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!

Slackware 01000000

To quote the homepage:

[tap tap tap]... Is this thing on? ;-)

Ready or not, Slackware has now gone 64-bit with an official x86_64 port being maintained in-sync with the regular x86 -current branch. DVDs will be available for purchase from the Slackware store when Slackware 13.0 is released. Many thanks go out to the Slackware team for their help with this branch and a special thank you to Eric Hameleers who did the real heavy lifting re-compiling everything for this architecture, testing, re-testing, and staying in-sync with -current.

We've been developing and testing Slackware64 for quite a while. Most of the team is already using Slackware64 on their personal machines, and things are working well enough that it is time to let the community check our work.

We'd like to thank the unofficial 64 bit projects for taking up the slack for us for so long so that we could take our time getting everything just right. Without those alternatives, we would have been pressured to get things out before they were really ready.

As always -- have fun!

Pat and the Slackware crew

Southeast Linux Fest

It's coming up soon, folks - the Southeast Linux Fest in South Carolina at Clemson University, so mark your calendars and make plans to attend. This is a great opportunity to meet other linux users in the southeastern region of the US, and based on the list of presenters, it should be a very entertaining and educational experience as well.

For you Slackware users, this is an opportunity to meet other users and well as a few members of the Slackware and/or SlackBuilds.org development teams. I, Alan Hicks, David Somero, Chess Griffin, and perhaps several others will be in attendance, and I'll be doing a "Firewalling on Linux" presentation.

Xfce-4.6.0 for Slackware

Xfce 4.6.0 has released, and as expected, it's wonderful.
As usual, I've got a package for the latest stable release of Slackware - it's in the usual place.

University of Glasgow and Slackware

I just noticed a bit on DistroWatch about a major university's Department of Physical Sciences' migrating their main logon server to Slackware... It seems that the University of Glasgow (in the UK) retired the old logon server because it couldn't handle the load any more. They needed a stable, secure, and easy to maintain operating system for the new one, so they chose Slackware for the job. Thanks to Shane Kelly at UG and anyone else involved in the decision!

Slackware 12.2!

The anxiously awaited Slackware 12.2 release is now upon us - here's the blurb on the home page:

**************************************
That's right, it is once again time to announce a new release of Slackware. With a shiny new kernel, many package updates, and the newly added ability to install from a Samba share, we bring to you the latest in the stable Slackware 12.x series. Slackware 12.2 ships with the 2.6.27.7 Linux kernel, the Xorg 1.4.2 X server (with many driver, library, and application updates), Xfce 4.4.3, KDE 3.5.10, simplified wired and wireless networking with wicd in /extra, package upgrade management with slackpkg moved into the main tree, support for non-usb-storage digital cameras through libgphoto2, pm-utils (tools to support suspend and hibernate through HAL), and much, much more. This release brings the system up-to-date without compromising stability or compatibility with the 12.x series.

More details may be found with the official announcement

If you like Slackware, please consider supporting the project by picking up a copy of Slackware 12.2 from the Slackware Store. The discs are off to replication now and pre-orders are being accepted for the official 6 CD or 1 DVD set. Also by popular demand, we now have black T-shirts with the original Slackware logo for sale. Check 'em out!

Thanks are due to the Slackware crew, the developers of slackbuilds.org, the fine folks on linuxquestions.org, IRC, and everyone else who pitched in to help make this another great Slackware release. We couldn't have done it without your help.

As always -- have fun!

Pat and the Slackware crew
**************************************

On a related note, we at SlackBuilds.org have just opened up our 12.2 offering, so enjoy!

Slackware 12.2rc1

Well, it's getting close, folks. After several months of development and testing in the -current tree, Slackware 12.2 is almost here. As a precursor, here are some notable changes compared to 12.1:

1. Addition of pm-utils, a collection of scripts which take advantage of HAL's quirks database to handle power management tasks (like suspend and hibernate). See README.SLACKWARE for details.


2. Addition of wicd, a graphical NetworkManager-like application, to /extra. Wicd doesn't yet support all of NetworkManager's feature set, but for most users, it's plenty adequate.


3. SlackPkg has been added to the main tree (moved from /extra).


4. libgphoto2 has been added.


5. Based on kernel 2.6.27.7 and upgraded udev, gcc, and many other libraries and tools are upgraded and added.

As an aside, there are always many requests for new additions around this time, but quite frankly, release candidate state is too late for most of those, especially if other parts of the system can/will use them if present. Things that are of general purpose use will certainly be considered, but you need to suggest them earlier in the development cycle, and be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of adding them. Sending a well-tested and clean build script, licensed under BSD/MIT or similar, is also strongly suggested... :)

Xfce 4.6

Xfce 4.6 is due to release within the next couple of months, and as everyone knows, I'm a big fan of the Xfce desktop environment. I've been using a subversion checkout for several weeks now, and as expected, it's more of the same - in other words, it's exactly what we've come to expect of the Xfce developers: fast, attractive, and stable.

In case anyone running -current wants to give it a try, I've just pushed some packages to http://xfce46.rlworkman.net along with a few selected "goodies" compiled against it. Be sure to check out the xfce4-power-manager addon; it's a much needed and long awaited addition to Xfce, and was written by a Slackware user too :-)

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.

São Paulo again

First, I'd like to point out that I have made my presentation material from the SlackShow available at http://rlworkman.net/slackshowbrasil/.

Second, we were graced with the presence of Sulamita Garcia at the conference yesterday, and we took her vehicle to dinner last night. Sulamita is the Latin America Open Source Strategy Manager for Intel, and while I had some previous knowledge of her, I am *very* impressed after meeting and talking with her - the open source community needs more individuals like Sulamita.

Third, I have put a few more pictures from yesterday and last night in http://rlworkman.net/images/brazil/.

São Paulo, Brasil

Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil!

Alan Hicks, Eric Hameleers, and I are in São Paulo (with Piter PUNK and many Brasilian Slackware users for the SlackShow.

We visited the IBM Campinas facility Thursday and listened to some talks there at the Linux Technology Center - thank you to the wonderful people in that division for inviting us!

We gave our presentation on "Working with Slackware" yesterday, Eric gave his presentation on Slackware installation this morning, and as I type this, he is giving his presentation on SCIM (Smart Common Input Methods). Alan will be giving his presentations on TCP/IP networking and 802.11 wireless networking after lunch, and I will follow with my presentation on Netfilter/Iptables usage.

We've taken quite a few pictures - I've put a few of them online for viewing at http://rlworkman.net/images/brazil/.

Slackware 12.1 Released!

Yep, it's official! :-)

From the ChangeLog:
Thu May 1 13:36:34 CDT 2008
Slackware 12.1 is released as -stable. :-) Again, huge thanks to everybody who pitched in and helped with bug reports, patches, testing, suggestions, other comments, and everything else. Without this valuable input, Slackware would be nowhere near what it is today. Special thanks to the CREW, to the people developing and testing for slackbuilds.org (where many of Slackware's future additions are first built and tested), and to everyone on linuxquestions.org, various #slackware or ##slackware IRC channels, other Slackware related web sites, and other places where the community shares their needs and concerns with the team. On behalf of everyone here, thanks.
We think you'll enjoy this new release, and hope that you'll find it to be much more than 0.1 better than Slackware 12.0. ;-)

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.

Slackware 12.1 rc2 released!

It's close, folks... :)

From the ChangeLog:
Mon Apr 21 16:47:32 CDT 2008
We have now reached the Slackware 12.1 RC2 milestone. :-) We're beyond updating packages or fixing minor cosmetic bugs at this point (actually, we had hoped to be past that with RC1, but there were still items in need of attention). What we have here now has proven to be stable for our testers, so unless some real showstoppers are found we'll be releasing this as Slackware 12.1-final soon.

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

kde-4.0.1 on Slackware

I just pushed some updates to the kde4 packages for Slackware -current; now we have kde-4.0.1 packs.


The download location has moved though - I decided to take advantage of some previously unused bandwidth and space on my 1and1.com shared hosting account.


Get them at http://kde4.rlworkman.net/.

KDE4!

Two announcements...

First, I've just pushed some long-awaited packages of kde-4.0.0 for Slackware. They are only for Slackware -current (this is the development version of Slackware, not the latest stable release), and no, that doesn't mean that the next release of Slackware will have kde-4.0.0 in it.
See the latest post on my ChangeLog:
http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/current/ChangeLog.txt
(Tue Jan 15 17:06:38 UTC 2008).

Second, I'll be attending the release event at Google this weekend, along with Pat, Alan, and Amrit. Fred (slamd64) is also going to be there, so we plan to have a grand time! :-)

Slackware -current is public! :-)

After (hopefully) squashing all of the big bugs, -current development leading to Slackware 12.1 has been made public - see the Change Log for details.

Eric Hameleers and I have also got the vast majority of our unofficial add-on packages ready for use on -current -- see http://slackware.com/~alien/ for Eric's or http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/current/ for mine.

SlackWorld Feature!

For whatever reason, the guys over at The Slack World thought I was worthy of this month's "Persona Grata" feature, so they fired off a few questions and gathered some responses. You can find it on their home page (linked above) or go directly to the interview.

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... :)

Slack -current is public :)

Sorry for the long hiatus - there has been (and still is) a lot going on, and it's tough to find the time required to update a blog via a dialup connection...

After several months of heavy development out of the public spotlight, Slackware -current is now ready for a wider audience. See the ChangeLog for the latest changes, and be sure to read the Changes and Hints page if you're doing an upgrade from Slackware 11.

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!

New kde-3.5.5 testing packages

The last several days have been quite busy! :) I've posted some testing packages of kde-3.5.5. They are compiled with dbus, dbus-glib bindings, dbus-qt3 bindings, gamin, and all of the kmail-gpg integration packages, as the goal is to test all of those things as a whole. In other words, if you're just wanting a shiny new kde version number for whatever reason, then these packages are not for you - these are intended for intermediate/advanced Slackware users who are interested in and capable of testing things that are slated for possible inclusion in Slackware -current (of course, whether they are is ultimately Pat's decision, but he is aware of this ongoing project).
Anyway, these need lots of testing, and we'd like to get as much feedback (whether positive or negative) as possible.
There is one bug in konqueror with devices not showing up in it if they're mounted and then subsequently unmounted and remounted (see KDE Bug 136123), but there's little I can do about it until/unless the Konqueror developers address it.
Thanks in advance to everyone who's willing to help out on this.

This will almost certainly be my last post until the holidays are over, so here's wishing happy times to everyone during them.

Slackware Podcast

Thanks to Chess Griffin over at Linux Reality for a nice podcast on Slackware! It's a good discussion geared toward new Linux users (or maybe just new to Slackware), but it's a good listen even for more advanced users. A special thanks is in order for his mention of our SlackBuilds.org project in the interview; Chess has contributed a few good scripts himself to our project... :-)

Also, there's a new version of dbus out (1.0.2), and I've got new packages of it and dbus-glib. Be sure to update them, as there's a security fix included (it's not remotely exploitable though, so no huge hurry).

OpenOffice.org 2.1.0 Released!

The OpenOffice.org team released version 2.1.0 a couple of days ago, and I've finally got my build script for it updated. I've not had a chance to do any heavy testing with the package yet, but I'm fairly certain that it's ready for production use. However, if it crashes your computer, drinks your beer, sleeps with your girlfriend, and sodomizes your cat, don't blame me - I warned you... ;-) If after all that you still want the package, it's in my /testing repo.

New udev and friends

PiterPunk has just released some new packages and source tarballs for udev-103, sysvinit-2.86, and sysfsutils-2.1.0. I have packages and sources available if you're interested in testing.

New Truck! :)

Yes, I finally decided to buy a new truck, so here it is - a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado. Notice the back glass... :D

Updates coming soon...

The GnuPG guys have released gnupg-2.0.1rc1 and libassuan-1.0.1, so I've rebuilt all of the kmail-gpg stuff (and kdebase & kdepim) in /testing - they should be going up at some point tomorrow if all goes well.

DBus 1.0 Released; Xfce Rebuild Coming Soon

DBus 1.0 was released a few days ago (thanks to MagicMan for the heads-up), and I've finally got the kinks worked out of the init script for it, so packages of it and dbus-glib (rebuilt against dbus-1.0) are now available. If you were experiencing any bugs with it, be sure to upgrade to the newest version.

In other news, I'm currently recompiling and testing Xfce 4.4rc2 adding --with-sound=alsa to the configure script for the mixer, and preliminary results indicate success :) Thanks to all of you who emailed about it. I'm not entirely certain about this, but I'm guessing that the differences due to 2.4/2.6 kernel headers as they pertain to alsa are responsible for this - the autodetection routines in the configure script don't seem to work with the 2.4 kernel headers, but then, I've not tested it with 2.6 headers (nor do I plan to do so until Pat upgrades them in stock Slackware), so I may be totally off-base on that. Regardless of the cause, the moral of the story is that it should work now with that simple change to the build script. Assuming everything goes as planned, I should have new Xfce packages (in all flavors - with and without {dbus,dbus/gamin} dependencies - available within a day or two. Keep checking the ChangeLog for updates, because it probably won't be posted here.

Xfce 4.4rc2 Rebuilt - bugfix

For those monitoring this instead of (or maybe in addition to) my ChangeLog, I've rebuilt the Xfce 4.4rc2 packages with a patch I backported from the svn repository to fix the missing printer icons in the Settings menu.

For those interested, I'm also trying to find the least intrusive way to include "real-time" file change notification for xfdesktop, and it looks like gamin is going to fit the bill. I've built a gamin package as well as an Xfce 4.4rc2 package linked against it. The preliminary results of my testing here were inconsistent and unpredictable, but it seems to be stable and consistent now for whatever reason, so there is hope. Testing and feedback are encouraged... :-)

Xfce 4.4 RC2

The Xfce developers have released 4.4 Release Candidate 2!!!
Packages for Slackware 11.0 are available in my package repository, and there are also packages for the extra plugins as well.
Be sure to read the ChangeLog entry from today (20061105). If you prefer to build it yourself, feel free to get the SlackBuild Script and other needed files.
Testing and feedback are encouraged and appreciated; thanks to everyone who's already involved - I appreciate it!

Interview with Volkerding

Pat Volkerding, the Slackware maintainer, was interviewed by The Linux Link Tech Show last night - it's available in OGG (preferred) or MP3 format.

OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 Released!

...and I've got a good package for Slackware! I had to work around a bug in Xfce to get the Menu entries to work properly in Xfce, but that's settled now, and this package was built with what is almost certainly the cleanest script I've ever used for it - it just keeps getting better with time... :) Thanks to the numerous people who've provided feedback on both the script and packages. Also, updates to wine-0.9.23 and gqview-2.1.2 should be coming soon.

I've got a new stable version of vte (which is bundled with Xfce for Terminal) pulled down, but I'm going to hold off until the Xfce developers release 4.4rc2 before I rebuild Xfce - they've got the xfdesktop mess with dbus/dbus-glib sorted out, and those dependencies will no longer be required, so I can make packages available for a stock Slackware 11.0 system without adding other deps. For those who want the added functionality (and bugs) of dbus, I'll continue to offer builds against it as well.

OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 RC3

I've posted some new OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 RC3 packages in my /testing repository - give it a try and see what you think. Among the many bugfixes and feature enhancements slated for 2.0.4, two are notable. First, 2.0.4 will have an 'online update' feature similar to what's available in Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird; exactly how this will work and how/if it will be compatible with repackaged binaries remains to be seen. Second, OOo will now honor proxy settings and default mail client settings configured in kde. Feedback is certainly encouraged; if you would prefer to build the package yourself with the build script, here it is.

Slackware 11.0 Released!

After an unusually long development cycle, Slackware 11.0 has been released. There are a lot of changes since the 10.2 release, so if you're upgrading from a previous version, be sure to read up on them.

KMail Project, XFCE, Slackware -current updates

Several topics of interest today... First, I decided to go ahead and make the necessary changes to build gnupg2-1.9.23, so I've updated all of the kmail/gpg related packages, including kdebase and kdepim. The kdebase package is built with Pat's unmodified SlackBuild script, so other than the fact that it's linked to the gnupg deps, it's identical to the official Slackware package in Slackware -current (the same thing applies to kdepim). A special thanks goes out to Zalamander and Black Panther for testing and provided much needed feedback on these packages.

Brian Tarricone, xfce's xfdesktop maintainer, has advised that the dbus dependency issues have been sorted out in the subversion repository, so the next release candidate of xfce 4.4 will no longer require the dbus and dbus-glib packages. As I stated earlier, I will be maintaining unofficial packages for Slackware 11.0, which will not have the dbus dep (as it will not be in 11.0), but I will also continue to offer packages that are compiled against dbus and dbus-glib for those who wish to have that functionality. Assuming Pat adds dbus and hal to Slackware -current (after 11.0 releases), then of course I will also be maintaining packages compiled against those until such time as Pat decides to incorporate xfce 4.4 into -current.

Speaking of Slackware, we're *still* waiting on 11.0 to release. I'll admit that I'm a bit impatient, but not for the same reasons as most. I'm perfectly happy with the fact that the release will be delayed until it's "ready" (per Pat), as that's what is expected of Slackware. I know we can expect an update to openssh before it's released, and probably a few other things, but like I said, it's not *Slackware* unless it's *ready* when it releases. :-) However, as I said, I am somewhat impatient - I run -current on everything but my firewall box, so I'm ready to get back to the excitement of breaking/fixing things and adding new functionality... :-)

Updates to kmail/gpg project

I posted some updated/rebuilt packages for kmail/gpg integration yesterday, and I've got a rebuilt kdebase package on the way - it should be up sometime tomorrow.

On another note, we're still getting closer to Slackware 11.0 (I think) - it's slowly coming upon us... :-)

SUCCESS! (KMail/GPG) :-)

It's just been reported that the stuff in my testing repo for KMail/GPG decryption is working properly! Thanks to Zalmon Gershon for testing it. I'm following the gnupg development mailing list, so I'll be updating those packages as needed; however, I won't be able to upgrade to gnupg2 1.9.23 (which was released earlier this week), as it has a few bugs in it which prevent building it here. The bugs have been reported, and they are fixed in the subversion repo, but I'm not too keen on building out of svn unless it's necessary. Since things are working as is, I'm leaving them alone (thanks, Pat - you've rubbed off on me) ;-)

Slackware 11.0 RC5 Released

Pat has released Slackware 11.0 RC5, and he added desktop-file-utils to the official package set, so I'll be rebuilding xfce 4.4rc1 tonight and eliminating the included d-f-u package from it. Also, the gnupg team released version 1.9.23 of gnupg2 (development version headed to 2.0) today, so I'll also be building it tonight. Of importance in the list of changes is that this release includes all of the code contained in gunpg 1.4.5, so the development version technically could replace the old stable version now (although it's still not recommended). They're hoping for a release candidate in October, so if all goes well, maybe we can get gnupg 2.0 (and other related stuff) in Slackware 11.1 so that KMail/GPG integration is fully functional (including S/MIME support).

Several new things...

I've made some major changes to both the build scripts and packages of the xfce goodies; instead of one large package containing all of the goodies, they are now built and packaged separately to allow more fine-grained control over what's being installed on the system.

I'm tentatively declaring success on my project to get the gnupg integration and kmail working properly; based on my preliminary tests, I am able to successfully decrypt both my own sent mails as well as encrypted mails sent from others. Both the build scripts and packages are available, and testing/feedback are encouraged. :)

We seem to be creeping closer to the 11.0 release of Slackware; it's been at Release Candidate 4 for a couple of weeks with only a couple of non-minor changes since then, so here's hoping :)

New xfce goodies package!

I've just updated the xfce4-goodies package; in addition to several of the included plugins being updated, I've also added the thunar-archive plugin and the wavelan plugin. Enjoy!

Xfce Rebuilt; New Goodies Coming...

I've just posted a rebuild of the xfce 4.4rc1 package - I've added an unofficial patch from Mike Massonnet to fix a problem where the volume slider bar in the panel is too tall.

Several of the goodies have been updated, and there's finally been a release of the wavelan plugin for 4.4, so I'll have a new build of the goodies up tomorrow.

Packages for xfce 4.4rc1

Well, after much discussion on IRC and various other places, I've got xfce 4.4rc1 packages for Slackware -current built and posted here.
I'm not extremely happy with having to do this, but I was more or less forced to build xfce against dbus and dbus-glib (which required building those two and getting them working). Brian Tarricone (the xfdesktop maintainer) implemented a new Trash icon with some interactive features (for example, an "Empty Trash" function), which depend on dbus. Unfortunately, he's not finished with the code, and he's been away on holiday for the last week or so, and the current state of the code does not allow one to disable the dbus dependency. I've explained it in a bit more detail in the ChangeLog, so read through it if you want more information. The main thing to keep in mind right now is that you MUST install the dbus and dbus-glib packages available from the main package link above, or you should build them yourself with the SlackBuild scripts prior to starting xfce. Regardless of which route you go, make sure you follow the instructions for dbus setup.

This dbus issue should be resolved in the next release candidate of xfce 4.4, so I'll hopefully be able to offer a build without requiring dbus next time.

Xfce 4.4 RC1 Released

Xfce has finally released the 4.4 RC1 sources, and I've got them downloaded, so I should have new packages built for Slackware -current within a day or two. Unless something changes between the Slackware 11.0 RC4 and the official 11.0 release, these packages will also be advertised on the xfce mailing lists for 11.0.

On another (unrelated) note, I've been experimenting with some gnupg additions (libgcrypt, libgpg-error, libassuan, gpgme) trying to get email decryption working in KMail. It's turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, and it may not even be possible without the development version of gnupg (which includes gpgsm), but we'll see. Wish me luck... :)

OpenOffice.org and Xfce Updates

I've rebuilt the xfce 4.4 beta 2 (4.3.90.2) packages, as the author of xarchiver released a new version yesterday. I also made several changes to the xfce4-goodies package; the battery plugin and weather plugin were upgraded to newer versions, which should fix the various issues people were having with them, and I've added three new plugins: thunar media tags, sensors, and xmms.
I've also upgraded the openoffice.org package; I've been working on the build script a little at a time for several weeks while reading quite a bit of the freedesktop.org information. Instead of including our own, we now use the *.desktop files included with the official binaries. Also, we no longer create/replace /etc/mailcap and /etc/mime.types, as these didn't accomplish my objective at all, and otherwise provided no measurable benefit so far as I can tell. To make a long story short, I don't see a way to set OOo as the system-wide default for anything other than its own file types - this has to be done by each user. See the shared mime info spec and standard mime actions spec at FreeDesktop.org for more information.

Slackware 11 release - soon!

Well, it looks like Slackware 11 will be releasing very soon. I'm rather anxious, but not because of the normal reasons - I'm running -current, so a new stable release means we can get back to some new and exciting changes in -current instead of just stability upgrades.

One thing that I'm going to be working on is an experimental version of sysvinit 2.86 while PiterPunk is working on udev >097. There were quite a few changes to the rules syntax in 098, and while the old stuff will still work right now (while logging warnings), it's best to go ahead and get them implemented now so people can start getting used to them. I don't mean to scare anyone - the changes are good, and they're not so major that they require massive rewrites of anything - a simple sed substitution will probably do the trick (here's hoping, anyway).

On another note, the SlackBuilds.org project is coming along well; we've added quite a few new scripts since going live, and we have several more in the queue to be added soon. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Update to xfce 4.4 beta 2 packs and build script

For those of you following my progress on xfce in Slackware -current, this is old news, but I'm almost certain that I've got the last of the existing problems solved. From the Change Log:

Thu Aug  3 19:56:45 UTC 2006
It's Christmas in August! New kde packs in -current, and now
the xfce build here should be working as intended by its
developers - see below  :)
current/xfce-4.3.90.2-i486-5rlw.tgz: Rebuilt; removed
hicolor-icon-theme, as it's not needed any more due to the
 xinitrc changes in the previous build.
Added desktop-file-utils, which fixes the problem Thunar
 was having with associated file types with applications.
Thunar should now be working completely as intended by the
 developer. :)
current/xfce4-goodies-4.4_20060803-1rlw.tgz: Upgraded the
 verve-plugin package to 0.3.4; this is a bugfix release.
current/sysvinit-2.86-i486-4rlw.tgz: Rebuilt; incorporated
 Pat's changes from yesterday in -current.  I've got to track
 down a potential problem with an error message being generated
 in rc.S (related to /proc/filesystems), so hold off on this
 upgrade unless you're brave (although it's working fine here).

As you noticed, I've also been working on updates to sysvinit; based on earlier conversation, expect this to be mainlined with PiterPunk's work soon.

ANNOUNCE: SlackBuilds.org

After three months of work behind the scenes, the SlackBuilds.org site is officially live! The project's main goal is to provide a set of reliable build scripts for almost any additional application a Slackware user could want.

xfce 4.4 beta 2 - looking good!

Wonderful news - I've *finally* figured out at least one way to fix the problem I've been having with icons for kde apps not displaying on the xfce menu. An updated package is available, and details on the "fix" are available in the Change Log.

On another note, we're shooting for an official launch of the SlackBuilds.org project sometime next week, so wish us luck! :)

Two updates in one day!!!

Well, I managed to get xfce 4.4beta2 and the goodies rebuilt and packaged while sitting in class, so they're available in the package repository. I've also updated the build scripts for both of them (and included the source tarballs in there too).

New changes to -current

Well, Pat just committed a large batch of updates to the -current tree, and one of them was libpng 1.2.12. This version renumbers the shared object files in /usr/lib, and the only way to maintain compatibility with apps linking against the older number is a symlink. I experimented with upgrading libpng in troubleshooting some issues with xfce 4.4beta2, but I ran into this problem with quite a few apps, and like Pat, I wasn't happy with the idea of a symlink. I expect that link to be removed soon once he gets all the apps depending on libpng recompiled against the new version, so I'll be recompiling all of mine (including xfce 4.4beta2 and hplip, probably others) within the next few days. If I'm lucky, this might have some impact on the problem where icons for kde applications are not showing up in the xfce menu, but I'm doubtful - the more I look at the freedesktop.org standards, I'm coming closer to the conclusion that it's a kde problem (specifically, the separate directory for icons in /opt/kde/share/icons as opposed to using /usr/share/icons)...

Temporary Break Coming Soon...

Well, I still have three or four different assignments to complete (and final exams), but next Thursday is the last day of the summer semester - maybe I'll finally have a bit of free time to get some work done ;-)
With a bit of luck, I'll figure out the problems with kde application icons not being displayed in xfce 4.4beta2, and there are a few other minor things on my TODO list...

Pic from Vacation

Here's a picture taken at Little River Canyon near Fort Payne; notice the Slackware hat ;-)

Recent Developments

There are quite a few things going on right now:
1. I'm enrolled in graduate school working on my Master's degree in Educational Administration, and I'm taking four classes this summer - as should be readily obvious, I'm quite busy with those... :)
2. I'm working with a good group of people on a project (SlackBuilds.org) to provide build scripts for additional software applications not included with Slackware "out of the box." We're not at all happy with new users of Slackware becoming dependent upon third-party sources for precompiled packages, as they tend to introduce unnecessary dependencies on other applications (and occasionally security problems), and new users don't yet know enough to tell the difference. Our goal is to provide both scripts to compile the source code of those needed applications as well as educate new users on how to work with the scripts.
3. The release of Slackware 11.0 will be coming soon; Pat Volkerding (the maintainer) has indicated in the ChangeLog that the -current tree is stable and that a new release is close at hand...
4. I've been testing some experimental work on "bleeding-edge" udev | sysvinit | sysfsutils | pcmciautils stuff done largely by Roberto Batista (aka PiterPunk), and based on my results, it looks promising. The decision is ultimately up to Pat, but we're hoping it will be stable (and reliable) enough to hit -current sometime after 11.0 releases; if not, we'll keep working until it *is* stable enough... :)
I've recently done some hacking to the newest version of sysvinit (2.86) and forwarded the results to PiterPunk, so maybe it will hit the experimental tree at some point...
5. My preferred window manager, xfce, is approaching the release of version 4.4. The beta 2 was released yesterday, and after hacking around on Pat's script for the 4.2 series, I've got a package built for -current. While it's much more usable than the beta 1 release (in fact, I'm now using it exclusively), there's no hope of it being included in the 11.0 release of Slackware - it's nowhere near ready for that. There's still a problem where some kde icons don't show up in the various menus, and I've had one random crash that had no rhyme nor reason :)