Update on Back to Slack

[mlangdn]

I have been working on a lot of things. First, I am able to burn CDs now. I installed OpenOffice. Then I wanted to get FlightGear up and flying. That has been a chore. But it is compiling as I type.

I had to create a working glut library and I had no clue as to what I needed. I downloaded a Glut Toolkit and that did not work. Tried it several hundred times and ways. Finally, I stumbled across a Mesa tarball, made the files and put them in the appropriate places for headers and libs, then began again on Plib, SimGear, and lastly FlightGear. It takes about an hour and I am only 40 minutes in. But I can see the light now and I will be flying again soon. Oh yea, I can't fly a damn plane but it sure is fun to try!

This blinking slow-ass cursor is driving me nuts! Half the time I can't see where its at, and I have to wait for letters to appear to see what I have typed. Does it in Mozilla and Firefox. Don't do it in any other program like KWrite or Office. I even wantes a white pointer but after I restarted x, it was still black.

Still learnin' and yearnin'. Slack is teaching me more about Linux and I need to start writin' some of this down. Eventually, I will muck it up so bad that there will be no recovery. HEHEHE!

:-) :-)

[ralpha6]

As far as the cursor issue goes, I just compiled Firefox and it doesn't have any wierd functionality for me. Didn't with my old mozilla either.

I noticed in another thread you mentioned you didn't run firefox the very first time as root. You need to do that for certain files to be written to your disk. I don't know if you can run it as root now that you have already run it as a normal user or not. I'm sure Grogan would know tho ;)

[mlangdn]

Firefox was a tarball that I extracted, then run the script to start from my home dir. There was no compile. I wonder if having it and Mozilla together is a problem. I just remembered that Netscape is on here as well. These three together may be an incestuous relationship that is crshing each other?

I did run it as root, but not until after I had run it as a user. I can always delete it and extract again I reckon.

[ralpha6]

I have all 3 of those browsers on here as well. If it's that easy to uninstall and reinstall then that's what I would do. It may not make any difference, but something sure is funky on your system.

What are you PC specs?

[mlangdn]

Shuttle Mainboard - AI61
AMD Thunderbird - 800mhz
PC 100 - 384mb
Creative SoundBlaster PCI 128
Pine TNT2 M64 32mb AGP
Zoom 3025L Data/Fax Modem
40x CDROM
40x10x20 CDRW Yamaha
WD 13.6 GB Primary
Maxtor 5GB Primary Slave
17" Dell CRT

FlightGear is running anyway. Time for bed now. I gotta work tomorrow! Rats!

[Grogan]

If Mozilla has libraries in /usr/lib (and I think the slackware installation of it does), then yes there could be problems because they are in the path that the dynamic linker goes for and are what will get loaded instead of the correct ones. I don't think it's a big deal, but it's something that isn't right.

Easiest thing to do is just uninstall your mozilla package. You can always install the slackware package again.

The opening as root for the first time thing wouldn't be an issue with precompiled binaries,

[mlangdn]

Firefox does not have an attached mail client like mozilla. I may just stay with mozilla for that reason. I liked evolution, but it is not on the Slack disks. KMail is no good for me either. It isn't bad, just featureless - which is probably a good thing anyway!

[Grogan]

Firefox doesn't have an email client, but Mozilla Thunderbird is the replacement. Way nicer than Mozilla mail, but it's a separate application.

I use Thunderbird for a news reader.

http://www.bitbenderforums.com/~grogan/screenshots/thunderbird_gtk2.png

[mlangdn]

Thanks G, I will give that a go - forgot about that post. I was interested then, but forgot it!

:-)

[mlangdn]

I have mentioned the cursor problem in Mozilla and Firefox as being slow and blinking to the point that sometimes I don't even know where it is positioned - well, I went to pay a few bills and the cursor did not blink or get screwy on the secure sites I visited. It seems that only happens here at BBF!

Otherwise, I am well pleased this time with Slack. Of course, it didn't hurt to learn a little more along the way. I even have very decent eye candy! Didn't have that in Mandrake. You gotta learn a little about customization, and Slack will make you or break you.

:beer:

[Grogan]

Try turning off animations and see if that helps with the typing. In firefox, there's no setting for it, so type about:config in your address bar, and search for (use the field named filter) animation and you'll see a setting image.animation_mode. Right click on it and choose modify, and type once (makes animated gifs only loop once)

[mlangdn]

That definitely made a difference in Mozilla. But now I don't get to see IA's smilies dance. Oh well, can't have everything! At least text entering is more normal! I will do Firefox next time I'm in.

Seems to have made the browser faster as well!

I also forgot to add that Slack boots soooooo much quicker than MDK. From power on to console login in about 45 seconds. X starts in about 35 more seconds. MDK took almost four minutes.

:lol:

[mlangdn]

I left the house for awhile and left the computer on. Naturally, it was booted into Slack. My daughter wanted to type a paper and for some reason absolutely has to use Microsoft Office. She had no way to get out of Slack and back to Windows XP.

Now she does. After re-reading the tutorial on X in Slack, I was able to change the runlevel, start KDE automagically, and give her or her mother a way out. The screaming has subsided - maybe I can get them to start using Linux. I have Open Office, which will do everything they need and then some. It even opens and uses some of the advanced formulas I use at work in Office 2000. I do production scheduling and have several worksheets tied together. An entry in one sheet actually effects the results in as many as 3 others in two different workbooks.

:D

[Grogan]

Good going :-)

Yes, the KDM graphical logon screen has a shutdown button and that allows all users to shut down or restart the PC.

However, for next time, she could have simply pressed ctrl-alt-del to do a proper restart of the system, and then chosen Windows from the LILO boot menu.

The ctrl-alt-del keypress signals are trapped by "init" and shutdown -r now is initiated.

If you take a look at /etc/inittab, the same file where you changed the runlevel, you can see where the ctrl-alt-del behaviour is defined

# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t5 -r now

[mlangdn]

That never even crossed my mind to try that. It never worked when I was suckling at the poisoned teat of Mandrake!

Daggonit G! I am picking up your euphemisms!

:cool:

[labatts]

hey mlangdn, i just took a peak at your desktop.....nice job man ,that is a sweet desktop..:cool:

[mlangdn]

Thanks labatts! It is a work in progress as I learn new stuff. Keep plugging away! It is most satisfying.

:rasta:

[labatts]

from reading your posts it seems that your having a great time using slackware,im enjoying the hell out of it too!

Although your linux knowledge is far superior to mine ...i mean the fact that you compiled your own kernel say's it all..that is still way over my head at this stage of the game for me.

i'm taking the small step method,i'd love to be able to pour over the various linux guides and howto's,but if i stay at it to long it reminds me of school( i hated school),and i don't want to associate school with slackware.

i figure theres no rush,being a construction worker it's not like i need to learn linux at all......but i just get a kick out of it.

And with the help from the people of this forum(which is extensive considering my complete ignorance of slackware..:) ..)i think i'll eventually get the hang of it.I think you'll agree this forum and it's members are excellent.

P.S have you fixed you're firefox problems? i hope so when working right i believe it's the best thing out there.

[mlangdn]

Firefox is fine now, it just didn't like animations much. As far as a kernel goes, I finally figured one out for my machine. I must have built 20 kernels before I got one half-way right! I now have that config file saved for future builds - and it will work if I don't change the machine much.

Go ahead and build a kernel. Put Grogan's tutorial to work for you. I think he wrote it because I and others were wearing him out with questions! He has never failed to help, even if it was only providing a link for you to figure out the problem on your own.

I will suggest that you keep a journal. Write down what works as well as what didn't work. Do several little journals for different things and keep them for future reference. No matter how good you get, there will always be something you forget the procedure for how to do it. Dang, that was bad English!

P.S. Life is a school each and every day. Don't think of it as school and always try to learn something each and every day. You can't be a construction worker without learning how to build something. Don't be afraid of learning!

I love this forum!

[labatts]

thank's for the words of advice mlangdon.i'll try to follow them :)


that journal idea is great .

and as far as grogan is concerned,you couldn't be more right about him,he has always helped me..he's a regular encyclopedia linuxatica :-)

glad to hear firefox is working.

[mlangdn]

One other thing, BobGuy is very good with Linux issues as well. You will see a lot of him in here as well.

:-)

[phicks]

Originally posted by mlangdn
One other thing, BobGuy is very good with Linux issues as well. You will see a lot of him in here as well.

:-)

Yep he has helped me alot. Tries to anyway. :Tong: I be a tough student to try to help sometimes. :D

[Cool Canuck]

Originally posted by labatts
i'm taking the small step method,i'd love to be able to pour over the various linux guides and howto's,but if i stay at it to long it reminds me of school( i hated school),and i don't want to associate school with slackware.
Grogan once said, "There is no hand holding in Slack." He was correct of course. Slackware's installation seems to be as good as anybody's and the package system works well. It is fairly easy for anyone to get it up and running. Customizing it is another story. Then, you need to understand the directory structure, system structure and command line usage. Slack gives you the tools but you need to learn how to use them. Some distributions have helper applications but you will find few in Slack. You will come to realize that all the Linux distributions use the same parts and pieces but their system designs will differ. The way to accomplish a task in one distro may not necessarily work with another.

The problem I have with Linux is the lack of decent documentation for newbies. The man pages etc are technically correct but cryptic for the new comer and rarely have any examples of use. Many applications are sorely lacking in documentation. Google becomes your best friend. Well, right after Grogan. The best way to learn, for me anyway, is to get in there and do something. Break it, look for some informatioin and fix it. Compiling a kernel is a good place to start. You are going to have to do it sooner or later. You learn a lot and gain confidence. Before long, you will find yourself downloading source code, optimizing it and compiling it for your machine.

I consider myself a newbie. I started with Linux awhile back, played with it for awhile and then it sat collecting dust for a few months. Got back at it this winter, now have a system that serves my purposes fairly well and I run Slackware 98% (guess) of the time. Windows only serves to run the odd program I can't duplicate in Linux and to work on a few MS Office documents from work. I will never get to Grogan's level of expertise, but BobGuy could get a run for his money. :)

[labatts]

that's a good point cool,i will eventually have to do a kernel compile.I guess i better study grogans tutorial on that subject(i feel a headache coming on :D ). i agree with you about linux documentation , it is very confusing for a linux newb like myself to figure out.



I don't think that there are to many people who have grogans slackware knowledge ,and problably only Patrick Volkerding has more(although probably not much more)

I'm starting to wonder if he's even human,maybe he's like a slackware supercomputer or something.......:-)

[Grogan]

Come on guys... I am what you would call a competent Linux user. There's real gurus way beyond me :-)

[labatts]

i call bullshit on that one grogan:)

you know a hell of alot man.............or is it man......your a computer aren't you......come on fess up :D

[Cool Canuck]

Originally posted by Grogan
Come on guys... I am what you would call a competent Linux user. There's real gurus way beyond me :-) But neither one of those two don't speak English. :D

Ok, enough blowing sunshine up your butt. I'm sure labbats will stop, .... once he realizes how ugly it is. :roflmao:

[mlangdn]

Dayem CC! You seen it? It's that fugly?

:ot: :ot:

HEHEHE!

[labatts]

:lol: .....cough,cough......:lol: