Patrick Volkerding announced the release of Slackware 9.1 beta-1. The
changelog has all the details.
Slackware 9.1 beta-1 Available
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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2.4 or 2.6test?
changelog:
k/kernel-source-2.4.22-noarch-3.tgz: Upgraded to official XFS patches
A 2.4 kernel is almost certainly going to be the default kernel in 9.1, but an optional 2.6 kernel may be provided as an extra. Nonetheless, 9.1 is ‘2.6 ready’ so it should be a simple matter of downloading and compiling the sources from a kernel.org mirror.
Go SLACKWARE GOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every time I see a new release of Slackware come out, the responses all remind me of someone talking about how spry someone is who has just turn 100, in that well-meaning, half-patronizing tone. “Grandpa really gets around with that walker, he’s a hit with all of the ladies…”
It’s still one of the greatest distributions, because while it has evolved, it’s still Slackware. If I went back in time and interrupted myself downloading the billion floppies it used to take, and plopped myself in front of the new Slackware, I’d muse for a moment over what version of Bowman or FVWM must be out now in this brave new world, but otherwise I’d be right at home.
There are no ads in Slackware (unless you consider the J.R. “Bob” Dobbs screensavers ads), no crazy bundled value-add commercial software, no bloat. The only downside is the flamefest usenet group.
Happy 100th birthday, Slackware!
i ain’t having dinner tonight just to try this out. oh, yea, and i’ll dump my girlfriend too.
“oh, yea, and i’ll dump my girlfriend too.”
I am new to Linux, but is it really necessary?
Are there any ISO downloads available? I couldn’t find any…
I didn’t expect this beta
>n0dez
Cool, good ol’ Slack is making progress…
Here they make ISOs (from time to time). As of this writing I didn’t find any Slackware09/12-current-9.1.ISO
TX, US: ftp://ftp.biochem.uthscsa.edu/pub/linux/slackware
BE, EU: ftp://ftp.kpn.be/pub/linux/slackware/
If you wanna update some stuff of your Slackware Linux OS until SLK 9.1 is released, go to:
AT, EU: ftp://ftp.slackware.at/slackware-current/slackware/
Slow, CR: ftp://ftp.ulatina.ac.cr/Unix/Linux/Slackware/slackware-current
BTW, next month FreeBSD 4.9 is released!
>n0dez
I’d love to see an option to have 2.6.x in there. I haven’t had much luck upgrading on my own. But slackware is my one true love, so I’m happy about this release.
Installing a 2.6 test kernel into a running Slackware system is a breeze. In fact, when 2.6 test #3 came out, I dug-up a spare 4GB hard drive, stuck Slack 9.0 on it, verified it worked, then downloaded and built the 2.6 test #3 kernel. It built without a hitch, and voila! one reboot later I was up and running Slack 9 with a 2.6 kernel.
Slack rules!
Well then, perhaps you can help me out here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=…
…if you built 2.6.x with slack9. I would love to hear any advice.
The only downside is the flamefest usenet group.
Is the alt.os.linux.slackware sponsored by Slackware Linux, Inc.?
Nope. What goes on there is beyone anyone’s control, including Patrick’s. Like the saying goes, “You ain’t payin’ for it, so don’t complain about it.”
I’m curious about Slackware (haven’t used it, yet). What is better about it compared to, say, Debian?
Thanks,
d.
The only downside is the flamefest usenet group.
Well, possibly one more … when was the last time they updated the damn documentation?
It has a pathetic package manager.
Regards,
Mystilleef
using slack 9 right now and the package manager is what i like BEST
simple and straightforward… without all the stupid little quirks of something like rpm
still like ports in the bsd’s better though :o)
I used Mandrake for the longest time, but I was spoiled by the wizards and such to set things up. They’re great until they don’t work. So, I wanted a more “pure” linux to learn on.
I really *really* wanted to stick with debian, but since I’m on dialup, I couldn’t use apt to upgrade to newer packages. Apt-get is the greatest, but Debian stable has such OLD packages, it’s impossible to upgrade anything major on dialup. So, I never had debian on my system for long. I’ve tried Libranet, and it’s ok, but I wanted to check out Slack. I still might check out Knoppix or Gnoppix.
I don’t know if I’ll stick with it, but its been on my box for six months now. I like that it gives me a fairly up to date system on one cd -I download and burn at work, and I try not to overuse bandwidth
I’ve definately learned more about configuring my system by hand. Everything flies compared to Mandrake. So far I’ve really liked it, except for package management. You can’t beat apt. If I’ve found slack packages, I haven’t had any problems, but they’re not very common. I usually have to compile from source.
Bottom line, if you like debian, I wouldn’t switch, especially if you like apt. But, I think it’s a good choice if you want to really learn (I have a long way to go), and I think it’s great that it’s still around.
Debian GNU/Linux is pretty confusing to install and to use apt-get. When using Linux, I use Slackware. It’s easy to install, upgrade, … IMHO, it’s easier to me upgrade TGZ packages manually (downloaded from a Slackware mirror or Linuxpackages.net). You can use Dropline GNOME to keep your system up-to-date. I found Dropline GNOME easier than apt-get. All you have to do is go through n-curses-based menus. I also found FreeBSD ports easier and better organized than Debian’s apt-get; you don’t have to do anything special; out-of-the-box ie: pkg_add -vr gaim. I’ve tested several OSes on my computer, and results were: fastest (booting, launching DE, apps, …): FreeBSD no1, Slackware (the fastest Linux distro) no2, Windows no3 (far away); most stable: no1 FreeBSD, no2 Slackware, no3 Windows (far far away). Please remember that this is just my opinion plus some hands-on experience, so just tell your opinion and experience (if you want) but don’t start trolling. Thanks
>n0dez
Has anyone successfully installed Gentoo’s portage on Slackware? I read somewhere that it can be done. If so, I’d vote THAT the best linux distro!
-j
Apparently there was some project started where someone put emerge scripts in a Gentoo box, but before he put up the tgz packages he had an update saying it SEVERELY messed up his system. Haven’t seen the page since.
Yoper has brought Gentoo portage for Slackware.check at Yoper.com forum
slackware has something like apt-get
swaret
but it is not (yet) included in slackware official cd
but the maker of slackware is evaluating swaret so I hope it will be included soon
btw slackware + dropline is great (fast
)
Use Slackware and FreeBSD for almost everything and have no complain. To be true, the harder thing, at least to me, is choose between them.
Even that I agree that the package system is not the best for new users, it let who knows what must be done finish the job without too much pain (I can´t say the same about RH, but the last one I tryed was 7.3).
I like also the fact that I could compile every package I needed, it´s a big plus. Also, you can generate packages for Slack with checkinstall and use webmin to administer the system with little effort.
Unluckily, because of superior and unquestionable power, I must live with some Windows machines.
For building the 2.6.x test kernel under Slackware 9, just follow the standard kernel build procedures. You can find these procedures in the subdirectory that is created when you untar the kernel source file. In a nutshell:
Download kernel souces (bzip2 or gzip image).
Untar into the /usr/src directory.
Make a soft link from the directory created to “linux”.
cd linux.
make menuconfig (or make xconfig if you’re running X) to select the kernel options you want for your kernel.
make dep.
make bzImage.
copy kernel image to the /boot directory.
make modules.
make modules_install.
Then you have to edit lilo.conf to add-in the new kernel image, and run lilo to do it’s magic (if you’re not using lilo as your boot manager, I can’t help you). When you reboot, it should (hopefully!) come up in kernel 2.6.x!!!
Hey, I did this from memory, I may have (and probably did) made a mistake in the commands or sequence of the commands. You should read the instructions included with the kernel sources prior to building the kernel.
If someone notices an error on my part, please correct me so I don’t get accused of spreading bad information! 😉
I may be completely off the target here, but don’t you need a new version of modtools or modconf or something for 2.6?
If its as easy as a standard 2.4 compile I gotta go try that!
Long live slack!
Sorry about that long-winded post earlier. After posting that, I read your post in the other forum. The only thing I can say is try an earlier test kernel. Like I said, I used test #3 and had no problems. If you get test #3 or #4 to work, maybe there is a problem with #5, or maybe it doesn’t like your version of GCC?.
With the 2.6 kernel, you just type “make” instead of “dep bzImage modules”
Gnome2.4?
someone mentioned it is one of the fastest distro’s around.
My experience shows that KDE on slack 9 was faster and more responsive than RH9 KDE.
Why would that be?
Yes, that was my experience too.
Installing to the same computer, same partition (RH removed then installing slackware and mandrake). Slackware and Mandrake both were far more responsive than RH. Using P4, 128MB and HD 20GB.
Trying disable all service, but still felt not responsive at both GNOME and KDE.
Dunno why.
Sorry, forgot to mention.
RH 9, Mdk 9.1, Slack 9.
Check the changelogs, GNOME 2.4 will be included.
Just an update to everyone, I got it all worked out. I’m using 2.6-test5 as we speak. My problem was upgrading gcc to 3.2.3 That fixed everything.
Thanks for all the help though.
I remember reading (several months ago) that Gentoo changed the timer interrupt frequency the kernel sets during boot from 100 Hz to 1000 Hz. The result is that the machine switches tasks more often. This makes the system _seem_ to respond faster. The down side is that the machine actually spends more time dealing with the extra interrupts.
I thought I heard that RedHat was going to or did do the same thing. I’m pretty sure Slackware doesn’t change this value. In theory this should make your desktop apps to be more responsive under RedHat. Of course that doesn’t mean there isn’t some other factor causing KDE to respond slowly on one of your Linux installs.
I run blackbox on Slack9.0. KDE was still too slow for my liking, even on my 1200Mhz Duron.
Shoot, that should read: “In theory this should make your desktop apps appear (to be) more responsive under RedHat.”
I should have mentioned it is not extremely slow on RH9 just slower.
I have AMD k6-2 450Mhz with 384MB RAM
“i ain’t having dinner tonight just to try this out. oh, yea, and i’ll dump my girlfriend too.”
Common! Be frank and admit that actually she dumped you.
😉
You should try dropping by #slackware at irc.freenode.net – lots of helpful and very knowledgable people hang out there, and the atmosphere of the channel is usually very nice.
Impressed that Gnome 2.4 is on there. Recently downloaded the 2.3.90 sources but didn’t get round to building them. Now i’m just gonna wait until I get broadband at uni again and then get Slack 9.1
Ever since I first installed slack (and then i was a a complete newbie to Linux – so no – it’s not hard to use) I’ve never looked back. I’ve started to write my own small Slackware guide, been a bit busy recently though.
Tell me what you think guys: http://www.mattlacey.com/slackguide.html
Since I can’t afford to contribute to the Slackware project right now (i.e. by buying it) I figured I should do something else to help
Matt
Thanks, Patrick!!!
Slackware is, definetelly, the best Linux distro of all times!!!