Slackware 10.1 release notes. Mon Jan 31 14:49:35 PST 2005 Hi everyone, This is the long awaited Slackware 10.1. My apologies for the delays in getting this release out (I had originally planned it for sometime in early November), but as most of you know I've had some health issues, and it's been difficult to keep up my usual work schedule. I'm still getting an usually rapid pulse rate with any kind of exertion, but overall I'm feeling better. The cause of all of this still isn't known, but I'm optimistic that it will keep improving with time. Now that the release is ready I'll be trying to get more rest and take it easy before trying to get back up to full speed again. Perhaps I went back to work a little too soon after returning to California (since I did experience a relapse), but this release has been long overdue and I was itching to get back to work on it. I meant to go slow, but just couldn't help it. :-) Enough of that, here are a few notes on this release, which should be very stable. The next one, which will likely by based on a 2.6.x kernel and glibc with NPTL might take some time to stabilize, which is part of the reason I think it's good to get one last stable 2.4.x based Slackware release out. It's also been a difficult period for me (and thus Slackware...) financially speaking, so your support of this Slackware 10.1 release is needed (and greatly appreciated). The installer utilizes the 2.4.29 kernel (this still provides the best performance on my own machines, and is also safer for partitioning hard drives). If you want to upgrade to the 2.6.10 kernel it is also included and the system will fully support it. See the README.initrd file in the testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/ directory for directions on upgrading the system to use 2.6.10 (or better yet, make it an alternate boot choice). The name of the keyboard driver in the X.Org release of X11 is now "kbd" rather than "Keyboard" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf: Driver "kbd" GCC remains at version 3.3.4 (there's a 3.3.5 out now, but there wasn't enough time to give it a complete test, and I'm getting no bug reports on GCC 3.3.4 and so will play it safe). Version 3.4.3 can also be found in the /testing directory, and perhaps a gcc-3.4.x will be the default for the next Slackware -current. Slackware's default install now includes Sun's Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment (JRE) rather than the full Java Software Development Kit. This is primarily due to the ever-growing size of the full Java SDK; it is now too large to fit on either of the first two (install) ISO images. A standard replicated disc has a factory limit of 670MB, and there just aren't enough bits to include the full Java(TM) 2 SDK there. My apologies if you are inconvenienced by this change. Luckily, after working out the breakdown of the third ISO image it was discovered that there was just barely enough room to include the J2SDK in the /extra directory there. The Java(TM) SDK is not likely to fit on the next release of Slackware (11) though, so in the future those of you who require the full Java Software Development Kit will need to download it from java.sun.com. I will continue to include the scripts to convert the .bin file to a .tgz, so this shouldn't present too much difficulty. The default sound system is now ALSA (the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture), which is also the default sound system in the Linux 2.6.x kernel. If you wish to use OSS instead, the modules are still available, but you'll need to remove the packages beginning with alsa- and remove the OSS modules from /etc/hotplug/blacklist. CUPS is now the default printing system, with LPRng moved to /pasture (but still considered supported). A number of command locations (like /usr/bin/lpr) are shared by these programs, and whichever package (cups or lprng) is installed last will "own" these symbolic links, so it was time to have only one of these systems in the default installation to avoid conflicts. If you want to use LPRng, you'll want to first remove CUPS with removepkg, and then install LPRng using installpkg. This will make sure the links are set correctly, and get the tools you won't be using out of the way. The system init files have been further streamlined while keeping their number small and structure easy to understand. Most of the init scripts in /etc/rc.d that control network and other services may be enabled or disabled by setting them executable (or not) with chmod, and a new menu in the installer lets you choose the initial state for many of them. If you want your machine to come up on the network with no open ports at the first boot, that's easily possible. There is improved Linux hotplugging support. This takes over the job of configuring Cardbus cards (instead of pcmcia-cs, still used for non-Cardbus cards). However, this means that if you're used to configuring your card in /etc/pcmcia/, you'll need to set it up elsewhere. For example, the old way of configuring a Cardbus network card is by editing /etc/pcmcia/network.opts. Now you'll need to set up the IP in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf (or by running "netconfig") instead. To make matters more confusing, non-Cardbus PC cards continue to use /etc/pcmcia/network.opts! Even with the rough edges, the addition of Linux hotplug support is a major step forward. In most cases this new subsystem can probe for and detect every piece of PCI, Cardbus, and USB hardware connected to the machine and automatically load all the correct kernel modules. Very nice. :-) NOTE: if the hotplugging subsystem causes problems at boot time, it can be skipped by passing the kernel a "nohotplug" flag on the kernel command line. It is highly recommended to use hotplug if possible. As more things are designed to use hotplug, trying to run without it becomes like trying to run with half a kernel (really, it is the user space portion of the kernel in many ways). If enabling hotplug causes your machine to crash or hang, odds are that it's loading a kernel module that your system doesn't agree with. If you can figure out which one it is (perhaps the logs will help), you'll be able to add it to /etc/hotplug/blacklist to prevent hotplug from trying to load it. If you run into this and determine that a module needs to be listed, let me know so it can be considered here as well. Speaking of PC card support, we're no longer using the driver modules that come with the pcmcia-cs sources and have moved to the ones included with the Linux kernel source. Besides providing better PC card support, this will make things easier for people who like to keep up with the latest kernels. Wireless support is substantially better thanks to improved tools and drivers (including the linux-wlan-ng driver for Prism2 cards in the extra package collection), and Eric Hameleers work on supporting USB, PCI, and Cardbus wireless cards (/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless). Support for USB keyboards is now integrated into the installer. If USB device detection causes problems (it shouldn't), it may be skipped by passing the kernel a "nousb" flag at boot. In the event that the keyboard doesn't work right away when the install CD is booted, wait. It will boot automatically after two minutes without a keypress, and then the kernel should find your keyboard. Have fun! :-) Pat Volkerding