The GNOME SlackBuild (GSB) Project
GNOME SlackBuild is unique in that it is designed to be a twofold project. Its aim is not only to provide users with binary packages for an easy installation of GNOME, but also a full GNOME Build System, with the goal of allowing individuals to customise and build their own GNOME packages for their Slackware system.
GNOME SlackBuild Distribution
This is our binary GNOME distribution for Slackware
Linux. It encompasses all needed packages for a fully
configurable, customisable and usable GNOME desktop environment
for Slackware. There have been a lot of improvements in GNOME
2.22.1, which include better desktop
searching, a more organised Evolution email and calendar client,
enhanced image browsing, simplified control panel, efficient power
management, and powerful desktop tools, as well as a great new
documentation web site.
For a complete summary of what is new to the GNOME 2.22.1 Desktop, please refer to the GNOME release notes.
GNOME SlackBuild is designed to bring the greatest features of GNOME to Slackware, integrating seamlessly into a standard install. It uses the standard Slackware package system, and aims to replace as few packages as possible. For a list of packages that require updating, please see the replaced packages file.
GNOME Slackbuild also aims to provide a fully functional desktop, and comes with a wide variety of applications in order to create a full desktop environment for any user. We have created a short list of featured applications, covering areas such as document management, office software, multimedia, graphic design, and software development.
See some of the software included with GSB ...
The latest stable version of the GSB binary distribution is 2.22.1
GNOME SlackBuild Build System
The build system is full and complete GSB source code we
use to generate our binary distribution. It is a collection of
SlackBuild scripts that build a GNOME release on Slackware Linux.
It also comes with a download script to grab all the latest source
tarball for every package that GSB can build.
Downloading
The GNOME source files, and source for all the other packages are not distributed with GSB, but part of the build process will download the source files for you. Our download script is written in Perl, and is organised into sections for easy customisation. Version numbers, and download locations for all the software packages in GSB are kept up-to-date, and you'll be able to specify local mirrors to help speed up your downloads. The majority of the packages come from either GNOME Mirrors, or Sourceforge; however a few packages have their own individual web site and no local mirrors will be available. Your download speeds will vary according to your connection, and you need an active internet connection to download the sources.
Building
The source tree is governed by a gsb.SlackBuild, which
will run build scripts for each of the sections of the GSB Project.
GSB has been broken into logical sections, such as libraries,
platform, desktop, applications, and so on. In turn, each section has
its own master build script which controls what packages and in what
order things are compiled and installed for that section. Within each
section, each individual package has its own SlackBuild script which
will configure, compile, and build its own Slackware package.
The GSB Build System is aimed at all levels of users. Those who are new to Slackware or to Linux as a whole will find the GSB Build System easy to use, and rather simple to modify. Intermediate and advanced users will find it heavily customisable, and will be pleased to find that the majority of the grunt work in designing and building packages is done for them; they will be free to tweak or patch any packages to their own taste.
For more details about the GSB Build System, or for more information about how to get started building GSB, please see the Build Wiki.
The latest version of the GSB source code is 2.0. It builds GNOME 2.22.1