gslapt in Fluxbox - old versions of programs

[Sprinterdrvr]

Hi.

I guess this smell newbie a long way - but here I go

I have just installed Salix Fluxbox. I first had the problem that I had selected a repository mirror that was down - so I have changed it to http://slackware.org.uk/salix

I have noticed that in gslapt package manager, many of the avaiable programs have a version number that is several years old.

Is there different packages, if changing repository source?

Really noob question from me:
Let say I want to get the newest version of Inkscape. How can I get that in Salix Fluxbox, if possible? (have never compiled anything so ino order to do that I have to read some guidelines etc).

Thanks

[mimosa]

Have you had a look at the Salix Startup Guide (link on homepage)? See especially chapter three on package management.

Once any Salix version is released, it only gets security updates. The most recent version (currently 14.2) has the latest ones.

[gapan]

I kind of missed that in your previous posts, but did you install the fluxbox release? That one is 14.1, not 14.2 which is the latest one. 14.1 is indeed a few years old. You probably didn't realize that. It's still supported, but it's not the one you install if you want newer versions of packages.

Either upgrade your system to 14.2 (I wouldn't do that if I was a newbie in Salix), or install 14.2 Xfce if you want newer software.

Then again, if what you want is a distribution that always provides the latest versions of anything, Salix is not for you.

[Sprinterdrvr]

Thanks folks. Had an idea what would come when I asked that - reading here on forum and reading about Salix elsewhere I understand that it is kinda more "hardcore Linux" compared to other distros that is "easier" to just start and use, and everything is just few keyclicks away.

Had some tries to find the correct command to get OS version - [cat /etc/*-release] outs version 14.1.

[boring stuff, quit reading if not interrested in my personal thaughts after all]
I'm the kind of person that just cannot get myself to throw an old, but still functional laptop in trash just because it has XP installed. In my case here I have an Toshiba Satelite from the early 2000's that have a CPU without PAE support. Therefore, there is just some very few distros that is possible to install (and works).
I tried Bodhi because I have installed that one to another computer, and it ran fine. But on this particular laptop, it just didn't work with the gpu. So I tried Salix with fluxbox, and it works. Neither Lubuntu nor Linux Lite would boot properly and would not able to get desktop up and running.
So I don't care if "Salix is not for me" - I have it installed and is determent to make it work. I'm still noob (have playing around with Linux now for almost half a year, not much experience as being an old ms user).

I can effort to try to upgrade to 14.2 because I will use clonezilla and make disk image so I can restore if it doesn't work.

One thing I noticed - searching for answers on Google on questions related to Salix seems to not show nearly so many results as when using ubuntu based distros, e.g. I haven't found a command that returns hardware info. Not really a problem, but that make me asking more noob'ish question to this forum later on.

[gapan]

In that case, feel free to upgrade. Make sure you follow the instructions in the wiki.

If you have any problems, post back.

[ChuangTzu]

Ubuntu has the most attention because they've had a guy throwing millions of dollars into it for the last 13 years. I still don't think they've made any money which is why Shuttleworth is trying to set it up to take Canonical public or to sell it completely.

now back on topic...

screenfetch will show some specs....
sudo slapt-get -i screenfetch



or full screen:http://i.imgur.com/2jp692W.png

[mimosa]

I have it installed and is determent to make it work

That attitude will get you a long way. Please do keep asking for any help you need. Hang in there - most people soon find their Salix installation pretty much looks after itself.