A few nits i've found with Slackware 11

[fr333k]

Hey

Just thought I'd post my thoughts on Slackware, after my installation on my M2n-VM DH (ASUS Nforce 430 board) I found I was missing sound, graphics and LAN drivers (less noticabally Wlan aswell, but thats almost a given)... After the popularity of Nforce 430 with motherboards, surely it should be incorperated into the base kernels or at least somewhere on the system.... After going to there site, I found nothing but recommendations, some of the drivers dont even work, such as the forcedeth module,

Another thing that really didnt help was the official Slackware documentation wasnt at all helpful, it didnt mention anything about hardware troubleshooting, and I understand that Slackware is as BSD-like as possible, doesnt mean it has to be newbie unfriendly, not to mention the fact that the book seems to be targeted at completely new users anyway...

Does anyone else have thoughts on the situation, or think that i'm a comlpete noob tard? anything?..

-Fr333k//Fragged

BTW: I'm not flaming, just constuctive critism,

[kern]

Not having the official nforce drivers in the kernel isn't slackwares fault.

[rong]

Most of your "concerns" can be said across the board on most of the linux distros. The kernel does include drivers for sound, graphics and lan but only as generics which in most cases will at least get you a working system. I have a number of nVidia cards here and I've never been unable to get them to work using any kernel. Now to get the full benefits like 3d you will have to install the drivers which are provided by nVidia and their site gives the details and tools for installing them into the kernel (which many of us do not like to do since that means an upgrade in the graphics card will require a recompile of the kernel).

Re: sound, are you saying you have no sound? Have you run alsaconf and alsamixer?

Re: documentation. I agree that their book, Linux Essentials, is both outdated and very basic. As to the rest of the doc issue, well keep in mind that between google, forums, mail-lists, etc. there is a considerable amount of information out there. It helps to keep in mind that distros like slackware expect the user to be competent enough to know how to research and to let the developers focuse on 'developing'!!!

hope to see you around more....slackware is definatly worth the effort.

ron

[mvantuyl]

I selected the 2.6 kernel, so in order to get everything working on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 600m) I had to install the kernel headers and modules from the extra directory on CD 2. After that, I ran

alsamixer

followed by

alsactl store

After installing ndiswrapper, my wireless networking came up without a hitch.

AFAIK, there isn't one single comprehensive respository of information for installation/configuration of Slackware. That said, there is a wealth of information on the Internet and in print.

Learning how to find answers to questions is an essential part of living happily with Slackware.

[techieMoe]

Now to get the full benefits like 3d you will have to install the drivers which are provided by nVidia and their site gives the details and tools for installing them into the kernel (which many of us do not like to do since that means an upgrade in the graphics card will require a recompile of the kernel).

That's not true. The official Nvidia drivers are an external kernel module, and they work just fine if you swap out cards. The only time you need to do anything special is when you upgrade your kernel, in which case only a driver reinstall is necessary. Nvidia drivers do not require a kernel recompile.

[techieMoe]

Just thought I'd post my thoughts on Slackware, after my installation on my M2n-VM DH (ASUS Nforce 430 board) I found I was missing sound, graphics and LAN drivers (less noticabally Wlan aswell, but thats almost a given)... After the popularity of Nforce 430 with motherboards, surely it should be incorperated into the base kernels or at least somewhere on the system.... After going to there site, I found nothing but recommendations, some of the drivers dont even work, such as the forcedeth module,

A lot of Linux distributions don't like the idea of putting commercial closed-source code in their kernel. As of right now the only way to get some Nvidia hardware to work properly is through the use of their official drivers (which in my personal experience work quite well). You likely won't find any Linux distribution that includes Nforce drivers specifically in its kernel, since it would alienate those using other chipsets (ATI, SiS, VIA).

Another thing that really didnt help was the official Slackware documentation wasnt at all helpful, it didnt mention anything about hardware troubleshooting, and I understand that Slackware is as BSD-like as possible, doesnt mean it has to be newbie unfriendly, not to mention the fact that the book seems to be targeted at completely new users anyway...

Slackware is not easy for first-time Linux users, and that's not likely to change. Patrick Volkerding, the maintainer of Slackware, is not at all interested in making his distribution easier to use, in my opinion. He'd rather just ignore the new user crowd and stick to his die-hard fans who don't mind spending hours tweaking things to get them to work. But that's just my personal beef.

[rong]

That's not true. The official Nvidia drivers are an external kernel module, and they work just fine if you swap out cards. The only time you need to do anything special is when you upgrade your kernel, in which case only a driver reinstall is necessary. Nvidia drivers do not require a kernel recompile.

I stand corrected and I know better. I should have waited until I was awake! Thanks.

By the way do you plan on doing another "rant" on ver. 11 any time soon? IMO been some good improvements over 10.x. I think it deserves a better score .

ron

[techieMoe]

By the way do you plan on doing another "rant" on ver. 11 any time soon? IMO been some good improvements over 10.x. I think it deserves a better score .

ron

Are you asking if I'll revisit version 11? Has something changed since I wrote this rant? (WARNING: If you're a Slackware fan you probably should just skip reading it.)

In a way I agree with you, I think Slackware does deserve a better score than I've given it in the past. It just hasn't earned one yet.

[rong]

Are you asking if I'll revisit version 11? Has something changed since I wrote this rant? (WARNING: If you're a Slackware fan you probably should just skip reading it.)

In a way I agree with you, I think Slackware does deserve a better score than I've given it in the past. It just hasn't earned one yet.

Hmmm..well I missed your 11 rant and I see it's gone even futher down in ranking. IF I had had all the issues you did I'd be inclined to come to the same conclusion, but I did'nt. Yes I'm a slack fan but I read your rants anyway AND I enjoy them!!!

ron (aka masochist!)

[techieMoe]

Hmmm..well I missed your 11 rant and I see it's gone even futher down in ranking. IF I had had all the issues you did I'd be inclined to come to the same conclusion, but I did'nt. Yes I'm a slack fan but I read your rants anyway AND I enjoy them!!!

ron (aka masochist!)

Well I'm glad you took it in perspective. Not everyone is so nice. I do try to make it clear on my site that my rants are just my personal experience, and others may have completely different results. I started posting my rants in college as a kind of stress relief and some of my college buddies found them humorous, so I kept it up. Now I have the burden of people sometimes taking me much too seriously. Haha.