoo built on box.
Nick
I've been using Slackware for over 2 years in a dual-boot situation (Win 98). It started off pretty simple with a Zipslack install to a dos directory, using loadlin to switch to Linux. Shortly thereafter I used part2.4.3 to create a true linux partition and swapspace, manually copied the installation from the DOS partition to the linux partition, ran LILO and got lucky on the first try.
Still no X or sound, so first I downloaded an updated kernel (2.4.19 IIRC), then began filling in the required libraries. Got X working, but KDE crashed and burned due to a dependency problem while loading. After much trial and error worked around that with an older version of XFREE86 and some symlinks. Then switched from default SVGA to NVidia drivers. Still works but no sound yet.
Next "discovered" swaret and upgraded the whole kit and kaboodle to Slackware 9.1 (very slowly- I'm on dialup in the middle of Brazil). Got the ALSA drivers working somewhat, so now have sound.
Of course at this time the mX440 decided to die and take the AGP on the motherboard along with it, so the system gets a brain transplant. With no hope of getting back home where good hardware is reasonable, I opt for whats available - a somewhat crappy ASUS a7v266 motherboard.
The Windows part went without a too much trouble, boot to safe mode, uninstall the old hardware, do a quick search and destroy mission in the registry, reboot and let it grab the needed files off the motherboard CD. Now for Slack - BORF-kernel panic on boot.
About this time I get a good deal on a 120 gig HD, and as the hd in the kid's machine is dying, another transplant in order. Of course I'm a lazy fuck and will do anything to avoid a reinstall even if it takes longer. Windows - no problem at all, used part243 to clone the partition off the 40 gig drive, finished that part in 30mins with formatting and all. Decided my linux partition deserved to be somewhat larger, so I couldn't clone. Formatted the partition. Now what?
Remembered I STILL had the old ZIPSLACK installed on the windows partition i had cloned, ran loadlin and now had access to the old linux partition. Used the old linux to copy the files over to the new partition. Ran lilo & to boot the new linux partition. Kernel panic. Boot to DOS, run loadlin, fixed the references causing the kernel panic in rc.d (old NVIDIA cruft) reboot.
Boots fine, no X, sound drivers still not right. Oops! Install cd only has linux drivers for old version of RH. Try to install manually anyway, kernel mismatch so give up. Change to plain old SVGA in XFree86Config, finally get X working, and lo and behold KDE is working too. Upgrade my moz to Waterfrog and start browsing in search of solutions. Which is where I am now.
Watashi wa chikyubutsurigakusha desu.
Slackware makes no pretension of being "newbie-friendly".
That said, it tells you how to configure your soundcard at every reboot and it keeps telling you until you do exactly that.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Okay, this is going to sound like a troll, but what does Slack have that makes it better than a more "polished" distro? With the one that I use, I slap the DVD in and it starts chugging away (after I do my own partitions manually of course, and select what software I want first).
:) I started with Slack v3.0 and couldn't get it going, tried again with 3.1 and "many" things started to work :)
:)
Configuration is not too much more than clicky here and clicky there.
Before I get lambasted for running a "dumbed-down" distro (or being dumbed-down myself), once installed I do everything else with my favorite tools -- the command line & mc. And don't get me wrong, Slack was my very first
And who could forget copying all those damn floppies
So what's new with Slackware?
John
I dream in binary.