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Guest
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 Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:13 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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+Alan Hicks+ <alan@lizella.network> trolled:
pgp trash troll delete
| Quote: | The book must be of use not only to people new to Slackware, but
to people new to Linux (and maybe even new to computers all
together). Leaving out things like vi and emacs[0] would make the
book very useless to them. "Open your text editor." "What the
hell's a text editor?"
|
How about a section on printers? Perhaps the fact that you have yet
to get a printer running with slackware has something to do with
your lack of knowledge. Or is it the other way around?
Why don't you tell the kiddies that any printer that doesn't run
postscript ain't worth buying. Isn't that still the party line?
| Quote: | It's not. The book is being organized not to differentiate
between what's Slackware and what's generic, but rather to begin
with what a newbie most likely needs to know and work up to harder
concepts.
|
You're trying way too hard. If you have any useful facts to relate,
relate the useful facts.
| Quote: | Basically after the prelude we get to the installer, then booting
(I have no idea how many newbies messed up dual-boot stuff with
the old book, but I suspect it's a lot), basic shell stuff and
bash, then onto X, and printing. This should be all the newbie
needs to know to get his hardware setup correctly.[1] From there
we go into basic sysadmin stuff like managing users and groups,
filesystem permissions, mounting, vi, emacs, etc. Some of this
will be touched on earlier in a simpler manner of course, with
references to these chapters.
|
All of this bullshit is a simple con to hide the fact that your sum
total of knowledge about slackware/linux wouldn't take enough paper
to wipe away the residue of your brains from my ass after a good
dump.
Bugger off.
cordially, as always,
rm |
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Guest
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:16 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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andrew <andrew@ilium.invalid> trolled:
| Quote: | On 2008-08-27, +Alan Hicks+ <alan@lizella.netWORK> wrote:
Yeap, that's right. Work has begun on a new Slackware Book to replace
Slackware Linux Essentials 2nd Edition. Very little details have been
released just yet.
Great news. I printed the book off and kept it close in my first foray
through slackware. I shall make a point of _buying_ the new edition when
it come out.
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But only if it is no more expensive than the cheapest toilet paper.
Keep in mind that Sears catalogs are still free...
cordially, as always,
rm |
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Guest
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:17 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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Keith Keller <kkeller-usenet@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us> trolled:
| Quote: | On 2008-08-27, Sylvain Robitaille <syl@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote:
I realize that Matt Welsh's book has become very non-Slackware specific,
but it appears to still be a very complete, very informational book.
FWIW I haven't liked recent additions of Welsh's book. I wish I could
explain why, but I really can't put my finger on it.
|
The only reason you "haven't liked" Welsh's book is because you and
the Hillbilly are members of the same club.
cordially, as always,
rm |
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Guest
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:21 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> trolled:
| Quote: | Yes, that's basically my thought, too. Although I purchased both
editions of Slackware Linux Essentials, and they remain within
easy reach, it's never occurred to me to look at them for answers
to the occasional vi question. Ditto for shell questions, etc.
But they're the first place I look for pkgtool questions, etc.
|
What possible question could you have about pkgtool that you would
have to look up in a book?
| Quote: | Hasn't the "new linux user" market been taken over by Ubuntu (and
similar distributions)? The latest (rather than earliest)
professionally published Slackware book I have is Sams' Slackware
Linux Unleashed from 2000 (are there any more recent ones?).
Nowadays, bookstores carry zero Slackware books, whereas there
are about half a dozen Ubuntu books on Barnes&Noble's shelves
(far and away the greatest number for any specific distribution).
|
The only people who currently use slackware all know far more about
linux and the distro than The Coward does. If there was a _real_
need for such a book, PV would write it himself, or at least give
the task to someone with a 3 digit IQ.
cordially, as always,
rm |
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Sylvain Robitaille
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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Mark Madsen wrote:
| Quote: | ... The Slack book comes with the distro, and is free to read and use.
None of the other books that you mention are included with Slackware.
This is a significant distinction.
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A point that I had not considered. Thank you for raising it.
| Quote: | Given that, Alan's original question may be rephrased as: "How can the
Slackware book be made more useful to Slackware users?" ...
|
Fair enough. I suppose what I've been trying to get at is why would an
experienced Slackware user (of course I'm thinking of myself specifically,
but I think the generalization works) choose to purchase this book,
even if only for the financial support that doing so would offer. If it
amounts to no new information, of course, there's very little incentive
to purchase it, or even read the included copy.
--
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Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca
Network and Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Sylvain Robitaille
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:28 pm Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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~kurt wrote:
| Quote: | I didn't get the impression Alan was looking to write a general intro
to *nix book, but instead a Slackware specific one that covers some
enough of the basics to get started with - kind of like the current
Slackware book(s).
|
I believe the intention is to update the current book, yes, but that he
was looking for feedback that he could use to improve it at the same time.
I took "improve" to mean "make more useful" and have tried, perhaps in
a rather rough manner, to suggest how it would seem more useful to me
(and hopefully others as well). That is to say, I've tried to suggest
that it not repeat information that's already out there (in some cases
very well presented), but rather to focus on the elements that are unique
to Slackware.
| Quote: | I might be missing something here though - I'm not familiar wth Hahn's
book and didn't know there were other up to date Slackware oriented
books out there.
|
I don't think there are, at least not any that are particularly
Slackware-specific. Then again, how much Slackware-specific knowledge
is required to manage a Slackware system (especially for a beginner)?
There's very little about Slackware Linux that is Slackware-specific;
that's the point.
| Quote: | ... trying to match something like the rute book would more or less
simply be an exercise for the author to better hone his own skills,
than fill a need in the open source documentation world.
|
Another point I had not considered, and certainly one that would be
valid. I don't have the impression that this is Alan's goal, but
certainly if it were, it could be seen as a reasonable answer to the
points I've been making.
--
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Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca
Network and Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Franz Sauerzopf
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:15 pm Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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I just found this thread after my vacations...
Sylvain Robitaille wrote (Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:28:11 +0000):
| Quote: |
... That is to say, I've tried
to suggest that it not repeat information that's already out there (in
some cases very well presented), but rather to focus on the elements
that are unique to Slackware.
I think, that approach creates the problem many people have with linux |
and slack. When you are a newb, you start to read smthg. distribution
specific, and find out that you do not understand it. Then you start
reading something else, which makes the concepts clear, but (in most
cases) uses an approach not in line with what you already started to find
out in your original book. The tiny details ruin a beginner's effort.
This results in confusion and overload and a distinct reluctance to
continue.
In this situation, a book that guides one into exactly what one is doing
at the moment is priceless in that situation. I've been there - like,
probably, most of us. Collecting basic knowledge from a number of
inconsistent sources is a true pita. Therefore, the slackbook and its
approach to cover the typical pitfalls for newcomers is extremely
important.
What you would like is a completely different book, but also much more of
an effort. You would have to collect a huge amount of details about
everything, much of which would be useless for most users. Probably a
wiki about slack-details would be much more helpful.
Sorry if that came to be very long...
Godd luck
Franz |
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Richard Scott Smith
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:31 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:34:26 +0000, +Alan Hicks+ wrote:
| Quote: | -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On 2008-08-27, Sylvain Robitaille <syl@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote:
The book must be of use not only to people new to Slackware, but to
people new to Linux (and maybe even new to computers all together).
Leaving out things like vi and emacs[0] would make the book very
useless to them. ...
There are so many good sources of information out there for Unix/Linux
beginners that aren't specific to any Linux distribution (indeed some
aren't specific even to Linux), that it seems difficult to imagine
pointing someone to the Slackware book first. If they're that new,
chances are they're dealing with a system that has already been
installed for them, and needing now only to learn how to use it.
I think you're making a lot of assumptions that aren't true in all
cases. I've received lots of thanks since the release of the second
edition from people all around the world. Volunteer efforts translated
the book and released it. In developing countries without Internet
access or many books on computer subjects, the slack book was used to
teach adults the basics of Linux/UNIX/Slackware. In situations like
these, you literally have to break it down into the smallest pieces.
And even if the computer has been installed for them, the Slack Book
covers much more than just the installation.
Do you
honestly believe your book can compete with Harley Hahn's (for
example)?
Never heard of him, and I suspect I'm in the vast majority there. He
may have published the greatest book of all time for all I know, but if
I haven't heard of him a newbie certainly hasn't.
... The book is being organized not to differentiate between what's
Slackware and what's generic, but rather to begin with what a newbie
most likely needs to know and work up to harder concepts. Basically
after the prelude we get to the installer, then booting (I have no
idea how many newbies messed up dual-boot stuff with the old book, but
I suspect it's a lot), basic shell stuff and bash, then onto X, and
printing.
... and it will distinguish itself from Matt Welsh's book how?
Seeing as how I haven't read "Running Linux" I am not in a position
currently to answer that question.
Don't get me wrong. It isn't that I don't appreciate that you're
intending to create something that will be useful to others, but I
honestly wonder about the need for it.
I don't wonder about the need for it. There may be better options
available to people. Hell when we got started doing the second edition,
there were certainly better options for learning about Linux, but none
specific to Slackware. And that's what people were looking for! There
were many people who wanted the slackbook updated because it's what they
wanted to use even if it wasn't the best available source of
information.
Newbies aren't looking for a book on generic Linux (well, at least some
of them aren't); they're looking for a book on Slackware. It's really
that simple. Even if the alternatives are "better", they either don't
know about the alternatives, don't like them, or found them too
confusing.
- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, Than for a man to hear the
song of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:5
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I've been working on a book that covers some of the more advanced stuff.
I emailed Alan Hicks about it, maybe a year(ish) ago, but I didn't get
any response.
I was thinking about submitting it to a publisher since I thought that
maybe the Slackbook project wasn't really going anymore. Plus, I'd like
to get out of debt but that's another story. I've switched jobs and we
are still struggling but doing better. Student loans, kid in college, on
and on.
If Alan reads this and he would like help, maybe he could contact me? I
am a good writer and I use Latex if that helps. I have around 65 pages
written so far. I expect it will be double that and a bit more when I'm
through. I would be willing to submit it to the project, especially if
he's willing to accept a little scope creep.
The book is based on my notes from the past 4 years although I've been
using Slackware for around 13 years now. The book in major flux,
especially now that 12.1 came out. Some of the topic material is
obsolete and covers earlier Slackware versions. Some of the sections are
not really relevant anymore either, like Borland Kylix. That had a lot
of buzz a few years ago, but has mostly died out now.
The other major focus is on Java. Since I'm an enterprise Java developer
for a living, I cover management of Glassfish and other Java related
issues.
It's not as comprehensive and general as the Slackware book but more of a
cookbook approach on how specific tasks can be done. Many more sections
are in the works right now.
Here is a sample table of contents as it compiles out of Latex right now:
1 A Brief Summary on Slackware 5
2 The Best Download Servers 7
3 Pre-Install 8
3.1 Choosing the Right Kernel for Install . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Resize an NTFS Partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
3.3 How to Configure RAID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4 Install Notes 12
4.1 Slackware Install and Swap Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
4.2 Windows Only Understands Local Time . . . . . . . . . .12
4.3 Disable GPM, Mouse Support on the Console . . . . . . .12
4.4 LPRng or CUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
5 Post-Install 14
5.1 Run the generic modular kernel with initrd.gz . . . . .14
5.2 Custom Kernel Compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
5.3 Activate Swap Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
5.4 Fix Symbolic Links and fstab Entries . . . . . . . . . . .22
5.5 udev and Hot Plugging Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
6 Configuration for Desktops and Servers 23
6.1 Add User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
6.2 ndiswrapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
6.3 Configure printing for lprng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.3.1 Lexmark Z52 configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.3.2 Laser Printers with ppd Files Available . . . . . .26
6.4 ddclient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
6.5 Atomic Clock Synchronization with ntpd . . . . . . . . .27
6.6 System-wide customization with /etc/profile . . . . . .29
6.7 Java Installation and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.8 Mono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
6.9 Borland Kylix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
10 sysstat Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
11 iptables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
12 tripwire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Configuration for Desktops 34
1 /etc/hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2 Graphical Logins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3 Multiple Graphical Logins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4 Mice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5 Add User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.5.1 Setting Up User Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.5.2 File Manager Preview Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.5.3 Preferred Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.5.4 KPDF for the Default PDF Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.5.5 Default Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.5.6 Missing Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7.5.7 Con?gure E-Mail Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6 Access to Your Windows Partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7 LISa, the Lan Information Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
8 Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
9 Firefox Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.9.1 Install Firefox, 1st Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.9.2 Install Firefox, 2nd Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
10 Opera Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
11 Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
12 Open Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.12.1 Open Office 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.12.2 Open Office 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
13 Rip MP3s with Lame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
14 k3b and CD/DVD Burning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
15 File Sharing with amule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
16 xmule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
17 Kaffeine Video Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
7.17.1 w32codecs for the Pesky Proprietary Formats . . . . . . . 43
7.17.2 kaffeine-0.5-rc1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
18 Graphics Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.18.1 ATI Radeon Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.18.2 NVidia Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
19 Maple 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
20 USB Universal Media Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
21 IBConsole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
22 Scibus Desktop Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
23 hostap Wireless Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
24 Wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
25 VMWare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
26 Citrix VPN Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.27 DVD::Rip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.28 Qt Cryptographic Architecture, qca-tls . . . . . . . . . 48
7.29 VLC Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.30 Win4Lin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.31 Tora Database Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.32 Lincity-ng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.33 KTorrent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
8 Configuration for Servers 51
8.1 Remote Graphical Logins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8.2 Samba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
8.3 CVS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.4 tin Console News Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.5 FTP Service with proftpd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.6 E-Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.7 Bind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9 Databases 59
9.1 Firebird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9.1.1 JDBC Classes for Firebird . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.2 MySQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.3 HSQLDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.4 Oracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.5 Postgres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
10 Web and Java Application Servers 63
10.1 Apache Httpd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
11 Development Environments 65
11.1 Apache Ant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
I tried to fix all the ligatures in this output in case you find a
typo ;-)
I don't know if there is any interest in this kind of a thing besides my
own. I'm going to finish it no matter what because I use it.
Richard Scott Smith |
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Sylvain Robitaille
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:17 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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notbob wrote:
| Quote: | The one item I'd like to see in the revised slack book is the
inclusion of a detailed section on how slack boots up. ...
...
Also, we need a very thorough chapter on the whole hotplug/udev/hald
thing.
...
Another thing. How to decrypt some of the gibberish. lspci and lsusb
and dmesg are all fine tools, but useless if one can't uderstand their
output.
|
Along similar lines, I would vote for a comparison of pamd versus libnss
and how someone adminning a Slackware system can work around some
software that (at least in documentation) assumes the presence of pam.
| Quote: | Simple stuff like, "0xe000 is a memory location in octal" (it is,
isn't it? .
|
Octal numbers are base-8, so "e000" is out of the range. It's a
hexadecimal number (as designated by the leading "0x"). By itself (out
of context) it is neither memory location nor I/O address, nor "value".
It is simply a unitless hexadecimal number. On the other hand, the
following lspci output, from my workstation at home, provides a good
sampling of hexadecimal numbers in context:
02:04.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 2a24
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
Memory at fddfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
I/O ports at dd00 [size=128]
"dd00" designates the first I/O address for this device, and "fddfe000"
is "a memory location" (the lower address of memory on this device).
"2a24" is simply a unitless number (used specifically as a device
identifier).
I hope that helps ...
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca
Network and Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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notbob
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:43 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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On 2008-08-30, Mark Madsen <mark.s.madsen+news@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Given that, Alan's original question may be rephrased as: "How can the
Slackware book be made more useful to Slackware users?"
|
The one item I'd like to see in the revised slack book is the inclusion of
a detailed section on how slack boots up. Which files are initiated first,
how to reboot certain aspects of the system without a cold reboot, etc.
This page has long been in my bookmarks:
http://openskill.info/infobox.php?ID=1042
.....couldn't hurt to put something similar in The Book.
Also, we need a very thorough chapter on the whole hotplug/udev/hald thing.
I've read till I'm blue and still don't understand how they work or how to
write udev rules. Fortunately, I simply said yes to all things
hotplug/udev/hald and networking during install and all worked with no help
from me. Thank you, Pat V! But, it bugs me to still not understand it.
Another thing. How to decrypt some of the gibberish. lspci and lsusb and
dmesg are all fine tools, but useless if one can't uderstand their output.
I might just be able to write a udev rule if I knew what I was looking at
when I read lsusb. Actually, I'm getting pretty good at it, but some basics
along these lines couldn't hurt. Simple stuff like, "0xe000 is a memory
location in octal" (it is, isn't it?. You get my drift.
If slack is going to be the distro that teaches how to get one's linux hands
dirty, the manual definitely needs some more grease.
nb |
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Michael Black
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:55 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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On Wed, 3 Sep 2008, notbob wrote:
| Quote: | On 2008-08-30, Mark Madsen <mark.s.madsen+news@gmail.com> wrote:
Given that, Alan's original question may be rephrased as: "How can the
Slackware book be made more useful to Slackware users?"
The one item I'd like to see in the revised slack book is the inclusion of
a detailed section on how slack boots up. Which files are initiated first,
how to reboot certain aspects of the system without a cold reboot, etc.
This page has long been in my bookmarks:
http://openskill.info/infobox.php?ID=1042
....couldn't hurt to put something similar in The Book.
That would be useful, since when you know the exact sequence you know |
where to put things. I have something happening twice, because when I
needed to add it to the boot process I wasn't sure which place was
right (or which was most appropriate) and once it worked I've yet
to go back and figure out which is redundant and take it out.
| Quote: | Also, we need a very thorough chapter on the whole hotplug/udev/hald thing.
I've read till I'm blue and still don't understand how they work or how to
write udev rules. Fortunately, I simply said yes to all things
hotplug/udev/hald and networking during install and all worked with no help
from me. Thank you, Pat V! But, it bugs me to still not understand it.
That's one of the examples I can come up with that's lacking. I had to |
do something for something to work, and it all seemed pretty vague. I did
a search, found something for one of the other distributions, and find
"put it in exceptions" but Slack has no such exceptions file (this
is paraphrasing since it's been a while).
WHen there are things you have to customize, it is really useful to
get a handle on what it's all about. And better examples (I'm talking
generally). I know I looked up something somewhere and the example
was something I could look up in an existing config file, since any
distribution would need that example in place, but it didn't help
me to figure out how to do something else. You can extrapolate from
multiple examples, but a single example doesn't say much.
| Quote: | Another thing. How to decrypt some of the gibberish. lspci and lsusb and
dmesg are all fine tools, but useless if one can't uderstand their output.
I might just be able to write a udev rule if I knew what I was looking at
when I read lsusb. Actually, I'm getting pretty good at it, but some basics
along these lines couldn't hurt. Simple stuff like, "0xe000 is a memory
location in octal" (it is, isn't it?. You get my drift.
If slack is going to be the distro that teaches how to get one's linux hands
dirty, the manual definitely needs some more grease.
ANd in some ways, explaingin why as a prelude to how make sense, since |
the why leads to more universal understanding, while the "well here's what
you do" leaves someone dependent the next time something comes up.
Michael |
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Dan C
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:36 am Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:43:14 +0000, notbob wrote:
| Quote: | Also, we need a very thorough chapter on the whole hotplug/udev/hald thing.
|
I concur! That would be an excellent addition.
--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://improve-usenet.org |
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Joost Kremers
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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notbob wrote:
| Quote: | Also, we need a very thorough chapter on the whole hotplug/udev/hald thing.
I've read till I'm blue and still don't understand how they work or how to
write udev rules.
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<http://reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html>
first hit for the google search 'writing udev rules'. (the second hit is an
older version of the same document.)
--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9) |
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Mark Madsen
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:56 pm Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:43:14 +0000, notbob wrote:
| Quote: | On 2008-08-30, Mark Madsen <mark.s.madsen+news@gmail.com> wrote:
Given that, Alan's original question may be rephrased as: "How can the
Slackware book be made more useful to Slackware users?"
The one item I'd like to see in the revised slack book is the inclusion
of a detailed section on how slack boots up. Which files are initiated
first, how to reboot certain aspects of the system without a cold
reboot, etc.
|
Strongly agree. Especially since this is implicated in making Slack
wireless somewhat arcane. (I asked a question about this a few months
back and got a single - one-liner - reply, which suggests that not many
denizens of this cave^H^H^H^Hgroup are terribly au fait with the startup
sequence either.)
| Quote: | This page has long been in my bookmarks:
http://openskill.info/infobox.php?ID=1042
|
Good link, thanks.
| Quote: | ....couldn't hurt to put something similar in The Book.
|
Plagiarise, plagiarise!
Let no man's work evade your eyes
So remember why the good lord made your eyes
And plagiarise, plagiarise!
Only remember please to always call it "research"! (*)
| Quote: | Also, we need a very thorough chapter on the whole hotplug/udev/hald
thing.
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FX: Boots running away to the sound of manic screaming. Both fade into
the distance, and then, silence.
(*) Tom Lehrer, although I suspect there is a line missing. |
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+Alan Hicks+
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:02 pm Post subject: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT - New Slackware Book Scheduled for Mid-2009 |
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Trim your quotes.
On 2008-09-03, Richard Scott Smith <meetscott@netscape.net> wrote:
| Quote: | I've been working on a book that covers some of the more advanced stuff.
I emailed Alan Hicks about it, maybe a year(ish) ago, but I didn't get
any response.
|
My apologies. I must have missed your mail or simply lost it among all
the other messages I get daily.
| Quote: | Here is a sample table of contents as it compiles out of Latex right now:
|
I'm not really looking to include anything like that you have here. It
seems to me that most of what you have done details things that aren't
even in Slackware. For example: scribus, NVIDIA/ATI drivers, ddclient,
etc. are all valid topics to write about certainly, but don't fit the
book because they are third-party tools. However I do appreciate the
ideas you've expoused and will consider what changes they suggest I
make to the book.
- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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