RPM-based, DEB-based... and TXZ-based

Story: Replacing KDE4 with XfceTotal Replies: 30
Author Content
kikinovak

Mar 08, 2014
5:23 AM EDT
Hi,

Here's another example of a full-blown Xfce desktop on steroids that can be a full-fledged KDE4 replacement:

http://www.microlinux.fr/mled.php

Installation guide:

http://www.microlinux.fr/mled_installation.php
Francy

Mar 08, 2014
7:11 AM EDT
MLED installs on top of a carefully selected Slackware base and doesn't ship on its own installation ISO

I have been looking at that one for some time , but first going through the pains of installing slackware and then the pains described in the actual installation guide........

Thanks but no thanks.

Put every thing on one DVD, then yes. Maybe I even pay for it :-)
Francy

Mar 08, 2014
8:45 AM EDT
Cancel the following : Thanks but no thanks.Put every thing on one DVD, then yes. Maybe I even pay for it :-)

I changed my mind :-)

Does it have to be a carefully selected slackware to install on ?

What about a Slack-this-and-that available via Distrowatch ?

Anyone with an opinion ?
kikinovak

Mar 09, 2014
3:56 AM EDT
Well, I *could* very well put together an independent ISO, with some changes to the installer, but that would be stepping on Slackware's toes. I don't want to publish yet another Linux distribution, because there are already way too many. What I do want is base my work on an existing distro and provide all the enhancements and extras necessary to make it a user-friendly distribution.

As far as the installation procedure is concerned, MLED is not Ubuntu. It requires some basic *nix knowledge about Linux in general and Slackware in particular.

On the other hand, once MLED is installed, it's Joe-Sixpack-friendly. Some of my users don't even know that they're actually using Linux.
Francy

Mar 09, 2014
4:19 AM EDT
Ah, there you are !! I was just looking on LinuxQuestions how I could get hold of you. I just downloaded the DVD and installed it.

I messed up and then realized I don't need the DVD, but only 1 or 2 CD's.

Right or wrong ? If Yes, which one(s), as the goal is only to install MLED, no more !

And Can I install every thing in ONE partition, or < must > I have more than one ?

Thanks in advance

EDIT : I found the installation guide . The Blind start seeing ( a little ).
CFWhitman

Mar 09, 2014
12:27 PM EDT
I'm a bit curious as to how the end result compares with Salix Xfce edtition, which is a popular solution for quickly getting a user friendly desktop based on Slackware. I'm sure MLED has its advantages. I was just wondering if anyone is familiar enough with the two approaches to quickly point out a few similarities and differences.
number6x

Mar 09, 2014
12:38 PM EDT
Slackware is not hard to install.
notbob

Mar 09, 2014
3:21 PM EDT
> Slackware is not hard to install.

No, but some of Kiki's added programs are, at least on a pure Slack install. Audacity alone takes some 20-30 depenz to install correctly. I was gonna install one video graphics program, but quit when the full depenz hit 60! Slack is a great distro, my primary Linux in fact, but as a multimedia distro, it truly sucks. So badly, I'm searching for another distro --and box!-- to dedicate strictly to multi-media.
Francy

Mar 09, 2014
6:52 PM EDT
>>>Slackware is not hard to install.

No, after messing up the first time, I didn't see a problem the second time.

But, It asks for 3 partitions to be used, and I don't want to give it more than one! ( plus swap)

Any advice ?
notbob

Mar 09, 2014
6:59 PM EDT
I currently use three or four partitions (plus swap), but haven't in the past. Slack usta install on one big partition (+swap). Not sure when/why that changed. :

jdixon

Mar 09, 2014
8:43 PM EDT
> Any advice ?

Where does it ask for three partitions to be used? The Slackware installer expects you to partition the drive before you start and lets you select the mount points. If you just set one mount point as /, then it installs everything in the one partition. This was still true with the 14.1 installer.
mbaehrlxer

Mar 09, 2014
9:08 PM EDT
notbob: how do you expect the dependency situation in any other distribution to be better? i have not used slackware for more than a decade, but i guess what you are seeing is that slackware doesn't install so much by default. if i start with a minimalist install, then i expect a lot of packages to be added as dependencies for multimedia apps too. that's just the complexity of multimedia showing. as long as it's all automatic and i just have to wait, it just means the time spent now is what i saved earlier by getting up and running faster. and then at least i know that only the stuff i really need is installed, and not a lot of things i don't care about.

greetings, eMBee.
Francy

Mar 09, 2014
9:21 PM EDT
>>>>>>Where does it ask for three partitions to be used?

In setup ! After making /, it told me ( or that's how I read it ) to choose another partition for xxx( forgot exactly ) and then again another, and ask me where to mount it ! But probably I read it wrong and misunderstood

I will give it another try and go to setup after the / , which I was planning anyway

Thanks for the reply. It's appreciated .
jdixon

Mar 10, 2014
8:23 AM EDT
Francy, I believe it is allowing you the option to specify other partitions to be mounted (pretty much as many as you want), but you have the option to continue at that point with only / specified, which is what you want to do.
Francy

Mar 10, 2014
9:06 AM EDT
@ jdixon

Yes, you are right ! I jumped in without reading one of the installation guides available all over.

In the guides there is no mention of < must partition/mount > another one !

Oh well , scr...g up is part of a days work, every now and then ! :-)

I will give it another go tomorrow morning

Thanks for response
CFWhitman

Mar 10, 2014
9:36 AM EDT
I would have been very surprised if there had been a change like that in the Slackware install (I've installed 14.0, but not 14.1 yet). The Slackware installer has always been one of my favorites, with just the amount of control over the process that I like.

I imagine the issue that notbob is talking about with dependencies is related to manually installed dependencies rather than using something with automatic dependency management. When I install a Slackware desktop, I generally tell it to install everything, but even then you might want to add programs that aren't included, which might also call for dependencies that aren't included.
notbob

Mar 10, 2014
10:12 AM EDT
> notbob: how do you expect the dependency situation in any other distribution to be better?

Having used Slack for the last 13 yrs, I don't know. I've heard other deb and RPM based distros take care of depenz for you. I've only become interested in audio/video apps lately and will probably look for a multi-media centric distro in the first place, one like AVLinux. I also realize I need a platform with more horsepower than my ancient P4 + .5G RAM desktop, which is fine for basic Slack, but is a bit feeble for more advanced mult/med setups. ;)
jdixon

Mar 10, 2014
10:27 AM EDT
> Audacity alone takes some 20-30 depenz to install correctly.

I didn't count that many, but I didn't trace down to all the subpackages required, and I know that ffmpeg alone has a number of dependencies.

> I imagine the issue that notbob is talking about with dependencies is related to manually installed dependencies

Almost certainly. Anyone who has compiled software for Slackware has run into the problem. Slackbuilds.org and sbopkg help a lot, but they don't get rid of the problem completely.

> I've heard other deb and RPM based distros take care of depenz for you.

They do, but by specifying what additional packages the package you want requires and installing them for you and the same time. They don't give you the option to specify which dependencies you want, the way a Slackbuild script does. If you don't want mp3 support in Audacity in Slackware, you don't have to compile it in. With the other distros, the decision is made for you. Convenience or control, choose one.
mbaehrlxer

Mar 10, 2014
10:47 AM EDT
slackware makes you compile from source nowadays? it used to be binary only. i don't remember any options about compiling.

greetings, eMBee.
frankiej

Mar 10, 2014
11:32 AM EDT
Quoting:slackware makes you compile from source nowadays?


The main distribution provides a relatively limited (compared to other distros) set binary packages. Anything not provided by the main distribution has to be obtained elsewhere and is typically compiled from source. http://slackbuilds.org is one such source to obtain build scripts to build packages from source.
notbob

Mar 10, 2014
11:36 AM EDT
> I know that ffmpeg alone has a number of dependencies.

Oh yes, a major offender. I always quail when I see ffmpeg in the mix. Slacky has most of the pkgs ready to go, but they always recommend ALL depenz, which can become quite complex. Slackbuilds will let you off with the absolute minimum depenz, but theirs are a full compile. It's jes one evil vs another. That's why I'm gonna find a distro with all that stuff already set up. Plenty to choose from. ;)
jdixon

Mar 10, 2014
11:43 AM EDT
> ...slackware makes you compile from source nowadays?

Slackware has always allowed compiling from souce. It's never required you to do so. However, it has a very limited number of binary packages compared to Debian based distributions. And packages from third party providers vary widely in quality. So many, if not most, Slackware users prefer compiling their own.

As frankiej noted, slackbuilds.org contains a lot of build scripts for doing so, and that process is automated with sbopkg (http://www.sbopkg.org). But that process, while it does list the dependencies for you, doesn't handle them automatically. You still have to compile all of the dependencies before you can compile the main package.
jdixon

Mar 10, 2014
12:15 PM EDT
> That's why I'm gonna find a distro with all that stuff already set up. Plenty to choose from. ;)

Well, as a Slackware user, you might want to check out Salix and see if it has what you want first.
notbob

Mar 10, 2014
12:18 PM EDT
> You still have to compile all of the dependencies before you can compile the main package.

In some cases, you must install the depenz before compiling an upstream pkg. This is something I only recently discovered. I've always compiled all pkgs, then install according to depenz hierarchy. In this last instance, it was necessary to install a depenz before I could even compile the upstrm pkg. Now, I compile, then install, each depenz before moving up. Live n' learn. ;)
jdixon

Mar 10, 2014
12:27 PM EDT
> In some cases, you must install the depenz before compiling an upstream pkg.

Yep. And in some cases even that package can have a dependency. It can rapidly become overwhelming and sometimes simply isn't worth the effort.
Koriel

Mar 10, 2014
2:45 PM EDT
Have to admit I stopped using Slackware on the desktop a long long time ago, just use it on my server which does a great job but I would never ever use it as my desktop anymore just way to much hassle and I have better things to do, its a lot easier to just use Linux Mint XFCE for a full desktop and multimedia experience out of the box.

JMHO YMMV.
jdixon

Mar 10, 2014
3:38 PM EDT
> ...just way to much hassle...

As long as it includes what you need (which I'd guess for a good 80% of users it does), Slackware is hardly any hassle at all.
kikinovak

Mar 10, 2014
5:39 PM EDT
A simple answer to a question above : MLED is basically "stuff that's missing in Slackware". YMMV of course.
notbob

Mar 11, 2014
1:21 PM EDT
All distros have their own problems. I like Slack for what it does have. I can't tell the number of times I tried a distro only to discover I can't compile anything. No gcc, no C libs, no python, etc. To me, that's the antithesis of what *nix about. While Slack is pretty lame for advanced multimedia, it has the basics and you can always add the rest. OTOH, sometimes easier to jes use another distro for a specific need. ;)
mbaehrlxer

Mar 11, 2014
6:47 PM EDT
slackware was my second distribution, back then when there was nothing else (or rather i simply had not heard about debian and other efforts. news didn't travel as fast, and no distribution had made a name for itself yet) but most of all the choice of software available even outside of slackware was not that much, so it didn't even occur to me that slackware would not have packaged everything that was available.

thanks for elaborating.

greetings, eMBee.
patrokov

Apr 06, 2014
10:36 AM EDT
>> can't tell the number of times I tried a distro only to discover I can't compile anything. No gcc, no C libs, no python, etc. To me, that's the antithesis of what *nix about.

This is why my first truly successful distro wss Slackware. When I first started using Linux, there were no prebuilt drivers for my network card. Slackware was the first distribution that allowed me to successfully compile the network driver module.

And I could actually understand it's rc.d start up scripts.

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