how do i install software on slackware??

[Compunuts]

Except there is no need to worry about making sure that the universe and the other repos are enabled or not — either you paid for CNR or you havent.

Enabling universe and multiverse takes less than 1 minutes.

Paying for CNR is good as long as your boss/company paid for it and it takes some time to do it. Not that I don’t believe in buying your own software (I used to buy Red Hat box sets) and I’d pay for it if I would use it for commercial (such as working at company and I’d certainly tell them to shell out 79 bucks for a distro).

[flashingcurser]

A couple of things I want to point out:

1 The original poster has never come back.

2. This part of the message boards is dedicated to SLACKWARE!! The original poster asked a question about slackware, he should get answers about slackware.

3. Some software you cannot get a package or cannot get satisfactory results with a prebuilt package. Qmail is a fine example. EVERYONE should know how to build software on thier distro of choice. What is the point of open source if you cant even use it in the most rudimentary way?– building software from source.

4. Slackware has one of the best package management systems in linux. In terms of clean package installs, fewest dependancies, fewest problems. There are also has a couple of nice front ends that will resolve dependancies and download/install software. Swaret and slapt-get come to mind– though there are others.

5 Slackware is ideal for the newbe that wants to learn linux. If someone gets used to using slackware, they will be able to use any other distro with confidence. Old school, friendly community is also a plus.




dan


3 goats gruff……

[Tyr_7BE]

Sorry, but I disagree with a good part of what was said.

A couple of things I want to point out:
1 The original poster has never come back.

That’s fine. I’ve gotten a lot of helpful advice by stumbling on to threads like this from Google. If anyone is wondering the same thing and finds this page, then the more info we can give, the better!

2. This part of the message boards is dedicated to SLACKWARE!! The original poster asked a question about slackware, he should get answers about slackware.

He did get Slackware answers. But let’s be realistic…if someone is going to a forum to ask how to install software, then Slackware clearly isn’t what they signed up for. I don’t think many people consider it reasonable to have to manually compile all your dependencies and then compile the software in addition. The kind of people who install Slackware are long time users who appreciate the fact that you have to compile everything. They like to tinker and like having control of their system. They are not the type to go to forums and ask how to install Gaim. If, in the future, someone’s Linux nerd child/nephew/grandchild decides it’s a good idea to put Slackware on their computer, and they are searching Google to see why double-clicking files to install software doesn’t work, they now have pointers to other distributions that may be more suited to their tastes.

Note that nobody ever said "don’t use Slackware". It was simply stated that Ubuntu or Linspire may be better choices if the reader finds Slackware’s install methods as disgusting as I do.

3. Some software you cannot get a package or cannot get satisfactory results with a prebuilt package. Qmail is a fine example. EVERYONE should know how to build software on thier distro of choice. What is the point of open source if you cant even use it in the most rudimentary way?– building software from source.

The point of open source is that the source is there if you want it. If you don’t want to look at it and don’t want anything to do with it, it shouldn’t be forced upon you. I know that I can get the sources to Gaim if I want to, but 99% of the time I don’t want to. I want to open up Ubuntu’s package manager, select Gaim, and click Install without having to worry about manually collecting and installing 25 dependencies.

4. Slackware has one of the best package management systems in linux. In terms of clean package installs, fewest dependancies, fewest problems. There are also has a couple of nice front ends that will resolve dependancies and download/install software. Swaret and slapt-get come to mind– though there are others.

How do slack packages have fewer dependencies than other packages? The only way I could see that happening is if the application cut out features that use the external dependencies. Gaim depends on i/a/myspell for its spell check features…the only way you can not have i/a/myspell installed is to cut out the spell check feature. Similarly, how is a slackware package install any cleaner than other package installs? Every distro has its convention, and most packages stick to the distro’s coventions. Just because something is different doesn’t make it any cleaner/messier.

Swaret and slapt-get are indeed dependency resolution schemes, but I’ve had sketchy experiences with them in the past. Usually it’s due to the fact that there are so few packages for Slack. Back in the day when I was in to tinkering and used Slack extensively, I used tgz files when I could, but more often than not I ended up manually finding the tar.gz package and installing myself. They’re just not common enough to make package management systems work. I’ve been using package management systems for a long time and I’ve used them all…apt, yum, portage, ports, install/removepkg…Slackware’s system is the most abysmal I’ve encountered when it comes to getting software installed so you can go about your business and use it.

5 Slackware is ideal for the newbe that wants to learn linux. If someone gets used to using slackware, they will be able to use any other distro with confidence. Old school, friendly community is also a plus.

GENERAL WARNING FOR ANYONE WHO FINDS THIS THREAD AND IS CONFUSED ABOUT SLACKWARE:

It is most definitely NOT ideal for the newbie. It is ideal for the intermediate to advanced user who is looking to really get to know their way around a Linux system. It is ideal for those who want complete control of their system, and want to do everything themselves. If you’re looking for a system that stays out of your way and lets you get work done, I would look elsewhere. I would not advocate going to Slack unless you’ve been using a more user-friendly distro like Ubuntu for at least half a year, and have been actively exploring it, "getting under the hood" so to speak. Throw a complete newbie coming from the windows-style "double-click to install" mentality into Slackware and tell them that they now must manually resolve all their dependencies, and I guarantee you that 95% of them will have Linux off their system within the hour, laughing all the way through their XP install.

[NightSky]

I’ve been struggling w/Slackware for years and need to install software so thanks Dan and everyone. Install it, get to a certain point and then just let it sit…go back to my win98se, been doing this since slackware8…lol

[enorbet]

How about you newbs with all the pointy clciky distros bow down to the real Linux king – all hail Slackware LOL

Seriously though, while there is some value in modern packaging system distros like Fedora and the variations of Ubuntu they still can break things trying to satisfy dependencies. So you have to ask yourself what is higher priority one app or the whole OpSys? Slackware comes with so much software already tested and approved by a single master, not a committee, that it shows in stability, speed, and sheer burliness. Slack needs very little in addons. What packages are installed even from lamers can never break your system because slackpacks do not try to 2nd guess you and install dependency updates that can break what you installed before. One of the biggest advantages of Linux is avoiding "all eggs in one basket" thiking that in windoze requires at least one file (succeptible to loss and corruption let alone deletion in reinstalls) placed within the central windows directory. You NEVER have to reinstall an entire Linux system because apps run standalone and that’s why it is possible to place your $HOME directory in a new install and effectively recreate your system, especially if you install new apps within the $HOME directory and create links to the executables. Simply copy and paste and recreate your links and bingo! years of work is transferred in mere moments.

So if you want a bulletproof system embrace Slackware package managemet or better, find out that compiling from source is not a big deal and offers far more than it asks. Most often all that is required is to unpack the source tar which creates the directory for you. Enter that directory and type
./configure
make
su (plus password)
and finally if you want more control instead of "make install" install and use
checkinstall

Checkinstall will create packages, either slackpacks, debs, or rpms. If you like KDE you can even use KPackage to handle installs and uninstalls or to check on what is installed either as a package or it’s entire entourage of files and where they are located and whether they are active or in error.

If you want to build a hot rod, do it yourself. You lazy guys can keep your Hummers.

Jimmy