Migration

Sadly after several years of using Slackware as my main operating system, I have to leave it aside. The decision was taken after several attempts of installing networking tools and Perl patches, somehow I broke several libraries and my system was a complete mess.

Slackware taught me everything about Linux and software development, but the tinkering time for
me it-s over. I can no longer spend hours having fun compiling sources or testing different configurations. My system has to work with the most recent hardware and it requires some sort of support. The distribution I chose for this is Ubuntu, not because is the best one out there, just because its community. It's a huge system with lots of groups around the world following (in their own way) the Open Source initiative.

I still have Slackware running as a server, because it's without any doubt the *stablest* of all systems I ever used, that's a fact. But for my personal computer requires compatibility with many devices that are not open source and work fine with Ubuntu.

PS: This does not mean that I'm leaving Slackware at all, but for my personal computer. All my other machines are still using Slackware as the master system, and they'll keep in that as long as Slackware lives.

Huawei modem in Slackware Linux

Finally, after several minutes (Linux software is getting better) I made it work. I bought a Huawei modem USB a few days ago, and the phone company who sold it to me only supports Windows and Mac systems.

After a while and thanks to a great tutorial, the connection was performed; this is the article I used: http://www.techonia.com/install-huawei-usb-modem-slackware

Note: You have to set manually your DNS nameservers and the default gateway route, that's it.

libgpod with Ipod Nano 5th generation

I've been having a bad time with my iPod Nano and Slackware Linux lately. A lot of the problems I had don't even need a description, but I give just some keywords : 'HashInfo' , 'SysInfoExtended' , 'Database Sync'.
's all,
All of  them were solved by building the last stable release of libgpod with this configuration:

./configure -prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib --with-hal-callouts-dir=/usr/libexec/scripts

That's all, have fun.

Traducción del libro Slackbasics

Felizmente anuncio la conclusión de la traducción del libro Slackbasics, Daniel de Kok a español latinoamericano.

Este es un proyecto que tomó poco mas de un año, enseñándome cosas que solamente un traductor puede enfrentar...

Para mas información referirse a la página dedicada a este tema:

• Slackbasics

ArchLinux deception

Last weekend I decided to give ArchLinux a chance, I only read good articles about it and I thought it would be nice to get out of Slackware world.

I will divide my experiences in a few sections:

1. Installation
• This part was really strange for me, it supposed to be easier than Slackware ncurses wizards. It's not, it's even worse. 
• I don't know if is just me, but I the default installation doesn't have anything, no media support, not extra-fs support, nothing. I don't know why ArchLinux community declares that it's painless than Slackware.
2. Configuration
• A good point here, configuration of mirrors and the system in general is pretty straightforward, very simple configuration with a lot of comments.  
3. Package management
• Maybe Pacman is its best feature, it's even better(IMHO) than APT.
4. Usability
• For me, it's not usable at all, I spent 2 hours to get a minimum XFCE desktop working. And don't make me talk about a work environment, it will take days!. I don't really get the idea of having such a basic environment, I don't want to install everything from scratch. But that's just me, maybe there's some other people who like to waste their time, good for them.
5. Conclusion
• In general, it's not better than Ubuntu or Slackware, installation and configuration tasks are not hard, but can be simplified. Meanwhile, I will stay with my Slackware desktop for another year.

Linux - Nvidia driver issues

Sadly I have to talk about this again, since Slackware 12.2 I've been having problems with
my Nvidia GeForce 6400 card (I know it's old, shut up). And most of the times a little of
investigation and configuration would be enough, but not this time.

• Problem description: User switch action freezes all the system and the only way to restore it is by restarting it.

• Affected OS: Ubuntu Linux 10.4, Slackware Linux 13.1

As is not only affecting my Slackware installation, I'm pretty sure that is an issue with the kernel
module. For safety concerns (my information is important now), I'm forced to uninstall all
nvidia drivers and return to the legacy VESA drivers.

Is not as good as it used to, but at least is quite stable.

Slackware 13.1 - Nvidia driver issue

I've been installing the latest Slackware stable release on my main machine these days and I have to say, it's great!!!. Most of the problems of Slackware 13 are now solved, it's pretty stable and so far without exceptions!!.


But I found a problem not related to Slackware, there is a problem with the kernel series 2.6.33.x and Nvidia legacy drivers. In short, once the driver is installed, the 'logout' action freezes the system and the only way to restore it is restarting manually, tough.

The solution, edit file '/etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc' and set:

# by default is false
#TerminateServer=true 
TerminateServer=true

Solution source: black-screen-after-logout-in-slackware

Slackware 13.1 released

Finally, after several modifications and security updates, we have a stable release of our beloved Slackware Linux. Slackware 13.1 has several improvements and changes, you can check it in the ANNOUNCEMENT or the RELEASE NOTES and also in CHANGES_AND_HINT.

Testing Ubuntu 10.4

I've been testing the new Ubuntu 10.4 distribution for a couple of weeks, just to see how much changed since last year.

I have to say that is really good, nice, lightweight, and really easy to use. Is taking the MacOS approach to attract users and I think it will work.

They are taking the right way for PC users, including very useful applications in a single-CD set. But I'm not a normal PC user, I'm a developer, a curious, stupid, bastard that wants to control everything in the system. Ubuntu doesn't let you do that (at least not in an easy way).

I have tried and tried many distributions and still can't find something better than Slackware. Not because it's easy to use(it really is), or because it has huge software sources. Is because its simplicity, is a very simple system, and allows you to change, modify, ruin everything without telling you 'gfy!'.

*Note: Is an old screenshoot, but is still valid.
If you are a developer, and you would like to learn how a Linux system is, or how to use it, you should give it a try.

Slackware 13 and KDE

There have been many comments around the Slackware community about the decision replacing KDE 3 for the new KDE 4 desktop environment. In my point of view, those comments (some of them very offensive) are justified, KDE 4 seems to be in a beta state, is not as stable as KDE 3 was. The new look has removed many options from its predecessor, and has introduced a widget-based environment to the user experience:

That's not bad at all, I would say, innovation always have critics, and I think that KDE 4 is the way to go. But I'm not sure if putting it in the 'stable' release of Slackware is correct. Many Slackware users are upset because of this, but let me point why I still love Slackware:

• Slackware is not only a desktop environment, is a system.
• If you don't like KDE 4, you can use XFCE or install GNOME.
• If you really like Slackware, is not because of his desktop, is because of his philosophy.
• System configuration, services, kernel, etc. Are still the same as in previous releases, if you are a user, you have to know something about these issues.

The extremely useful KDE3:

But I have to be honest, I don't really think that KDE 4 is ready for a stable release in Slackware, Slackware is a great system, that's why I use it. It's very stable and simple, you don't have treat with non-standard configuration files or idiotic wizards.

I really love Slackware, but not all users do the same things with his system. I'm a developer, not a desktop user, but even in those cases Slackware rocks!.

Nunca más

Estaba yo un dia leyendo un libro en mi Slackware Linux 13.0, sin preocuparme por nada en el mundo, escuchando buena música, en un estado de completa relajación.

Cuando apareció, el teclado parpadeó repentinamente, el mouse no respondía, la música dejó de sonar...

"Imposible" - dije. El primer cuelgue en mi Slackware Linux desde el 2005, inadmisible.

Intenté leer el log del sistema, pero cada el ordenador se reiniciaba aleatoriamente. Probe mi sistema Ubuntu (testing), instalado en el mismo disco. Fue aun peor, Ubuntu hasta la fecha no puede arrancar.

Al final, probe Windows, - ":-(" - todo bien, no hay problemas... esperen, ... pantallazo azul...

Comprobé la memoria del sistema, sus temperatura, componentes, conectores, ... nada.

Al final, como último intento, limpie el CMOS con un jumper. Y, maravilla, todo funciona de nuevo, no volvio a ocurrir nada inesperado, - al menos en Linux - Slackware no volvió a fallar.

Pero aún me pregunto, qué habra sido, pero algo sucedió. A pesar de haber sido un problema de hardware, Slackware cayó, mi mundo cambió, mi alma, del fondo de esa sombra que flota sobre el suelo, no podrá liberarse. ¡Nunca más!

Nvidia driver en Slackware Linux 13

Este mes se lanzó el release oficial de Slackware 13, la cual tiene muchos cambios con respecto a su anterior versión, el changelog brinda mas detalles sobre el asunto.

Para probar la nueva 'distro', actualicé segun las indicaciones del UPGRADE.txt y todo fue perfecto, una de las cosas que noté es que ahora Xorg brinda un soporte básico(sin direct rendering) para las tarjetas NVIDIA. Al instalar el driver para mi tarjeta de video(GForce 5200), el servidor X no podía iniciar; luego de revisar varios logs y foros, encontré la solución(temporal, supongo).

Solamente se debe agregar el siguiente parámetro al fichero '/etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc':

ServerCmd=/usr/bin/X -ignoreABI

Ahora solamente inicien el sistema X con 'init 4' y todo perfecto.

Servidor Apache en Slackware 12

Para algunos que nos mudamos de versiones anteriores, en el changelog de Slackware 12 nos indican que Apache pasa a llamarse httpd, debido a convenciones.

Como sabemos, tanto los paquetes de Apache, como los de PHP y Mysql vienen incluidos por defecto en nuestra amada distro, asi que, ¿cómo usarlos?.

Primero, para iniciar Apache tenemos dos caminos:

apachectl start

ó, simplemente damos permisos de ejecución a nuestro archivo de servicio:

chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.httpd

luego

/etc/rc.d/rc.httpd start

Por supuesto que ambas formas soportan las opciones "start | stop | restart", por lo que no habrá ningún problema. Por defecto el directorio root de Apache esta en

/var/www/htdocs

para cambiarlo, editamos el archivo de configuración

/etc/httpd/httpd.conf

Bien, ahora activamos el soporte para PHP, en el fichero anterior, descomentamos

Include /etc/httpd/mod_php.conf

y reiniciamos el servidor, todo listo.

Para probar, en nuestro navegador por defecto, dirigimos la URL

http://localhost

ó

http://localhost:80

Por qué usar Slackware

Varios amigos que recien entraron al mundo GNU/Linux, me increpan por que no uso una distro mas "cool", como Ubuntu, Fedora, o Suse.

Bueno, en esto mi punto de vista se basa en ciertas experiencias propias con alguna de estas distribuciones:

• Ubuntu, hermosa, rapida, muy elaborada y amigable. Pero, instalar alguna cosa sin tener una conexión a internet...
• Suse, similar a Ubuntu, pero mucho mas completa. Pero, yo no requiero un tanque cuando solo requiero una camioneta.
• Fedora, pues no se.

Uso Slackware desde hace mucho tiempo, no por nada es una de las distros mas antiguas y tambien una de las mas usadas, con una comunidad muy grande.

Algunas de las características que me gustaria puntualizar, son:

• Simplicidad, creo que esta palabra define todo lo que Slackware significa, no tiene grandes sistemas de paquetes que te empañan cualquier trabajo.
• Filosofía, es aun una de las pocas distros que viene con una version "limpia" del kernel Linux, además que incita a que el usuario mejore las características del mismo.
• Estabilidad, tuve la oportunidad de manipular un ordenador ATX que aun funciona de una manera increible.
• Rapidez, si, es tal vez la distro mas rápida que he utilizado.
• Versatilidad, la he podido instalar y configurar en casi todo ordenador que tuve en mano(aunque claro, en algunos casos con algo de trabajo).

Slackware 12 en ejecución

Debo agregar, tambien cosas que a la gente no les gusta de Slackware:

• Instalación en modo consola(ncurses)
  
• No tiene herramientas visuales de configuración del sistema
• No hace el trabajo que el usuario debería hacer

Si aún no estas desanimado por esto, te invito a probar Slackware te aseguro que no te arrepentirás.

Aca algunos sitios muy interesantes:

_ES Slackware blog en español sobre Slackware y SL

SlackWiki si no te asusta el inglés, sitio muy completo con mucha información

Slackware Chile comunidad chilena de Slackware, muy recomendada