Slackware 9.1-beta2 is ready for testing, changelog here. The second beta includes security fixes for OpenSSH/Sendmail, updates to GNOME 2.4.0, Galeon 1.3.9, GNOME Office 1.0, KDE 3.1.4 while XFree86 was also updated. Here is a ready-made unofficial ISO of yesterday’s Slackware.
Slackware Linux 9.1 Beta 2 Available
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Seems like Slackware is one of the most up-to-date distros as of late … so, when did hell freeze over ?
I was looking for a distro with Gnome 2.4 included and since Libranet may not have it for awhile, this might do the trick.
To have the latest beta 2 though, you will need to create the 2 ISOs yourself (easy: ftp://ftp.biochem.uthscsa.edu/pub/linux/slackware/current-isogen.s… ), or install Slackware 9 and then upgrade manually.
Since when has slackware not been up to date?
I just upgraded this machine from current of 2 days ago. I also have the CD-RW of the same for my home computer. I just haven’t had time to upgrade yet. KDE 3.1.4 should be put in soon.
Well -Current is only up to date around release times, there were basically no updates for 3-4 months after 9.0.
Also, -Current is broken very often, so its not always a good thing to keep up with it, as it may break your system.
But GNOME 2.4 is nice.
KDE 3.1.4 is in this beta 2. Cool all I need now is to download it all
I’m speaking about what comes on the official release ISOs. I’ve never noticed before Slackware being one of the first out the gate with new shite.
As for creating unofficial ISOs, think I’ll just wait for the official ones
Slackware at release tends to be very up to date with non-beta packages. Generally Patrick does not put in bleeding edge stuff or betas, but waits for an official release. He is loosening that up a bit in this release though. (See his comments in the changelag from about two weeks ago on Mozilla.)
IMHO Slack tends not to give the impression of being as cutting edge because the release schedule is (normally) slower then other “bleeding edge” distros such as Mandrake. I suspect there will be a slightly faster release cycle though for at least the next two releases. 9.1 was justified by Gnome 2.4 and XFree 4.3. I think there will also be a release about 2-3 months after the 2.6 kernel is released, makng for about a 6-8 month cycle for the last three releases versus a ususal 10-12 month cycle.
In terms of “vanilla” distros, Slack is definitely the one to beat! Imagine Slack running the Debian packaging system, I’m not sure anyone would use Debian anymore!! If everything about Slack stayed EXACTLY the same but used Debian’s scheme of upgrading/installing/uninstalling software then it would be the perfect vanilla distro. Heck what am I saying it already is THE perfect vanilla distro. With Debian if you want to run anything recent you must suffer through the trials and tribulations of unstable. To hell with Debian!!
Yes, I am a Debian troll. I still love you guys anyway.
Try swaret. http://swaret.xbone.be/ It still has some rough edges but has dependency checking and retrieval.
Swaret and Vector’s package management tools are alright as far as they go, but the repositories for Slack packages are sparse. I’ve had far better luck grabbing packages with Mandrake, not to mention Debian and FreeBSD, than with Slack/Vector.
… sad 🙁 …everything else is really looking good 🙂
ok guys, I just installed slackware 9.1 beta and I need some help wih the sound. I found the rc.modules file, but this is only for OSS cards, I need an easy way to install an ALSA driver under Slackware (I don’t want to mess too much with alsa). Alsa is already install. So, any ideas?
The card is a PCI Yamaga Digital-XG.
Duh, forget my previous message… I had my speakers off, Slackware found both my sound cards. (I think I am staying up too late and I am losing my edge
Ok, another question now: while file on /etc/ do I need to edit in order to add a new path? You see, I just installed KDE from the second CD and opt/kde/bin/ is not on the path for some reason.
there used to be a /etc/profile.d/ directory which contains several scripts.
there should be a /etc/profile.d/kde.sh
#!/bin/sh
# KDE additions:
KDEDIR=/opt/kde
PATH=$PATH:$KDEDIR/bin
export KDEDIR PATH
dunno whether this is only on my old 8.1 slackware
Thanks, that did it.
have a look at http://www.alsa-project.org and find the right modules.conf for your card
then add this modulename into your rc.modules (eg. ‘/sbin/modprobe yamaha-xg’)
sorry, nothing else, you’re done! 😉
For Evolution packages: try Dropline Gnome ( http://www.dropline.net )
I’ve been running Debian Unstable on my workstation since March of this year, and I haven’t had any problems. I find Debian Unstable to be at least as good as Red Hat or Mandrake.
I don’t want to start a flame war or anything, but it just works without any problems.
Something tells me we will soon see a nice Slackware 9.1 review around here.
Now, I won’t hide that I have been a huge Slackware fan. It has been with me since 1997. Intallation easy like a breeze, regardless of what some might say – it was all logical and simple, if you had a very faint idea of UNIX and TCP/IP.
Package manager: I hear all too often complaint about Slack’s pkg manager. Well, yes, it does not have dependancy checking and resolution BUT… sometimes that’s a great advantage, expecially if you consider how RPM sometimes makes you jump through hoops just to install a simple application, by forcing you to install an endless chain of dependancies (even though you don’t ned 90% of the files there). With Slack pkg you ought to know what you want, but you will never install more than what you need. With RPM you will almost certainly run into situations that you have to sort out between relevant and irrelevant packages, and sometimes not finding the actual criltical dependancy. It’s a bother.
According to the Slackware store 9.1 will be out real soon now:
“Pre-Order : Slackware 9.1 is the upcoming release of Slackware. It is currently scheduled to ship in late September.” ( http://store.slackware.com/ )
Nice!
There maybe a bug in the installer when trying to install the bitstream font package. The CD loops forever (thanks Eugenia!!). If found and fixed, I’ll remake the -current ISOs.
Slack is best becuase its under control w.r.t bleeding edge. Patrick takes his time and does it right.
Im never bothered with X as I use it in a fullscale server environment, but its rock solid and tight. It has been since my 1st install 10 years ago.
Still no OpenOffice in Slackware? This is a big minus…
well, i could use some help.
with slackware 9, even tho rc.inet1 didn’t seem to run at boot (i had to include it in rc.local, then it ran), i could just do “dhcpcd eth1” and it would configure, now, with current, it just times out without a response. anyone?
It’s not a big deal. I’ll even save you the trouble of having to search for it yourself. You can find it at http://www.openoffice.org/
Also, to add a user-specific PATH, edit your:
~/.bashrc (you may have to make one), and do something like this:
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/kde/:/opt/gnome
Because you don’t always want to give every user certain PATHs.
Thank you for trying to be helpful. Now, tell me one more thing – how do you update OpenOffice in Slackware?
I just installed OOo on Slackware, all you have to do is to run the Setup application that comes with OOo 1.1 RC4 and install it on top of your old installation, I would think (or on a different dir for multiple installations).
The trouble is that Slackware gives you very clean and stable system to start with and I’d hate to make it messy by installing different versions of software on top one another. On most occasions one can use Checkinstall to make TGZ packages out of source packages, and then uninstalling/updating can be handled with Slackware’s pkgtool. However, Checkinstall doesn’t work with OpenOffice. This is why I’d like to see Slackware to distribute their own OpenOffice binary package.
> However, Checkinstall doesn’t work with OpenOffice.
That is not really an issue, because OpenOffice is installed in a distict directory, e.g. /opt/openoffice. A “rm -rf /path/to/openoffice” is enough to remove it.