Size of Slackware 13.0 Full Installation

Somebody asked me how much space needed to do full installation of Slackware 13.0. I can't give him a accurate answer as i never do full installation of Slackware. I always choose my own packages during installation, so i ended with a system which suit my need. He asked so because he had problem when he wanted to install Slackware 13.0 on a 5 GB partition.

IMHO, full installation of Slackware 13.0 would take less than 5 GB, but just to be sure, i'd hope other people can tell me how much disk space consumed for full installation of Slackware 13.0 using the comment section.

Thanks before

Slow Write Performance

I'm back from my trip and still no update for -Current tree. I'm suspecting a new kernel will show up in the next batch of update as 2.6.33.1 has been released by Greg few days ago.

Does any of you having a slow write performance when copying or moving files to and from flash disk or portable hard disk to your internal hard disk? I had this problem lately. This has never happened before. I'm not sure when exactly the changes in -Current changes this behaviour, but i'm suspecting a kernel misconfiguration (i used a custom kernel build, so it's not Slackware's fault if it's related to kernel) which is the root cause for this problem.

FYI, this happened in my laptop. I will post the output of hdparm -tT on my laptop tomorrow, but here is the output in my desktop. Can you give your output on the comment section for comparison?

/dev/sda1:
Timing cached reads: 838 MB in 2.00 seconds = 418.52 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 306 MB in 3.01 seconds = 101.54 MB/sec

Update: Here's my output of hdparm -tT in my laptop

/dev/sda1:
Timing cached reads: 2696 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1349.06 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 232 MB in 3.02 seconds = 76.89 MB/sec

Which is very strange. It nearly tripled in the first test, but it's slower in the second test. Does this proves anything to you guys?

Emacs Rebuilt

I said that i will be out of town and i won't be updating this blog, but it seems that there has been a small update on the -Current tree. Emacs gets rebuilt since it was compiled using a wrong architecture (it was using x86_64 previously), so i will post about it before i'm leaving in the next two hours.

Out of Town

I will be out of town for few days, so i will not be able to post updates in Slackware-Current development nor any Slackware-related news. I will be back on Sunday and hopefully, there are plenty of updates which can be posted at that time.

As always, read the -Current Changelog for detailed information about what happened in -Current tree.

Emacs Upgraded

It has been requested by many people and now Pat decided it's time to put this request done by upgrading emacs to 23.1. Emacs, a popular text editor made by Richard Stallman itself is a very complete text editor. It can do more than just text editor. No wonder many people used this application as their favorite one.

Well, it's the only update for today, so if you don't use emacs (like i do), you won't find any interesting updates today, so your machine is safe for another day (hey, i'm not talking that -Current will break your machine , but it's a development tree, so anything can happen)

XOrg 1.7.5 and Linux Kernel 2.6.33

Indonesian Slackware user, Arman Idris posted on Plurk that he is now running XOrg 1.7.5 with the latest -Current update. I was curious and asked him what did he do in order to make that combination works? I have tried to upgrade this before and the result was misserable. I couldn't start KDE. I have tried several ways, but ended with failure.

He replied that he did nothing. It was a default configuration, which makes me more curious about it. So i looked the Changelog and i saw no major changes to XOrg except for Mesa which is rebuilt to remove --enable-gallium-intel and --enable-gallium-radeon configure parameter (which i think it's not related at all).

So i tried the upgrade on my workstation at my office which uses Intel VGA card. I installed the generic kernel and create initrd, upgrade all packages in x/ and re-ran lilo to update the lilo and reboot and YES, it worked like charm. It works automatically without any additional configuration. All you need is the latest -Current (March 12 and newer) and it should work.

Next, i tried this on my laptop which uses Intel + NVidia (yes, it's a hybrid laptop). Unfortunately, Linux is not ready for GPU switching yet (until 2.6.34), so basically it's Intel-based laptop. I upgraded all packages in x/ and installed the generic-smp kernels in -Current and reboot, but what did i get? a Lockup. It won't boot at all. It won't even pass the initial kernel dots.

So i decided to compile my own Linux 2.6.33 kernel using Pat's config file on generic-smp which i modified a little bit to make the EXT4 file system static (so i won't have to make initrd), change the processor type, and enable HIGHMEM64G in order for Slackware to detect my 4 GB of RAM (i'm still using 32 bit system FYI). After rebooting, voilaa.... it works

So, if you are using Slackware-Current and having problem with the latest XOrg 1.7.5, please make sure you are using Linux kernel 2.6.33 or newer. If the default kernel packages in Slackware-Current doesn't work out for you, i would recommend you to compile your own kernel based on Slackware's config (just to be safe, but you can always make your own config).

Right now i'm compiling Linux 2.6.33 in my desktop. This is my third attempt to upgrade all of my machines and i'm hoping it will work also

More Minor Changes

There are a lot of trivial changes happened this day after a massive big one in early March and this batch of update is not an exception. Basically it upgrades several packages while rebuilding other packages.

One security update is also released, which is Samba. Samba now uses 3.5.x instead of sticking with 3.4.x, which is a good measurement to make sure it has the most secure application at the moment.

Here are the changes in the latest -Current changelog:

Sat Mar 13 02:08:44 UTC 2010
a/lvm2-2.02.62-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

a/ntfs-3g-2010.3.6-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

ap/lsof-4.83-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

ap/sqlite-3.6.23-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

d/git-1.7.0.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/hal-0.5.14-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.

l/parted-2.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/dhcp-4.1.1-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Add PATH setting to /sbin/dhclient-script.

n/dhcpcd-5.2.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/iproute2-2.6.33-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/iptables-1.4.7-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/samba-3.5.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This fixes a security flaw present in Samba 3.3.11, 3.4.6, and 3.5.0 that allows nmbd processes filesystem access when permissions should have denied it. For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-0728
(* Security fix *)

xap/xfce4-power-manager-0.8.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

New Changes

There are some new changes in the latest -Current batch of updates. Two new tools are introduced while one package is being removed (replaced exactly). The first new package is cpufrequtils, which is used to control how your CPU manage their frequencies. The second package is geeqie which replaced gqview. This package is brought into -Current because gqview is no longer maintained by the developers. I still prefer gwenview which is integrated with KDE for my personal image viewer

Some packages gets rebuilt to fix some problems, such as Mesa, xdm and bash-completion. Now bash-completion works with txz packages, so you no longer have to use * wildcard when working with txz formats. Other packages gets a lift up, such as libraries.

Here are the latest -Current changelog:

Fri Mar 12 05:57:50 UTC 2010
a/cpufrequtils-007-i486-1.txz: Added.

ap/vim-7.2.394-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Also updated the runtime syntax files.

l/freetype-2.3.12-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/gst-plugins-good-0.10.21-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/gst-plugins-base-0.10.28-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/gstreamer-0.10.28-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/mcabber-0.9.10-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

x/mesa-7.7-i486-3.txz: Rebuilt.
Removed --enable-gallium-intel and --enable-gallium-radeon from ./configure.

x/xdm-1.1.9-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Added missing /var/lib/xdm directory.

xap/geeqie-1.0-i486-1.txz: Added.
This fork of GQview is actively maintained, and seems improved.

xap/gqview-2.1.5-i486-2.txz: Removed.

xap/vim-gvim-7.2.394-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

extra/bash-completion/bash-completion-1.1-noarch-3.txz: Rebuilt.
Fixed txz completion for pkgtools.

Security Update: Pidgin

Pidgin is finally upgraded on the last update and this time, it is considered a security fix as it fixed several critical vulnerabilities, as described in the Changelog of Pidgin Project.

Ok guys, grab it while it's hot

OpenSSL Patched and Rebuilt

OpenSSL packages has been rebuilt to include a patch which revert some a change that broke decrypting some files encrypted with previous versions of OpenSSL. It's an official patch, so Pat decided to rebuilt the package for public use.

Running Rsync Via Proxy

One way to get the latest Slackware updates is by running rsync to syncronize your local repository and the main repository that hold the Slackware packages. Eric Hameleers has provided a great script called rsync_current.sh and how i modified this tool has been discussed on my previous post. In general, it works, except for one problem, when your computer is connecting to the Internet through a proxy.

My workstation at my office is connected to the Internet through a proxy, so i can't use normal rsync to work normally. I browsed the web and i found this site which tells us about how we should modify our squid configuration to allow rsync connection from any computer from our local networks. I asked my sysadmin to try this script. He agreed and he updated the squid configuration on the proxy.

Next, i need to update my environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to the host of the proxy and also the port. Let's say you are running a proxy on 192.168.1.1 and port 8080, then you need to run export RSYNC_PROXY="192.168.1.1:8080 and then you can start running your rsync command (or script in my case).

Remember that this change is not permanent. It will last until you close your terminal, so the solution is to add this line into your ~/.bash_profile or /etc/profile if you want it to be globaly available to all of your users.

If you want to run the script periodically, you can use cronjobs to do it for you. I set to download the update from Slackware mirrors at around 11 PM at night when the bandwidth is not utilized.

Hope this small article helps you out to work with rsync when you are behind a proxy

Security Update: HTTPD

Apache has just released a security update for httpd package and Slackware-Current has included the fix on the latest batch. It fixed three problems described on the Changelog.

Other news is that cupsddk is now being part of the main CUPS package, so we don't need separate package, thus cupsddk package is now removed. OpenSSH is also upgraded to the latest version, which is a major upgrade.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Mon Mar 8 20:49:02 UTC 2010
ap/cupsddk-1.2.3-i486-2.txz: Removed.
The CUPS Driver Development Kit (DDK) is part of the main CUPS package now.

ap/hplip-3.10.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/httpd-2.2.15-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This update addresses a few security issues.
mod_ssl: A partial fix for the TLS renegotiation prefix injection attack by rejecting any client-initiated renegotiations.
mod_proxy_ajp: Respond with HTTP_BAD_REQUEST when the body is not sent when request headers indicate a request body is incoming; not a case of HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.
mod_isapi: Do not unload an isapi .dll module until the request processing is completed, avoiding orphaned callback pointers.
[This is the most serious flaw, but does not affect Linux systems]
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3555
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-0408
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-0425
(* Security fix *)

n/openssh-5.4p1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

Latest CUPS and Canon Problem Fixed

Today, i wanted to print something, but i noticed the printer is not responding to my request. It seems the latest CUPS in -Current has made some changes so that it didn't detect my printer anymore (it's a major upgrade after all). I have tried to remove my printer and re-adding it again, but i'm stuck with this error message: Bad device-uri "cnij_usb:/dev/usb/lp0"!

When i read this thread in LQ, i realized that i didn't have the same problem (the problem in LQ did happened on my workstation at my office where i got a blank paper instead of a text). So, i searched for solution on the Internet and i got to Gentoo BugZilla which said about cnijfilter-common 3.00 package. Mine is 2.7.0 which i got from official repository of Canon.

I searched the Internet and got this package (3.00) from Canon Asia Support and i converted it to tgz using rpm2tgz application provided in Slackware and i removed the old cnijfilter-common package and install this new package. Next, i restarted my CUPS service and i'm able to get my printer working again after re-adding it again.

The correct device URI is supposed to be cnijusb:/dev/usb/lp0 which is fixed with the latest cnijfilter-common package.

I hope this helps when you encounter a problem with Canon printers and you are using CUPS 1.4.x.

Minor Kernel Tweak

Pat has just updated two kernel packages in -Current to improve it's compatibility and also upgraded libarchive to 2.8.0. It's a small updates, but this should fix some problems with the huge kernel after the introduction of XOrg and 2.6.33 few days ago.

Security Update: Firefox

A new security update for older Slackware version has been released. Firefox has been upgraded to 3.0.18. No new activities in -Current, but bash-completion package which was shown on the Changelog is now ready to be downloaded in the repository. It seems that Pat may have forgotten to put them on the public mirrors

Security Update: Thunderbird

Another updates coming through today with one security update related to Thunderbird. Other packages gets rebuild due to upgrade on curl and many other packages. This batch also introduce fixes for mesa, bash-completion, and gnuplot.

Here's the latest -Current development:

Sat Mar 6 06:46:22 UTC 2010
a/aaa_elflibs-13.013-i486-4.txz: Rebuilt.
Updated libcurl.so.4.2.0.

d/git-1.7.0.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/apr-1.3.9-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/apr-util-1.3.9-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.

l/raptor-1.4.21-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/alpine-2.00-i486-3.txz: Rebuilt.

n/autofs-5.0.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/curl-7.20.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/dirmngr-1.0.3-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.

n/gnupg-1.4.10-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/gnupg2-2.0.14-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.

n/gpgme-1.2.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/httpd-2.2.14-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.

n/libassuan-1.0.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/libgcrypt-1.4.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/libksba-1.0.7-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/php-5.2.13-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/pinentry-0.8.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

x/mesa-7.7-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled with an upstream fix for a crash in driNewRenderbuffer().
Thanks to David Houlden for the bug report.

x/xf86-input-penmount-1.4.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

x/xf86-video-ati-6.12.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

xap/gnuplot-4.2.6-i486-1.txz: Rebuilt.
This was compiled with the wrong $ARCH.
Thanks again to Mikhail Zotov for spotting the problem.

xap/mozilla-thunderbird-3.0.3-i686-1.txz: Upgraded.
This upgrade fixes some more security bugs.
For more information, see:
http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/thunderbird30.html
(* Security fix *)

extra/bash-completion/bash-completion-1.1-noarch-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Patched to recognize bash-4.

Workstation Problem Fixed

My workstation is finally back to normal again after i downgrade all packages in x/ directory to the original files in Slackware 13.0. First, i mounted the Slackware CD 2 ISO into a local directory using mount -o loop command, and then i executed upgradepkg --install-new slackware/x/*txz which will downgrade all packages in the x/ directory and i can go to my X environment again.

Basically, i updates all packages to the latest Slackware-Current batch of update, except the x/ which makes me still running the old XOrg server, but no problem for now, as i don't even use the new feature in newer XOrg package. I think it's getting more complicated, mostly for end users.

Stay Out of x/

Today i just make my 2 desktop broken due to XOrg. My first workstation is my test system which i used at my office. I rarely used it, so it's no big deal if it's broken, and i did broke it when i upgraded to Slackware-Current today. It couldn't start X after upgrading to the latest XOrg-Server packages.

Next, i tried to do another upgrade at my home desktop, but this time, i left x/ directory. Everything works just fine until i tried to do some test by upgrading only the xorg-servers-* packages and boom.... it happened again.

Right now, i'm building a new kernel (2.6.31) so i can activate NVIdia driver again. Why would i not using 2.6.33 instead? The problem is that i'm using VMWare and for the version i used, it cannot go further than 2.6.31. I have tried to compile 2.6.32 in the past and it won't work again, so i'm sticking with 2.6.31 for now.

For now, if you want to play with -Current, try to avoid x/ directory unless you are ready to take the risk like what i did . If you are lucky enough, then you won't have any problem with KMS, but if you don't, get ready to get dirty and start hacking our own Slackware machine

BIG UPDATES

Finally, after one full month of development, Pat released a massive update on Slackware-Current today. It's a HUGE updates, it's like all packages are being upgraded. Toolchains are also upgraded, so it's likely to be a good base for Slackware 13.1.

Now Slackware uses Linux Kernel 2.6.33, KDE 4.3.5, XOrg 1.7.5. Full detail can be seen at the Changelog