Slackware Needs Your Help

The times have been difficult for many of us this past few years.

For Slackware, it’s been no exception. Some of you faithful Slackers may have noticed lately that the Slackware home page has been offline. I posted about this at Jeremy’s Linux Questions forums. Alien Bob (Eric Hameleers) replied stating that it was an old hardware/lack of funds issue. This is sad. :(

I am in no way associated with the Slackware Linux project other than being a loyal user of the distribution and a frequent commenter/blogger on the subject of Slackware. I want to say that up front here. That being said, I would like to ask a favor… Please, stop on by the Slackware Store and click on that Donate button (top left side of page). I just did a few minutes ago. I didn’t give much. I don’t have much to spare, but I did give something.

For many of us, Slackware has brought joy to our lives, increased our productivity, and provided us with secure and stable computing environment. It’s also taught us a helluva lot about GNU/Linux. Pat V. has never, to my knowledge, stood on his soap box and asked for money from any of us to help defray costs of maintaining Slackware. It’s about time that we showed Slackware a little love. Slackware has always been there for us; it’s our turn.

A buck, two, twenty… every little bit adds up. Buy a cool T-Shirt or the Slackware Essentials book while you’re there.

Slackware needs to be around for many, many more years. Let’s do our part to see that it is.

Thank you,

~Eric

Addenda to follow:

Addendum I

I’m beginning to regret writing this article and starting that thread at LinuxQuestions.org. For crissakes, people! This wasn’t meant to set off a shit storm. Initially, I was only concerned that the Slackware website had been down for a few days. Eric Hameleers (Alien Bob) responded to my query regarding the outage with a comment that, I must admit, did get me worrying a bit. Eric has explained the situation further in the comments on this article. Please read what he had to say.

I don’t worry about Slackware going anywhere anytime soon. There are too many of us loyal to this venerable GNU/Linux distribution to let that happen, I believe. My article here was written only for the purpose of possibly assisting the Slackware Project and Patrick Volkerding in continuing to do what’s been done for 19 years… keeping us all Slacking, baby! :)

This article wasn’t meant to incite rock and bottle throwing. GNU/Linux is ALL of us. I don’t care if you run Gentoo, Debian, Mandriva, or some barely known distribution on your systems. The fact is we are ALL GNU/Linux users. We ALL are part of this vast community that pulls together in times of need and helps out one another. GNU/Linux, FOSS, OpenRespect, etc.; that is US, folks.

I see that a few folks have dropped a buck or two in the Slackware tip jar. That’s excellent. Many of us have been using Slackware for years or have benefited from something that came about because of Patrick Volkerding and the Slackware Project. I have NO REGRETS if that tip jar fills some as a result of this article. I will have many regrets should the current shit storms at LinuxQuestions.org or Distrowatch continue.

Later…

~Eric

Addendum II

Member ruario at LinuxQuestions.org made the following comment on the thread linked above regarding the Slackware server being down:

AlienBOB has stated that he and the other contributors don’t get any money from the Slackware donations. That said, he does a great to maintaining Slackware64, offering non-official binary packages, giving advice to users, and teaching us all how to make zoervleis . So if after donating to Slackware you have a little more money burning a hole in your pocket I noticed he has a PayPal donate button on his blog. If might be that Roberto F. Batista (aka PiterPunk), Robby Workman, Stuart Winter and the rest of the contributors take donations as well but I didn’t notice any PayPal links on their respective pages. Ah well, never mind and also I’m not made of money! :P

I post this here as an addendum because I also feel strongly that the people mentioned by ruario, and many others, are very deserving of some sort of recognition and gratitude from the every day users of Slackware. I’ve used some of Robby’s and Eric’s resources on my own systems before. I’ve learned much from them and the others mentioned; and many not mentioned, like Willy Sudiarto Raharjo, for instance.

If you feel the same, open that wallet again. These people spend a lot of their personal time to benefit assist and improve Slackware and to assist you.

Regards,

~Eric

Addendum III

Read this excellent article by Tom Nardi at The Powerbase – SOS: Save Our Slackware?

Later…

~Eric

Addendum Penultimate

In light of the fact that conversations regarding this topic have, in my opinion, gone in negative and non-constructive directions at the original LinuxQuestions.org thread and elsewhere, and in light of the fact that I was aiming more for support and assistance rather than rock and bottle slinging; I have come to regret starting that thread and writing this article. It was not my intention to stir shit and create strife for Pat V., Eric Hameleers, or anyone in the Slackware community. For this, I apologize.

To those of you who did offer non-critical assistance and support, thanks. The GNU/LInux community is enriched by your participation in it.

Regards,

~Eric

Addendum Final, Maybe ;)

Man! What a ride! Anyway, www.slackware.com is BACK UP! YAY! :)

14 April 2012 – 21:24 Categories: Slackware | Comments (39)

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Bodhi Linux – It’s About Time

I’ve been using GNU/Linux as my primary operating system for quite sometime now.

Actually, this June will be my six year anniversary of switching to GNU/Linux. Wow! Time sure does fly. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was burning and installing Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake. ;) Since that beginning, I’ve burned hundreds of CDs and DVDs with GNU/Linux distributions on them. I’ve tested most of the main line distros like Debian, Fedora Core, Mandriva, OpenSuSE, Slackware, Arch , Ubuntu, Mepis, Mint, etc. over the years.

Like most, I’ve found my favorites… Slackware, Arch, Debian (Sid), Zenwalk, Vector, Salix, CentOS, Foresight, Ark, etc. These distributions can almost always be found on some partitions on one of my systems at any given time. There are a few that have really impressed me. I’m always impressed with GNU/Linux, but to tell you the truth, it’s been a while since I was just absolutely taken aback by the presentation and quality of any distribution. I think Arch was the last distribution to really knock my socks off.

I think this is because, basically, all GNU/Linux distributions are pretty similar under the hood. It’s just how the eye candy wrappers are manipulated that make them somewhat different. Gnome in OpenSuSE can look a lot like Gnome in Debian, for example. KDE 4 is still buggy and bloated, regardless of what distro you’re running it in. Just kidding, KDE fans. ;) Every once in a while, though, the entire presentation; website, support, documentation, visual appearance of the installer, ease-of-installation, and 1st boot up impressions conspire to overwhelm one’s reactions… pleasantly, I mean.

This is the case today for me. I have heard a lot about Bodhi Linux, of course. Jeff Hoogland, the lead dev for Bodhi, is a member at Scot’s Newsletter Forums where I’m an Admin. I read Jeff’s blog regularly. I’ve watched from the very beginning when he first started putting Bodhi together. So, yeah… Bodhi Linux wasn’t some unknown for me. My pal Paul “ChipDoc” Campbell was a contributor to the Bodhi Linux documentation project. Oddly enough, I had never (till today) tried Bodhi Linux.

Recently, I received a little Dell Latitude D610 laptop from my niece. The unit is in near new condition, but it’s limited hardware-wise. I had been looking for the perfect lightweight distribution for it. First I tried my old favorite Vector Linux. That was pretty nice, but even VL was pushing the limits of this little guy’s Pentium M processor and 768Meg of RAM. Next I tried Zorin OS. Zorin was pretty cool. It calls itself a “transitional Linux” due to the fact that it’s geared for folks coming from MS Windows. Zorin worked well, but I still wasn’t satisfied.

Today, I visited the excellent Bodhi Linux website. I snooped around. I read the documentation. I looked at the beautiful screenies. I downloaded the tiny (450Meg) Live/Install .iso file. I burned it to a CD. I inserted that CD into my little laptop here on my desk and an amazing thing happened. The grizzled old GNU/Linux, Slackware-loving, veteran GNU/parted-using nocturnal geek, who is rarely impressed with anything these days, was IMPRESSED from minute one with Bodhi Linux.

Everything about Bodhi Linux just seemed… well, right to me. From the installer’s simple step by step walk-through to the general informational blurbs that came up on the screen during the installation process; it was all pleasant and Zen-like. I don’t know if Jeff was intentionally aiming for this mellow and tranquil feeling, but one assumes he was with a name like Bodhi, right? You hit your mark, buddy.

After the relatively quick install, the fun really begins. You get to actually start using Bodhi Linux. I like to start any distro with the customization stage. I go through the desktop first, changing the panels and icons and whatnot to my usual setup. I then go a bit deeper into the operating system and modify app behaviors, start-up behaviors, themes, window behaviors, and so on. On a distro that I’m not familiar with, like Bodhi, it may take me a couple hours to get it how I want it.

My simple little Bodhi Linux:

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If you haven’t tried Bodhi Linux yet, what are you waiting for? You don’t need an old obsolete laptop to run it. It’ll run on your bleeding edge system just as well; better, actually. Bodhi is only minimal at the initial install. Thanks to their unique AppCenter, you can stuff your Bodhi full of yummy apps and goodies. If they don’t have it in the AppCenter, you’ll probably find it in Synaptic (using Ubuntu‘s repos). If you still can’t find your fav app, ask for it on the forums. Someone will make it happen for you.

Jeff, my hat’s off to you and all the contributors to the Bodhi Linux project. You folks have done an amazing job with this distribution. I can pretty much guarantee you that I’ll be looking for a spare partition or two on my main or shop system to install Bodhi Linux. I am impressed. Don’t get me wrong, though. You’ll still be hearing me bitch once I find the aggravating things in there. I know they’re there. They always are. I’ll try to stay calm and tranquil about it. Ahhhhmmmm… Ahhhhmmmm… HA! :)

Later…

~Eric

13 April 2012 – 20:34 Categories: Linux, Other Distributions | Comments (17)

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Midori On Slackware – Using SlackBuilds

Yes, I’m still on spring hiatus, but the place was getting to look a bit run down.

Plus, I wanted to show you all how to install this cool little browser that I found called Midori. Oh, it’s nothing new. It’s been around for a while, but it’s new to me. I first found it while using Salix OS recently on one of my tester partitions. I’m also using it in Zorin OS on one of my laptops. It’s fast. It’s pretty simplistic and minimal, too.

It is a bit complicated to install on Slackware, though. However, I’m sure you can do it. It just requires using some excellent SlackBuild scripts provided by the dedicated folks at SlackBuilds.org. Unfortunately, Midori is not one of those apps that you can install with just one SlackBuild. It has some dependencies… and its dependencies have some dependencies.

That always complicates things a bit, particularly in Slackware where you have to be smart enough to resolve dependency issues on your own. There is no a gaggle of volunteer repo maintainers doing it for you. That’s alright, though. Slackers are known to be smart and tough. We can take it. Dependency H3LL don’t scare us none. ;)

Let’s get started, OK?

Fire up your current browser and navigate to SlackBuilds.org. You know the place. You’ve been there before. Once you’re there, you’re going to search and download six different SlackBuild scripts and their related source tar balls. Got that? OK.

Here they are (click for the SlackBuilds.org page for each one):

Midori

webkitgtk

icu4c

libsoup

libunique

vala

Midori is your ultimate goal. It requires webkitgtk, libunique, and vala. The others are dependencies of webkitgtk and will have to be built first and installed before you build webkitgtk.

You should be familiar with the whole SlackBuild thing by now. Just in case, though, I’ll run through one for you.

Let’s build libunique first:

1. Download the source and the SlackBuild

2. Decompress the SlackBuild (using Xarchiver or your favorite tool)

3. Move the newly untar’d directory to your favorite temporary build directory

4. Move the libunique source package to the untar’d libunique SlackBuild directory (see Fig. 1)

Figure 1

Photobucket

5. Open a terminal and make the script executable:

# chmod +x *Build

6. Execute the script:

# sh *Build

NOTE: If you’re building on a 64 bit Slackware, you should use the prefix Arch=x86_64. For example: # Arch=x86_64 sh *Build

7. Once the script completes, using Slackware’s pkgtool to install the newly created .tgz package you’ll find in your /tmp directory:

# installpkg libunique*

NOTE: You might also want to keep these packages somewhere safe in case you ever want to reinstall Midori on this system or another Slackware installation somewhere.

Now, we need to build and install the rest of the dependencies in this order: icu4c, libsoup, vala. Once you’ve built and installed these guys, you can then build and install webkitgtk. Something to keep in mind once you begin your webkitgtk build; it is NOT one of those zippity-fast builds. Even on a fast system, it may take 45 minutes to build. Just be patient. Don’t sit there waiting for the pot to boil. Go have some dinner or take a healthy walk around the neighborhood while it builds.

OK, assuming you’ve managed to build and install libunique, icu4c, libsoup, vala… and then webkitgtk, you should now be able to build and install midori. It’s a pretty fast build, less than 1/2 a minute. Install it using pkgtool, as you did with the others above. If all went well, you should have a nice working Midori browser on your system now. If you run Xfce4 like I do, it will automagically show up in the Menu –> Network sub-menu.

Here’s my Midori running with the Midori Home Page opened:

Photobucket

NOTE: That’s an April Fools post you’re seeing there about merging Midori with Postler. ;)

Have lots of FUN! :)

~Eric

P.S. I’m going back on hiatus now. See you again soon…

10 April 2012 – 20:57 Categories: How-tos, Slackware | Comments (6)

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Springtime Hiatus

It’s a beautiful, if somewhat warmer the normal, spring here in Tampa, Florida.

I believe I’ll get away from this insidious waste of my precious life (computers and the Internet) for a short while and enjoy the birds and the squirrels and the blooming flowers.

Y’all have a wonderful spring, too! Ya’ hear!

Later…

~Eric

31 March 2012 – 15:09 Categories: Miscellaneous | Comments (2)

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Why Linux Will Never Be a Factor On the Desktop

Why Linux Will Never Be a Factor On the Desktop

Tony Bradley expounds on the current status of GNU/Linux popularity (or lack thereof) and the future of the operating system.

The comment I left on ComputerWorld’s page for this article:

I’m a loyal GNU/Linux user. I parted ways with MS Windows (for the most part) nearly six years ago. I keep installations of XP and 7 on some of my systems in order to stay relatively well-versed in the the usage of those operating systems in order to facilitate my constant need to fix the computers of family members and friends (the ones I haven’t converted to GNU/Linux yet).

That being said, I’m not one of those GNU/Linux fanbois who is sitting at my desk with my Jolt in one hand and a joint in the other dreaming about LInux’s imminent world domination. I would prefer that Linux stay under the radar. If it ever managed to have the commercial popularity of MS Windows, it would wake one morning to find that same large target painted on its back for all the hackers, malware writers, and generally mischievous malcontents.

No, I’m more than happy to operate my little GNU/Linux systems in relative obscurity. Besides, once something gains in popularity, someone always steps in to regulate, tax, manipulate, restrict, or mutilate it in some way. Leave my GNU/Linux alone.

Like I say on my blogs and the tech forums where I admin/moderate, “Whatever operating system works best for you IS the one that’s best for you.”

Later…

~Eric, the Nocturnal Slacker

Read the article, tell me what you think about it?

~Eric

29 March 2012 – 12:06 Categories: Linux | Comments (4)

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SSH in Slackware and Arch – a Brief How-To

Let me state right out in the open here that my knowledge of computer networking is lacking. I’m learning as I go.

For most of the time that I’ve used computers in my home, I’ve only had one machine going at any given time. This past year or so, though, I’ve gained two more systems in addition to my main system. I have a laptop and a shop system up and running now in my home. The laptop connects via Ethernet or wireless. The shop system, which is outside in my workshop connects via wireless 100% of the time.

The main OS on all three of these systems is Slackware. For a year now, I’ve been running back and forth with thumb drives or CDs filled with data to keep the systems in sync with one another; mostly my personal documents, music, and Mozilla settings. I occasionally use DropBox for small files, but it’s not feasible for larger stuff due to its slow upload speeds. Cloud computing ain’t never going to work as long as ISPs throttle upload speeds.

Anyway, back when I first got the laptop, I attempted to network it with my main system. I failed miserably and ended up throwing in the towel. You can read about that learning experience in this long thread at Scot’s Newsletter Forums – Bruno’s All Things Linux. You’ll see that quite a few folks there were trying to help the dunderhead get his systems linked. Well, I finally succeeded just this past weekend.

Sometimes, you just have to walk away from a problem for a while. ;)

Here’s how I finally got it working using ssh:

  • Make sure that the ssh daemon script is executable so that it will run at boot up

#chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd

  • Modify the /etc/ssh/ssh_config as follows:

#vim /etc/ssh/ssh_config

<snip>

#   Port 22
Port <your port choice>
#   Protocol 2,1
Protocol 2

</snip>

*Either un-comment and change the default port setting  and the protocol or just add a line, as I did.

The purpose of this is mostly for security. Changing the port to a port of your choosing enhances your “security by obscurity” chances. Changing to to Protocol 2 is recommended because there are security flaws in Protocol 1.

  • Modify the /etc/ssh/sshd_config as follows:

#vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config

<snip>

#Port 22
 Port <your port choice>
#AddressFamily any
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
#ListenAddress ::

# The default requires explicit activation of protocol 1
 Protocol 2

</snip>

  • In your router’s Administration preferences (see your manufacturer’s instructions) you’ll need to set each device you plan on linking via ssh to use a static IP address. This has nothing to do with your ISP’s assigned IP address. This is just your home network we’re talking about here. The router assigns an IP to each device hooked to it. In order to ssh into remote devices, you’ll need to make sure the devices’ IP addresses don’t change (static).

That’s it. You are ssh’ing now, my friends.

It’s easy to access your remote machines now.

$ssh <username>@<device name>

Password: *********

The username is the name of the account that your are trying to access on the remote machine, say your wife Debbie’s account. The device name is the domain name of the device. Like this…

#ssh debbie@debbieslaptop01

Once you enter the password for Debbie’s account, you’ll have access to her user data and privileges.

In Arch Linux, the process is a bit simpler. First, make sure you have openssh installed on your Arch system. You still need to modify the ssh_config and sshd_config files in a similar fashion, but the getting the daemon to run at boot time is as simple as just adding “ssh” to your /etc/rc.conf file.

You can manipulate (edit, backup, copy, etc.) files on remote machines using ssh from the command line. However, to transfer files between machines, you might want to use ftp. It’s easier, in my opinion. Personally, I use gFTP in Slackware and Arch for this. There are many other choices out there, though. Use whatever works best for you.

So, there you have it. My next project is going to be adding my printer to my router’s USB connection and setting it up as a network printer for all three of my systems.

Stay tuned…

~Eric

Further reading:

SSH Tutorial for Linux

SSH Best Practices

SSH Man Page

19 March 2012 – 13:02 Categories: Linux, How-tos | Comments (7)

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HeliOS – Ken Starks Posts Sad Missive

***REPUBLISHED 16 March 2012 @ 1805hrs EDT***

A couple days ago, Ken Starks of the Austin, TX HeliOS Project posted a sad missive on his Blog of HeliOS.

Saturday, March 03, 2012

A quiet communication went public

As often happens with people that possess less than sure Internet Skills, a posting was made publicly that was meant for far fewer eyes. Sometimes it can be funny, sometimes it can end a marriage.  Other times it makes news readily availability before people were physically ready to receive it.

For those of you in the GNU/Linux community who know or have heard of Ken, you really need to read his posting in its entirety.

We’ll be thinking about you and your family, Ken. Our mutual friend and mentor, Bruno Knaapen, was proud of your achievements. It’s difficult to type these words, but if the inevitable that overtakes us all one day should overtake you any time soon, know that your contributions, assistance, and passion will not soon be forgotten by those of us who have had the privilege to know you.

Give ‘em hell, brother!

~Eric

Additional information:

An Interview with Ken Starks by Larry the Free Software Guy

Is This Thing On? – A heartfelt plea from Diane regarding Ken

Diane says:

I know I am going to receive a ton of wrath from this but his pride is outweighing his needs and I don’t believe in miracles like he does.

I have a paypal account set up via the email dianekfranklin@hotmail.com.  I hope none of you think badly of me for doing this.  Thank you for helping me take care of Ken.  I don’t know how to really spread the word so if you would help me do so I would appreciate it.

Please help, if you can.

16 March 2012 – 18:05 Categories: Tech Newsflash | Comments (2)

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Vector Linux 7.0 Standard – a Mini-Review

My niece deposited her old, tired Dell Latitude D560 laptop on her old, tired uncle yesterday.

She knew that he would wipe that ol’ corrupted Win XP installation off that baby and make ‘er scream again with a nice efficient GNU/Linux operating system. With a 30Gig hdd and only 760M of RAM, screaming will be only moderate with his little machine. However, scream again she does with a fresh install of Vector Linux 7.0 Standard (32 bit).

I had fully intended to give newcomer to the GNU/Linux scene, Zorin, a go on this old lappy. Unfortunately, their download hosting sites were terribly slow today; I mean dial-up slow. The NLUUG Netherlands site was faster than the U.S. iBiblio site, but that ain’t saying much. Either one was stating 11-12 hours download time for a measly 1.1Gig .iso file. That’s just sad. Oh well, maybe another time for Zorin. It does look promising; particularly as a transitional OS from Win to Lin.

Today, though, Vector won out in the download speed race. I’ve used Vector off and on across numerous of my systems and platforms over the past 6 or 7 years. It has always been a stable, usable, no-surprises distribution. I like that. I’m not a fan of surprises when it comes to operating systems. I like boring. I’ve been reluctant, as mentioned elsewhere here, to install Vector on my main or shop systems because I’m patiently waiting for a 64 bit version. A 32 bit version was just what this lappy needed; one not too bloated.

Installation was almost Slackware-ish boring. As I said, no surprises… GOOD! I installed on ext3 partitions; one for / and one for /home, as is my standard practice with GNU/Linux. The entire installation took about 15 minutes or so. I’m running the default Xfce/Cairo Dock desktop at the moment. It’s pretty nice, actually. Ethernet and wireless work out-of-the-box; again, no surprises.

Here’s a pic of the peppy and refreshed old laptop (click of bigger pic):

Photobucket

So, there you have it. Have an old, tired laptop lying around out in the garage? Grab it and install a fresh Vector Linux install on that baby and off you’ll go. That lappy will be a fully-functional machine once again. Set it up for the kids. Donate it to some needy person. Whatever you do with it will be better than what it was doing, sitting on that shelf all lonely and neglected.

Later…

~Eric

13 March 2012 – 21:26 Categories: Linux, Other Distributions | Comments (3)

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You Learn Something New Every Day!

I learned today that a mickey wasn’t just some drink someone gave you to knock you out so they could steal your wallet.

Here’s what a mickey really is according to Webopedia:

mickey

A mickey is a unit of measurement for the speed and movement direction of a computermouse. The speed of the mouse is the ratio between how many pixels the cursor moves on the screen and how many centimeters you move the mouse on the mouse pad. The directional movement is called the horizontal mickey count and the vertical mickey count. One mickey is approximately 1/200th of an inch.

Cool, huh? :)

Learn something. It won’t hurt you none. I promise.

Have a great weekend wherever in the world you may find yourself!

Later…

~Eric

Image credits: mouse courtesy of clker.com clipart

2 March 2012 – 19:05 Categories: Tech General | Comments (8)

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An Open Letter to Chris Dodd – by Eric S. Raymond

This article is so important, in my opinion, that I’m posting a link to it on all my blogs.

This is about freedom, pure and simple. If you read nothing else the next month, you should at least read this article by Eric S. Raymond. It is 24 carat TRUTH. It’s not just about technology and the Internet. It’s about your future and the future of your children and their children. Read it!

An Open Letter to Chris Dodd – by Eric S. Raymond from his blog.

Later…

~Eric

28 February 2012 – 20:04 Categories: Internet Privacy, Tech Newsflash | Comments (1)

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