New to Salix ... need some help

[hyperspace]

Hi

I've been using arch linux for the last 3 years, and although I really apreciated arch's idea of a base system, you install on top of it the stuff you only need, I got a bit fed up, with recurrent upgrade problems, caused by significant changes in the system layout. And as much as I like tinkering with my system, I don't want to waste time fixing it everytime I have to do an upgrade.

Hence my post here. I've been trying some distros and reading reviews, Salix among others. I tried installing the latest KDE falvor on my laptop, and couldn't get the touchpad to work. Tried reinstalling only the base system, but couldn't find a tutorial on how to install kde from the ground up with slapt-get. Also I couldn't find a tutorial on how to switch splat-get from 13.37 to current.

So I'd like to know if I can get some pointers about these 2 items:

-switching to current
-installing kde using slapt-get

[Adys]

First, welcome .

Suggestions:

_search the forum for similar or related topics;
_take a look at the wiki, including (but not only) the SalixOS Startup Guide;
_search the forum for Slackel, which is based on Slackware current + Salix tools + latest KDE .

[mimosa]

I agree with Adys - do give Slackel a try. It's pretty stable, but Salix current is not yet. Or at least, actually it is, but a lot of stuff is still missing. Slackel has everything Salix KDE has, but with a more recent kernel and KDE

[gapan]

You don't want to run current. Not at the state it is currently in.

[thenktor]

You don't want to run current. Not at the state it is currently in.

With KDE everything you need should be available and it's probably not less stable than Arch

[hyperspace]

Thanks a lot guys. That was very helpful. Slackel is pretty much the slackware profile I was looking for. It provides the base I need to build the kind of system I'm accustomed to. I installed it last night (installed the full system to get hand on it first). It was pretty straightforward. I had minor issues with the keyboard and mouse first, but an upgrade to the latest snapshots available in current fixed the issues. Right now, I'm investigating an issue with the broadcom-sta module: attempted to build the module from slackbuilds, but I am getting an obscure error. But overall, this is a very smooth start.

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions!

[mimosa]

A lot of people have had trouble with the broadcom wireless chip, and if you search the forum, you may find the answer!

[hyperspace]

I got the broadcom-sta module to build. Turns out it needs some patches.

[thenktor]

I got the broadcom-sta module to build. Turns out it needs some patches.

For the new kernel in current?

[hyperspace]

yes for the latest version of the kernel in current. I had a look here, and saw they were applying some patches. I took those patches and modified the slackbuild file so that the patches get applied to the broadcom-sta sources. And it went through like a charm.