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slackware guru needed


jsalpha2

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I installed slackware64-14.2-install-dvd in Virtual Box today and Xfce.  I got it to run full size and added a user.  I just can't install anything.  Tried to install mousepad, galculator, and aisleriot.  Tried googtling, reading and cutting and pasting.  Last time total destruction.  I really need to install a graphical package manager like Synaptic.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Hey, @jsalpha2...

 

How exactly are you trying to install software on this Slackware installation?

 

There are only three proper ways to install software on Slackware:

 

  • install from the distributions official repositories
  • install via a SlackBuild script
  • download source and compile yourself* (not recommended - will inevitably lead you to Dependency H3LL!

Regarding the apps you mentioned above --> mousepad, galculator, and aisleriot. I'm 99.9% sure that Slackbuilds for these are available at slackbuilds.org or in Alien Bob's (Eric Hamelleers) Slackbuild repos; possibly also in Robbie Workman's repos.

 

HOW TO INSTALL VIA SLACKBUILDS

 

---

 

Hope that gives you some assistance in your endeavors. I'll pop back in soon and see how you did.

 

Regards,

 

~Eric

 

*You need to definitely know what you're doing to attempt this method.

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Edit a file in etc/slackpkg mirror.  #slackpkg update?  Not correct? Also tried gkslapt.   I can not make heads or tails out of the "Slackbuilds" method.  I need a simple way.  Salix used to have a non command line way.  Creating folders and unzipping tar.gz files may be simple to you, but I need something easy.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Well, it's been bad day (week, month, year, decade, etc.). So, I should have known that when I was just about to click that Post button on a long and elaborate explanatory posting here to help you out, @jsalpha2, that my power would blip off in my house and EVERYTHING would have been consigned to the eternal ether; a total waste of 30 minutes of my life. Ah, well. Feces occurs (more often than not, recently). :(

 

Anyway, to try to sum up what I had previously posted...

 

  • Mousepad, Galculator, and Aisleriot are NOT available in the Slackware repositories.
    • meaning you CANNOT use the SlackPkg application to install them.
  • There are limited ways to install software that is not available in the Slackware repos
    • see the three ways in the above posting; particularly SlackBuilds
  • If you have issues with the command line interface, scripting, compiling, editing text files, etc., you will have a VERY difficult time trying to utilize Slackware Linux.
  • The SlackBuild tutorial linked to in the posting above is a step by step way to utilize SlackBuilds.
    • Just read and follow the steps.
  • If you're more familiar with graphical interfaces (point n' click) and are not interested in learning non-graphical (command line, etc.) methods, you will not be too successful at doing anything with Slackware other than the out-of-the-box vanilla experience.

That's about the size of it, my friend. I'm sorry I sound so dry and sharp in this "synopsis" posting, but I'm a bit aggravated at the moment. If you truly want to learn Slackware, then you must learn ALL of the tools necessary to experience the full effect of that venerable, stable Linux distribution. It is what it is. I cannot make Slackware magically easy. It's assumed by the creators/maintainers of Slackware that the user has some previous experience with Linux, non-graphical computing, etc.

 

Best I can do for you at the moment, @jsalpha2. If you're serious about learning to use Slackware, I'll be here to answer questions and help in any way I can.

 

Luck with it...

 

~Eric

 

P.S. I'm NO Slackware guru. I've been using it as my Primary OS for 14 years now and I'm still not anywhere near what one would call a "guru". I'm more of a mechanic when it comes to Slack. I can fix and work around most issues with the operating system. I know how it works and what it's supposed to do. The trick to learning anything is knowing how to find the answers to your questions. The Search Engine is your friend. :)

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securitybreach
11 minutes ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

P.S. I'm NO Slackware guru. I've been using it as my Primary OS for 14 years now and I'm still not anywhere near what one would call a "guru". I'm more of a mechanic when it comes to Slack. I can fix and work around most issues with the operating system. I know how it works and what it's supposed to do. The trick to learning anything is knowing how to find the answers to your questions. The Search Engine is your friend. :)

 

A guru doesn't necessarily mean that you know everything. Nowadays it means much more if you can find the answer rather than knowing the answer. Technology changes too fast to know it all anymore.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Oh, and if you chose the wrong mirror (you should NOT be running Slackware Current, by the way), you can just edit your mirrors file and chose the proper mirror this time. Then do this:

 

slackpkg update

slackpkg upgrade-all

from the command line as Root.

 

That will fix your backward Firefox and other items.

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Thanks, I know you are trying to be helpful.  I need a current slackware  for dummies.  The guide I was following was from 2003. Quote " you should NOT be running Slackware Current" that does not make sense.  I had to pick one from Canada, none of the first three(US) would work.  I can not make it past the first line  "extract it in your build environment. "  Where is my build environment?  How do I extract  a tar.gz file?  I can get around in most other distros, but that does not help here.  I will try again next year.  Thanks again.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Umm... just out of curiosity, what operating system are you using that has this virtual environment on it?

 

Extracting a compressed file can be done numerous ways, if you're running a Linux OS as your primary operating system, I'm sure it has Xarchiver or Ark on it. Either one can extract a compressed file like that tar.gz.

 

Of course, there is also the command line method --> untar bla-bla-bla.tar.gz

 

The reason I don't recommend running Slackware Current is because that's the unstable tester version of Slack. It's best to run the stable version.

 

:)

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