Slackware Experience

Personal notes on using Slackware. Some old notes have been archived.

Do note that Slackware has a great documentation site.

Getting Slackware

The official way to do this is, of course, to get it from slackware.com.

Personally, I have getslack, a bash script based on (more accurately, a trimmed-down version of) the excellent (he termed it infamous) mirror-slackware-current.sh by Alien Bob. When going down this path, the next step would be to prepare the installation media.

Slackware Installer ISO Image

I no longer need an ISO image (refer to USB installer below). But, I have my slack2iso script (also based on Alien Bob's script) that can help in creating one using the tree downloaded by getslack.

Slackware USB Installer

Alien Bob has provided a script to make/setup/configure a USB-based Slackware installation media. I wanted to do something simpler using the existing files in the Slackware tree that I mirrored using getslack (mentioned above). So, here is how I got that working.

Create a FAT32 partition
- use fdisk and make sure it is bootable (bootable flag enabled)
- use mkdosfs (e.g. mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdb1)
Use syslinux to provide bootloader
- create a /linux/boot/syslinux folder on the USB
- type
```
syslinux -d /linux/boot/syslinux /dev/sdb1
```
  Note: On newer syslinux, use -i to indicate new installation
- a file ldlinux.sys should appear in /linux/boot/syslinux
Copy boot facilities from Slackware tree to the media
- copy a kernel from slackware tree to /linux/boot (I used huge.s)
- copy initrd.img and message.txt to /linux/boot
- copy isolinux.cfg to /linux/boot/syslinux as syslinux.cfg
- edit syslinux.cfg accordingly (initrd, kernel params, etc.)
Copy slackware<64> in the Slackware tree (I used a shorter folder name like slack on the USB)

And… we're done! Now we have a simple Slackware USB Installer and install it on every computer we can get our hands on!

Note: GPT Disks and EFI

Things moving to (U)EFI and GPT… slowly leaving legacy BIOS and MBR.

Instead of MBR, we use GPT partitioning scheme:

supports bigger disk
supports EFI booting (easier to maintain actually :p)

Partition codes are 2-bytes instead (only 1-byte on MBR's partition table). Among the common ones:

EF00 (EFI System Partition): this is what EFI boot look for
- format FAT32
```
mkdosfs -F 32 -n MY1EFI /dev/sdxx
```
0700 (MS Basic Data): Windows Partition
- format NTFS
```
mkntfs -f -L MY1WIN /dev/sdxx
```
8300 (Linux filesystem): Linux Partition
- format EXT4
```
mkfs.ext4 -L MY1LIN /dev/sdxx
```

Once boot using EFI, efibootmgr tool can be used (available on Slackware 14.2)

to create an entry labelled Slackware with loader file named \efi\slackware\elilo.efi located on first partition of first disk (/dev/sda1)
```
efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L "Slackware" -l "\efi\slackware\elilo.efi"
```
to delete an entry xxxx (bootnum)
```
efibootmgr -b xxxx -B
```
to re-order boot sequence
```
efibootmgr -o xxxx,yyyy,zzzz
```

2025/01/01 15:54 · azman

Installing Slackware

Installation notes (i.e. packages, configs).

LastUpdated20250112

Basic Install

Using Slackware installer.

official packages (getslack)
- checkout my getslack config file
- without kde (AND xfce if going DE-less)
- removepkg gnuchess xaos xsnow
- removepkg joe nano vim-gvim slackpkg

setup/config

sample elilo.conf

elilo.conf

prompt
#chooser=simple
timeout=50
default=Slack
image=vmlinuz-huge
        label=SlackHuge
        read-only
        append="root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda4 vga=normal"
image=vmlinuz
        label=Slack
        initrd=initrd.gz
        read-only
        append="root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda4 vga=normal"

make sure vim does not create backups (edit /usr/share/vim/vimrc)
- or, run vimstart (from my1shell repo)
dmesg no longer allowed for user
- append rc.local ← echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/dmesg_restrict
- or, run setup_slack (from my1shell repo)

additional packages (getslackpack)
- checkout my getslackpack config file and repository list
- (alien) openjdk libreoffice libreoffice-dict-en“
additional packages (getslackbuild)
- slackware-xdm-theme
- geany unrar
- nss-mdns avahi libdaemon
- actually, scripts from slackbuilds.org (commonly used)

DE-less config

This is what I do for a lean (not necessarily minimal, but trimmed to my liking) installation.

setup acpi from my personal script
additional packages (getslackbuild)
- dmenu slock st wmname
- rox-filer pmount
custom dwm build
- using my own build script (which has personalized patches)

Updating

To maintain:

run slack-update
- this actually runs 3 scripts (getslack,getslackpack,getslackbuild)
run slackpatch (if required)
run getslackbuild build -x -i (if required)

Sample configuration files for the above scripts are here.

2025/01/12 07:57 · azman

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.

Installing

[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)

Updating

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

2025/01/01 16:06 · azman

Special Needs

Sometimes these can be useful.

Slackware in chroot

20110621 I want to have a 32-bit system running in chroot environment on my Slackware64. I've used such system on Debian using schroot…

20110906 I managed to do this as published here…

20120518 Minor change to the fstab entry for dev, which needs an rbind option so that the pty inside can be valid! Discussed here.

20120524 This is now part of my slackstuff collection (now known as my1shell)… in form of a script called slackroot.

20121031 The path to the chroot installation MUST ALL BE owned by root - or else, users will get a Write failed: Broken pipe error.

TODO A how-to on creating 32-bit chroot on 64-bit Slackware using slackroot script.

slack_chroot32.txt

- on my pure slack64 (maintained using getslack/getslackpack)
$ ARCH=i686 getslack
 
- create root filesystem using 32-bit packages
# slackroot /opt/chroot32 --arch x86 --desk -x
 
- copy user/group info from 64-bit system to chroot32
  = will maintain its own login info!
# preproot --init /opt/chroot32
 
- mount bind 'system' paths
# preproot /opt/chroot32
 
- ssh into system to use 32-bit chroot
# ssh user@127.0.0.1
 
- unmount bind 'system' paths
# preproot --done /opt/chroot32

2025/01/12 09:59 · azman

Slackware Multilib

Main references are here and here.

Basically, need to have C library and compiler capable of multilib. I use getslackpack to download required packages from Eric's multilib site. Install as instructed.
I already have a 32-bit Slackware tree downloaded using getslack which I use for my 32-bit chroot installation. I use massconvert32.sh script on this tree. The massconvert32.sh script can be used to update as well (built packages are not rebuilt). Install as instructed.
My slackpatch script has been updated to handle 'blacklisted' 64-bit versions and 'upgraded' compat32 packages

Update20180903 Update20250326

Read here. I now have a more specific script to get multilib stuff (previously part of getslackpack script),

use getslack-multilib to download alien_bob's multilib stuff
- compat32-tools glibc(&friends) gcc(&friends) [multilib packages]
- compat32 library packages [32-bit packages]
upgrade pure-64 glibc/gcc packages counterparts
- upgradepkg –reinstall –install-new *.t?z
- note: this includes compat32-tools package (helper scripts, noarch)
install 32-bit layer support libraries
- upgradepkg –install-new slackware64-compat32/*-compat32/*.t?z
- obviously, can be used to upgrade as well

Configure slackpatch to check/ignore multilib stuff

dot-slackpatch

PKG_IGNORED="ffmpeg"
# ignoring these standard packages => multilib!
PKG_IGNORED="$PKG_IGNORED aaa_glibc-solibs"
PKG_IGNORED="$PKG_IGNORED gcc gcc-brig gcc-g++ gcc-gdc gcc-gfortran"
PKG_IGNORED="$PKG_IGNORED gcc-gnat gcc-go gcc-objc"
PKG_IGNORED="$PKG_IGNORED glibc glibc-i18n glibc-profile"

2025/01/12 10:01 · azman

Slackware Upgrade

For reference.

Upgrading 14.1 to 14.2

A bash shell script I used to upgrade from 14.1 to 14.2.

upgrade_14-1_to_14-2.sh

#!/bin/bash
# - upgrade 14.1 to 14.2
SLACKVERS="14.2"
 
# setup path to slackware tree
SLACKROOT=${SLACKROOT:="$(pwd)"}
[ -z "$SLACKARCH" ] && [ -n "$ARCH" ] && SLACKARCH=$ARCH
SLACKARCH=${SLACKARCH:="$(uname -m)"}
SLACKSUFX=${SLACKSUFX:=""}
[ "$SLACKARCH" == "x86_64" ] && SLACKSUFX="64"
SLACKFULL=${SLACKFULL:="slackware${SLACKSUFX}"}
[ -z "$SLACKVERS" ] && [ -n "$RELEASE" ] && SLACKVERS=$RELEASE
SLACKVERS=${SLACKVERS:="current"}
SLACKRELS=${SLACKFULL}-${SLACKVERS}
SLACKPATH=${SLACKROOT}/${SLACKRELS}
 
# step 1
upgradepkg ${SLACKPATH}/${SLACKFULL}/a/glibc-solibs-*.txz
 
# step 2
upgradepkg ${SLACKPATH}/${SLACKFULL}/a/pkgtools-*.txz
upgradepkg ${SLACKPATH}/${SLACKFULL}/a/tar-*.txz
upgradepkg ${SLACKPATH}/${SLACKFULL}/a/xz-*.txz
upgradepkg ${SLACKPATH}/${SLACKFULL}/a/findutils-*.txz
 
# step 3
for dir in a ap d k l n t tcl x xap xfce ; do
	do_path=${SLACKPATH}/${SLACKFULL}/$dir
	[ ! -d $do_path ] && continue
	( cd $do_path ; upgradepkg --install-new *.t?z )
done
 
# step 4
removepkg ConsoleKit apmd bluez-hcidump cxxlibs foomatic-filters \
  gnome-icon-theme imlib kdeadmin kdenetwork kdesdk kdetoys kwallet \
  lesstif libelf libjpeg libxfcegui4 networkmanagement obex-data-server \
  obexfs open-cobol oxygen-gtk3 phonon-mplayer phonon-xine pil portmap \
  procps qca-cyrus-sasl qca-gnupg qca-ossl udev xchat xf86-input-aiptek \
  xf86-video-modesetting xfce4-mixer xfce4-volumed xfwm4-themes
 
# step 5
# - run chknew
 
# step 7
# - check boot config

2025/01/12 10:15 · azman

Slackware System

Useful system level notes.

Listing Packages

Simply list files in /var/log/packages (path is actually a link to /var/lib/pkgtools/packages/).

# ls -l /var/log/packages/

List full package name (with version) only

# for that in $(ls /var/log/packages/) ; do echo $that ; done | sort

Find installed packages that are not in Slackware tree

slackfull=slackware64-15.0 ; slacktree=/home/share/slackware/$slackfull ;
for pkg in $(ls /var/log/packages/) ; do
	pkgf=$(find $slacktree/ -name "${pkg}.txz") ;
	[ -f "$pkgf" ] && continue ;
	echo "** Package '$pkg' is alien!" ;
done

This can also be done using slackview script (in my1shell repo)

# slackview find --alien

View information on specific package

# slackview find [pkg_name]

To list currently installed packages (to be used in my1live)

get all installed packages

# slackview file --name pkgs.txt --installed --insert

sort based on software sets
```
# slackview file --name pkgs.txt --sort
```

remove those already selected for my1live

slackview file --name pkgs.txt --dups curr.list

rename pkgs.txt to my1live list (e.g. XXmore.list)

Building Custom Kernel

run shell script (getlinux)
select version, download source
extract at /usr/src/ (e.g. linux-4.4.199)
copy a config from /boot
```
# cp /boot/config-generic? > .config
```
use that config
```
# make oldconfig
```
configure build
```
# make menuconfig
```
build the kernel
```
# make -j4 bzImage
```
build/install modules
```
# make -j4 modules && make modules_install
```
- modules_install requires root, obviously!

copy (as root) kernel

cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-generic-4.14.12
cp System.map /boot/System.map-generic-4.14.12
cp .config /boot/config-generic-4.14.12

generate initrd if using generic
```
mkinitrd -c -k 4.14.12 -f ext4 -r /dev/sda3 -m ext4 -u -o /boot/initrd.gz
```
- a useful initrd generator script IS available
- run /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh
- then run the generated/recommended command
- checkout the -P option if required

2025/01/12 10:18 · azman

Slackware Desktop

Little tips for better Slackware desktop experience. Most of these can be used in other Linux distributions as well.

Mplayer (gmplayer) runs without video window

Double-clicking in file manager (Thunar) shows no video (audio is ok, so program is running). Running mplayer from command line is fine. Turns out gui version is gmplayer - running from console shows this error message

Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_va_gl.so

So, just edit ~/.mplayer/gui.conf, find the line for vo_driver and set it to gl. Show be ok after that… at least in my case it is.

Mplayer and Xscreensaver

Note: NOT tested… just found this

Although the mplayer setting to disable xscreensaver has been selected, xscreensaver still runs!

Possible Solution: Edit ~/.mplayer/config

heartbeat-cmd="xscreensaver-command -deactivate >/dev/null 2>&1"

Login issue

When using xdm, login fails sometimes with error message … Unable to establish ICE listener…

append rc.local ← rm -rf /tmp/.ICE-unix/*

Audio issue when using ALSA

The solution is here.

in short, ALSA using the HDMI output as default
use alsamixer, [F6] select the card (the one that is NOT HDMI) and make sure output is not muted
use aplay -l to identify the card/slot# and device#
use aplay -D plughw:<card/slot#>,<device#> <WAV file> to test

modify asound.conf in etc or ~/.asoundrc to fix this (sample below)

asound.conf

pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card <card/slot#>
   }
   ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card <card/slot#>
   }

Low volume when using ALSA

As seen here…

Check asound.conf in etc:

  pcm.!default {
      type plug
      slave.pcm "softvol"
  }

  pcm.softvol {
      type softvol
      slave {
          pcm "dmix"
      }
      control {
          name "Pre-Amp"
          card 0
      }
      min_dB -5.0
      max_dB 20.0
      resolution 6
  }

Sometimes need type in pcm.!default to be hw

2025/01/12 11:01 · azman

Slackware Applications

Running applications (@software) on Slackware… most are applicable to all distributions.

'Hidden' Application

There are a couple (a few?)of applications that I thought have great features but relatively unknown (I only knew about them after looking for specific solution). Here they are:

xfig - nice app to create figures for use with latex
xpaint - can do screen capture (xpaint -snapshot)

Apache (web server) Setup

Modify httpd config file:

change document root to a folder my main user have full access
- also create a link to it from my user account
allow php to be indexed ⇒ add to directory index in dir_module
enable php (towards the end of the file) ⇒ include mod_php.conf
enable mod_rewrite (API server?) ⇒ LoadModule … mod_rewrite.so
optional: set serveradmin email and servername
optional: to only serve locally, set listen localhost:80 ???

More modifications for https:

enable loadmodule mod_ssl.so
enable loadmodule mod_socache_shmcb.so

generate private key:
- ```
openssl genrsa -out privkey.pem 2048
```
- rsa private key with 2048-bit long modulus written to file

generate cert:

openssl req -new -x509 -key privkey.pem -out cacert.pem -days 1095

include httpd-ssl.conf
- modify httpd-ssl.conf accordingly…

mariadb/mysql Setup

run
```
mysql_install_db
```
make sure permision given to user mysql
```
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
```
start daemon rc.mysqld
run
```
/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
```

create specific database for specific app
```
create database app_db;
```

create specific user for specific app and grant all access

grant all privileges on app_db.* to 'user_app'@'localhost' identified by 'pass_app';

just formality, run
```
flush privileges;
```

to additionally create specific user for specific app

create user 'user_app'@'localhost' identified by 'pass_app';

recover root password:
stop daemon rc.mysqld

run

# mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
# mysql -u root
$ mysql -uroot -p
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD('<newpass>') where User='root';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> exit

Backup a DB:

mysqldump -p -u user userdb > userapp-$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S).sql

TeXLive Install/Setup

The default tetex is usable, but it is no longer maintained and some new packages are not available.

The recommended TeX distribution is TeXLive.

Download from here
- get Unix Installer
- extract path: /home/share/tool/texlive

Execute

./install-tl -gui

install path: /home/share/tool/texlive/YYYY (currently, YYYY=2020)
select basic, then customize (e.g. lang:en, graphics, math, etc.)

setup environment variable

TL_VERS="2020"
TL_PATH="/home/share/tool/texlive/${TL_VERS}"
export PATH=${TL_PATH}/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH
export MANPATH=${TL_PATH}/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH
export INFOPATH=${TL_PATH}/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH

setup tlmgr (tlmgr option repository ctan)

Run manager
```
tlmgr --gui
```
- needs perl-tk
- to get collection of a package
```
tlmgr show <package>
```

2023/08/29 13:04

rsync server

create rsyncd.conf in etc

rsync.conf

max connections = 2
log file = /var/log/rsync.log
timeout = 300
 
[share]
comment = Shared Stuff
path = /home/share
read only = yes
list = yes 
hosts allow = 192.168.3.0/24
uid = nobody
gid = nobody
#auth users = pub
#secrets file = etc/rsyncd.secrets

modify subnet mask address for host allow accordingly

in inetd.conf (etc), insert

rsync	stream	tcp	nowait	root	/usr/bin/rsync	rsync --daemon

in services (etc), insert
```
rsync	873/tcp
```
create rsyncd.secrets in etc
rsyncd.secrets
```
pub:pub
```

start rsync daemon

/usr/bin/rsync --daemon --config=etc/rsyncd.conf

Steam on Slack64 (in chroot32)

on an x86_64 machine,

install libtxc_dxtn package from slackbuilds.org (64-bit)
use 'slackroot' to create 32-bit chroot environment (chroot32)
- target for desktop
ssh into localhost to enter chroot32 as normal user
- remember to run 'preproot' (as root) prior to that
- … and 'preproot –release' when done
install packages
- install alien_bob's steamclient package
- install libtxc_dxtn package from slackbuilds.org (32-bit)
run 'linux32' to create an official 32-bit environment
run 'steam -tcp'

2025/01/12 11:08 · azman

Issues

Issues when running Slackware…

Libreoffice

alien_bob's libreoffice cannot run
- got unspecified application error

found a fix in lq forum

look for graphic driver used

$ lspci -vv | sed -n '/VGA compatible/,/^$/ p'

e.g. for i915, do
```
export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i915
```

2025/01/12 13:42 · azman

Extra Notes

Some things to note…

20210620 Slackware's CPU frequency scaling works (checkout rc.cpufreq) - just to remind myself, no need to look into this!

Admin-stuff for non-root user

To allow non-root users basic admin (poweroff,reboot,etc.), add them to power group and insert the following to sudoers.

%power ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/sbin/poweroff
%power ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/sbin/reboot
%power ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/sbin/pm-suspend
%power ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/sbin/pm-hibernate
%power ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/sbin/pm-powersave

Note: The pm-* binaries (pm-utils) are no longer available on Slackware 15.0

Note20250112: use loginctl on Slackware 15.0 - no need to add sudoers

Multicast DNS @ Zeroconf

install nss-mdns (requires avahi, which requires libdaemon)
save nss config (in etc)
- mv nsswitch.conf nsswitch.conf-orig
use provided nss config
- cp nsswitch.conf-mdns nsswitch.conf
run daemon at startup rc.avahidaemon and rc.avahidnsconfd

2025/01/12 10:09 · azman

Table of Contents

Slackware Experience

Getting Slackware

Slackware Installer ISO Image

Slackware USB Installer

Note: GPT Disks and EFI

Installing Slackware

Basic Install

DE-less config

Updating

Using Slackware-current

Installing

Updating

Special Needs

Slackware in chroot

Slackware Multilib

Slackware Upgrade

Upgrading 14.1 to 14.2

Slackware System

Listing Packages

Building Custom Kernel

Slackware Desktop

Mplayer (gmplayer) runs without video window

Mplayer and Xscreensaver

Login issue

Audio issue when using ALSA

Low volume when using ALSA

Slackware Applications

'Hidden' Application

Apache (web server) Setup

mariadb/mysql Setup

TeXLive Install/Setup

rsync server

Steam on Slack64 (in chroot32)

Issues

Libreoffice

Extra Notes

Admin-stuff for non-root user

Multicast DNS @ Zeroconf