Salix Forums

hello everybody!
just trying out different mate distros - salix feels good so far, very good, but it's my first encounter with slackware and i have one question:

can i get more software sources?
right now i see only 3:

...
[i'm not yet allowed to post links]
...

all of them on the same server.
do these include the whole slackware universe?
is this intended, am i misunderstanding?
is the whole software installation process for all salix users going through this pinhole?
it seems to me there should be more.

thanks for reading.
i'm sure this is a stupid question. i did try the wiki and a web search first.

GSlapt installs pre-built binaries so, although many potential sources exist, some might be risky. These are the ones that I personally consider safe, because they are maintained by members of the Slackware team:

# Eric Hameleers AlienBob repos
SOURCE=http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/
SOURCE=http://slackware.org.uk/people/alien/re ... ackbuilds/

# Robby Workman repo
SOURCE=http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/13.37/

If you're using the latest Salix 14, then I think the previous line would be:
SOURCE=http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/14.0/

However, a much wider universe of software is available if you're willing to build packages from source code. Sourcery is a GUI tool which Salix provides to fully automate the process. Sourcery is a front-end to the command-line program slapt-src.

There's a list of slackbuilds here:
ftp://ftp.slackbuilds.org/
for building and installing on your system,
following these instructions:
http://slackbuilds.org/howto/
They are more up to date than the slapt-src
repos used by sourcery.

danisal wrote:do these include the whole slackware universe?

Depends on what you mean. They include they entire official slackware and salix repos.

danisal wrote:is this intended, am i misunderstanding?

It is definitenly intended.

danisal wrote:is the whole software installation process for all salix users going through this pinhole?

I don't understand your point.

danisal wrote:it seems to me there should be more.

But there really aren't.

In sum: cast your net wider at your own risk, and judiciously. Salix (like Slackware) prizes stability over other virtues.

thanks to all you friendly animals and lumberjacks.

gapan wrote:

danisal wrote:is the whole software installation process for all salix users going through this pinhole?

I don't understand your point.

what i meant: i see 3 internet addresses in gslapt's sources dialog, all 3 of them on the salix server.
twice i had a case where software install was impossibly slow and i thought if all salix users request all software install data from 1 server (probably not the packages themselves though?) - that's what i'd call a pinhole, that's what might have slowed down the installation.

[but the slowness of the download could have about 10 other reasons.]

on another, debian based distro, i have 3 repos, 1 on debian.org, one on debian.net and one on the distros own server. it's the kind of thing i'm used to see on a new install. i'm not saying it's better.

obviously slackware is somewhat different from debian/debian-based.
i guess i'll just try some of the sources you shared, read some more, try to learn...

thanks again and see you around!

Mirrors do exist. They are listed in the wiki.