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The endless upgrade
Soooo... Having no car at my disposal other than Gary's, which I prefer not to drive, I stayed home all weekend. Much of Saturday was spent updating my Linux here.
I needed to be able to edit open document format (.odt) files and the version of OpenOffice I was running (1.1.4) didn't cut it. Unfortunately, I tried and failed at getting the current version 2.1 to install. It wanted newer libraries and dependencies, apparently. So I had to bite the bullet and upgrade my Slackware from 10.1 to either 10.2 or 11. I chose 10.2 since I'm running that at work and I prefer to move by baby steps in these matters. Brought home my CDs from the library, and this time read the upgrade instructions. (In the past, I've usually upgraded by backing up my personal files, erasing the partition, doing a new install, and then restoring my home directory.) I was apprehensive about upgrading by replacing packages, which is the usual Slackware approach, but decided to try it.
It did work. Volkerding's instructions were spot on and could be followed literally except for one hitch. KDE is on a separate CD now, and he neglected to tell you to mount the second CD and repeat the steps to get KDE updated. I don't use KDE itself, but I do use selected applications from the KDE distribution, so I updated it along with everything else. Ran the LILO configuration, rebooted, and the system came up just fine.
Well, almost. The driver for my modem card got lost, but that was expected. It's a separately compiled module that gets copied into the module tree after compiling, and isn't actually patched into the kernel source. So each time the kernel modules are reinstalled, it goes away. It's easy to reinstall though. Then I realized that I had a real kernel patch that needed reinstallation. That's the one to enable pptp for VPN and I do use it. So I went and got the patch to fit the new kernel version (2.4.31) installed it, reran the menuconfig to turn on mppe compression, and again recompiled the modules and kernel. Of course that once more lost the modem so I had to recompile it again. A couple of minor tweaks to the startup scripts because networking startup changed a bit, and I was done. It wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't had to recompile the kernel (takes about an hour on my machine) and hadn't messed up the config the first time so it took two runs to get it right. Anyway, it's all working now and this is a note to remind myself for next time, hopefully avoiding having to do things twice. I really should go to version 11 and the 2.6 kernel sometime, but I don't like fixing things that aren't broken.
The weather has been really springlike, maybe the lion read my post of earlier in the week. Not that I want to chase lions away, not at all. But I much prefer that they be, shall we say, gentle and sexy rather than fierce and angry. Made it into the 60s yesterday and the 70s today. The windows are open now, revealing all the dust that has clogged the screens since last year. I'm going to have to clean windows and screens, Yuck.
Frogs are shouting "Sex! Sex! Sex!" from every nearby wet spot. Cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, and chickadees join in with their own courting songs, and the woodpeckers are drumming furiously on anything they can find. I'm studiously avoiding the work I should be doing, finishing up a story for submission, cutting and sewing that shirt, or my spinning. The weather is too nice, and enjoyable even indoors now that the windows are all open. Last year's fox appears to have returned to the same spot, digging the den out again where the neighbor's chickens were disappearing. I hope to spot him again with any luck. Inspected the apple trees yesterday, and they had no deer damage, even though we failed to put the portable cages back around them this winter. I think the deer have fled the area since the subdivision construction began to the north of us. They used to come into and exit from our land over that route. Dogs and horses are shedding, and the sheep are sitting around looking distinctly uncomfortable this afternoon. We need to get the shearing guy out soon.
I needed to be able to edit open document format (.odt) files and the version of OpenOffice I was running (1.1.4) didn't cut it. Unfortunately, I tried and failed at getting the current version 2.1 to install. It wanted newer libraries and dependencies, apparently. So I had to bite the bullet and upgrade my Slackware from 10.1 to either 10.2 or 11. I chose 10.2 since I'm running that at work and I prefer to move by baby steps in these matters. Brought home my CDs from the library, and this time read the upgrade instructions. (In the past, I've usually upgraded by backing up my personal files, erasing the partition, doing a new install, and then restoring my home directory.) I was apprehensive about upgrading by replacing packages, which is the usual Slackware approach, but decided to try it.
It did work. Volkerding's instructions were spot on and could be followed literally except for one hitch. KDE is on a separate CD now, and he neglected to tell you to mount the second CD and repeat the steps to get KDE updated. I don't use KDE itself, but I do use selected applications from the KDE distribution, so I updated it along with everything else. Ran the LILO configuration, rebooted, and the system came up just fine.
Well, almost. The driver for my modem card got lost, but that was expected. It's a separately compiled module that gets copied into the module tree after compiling, and isn't actually patched into the kernel source. So each time the kernel modules are reinstalled, it goes away. It's easy to reinstall though. Then I realized that I had a real kernel patch that needed reinstallation. That's the one to enable pptp for VPN and I do use it. So I went and got the patch to fit the new kernel version (2.4.31) installed it, reran the menuconfig to turn on mppe compression, and again recompiled the modules and kernel. Of course that once more lost the modem so I had to recompile it again. A couple of minor tweaks to the startup scripts because networking startup changed a bit, and I was done. It wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't had to recompile the kernel (takes about an hour on my machine) and hadn't messed up the config the first time so it took two runs to get it right. Anyway, it's all working now and this is a note to remind myself for next time, hopefully avoiding having to do things twice. I really should go to version 11 and the 2.6 kernel sometime, but I don't like fixing things that aren't broken.
The weather has been really springlike, maybe the lion read my post of earlier in the week. Not that I want to chase lions away, not at all. But I much prefer that they be, shall we say, gentle and sexy rather than fierce and angry. Made it into the 60s yesterday and the 70s today. The windows are open now, revealing all the dust that has clogged the screens since last year. I'm going to have to clean windows and screens, Yuck.
Frogs are shouting "Sex! Sex! Sex!" from every nearby wet spot. Cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, and chickadees join in with their own courting songs, and the woodpeckers are drumming furiously on anything they can find. I'm studiously avoiding the work I should be doing, finishing up a story for submission, cutting and sewing that shirt, or my spinning. The weather is too nice, and enjoyable even indoors now that the windows are all open. Last year's fox appears to have returned to the same spot, digging the den out again where the neighbor's chickens were disappearing. I hope to spot him again with any luck. Inspected the apple trees yesterday, and they had no deer damage, even though we failed to put the portable cages back around them this winter. I think the deer have fled the area since the subdivision construction began to the north of us. They used to come into and exit from our land over that route. Dogs and horses are shedding, and the sheep are sitting around looking distinctly uncomfortable this afternoon. We need to get the shearing guy out soon.
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"Frogs are shouting "Sex! Sex! Sex!" from every nearby wet spot."
That just stopped me in my tracks.
*sniffs about the sentence*
Could I steal that someday?
XD
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[falsetto] You dirty minded bear, you!
XD
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I'm not sure of the exact details, but I recall the Wolvix folks having to make modification when they switched to using Slackware 11 as their base for their upcoming version (still in alpha). It seems that only USB mice worked until they tweaked things. I don't recall if it was kernel or module stuff, but it was an irritant for them.
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Gad updating linux sounds rather evil O.O
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It sounds bad because I have customized the system significantly, in ways that you can't even do with Windows. Putting a new version on of course means that the customizations have to be reinstalled.
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I'm guessing it's not going to be immune to the broken customizations you describe, but maybe it'll be a step closer to user-friendly. The devs have been paying some attention it would seem.
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However, the instructions use command prompt. (OMG!) And you have to log in as root to do it. (That seems reasonable. I wouldn't want the ordinary user to be able to do something like that.)
In essence:
You could do it without understanding the commands as long as you check to avoid any typos. It could be scripted, I suppose, but the Slackware philosophy is really to try to get people to LEARN stuff.
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it sounds really nice down there. i just realised that i havent seen a real live frog in over 8 years
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Surely there are frogs in Alaska. You're just living in too urban an area, no?
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Heh, it's your fault that I loath the 2.4.x kernels: Debian 'Sarge' 3.1r and it's default 2.4 kernel hated my old Compaq box and its weird ACPI controller, and your encouragement in 2005 prodded me into learning more about linux in the first place. So, your fault and - thank you! *noses*
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As for Compaq hardware, well, it always was weird. *noses back*
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Hehe, that said, I've got /another/ Compaq box under my hooves at the moment that's acting as a fileserver, running Ubuntu 6.10 (and kernel 2.6.11). It's mostly happy, but once again, it won't turn off at shutdown - just halts, despite being told to turn off and having acpid running properly.
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Some old Compaqs don't have an automated poweroff function. I have one of those here.
Nope, I'm not tainting my kernel. The pptp compression patch is open source, not some proprietary secret. Like mp3 compression, though, the legality of using it is technically in question in some countries, or was. I guess that's why it was not included in the kernel prior to 2.6.x.