Slackware Install

I'm getting ready to do a Slackware install on my Asus. Burning the discs now. Anyone have any caveats or words of wisdom for me? thanks

 

Good luck and have fun.

If you've never compiled your own software before, you might be in for a bit of a shock. What got me off Slackware was the pain of having to do dependency resolutions manually. Well, I guess if you know exactly what you want and what you need to make it work, Slackware can be the distro of choice.

 

I was put off by the need to check dependencies on system software when I read about that...I just want to see what the fuss is all about...I've got Arch waiting in the wings too...the HD is already partitioned off.

EDIT: I'm also doing it on my other machine as a linux learning tool....

 

Ok...I've got Slack up and running in an Xfce environment. The install isn't much different than a Zenwalk install, which I've done many times. Now to get my wireless working.......

EDIT: I'm manually installing Wicd to get online....next is graphics...I'm still trying to see the 'light', but I'll give it fair chance....more later...

EDIT: up till now, I'm thinking if you want to use Slack, go for Zenwalk 6....I'm not seeing the virtue in reinventing the wheel at every turn, but it is fast....I'll keep configuring it and see if that opinion changes.

 

I'm bumping this...any Slackers here that can help me with a couple of things? I'm understanding why people like Slackware: It's such an "expletive" elation when you get something working!! Also, it seems very fast. It's growing on me, don't ask me why...but I could use a hand on a couple of things to do with permissions settings.

thanks

EDIT: If anyone is following this little melodrama, so far:
Nvidia is installed, desktop (Xfce) looks great
I'm online with Wicd, no prob at start up
I'm fixed my mouse scroll wheel....more later
learned how to use slackpkg to update

 

I've been a user of Slackware for years... it was the first Linux distro that I ever laid my hands on, gosh, nearly 15 years ago. It's still the distro I turn to when I need a fantastic server OS. It is rock solid and blazing fast.

That being said, I'm not brave enough to try to use Slackware as a "desktop" Linux distro. I just don't have the patience to deal with all that on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, as I said above... I *love* Slackware. Love it to death. But not as a desktop distro. I want my desktop distro to "just work" straight out of the box, per se.

Right now, I have a MythTV box (which also doubles as my file server) running Slackware. I've bounced around between "desktop"-based distros... Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora... and right now my desktop distro of choice is Fedora. My desktop computer and my laptop both currently run Fedora 10.

Anyway, before I get too far off subject... Best of luck with Slackware! May you have the patience to do what I do not. Hehehe. If you have any specific questions I can probably help ya out, I'll follow this thread from here forward if you post any further questions.

--Eric

 

i always found it odd that a distro called "slack"ware would require so much work.

 

thanks Eric....I'm still configuring Slack with KDE this time. I gave up the Xfce. There's something about it that won't let me let go of it It is very fast. I have Slack on my Asus A8js.

On my Dell Precison...I'm using Kubuntu 9.04 x64....tons of updates are coming through daily...I guess they're running out of time for final This is a 'super' desktop OS, out of the box...it's been stable and fast too. I'm thinking of putting Debian on the Precision after backing up my /home.

But anyway, Slack is great and is growing on me. I may hit you up for something here in the near future, stay tuned!

EDIT: I spent 10 minutes just installing mplayer from source....man, I don't know....debian here I come....lol

 

*laugh* I hear ya.

Last summer I decided to tackle a project... moving my MythTV installation from KnoppMyth to Slackware. Everything from scratch/source... Myth has a ton of dependencies, and boy, getting them all installed so I could compile it was a lot of fun. Heh :-D

It may have been a ton of work, but my MythTV box hasn't ever been this fast and stable, and I'm much more comfortable administering it than I was KnoppMyth.

Have fun with Debian. I've not done much with straight-up Debian, just some of its "kids" (Ubuntu, etc).

At least you can now say you have some experience with Slackware

Best of luck...
--Eric

 

Give arch a shot sometime

 

Actually guys....I'm still on Slackware...still finding out where the toilets and light switches are

I'm learning to use sbopkg right now, to streamline installing some slackbuilds from slackbuilds.org.

I owe Arch a shot...I've got Debian burned...I'm gonna put Debian on later because I want to redo my Slack install anyway....I've decided on a Slack DE and want to eliminate all the cruft...