Slackware 15 - Installing Additional Software, DEs and WMs

This follow-up video to my Slackware 15 installation video a few weeks ago runs over the post-installation steps that I go through to set up my system, including installation of unofficial packages, window managers and desktop environments.
Contrary to many of Slackware's critics, this is not a complicated or long task. I timed how long it took me, and it was one hour and five minutes.
So if you want to see how I set everything up, this video could point you in the right direction for configuring your own system.
I hope you enjoy the video :-)
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Ramble On!

[@jitbug5312]

RIP :: Hope this channel lives forever

[@CrackDavidson1]

Rip :(

[@Danielddiniz]

Hey Steve! More Slackware videos are always a treat! Fantastic, thanks!

[@OldTechBloke]

Glad you like them!

[@jdebultra]

Love your content. I've been using it since V3... 1996? I always learn something new from your videos. I need to sign up or buy you a beer. Thanks again from another old bloke.

[@cameroncarter3332]

Thank you, keep up the work. You are making a difference. Slackware needs videos like this.

[@gneggisje6503]

you got me🤩 first with EndeavourOS and now with Slackware😎

[@thesaigoneer]

Hi Steve, hope all is well with you! Just a short note to let you know I'm massively enjoying your vids on Slackware (having it up and running with Sway recently), just as much as I enjoyed all your previous work (at that time I was hanging around as Peppe ;-) Take care, hope you and your family are doing well and enjoy your time! Best, Mark

[@EricHameleers]

Nice video OTB, thanks! This will certainly help convince people to just take the plunge and go with Slackware, when they are used to the hand-holding type of distros.

[@psionski]

It’s kind of doing the opposite for me... when he said to just look up the dependencies, and then the dependencies of the dependencies... I suddenly remembered why I switched from Slackware to Debian in the early 2000’s...

[@levskilevov4888]

@@psionski And you learn very well Linux??? Slackware is near to Vanilla GNU Linux my friend. When know Slackware, you know how Linux works, when know Debian/RHEL... you know how works only Debian/RHEL...

[@psionski]

@@levskilevov4888 I learned how Linux works by making my own kernel mods. And about the OS as a whole, Gentoo was quite educational. This with Slackware and the lack of dependency resolution, this is just pointless busy work, you’re not learning anything.

[@MichaelDaranto]

@@psionski Too many patches for Debian... why I suddenly remembered my history lesson "Debian package maintainers tend to very often modify the source code of the package they are maintaining so that it better fits into the distribution itself" -- May 2008

[@laxmanneupane1739]

Ironically, there is nothing to learn in a system with dependency resolution. It just takes an hour or so go set it all up & learn whatever one wants.

[@laxmanneupane1739]

Nice educational video sir! Slackware feels like it means business as opposed to how people normally feel about it being time consuming. A good bike well serviced once is ready to go thousands of miles before another servicing. It not like one installs packages everyday & uninstalls them everyday. Its just so easy & relaxing with Slackware. When I wanna try anything else than Slackware to experiment, its usually VMs.

[@psycholoic]

I'm so pleased that slackware came to this 15 !!! It's my really very first and loved distribution :) Even if I also used to play with SLS in the really begining of Linux, back en 1992 :)

[@globetrotterdk]

Thank you very much for your videos, which provide an important community service. This video inspired me to give Slackware another try, after having used it unsuccessfully in the past. I have gone back and studied your earlier Slackware videos to learn some of the ins and outs, particularly regarding the helper programs. One project that you haven't mentioned at all to my knowledge is Studioware and their Slackware helper program sepkg. In this context, I was wondering if you could do a video promoting Studioware and the use of sepkg. I don't think that there are many Slackware users familiar with Studioware and sepkg.

[@WillySudiartoRaharjo]

Thanks for bringing MSB and CSB projects in your videos. Appreciate it and as always, great video :)

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks Willy, credit where it’s due and they’re projects that are worth highlighting

[@nombreapellido9038]

1 - a seasoned Englishman 2 - learning about Slackware. 3 - Royal Enfield cap. …. Now all I need is a cold beverage and a bowl of popcorn.

[@nightwolf1966]

Thank you so much for this video and your time you put into it , would love to see you do more with Slackware in the future as I think its one of the coolest distro's out there

[@commentarysheep]

Thank you for making me interested in Slackware again. I've experimented with it in a VM over a year now (installing 14.2, experiencing KDE 4, upgrading it to Slackware Current, getting the hang of the package management with slackpkg+ [the plugin for slackpkg you recommended], slpkg [a slackpkg wrapper that automatically resolves dependencies {most of the time}] and sbopkg, the yay/paru of Slackware) and after Windows 10 upgrading itself to Windows 11 caused Arch Linux to have an irreperable kernel panic, it was the time to switch to Slackware on bare metal as my everyday OS, while using Windows 11 as my school/work OS. As someone with an Arch Linux background, the migration was pretty seamless to me (minus the headache of getting Steam to work on the latest Nvidia proprietary drivers) and I'm glad I made the switch from the unstable mess that was Arch Linux. Yes, Slackware Current is as stable of a rolling release as Debian Sid, which is a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT of Mr. Patrick Voelkerding, given that Slackware Current's packages are just as fresh as Arch's. Thank you for sparking my interest in switching to Slackware, after a year of Arch Linux and its montly breakages. Edit: Fixed a typo.

[@OldTechBloke]

You’re welcome

[@kbaeve]

If I see one more Slack video from you, I probably gonna jump ships from my Debian too. The nostalgia is extremly hard in this one. The "lack" of a packagemanager, been whats scares me off a bit, but it really dont sound too tidious. Not that I'm afraid to do it, i just too spoiled with apt.

[@Ax4400]

Excellent. What a Gem, Mate. Thank you. Please, Next scripts, how to read them, the format, syntax, and running scripts, how to cancel out or back out of a process cleanly w/o messing something up. Slackware is one of the biggest learning experience I have ever endeavoured for about 23 yrs. Its not been easy but I love it and only wish I could have learned faster & with more human support. Why I love it, I can download a full install build a repository and select a dm that is fitted to my in interests, or just create learning labs, its secure & stable unless i mess it up and don't know how to fix it which takes a lot of time and the community could be more understanding about this & stop shaming those not born with a keyboard in hand, LOL I can at least not loose all my libraries & work up to that point even if I have to do a fresh install because I don't know chroot, I will soon enough😂

[@northof-62]

Not a Slacker anymore. It's become too bloated. Even if I try my "bestest" to limit the number of packages to be installed, I still end up with hours if not days of clearing out all the unwanted stuff. It's either that or going through the package list before I install the system and this will (as they even state themselves) will take forever. In the earlier days of Slackware before all the scripts and repos, I used rpm2tgz a lot if I didn't compile it myself. Just grabbed a RedHat package and converted it to a tgz equivalent. Easy peasy. Yes we have snow here. Just finished 5 hours of shoveling. We don't stay indoors here no matter what. Cheers from Norway! Nice bike. (Stelvio rider here :D)

[@folksurvival]

The huge amount of bloat is a turn-off.

[@michaelheimbrand5424]

Thanks for that! I´m a noob at Slackware. But for my Linux needs I like it. Just installed 15 and liking what I see. It seems far more familiar to me (BSD guy) than whatever most of the other distro´s has become. Again, thanks. Slackware seems to be a good way to stay sane in the Linux world if you´re into BSD´s.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

I love the BSDs but there are packages which don't have good equivalents in the BSDs. So, I'm back on Linux for the time being. I agree. Slackware does seem to be the best choice of those of us who prefer traditional unix like OSs.

[@thanasiskormas]

Nice video. Slackware is wonderful and with all the tools the process is easy thank you Otb .Please make some examples with rpm2tgz and deb2tgz

[@donaldmickunas8552]

Hey Steve, Better late than never as they say. I'm playing around with Slackware 15 and I am having a ball. I took a look at xwmconfig. I added the xinitrc.bspwm to /etc/X11/init/ and it worked as advertised. However, I didn't much care for the description for bspwm and decided to change it. I eventually discovered that xwmconfig is a script file. So, I managed to add a few lines to get what I wanted. What a hoot!!! Play and learn. Play and learn. This what I love about computers and Slackware gives me that capability. I love it!! Your Slackware videos have been a huge help in getting me up and running with Slackware. I have recommended them to anyone who is considering installing Slackware. You have rocked all of your videos. Awesome job!! It is much appreciated by me. 😁

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers Donald, glad you’re enjoying your time with Slackware. 15 is a great distro

[@RobBoudreau]

Slack always was a bit more hands-on than most other distros. Not hard as you said, but does require reading and learning. I will say watching what you did, it's quite a lot easier than it was back in the mid 90's. Do hope Storm Eunice has been kind to you and yours Steve. From what I'm seeing on the news, she really caused some mayhem. Stay safe and hope all is well.

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers Rob. A few fence panels lost in the storm but we got away relatively lightly

[@trueriver1950]

@@OldTechBloke hope that you stay safe with the alphabet soup of follow on storms on the way :( Biggest effect in my top floor flat is that even though the temperature is not all that low for Feb, the windspeeds are chilling the flat faster than the heating can keep up.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@OldTechBloke Glad to hear it.

[@juliangrinblat955]

Happy to see my rofi-emoji SlackBuild was used by someone other than me hahaha

[@OldTechBloke]

Works great, thank you

[@aloneer0529]

Your videos are great!

[@vim_usr2753]

I really like your prompt, can you tell me how you set it up that way?

[@OldTechBloke]

Yep just go to ezprompt.net and create your own design

[@catsartpics]

Any idea @OldTechBloke on how to apply a patch to Slackware 15.0?

[@adityowicaksono1665]

Hi OTB, could you please make a tutorial for converting MBR running with EFI+grub to GPT running with EFI+grub on slackware without any data loss? All of your videos are fantastic it help me a lot in configuring slackware! Thank you anyway!

[@OldTechBloke]

I’ll take a look. I’ve never done anything like that so need to see if it’s even possible

[@thekoolgeeks3831]

I am not able to install python and pip. Can you help me with this please? Python asks to install gcc, gcc asks to install make and make could not be installed. make: command not found

[@Igomeowigomeowigomeow]

my slackpkg search does not show if the item is installed or not, is there something to change in the cfg to make it show installed pkg info

[@Kosari4242]

4:55 Video starting XD

[@trueriver1950]

Not having dependency management is a problem if you have always had that in your previous distros. It is not so much the process as not knowing how to do it, or even where to start. You have demonstrated here how someone who knows what they are doing can do it. The issue is how to get that knowledge. Slack is nowhere near as steep a learning curve as Arch, but it is a big step up from a deb or rpm based distro. Or at least it looks that way to a slack newbie. It also looks to me like a steep re-learning curve on arriving back to slack having managed a slackware webserver back in the nineties.

[@OldTechBloke]

It’s about a willingness to learn. It doesn’t suit everyone for sure, but there are hundreds of other distros if it doesn’t suit

[@folksurvival]

"Slack is nowhere near as steep a learning curve as Arch" I would say Arch is easy compared to Slackware.

[@trueriver1950]

@@folksurvival maybe my feeling more intimidated by Arch is because even though I have no conscious memory of the slackware approach, I did maintain a slackware webserver (all cli) back in the late nineties so at least I know that I managed to learn it once before...

[@itsfish8672]

OK Otb if Slackware or Void where the only two Distros, what one would you pick ???????. Me i would pick Void,Great vid.

[@OldTechBloke]

I’m torn here, I like both a lot

[@itsfish8672]

Come on OTB man up choose one.

[@OldTechBloke]

Lol ok slackware

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

To Slack or not to Slack, that is the Question? Seams like from age 66 to 68 I have got more lazy and you know i'm not afraid to try thing as you know. Just sense this last birthday I'm have issues get to things... Lol Something about 68 is awesome and scary at the same time... Lol I really need to get back to your DWM stuff I have 1/2 done... LOL Thanks for point out Cinnamon for me... :-P Thanks OTB for the video! If I get board, I may someday look at this but most likely now... LLAP

[@OldTechBloke]

You’re welcome Bruce. To be honest I was feeling my age today. Almost took a day off 😀

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

@@OldTechBloke 😂 I know what your saying. My dog is ready for a nap with dad... LLAP

[@spaceguybob]

Hey you should do a video over bedrock Linux