Using Slackware-current

This is actually NOT recommended for beginners. But, sometimes, the need to use the latest software is unavoidable and this COULD be a solution. Plus, this will add a LOT of COOL-points

Note: I have removed a section on DE-less installation since my current Slackware installations ARE, in fact, DE-less.

Note: I have also removed a section on hijacking other Linux system - this, here, turned out to be VERY similar to what needed to be done.

[LastUpdated20210620]

I need to use GTK3 version that is newer that the one on 14.2, so I tried the development version (slackware64-current). I have done the same once (pre-11), so I am aware that there can be some issues when doing this. I am happy to say that I AM writing this on a slackware64-current (15.0 beta?) installation on my laptop.

So, this is a little note to my future self (or anybody that may be find this useful DISCLAIMER: Use this at your own risk!). I am doing this while still using Devuan and I want to keep that for backup, in case things go wrong. (On a side note, the reason I use Devuan was because of the GTK3 version.) So, I have an extra partition that I have reformatted and prepared to download the stuffs I need.

• download official packages (getslack)
  • create download path: <mount-path>/home/share/slackware
  • create custom getslack config .getslack
  • set VERS=current
  • exclude kde & xfce
• setup EFI boot
  • bzImage in kernels/huge.s (rename to vmlinuz)
  • initrd.img in isolinux/ (this has the slackware setup)
• boot and run installation as usual
  • DO NOT format partition (packages are there!)
  • pick packages from mounted path
  • manually set kernel to boot (i use huge - generic needs initramfs)
• boot newly installed slackware
  • remove gnuchess and xaos packages
  • make sure vim does not create backups (edit usr/share/vim/vimrc)
  • allow dmesg for user
    • append etc/rc.d/rc.local ← echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/dmesg_restrict
  • just for personal reference, some useful info on using nmcli

    nmcli r[adio] wifi
    nmcli r[adio] wifi on
     
    nmcli d[evice] wifi list
    nmcli d[evice] wifi connect <ssid> password <pass> ifname <wlan0>
     
    nmcli c[onnection] show
    nmcli c[onnection] down <ssid>
    nmcli c[onnection] up <ssid>

  • customize etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults (standard default paths)
  • create user
• get additional packages (getslackpack)
  • luckily, alienBob's repo 'supports' current
  • create custom getslackpack config .getslackpack
  • (alien) openjdk libreoffice libreoffice-dict-en“
• get additional packages (getslackbuild)
  • run as VERS=14.2 getslackbuild fetch <pkg>
  • pkgs: dmenu geany rox-filer slackware-xdm-theme
  • pkgs: slock st wmname pmount unrar
  • pkgs: nss-mdns avahi libdaemon
  • note: rox-filer cannot be compiled, needed patching (this)
  • i have gathered all the scripts from slackbuilds.org that i use and keep them here
• i want to use dwm
  • using my own custom build script (which has personalized patches)
  • my dwm xinitrc will run loginctl hibernate when battery<30% (→ what i need on my current laptop)

To maintain:

note: my libmy1slack library will detect current when etc/slackware-version has '+' suffix. this sign will disappear when -current is near to a stable release.

• run slack-update as usual
  • when -current going stable, use SLACKVERS=current slack-update
• run slack-current instead of slackpatch
  • when -current going stable, use -f switch
  • to see removed packages, use slackview (i.e. SLACKVERS=current slackview find –alien)
• update those installed using getslackbuild if needed