Slackware 13.0 Released!

Yep, Slackware 13.0 is out, and finally we have both an x86 (32bit) and x86_64 (64bit) version available.

On a related note, my package repository and SlackBuilds.org have new goodies for 13.0 available.

Enjoy, everyone!

Random Thoughts

Since I haven't posted anything here in a long time, today seems like a good day to do so...

First of all, there were LOTS of questions regarding the lack of updates to -current in late October and early November, and while Eric and I addressed it on AOLS, I'll do so again here. As is plainly obvious now, the batch of updates that went out after all that time had quite a few big changes - in particular, the move from 2.6.24.x to 2.6.27.x required quite a bit of research and testing. While it might be nice to have a weekly "status update" or some such, the fact of the matter is that doing so would take time away from doing *real* work; ultimately, it seems much better for everyone involved if the ChangeLog shows *results* of work rather than *ideas* of work.

Second, I think the -current tree has mostly stabilized to the point of being safe to build packages against it intended for long-term usage, so I've just released the first batch of my unofficial contributions on my packages page.

Third, for anyone who happens to be in the Tuscaloosa area, a few of us have started a Tuscaloosa Linux Users Group, so have a look at it.

Finally, we have closed the submission form at SlackBuilds.org to give us time to clear out pending and prepare for the release of Slackware 12.2.

kde-4.0.70

I pushed out packages of kde 4.0.70 yesterday; this is intended to be the last snapshot before the 4.1.0 alpha1 release (according to the kde team).

The packages (and sources) are at http://kde4.rlworkman.net/; also, be sure to read the _README file for installation/upgrade instructions and known bugs/workarounds.

kde-4.0.2 packages

Thanks to a bit of gentle prodding from Benoit Beauchamp over at Recycled Space :) and a bit of spare time, I've finally got kde-4.0.2 packaged for Slackware -current (soon to be 12.1, we think) :)

It's in the same place as before -- http://kde4.rlworkman.net/, and there are new builds of *every* package in the tree, as well as some rearrangement of the source tree.

As I mentioned before, I can't offer rsync or ftp access from the box hosting these package, so http is all I can do... Enjoy! -RW

Changes to the site

Now that Slackware -current is moving again, most (if not all) of my work hosted here will be aimed at the -current development branch. I plan to maintain stable release versions of (most of) the packages hosted here now, but don't expect any new applications for 11.0 - the only work I'll be doing on 11.0 will be testing build scripts associated with SlackBuilds.org.

Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to get -current packages for everything already on my site - be patient... :)

Lots of updates

PiterPUNK has released updated packages and sources of udev-104 and sysvinit-2.86 for testing on Slackware 11.0 - nearly identical packages are also hosted here.

I've released updated packages of Xfce-4.4rc2 with vte split from the main package; you will need to install the vte package after upgrading to the new Xfce package. If you were using the Xfce package built against dbus and dbus-glib, it's been removed - the Xfce /testing package now requires all of dbus, dbus-glib, and gamin (plus the common dependency of vte), so be sure to get all of those if you want all of the "bells and whistles" in the new 4.4 release candidates. I debated moving this out of /testing into the main repository, as it seems very stable and usable here and in feedback I've gotten, but for the time being, I'm going to leave it in /testing.

I've also rebuilt quite a few packages in the last few days after cleaning up the build scripts; I caught at least one bug in my patch to apcupsd, so that was a productive exercise. Check the ChangeLog to see the full list.

I've rearranged the site a fair amount over the last few days too - the SlackBuilds Section is now much less populated, as package sources are no longer placed there. Instead, I moved all of the package sources here to maintain better compliance with the GPL (which means I don't have to bother with email requests for sources any more) :).

Finally, we've been busy over at SlackBuilds.org too - we had more than 25 new commits in the last ChangeLog there. Thanks to all of the other admins and all the submitters for the great work!