Coming from Zenwalk

[ron_uit_best]

Hey,

I am coming from Zenwalk, but am not that happy with it anymore, since every upgrade goes wrong and leaves me with problems. So now I want to make a choice, since I am comfortable with the slackware way which zenwalk has: Salix or Slackware.

I have installed slackware 13, but it looks that on the repos there is no openoffice and I have just rebuilt it with a multibuildermultilanguage install package which worked fine. I like KDE4 and want to keep using it. But, Sw13 comes with a whole lot of packages most of which I wont be using. So Salix could be a light start. Salix comes with OOO, also other languages? And KDE4 I can just install from the repos?

Also it looks that on the repos of slackware there aren' t much packages. Why did zenwalk have so many and cant i find OOO or GNUcash or langfiles on slackware repos? Is Slackware/Salix the right choice for me? What are the differences with zenwalk?

Alot of questions, but since zenwalk was my first long used distro I am used to having everything available.

Hope for your answers,
a possible new Salix user

[perdidostone]

To have many choices is beatiful. Freedom sometimes is pain.
Are you asking to a dealer how good is his merchandise?

[thenktor]

Slackware itself only provides a base system. You have to install all "extra" packages from third party repos or build them yourself. The problem is, that you never know how the package quality of these third party repos is. Salix tries to provide a high quality repo.

Using KDE is no problem. I'm using KDE on my main PC, too. Salix provides a Slackware repo with dependency support, so installing KDE should not be a big problem anymore. And if you are willing to brreak things you can even try my KDE 4.3.2 packages

[wingevil]

AFAIK there is no ugly KDE in the Salix-repos...a good decision

Also it looks that on the repos of slackware there aren' t much packages.

I disagree with that. If you're looking around, you'll find a lot of sources full of apps: linuxpackages, slacky, AlienBob & rworkman's repos an last but not least slackbuilds.org. But you have it to compile by your own and/or install manually with no dependies-checks. Dont forget: alls this repos can be used in Salix also.

If you prefer an easy-to-us-way to install apps in an slack-based environment, then I recommend Salix rather than Vector, Absolute and/or Wolvix

[Shador]

AFAIK there is no ugly KDE in the Salix-repos...a good decision

Also it looks that on the repos of slackware there aren' t much packages.

I disagree with that. If you're looking around, you'll find a lot of sources full of apps: linuxpackages, slacky, AlienBob & rworkman's repos an last but not least slackbuilds.org. But you have it to compile by your own and/or install manually with no dependies-checks. Dont forget: alls this repos can be used in Salix also.

If you prefer an easy-to-us-way to install apps in an slack-based environment, then I recommend Salix rather than Vector, Absolute and/or Wolvix

I think thenktor was more talking about the official repos of Slackware. Not about the unofficial ones, which as he said too have very varying package qualities. slackbuilds.org is also no package repository and (just) hosting build scripts.

[gapan]

Salix comes with OOO, also other languages?

Yes, all language packs are available in the salix repository.

And KDE4 I can just install from the repos?

Yes.

Also it looks that on the repos of slackware there aren' t much packages. Why did zenwalk have so many and cant i find OOO or GNUcash or langfiles on slackware repos?

Because they aren't there. But they all are in the Salix repository.

Is Slackware/Salix the right choice for me?

Noone can tell you that but yourself.

What are the differences with zenwalk?

A lot.

Have fun with Salix

[ron_uit_best]

Tnx,

Typing this from a fresh install. Almost everything works, except at boottime right after I have chosen Linux in Lilo, it tells me the resolution can' t be found, I have to wait 30 seconds or choose another resolution, after that it boots the kernel etc. I don't know how to get rid of this, never had this problem, has to do with framebuffering?

Then I installed KDE4, but I don't get the option to use it at the GDM login screen. Am I forgetting something?

By the way, gslapt works really nice.
So far no regrets.

[gapan]

Almost everything works, except at boottime right after I have chosen Linux in Lilo, it tells me the resolution can' t be found, I have to wait 30 seconds or choose another resolution, after that it boots the kernel etc. I don't know how to get rid of this, never had this problem, has to do with framebuffering?

Edit your /etc/lilo.conf and choose the right resolution for your hardware by uncommenting the appropriate vga=... line and commenting all others. Don't forget to run lilo -v to apply your changes.

Then I installed KDE4, but I don't get the option to use it at the GDM login screen. Am I forgetting something?

You don't, a file is missing from the kde packages to make it available to gdm. Slackware doesn't care about gdm, since gdm is not part of slackware. You can have it work in two ways:

1. Remove gdm, so kdm is started instead.
2. Copy file /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions/kde.desktop to /usr/share/xsessions/ so gdm can find it. (this is completely from memory, so I might be wrong on the exact locations)

[ron_uit_best]

Ok, lilo changed and it works ! I chose option vga = 791 from another post in the forum which I stumbeled upon.

KDM is not working for some reason. First I was told that there was no gdm, kdm, slim etc installed so runlevel 4 was not possible. So I tried installing 2 more kde packages hoping one of them contained kdm and the error message is gone, but kdm is not starting.

So I chose your second option and reinstalled gdm and copied the file. You were 100% correct about the locations.

Tnx for the help

Edit: KDE does not start, complaining missing shared librarie libqt4 or something (gdm printed this in .xsession-errors) and startkde: command not found. Strange is that the errorfile doesnt contain these errors anymore, so i can' t reproduce them exactly.
What to do?

[gapan]

If kdm is not working, you're probably missing some kde dependencies. Did you use our slackware-with-dependencies repositories (see our downloads page), or do you still have the original slackware repositories (osousl.org) in your /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc