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GNOME SlackBuild (GSB)

Download and Install GNOME SlackBuild

About the GNOME SlackBuild Binary Distribution

This is our binary GNOME distribution for Slackware and Slackware64 Linux. It encompasses all needed packages for a fully configurable, customisable and usable GNOME desktop environment for Slackware. If you haven't yet, you should read about the GSB project before installing GSB.

The most current available version of the GSB binary distribution is 2.26.3

Note: GNOME SlackBuild 2.26.3 is designed and built for Slackware or Slackware64 13.0 only! It likely will not work on earlier releases of Slackware, and certainly was not built for them.

Important: For users upgrading from a previous GNOME SlackBuild installation, please make sure you're upgrading all the required packages. See Required Package Upgrades for more information.

Before plunging in, please consult the documentation, particularly our Replaced Packages List. You may also want to review the README.TXT. If you are upgrading from a previous version of GSB, read our UPGRADE.TXT.

Quick and Easy Install ↑

The quickest and easiest way to install the GSB binary distribution, is via our net-installer. Note that this method of installation will install everything included in the GSB distribution (full installation!). It will also automatically upgrade the various necessary packages for you.

Login to a terminal as root (in run-level 3, preferred), and run the following command:

Slackware 13.0 for x86 

lynx --source http://gnomeslackbuild.org/net-install | bash

Slackware64 13.0 for x86_64 

 
lynx --source http://gnomeslackbuild.org/net-install/64 | bash

For more install options, see the README.

Manual Slapt-get Installation↑

The package management tool used by GNOME SlackBuild is slapt-get. Slapt-get tries to emulate Debian's apt-get as closely as possible. It uses native Slackware tools, like installpkg, upgradepkg and removepkg, and supports multiple package sources. It is also capable of caching packages, resuming downloads, checking MD5s, searching packages, and resolving dependencies and conflicts. It is the preferred tool when installing GNOME SlackBuild. If you would like more information on slapt-get please see see Slapt-get's home page. GSlapt is also available, and is a GTK version of slapt-get, which integrates well into the GSB GNOME Desktop, and is the default package management application.

slapt-get requirements: gpgme curl pkgtools

Download slapt-get for Slackware 13.0 from: <ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/gsb/gsb-2.26_slackware-13.0/gsb/ad/>.

Download slapt-get for Slackware64 13.0 from: <ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/gsb/gsb64-2.26_slackware64-13.0/gsb64/ad/>.

After downloading the slapt-get binary package, you can install it with: 

$ installpkg slapt-get-[version].txz

Configuring the slapt-get Package Manager ↑

Once slapt-get is installed, you will need to modify the /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc file to point to local mirrors of both a Slackware 13.0 mirror as well as a GNOME SlackBuild mirror. You can find a local Slackware mirror from the slackware.com mirror list at http://www.slackware.com/getslack/. A full list of available GNOME SlackBuild Mirrors is given in our list of mirrors.

The slapt-getrc file consists currently of the following keys: SOURCE WORKINGDIR EXCLUDE.

SOURCE
SOURCE must be a path to a valid http or ftp Slackware release directory, or other package source such as linuxpackages.net, or GNOME SlackBuild. All that is required is the PACKAGES.TXT and CHECKSUMS.md5. Multiple sources can be defined. Below is a short example slapt-getrc file. Please note: This is only an example. Make sure to change your SOURCE to point to local mirrors. 
        WORKINGDIR=/var/slapt-get
        EXCLUDE=^kernel-.*,^alsa-.*,^glibc.*,.*-[0-9]+dl$,^devs$,^udev$,aaa_elflibs
        SOURCE=ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-13.0/:OFFICIAL
        SOURCE=ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/gsb/gsb-2.26_slackware-13.0
If you would like to view a fully loaded example, after installing slapt-get, refer to /usr/doc/slapt-get/example.slapt-getrc.

PACKAGE PRIORITY: Update your /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc file to point to Slackware 13.0 and GNOME SlackBuild repositories. Make sure to add the :OFFICIAL tag to the end of your SOURCE= which points to the Slackware repository, and the tag :CUSTOM to the SOURCE= line which points to your GNOMESlackBuild repository. Without the :CUSTOM tag, the official Slackware packages will outweigh GSB packages, and not all required packages will be upgraded.

EXCLUDE
EXCLUDE is a comma separated list of packages you want excluded from updating. This can be the package name, or a extended POSIX regex. For example, to exclude Dropline GNOME, use .*-[0-9]dl$. But this is just an example. :^)
Please make sure that if you are running a x86_64 system, that you do not have x86_64 specified in the EXCLUDE section, or no packages will be found when trying to install via the slapt-get application.

GNOME SlackBuild Mirror List ↑

The following is a list of available mirrors from which to download GNOME SlackBuild. For the most updated list of mirrors, please consult the MIRROR.TXT found in release directory.

Required Upgrades ↑

After installing and customizing the slapt-getrc configuration file, you need to run:

$ slapt-get --update 
$ slapt-get --add-keys

This will download the package data available from all the package sources you specified within the slapt-getrc file and all gpg keys.

After the package data has been updated, the first step to installing GNOME SlackBuild is to upgrade the required packages. If you do not replace the required packages, GNOME SlackBuild will not run properly.

NOTE ON REQUIREMENTS: You must first upgrade and replace all packages marked as required in the Replaced Packages List. If you fail to do so, your installation may not work. Run the following command before attempting to install GNOME SlackBuild: 

$ slapt-get --install alsa-lib bluez glib2 gtk+2 libwnck

However, while GNOME SlackBuild is designed to replace as few Slackware packages as possible, it is not possible to free ourselves wholly from replacing some packages. There are three packages that are optional and replace official Slackware packages, but their replacement are only necessary for added functionality, or for certain GNOME applications. Their replacement is recommended, but not required if you do not plan to use certain applications, or are dead set against replacing any Slackware provided packages. 

$ slapt-get --upgrade

For a full list of available options, please consult the slapt-get manual.

Downloading and Installing a Basic Desktop↑

After replacing the required packages, you are now ready to install GNOME SlackBuild. GNOME SlackBuild provides a number of metapackages in order to ease the installation of huge package lists via slapt-get. The recommended installation method is to first install the basic GSB GNOME Desktop through the gsb-desktop metapackage. It contains all the packages required for a working and useable GNOME Desktop, including Epiphany, Evolution, the GNOME Display Manager (GDM), and Gslapt for package management as well as some basic themes and desktop utilities. From here, additional packages can be added to suit the users needs.

To install your basic GNOME SlackBuild GNOME Desktop, run: 

$ slapt-get --install gsb-desktop

This process may take a long time, depending on the speed of your connection. It will first download all the required packages and install them. After installation, it is also strongly recommended that you reboot your system. After, you can use gslapt (from your GNOME desktop) or slapt-get from the command line to install additional packages you may want.

Configuring your GNOME Desktop ↑

We have a separate page for some configuration options for GNOME SlackBuild. It is meant to be a small reference page for users new to GNOME, or to GNOME SlackBuild. It highlights some of the most useful configuration settings that many users will want to, and even need to configure, in order to get the most out of their GNOME SlackBuild desktop.

IMPORTANT! Fix your config files. Some of the config files in /etc are going to need your attention. You'll find the new incoming config files on your system with the ".new" extension. You may need to fill these in with information from your old config files and then move them over.

Please make sure to read our Configuration Page in order to properly set up removable USB devices, the GNOME Display Manager, or NetworkManager.

Uninstalling GNOME SlackBuild ↑

In order to uninstall GNOME SlackBuild, you'll first need to remove all GNOME SlackBuild packages, and then re-install any Slackware provided packages that may have been replaced by GSB ones. It is recommended that you drop to runlevel 1 (Single-user mode) while you uninstall. You will need your original Slackware CD in order to re-install some standard Slackware packages, or else a working internet connection if you want to use slapt-get to reinstall these packages. You can remove all GNOME SlackBuild packages by running: 

$ removepkg /var/log/packages/*gsb

This will remove all packages that are provided by GNOME SlackBuild. You'll need to comment out the SOURCE for GNOME SlackBuild in your /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc file. Then make sure to rerun slapt-get --update. After you have uninstalled GNOME SlackBuild, you'll need to reinstall a few standard Slackware packages by running:

$ slapt-get --reinstall --install glib2 libwnck alsa-lib gtk+2 bluez-lib bluez-utils

You may also need to reinstall other packages that may have been replaced, such as pidgin, libgsf, or compiz.

Reporting Bugs ↑

GNOME SlackBuild v2.26.3 is considered stable, but with only a few volunteers to help build and test it, we cannot guarantee that it is free from errors. :) If you find any bugs in GNOME SlackBuild, please help us and the GNOME SlackBuild project out by reporting them. The preferred and best way is by sumitting a bug report in our bug reporting tool.

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