Any chance of adding Slackware-Current?
Slackware 14.2 is almost five years old. It doesn't look like there's a "stable" release coming, but the current version is acting as a rolling release.
Any chance that Slackware Current could be an option for new Linodes?
3 Replies
rgerke
Linode Staff
Great suggestion! We appreciate the feedback. This is definitely something worth looking into, and we've taken note of your interest.
jtoscani
Linode Staff
You can also track the current branch following these instructions:
To the Linode Staff,
First, a wholehearted thank you for including the Slackware image. I know it probably took a lot of hard work on your part, and I'm grateful that you cared enough to include it on your platform.
But to whoever is in charge of packaging the distro for Linode, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, for the love of god, just package the FULL INSTALLATION. Slackware is different from other distros, a full installation is how it is intended to be installed.
Don't worry about a large image. We are used to it. We slackers know how to prune our own systems. What we don't know is how to fix a system where someone else does a partial install by subjective choice.
By picking and choosing what packages to include, your image is in a broken state that none of us can fix. It's not just a matter of "sync with the official repos and add what you need," because the individual package versions will be in a mismatched state, precluding a monolithic upgrade. You can do that with other distros that have dependency checking, but Slackware doesn't work that way. Slackware doesn't do dependency checking, and all the third-party repos expect a full install to work. For all intensive purposes, the full install is the base install. If you don't believe me just Google it.
This guy couldn't compile nginx. I can tell you, seven years later, I still can't compile nginx with your image even after I reinstalled all the official packages. Can you? I challenge you to try.
All one has to do is do a search on this forum about "Slackware" to see that all the threads are about missing/broken packages. There's no need to pick-and-choose packages to try to make a minimal install for us. That's a thankless waste of time that doesn't help users, only hampers us. Just package the full install and I guarantee you that most the problem tickets relating to Slackware will evaporate, angels will sing your name, and Vultr will go out of business. :-)
If you take a look at my records, you'll see how many times I had to redownload all the official packages to try to make your image work. It doesn't cost me any bandwidth to download, but it sure burdens Linode. In the end, I still couldn't get it to work and had to DD the official ISO. You put so much work into putting your Slackware image on your platform, don't you want people to actually make use of your image? Why did you bother to put in all that time if the only recourse is for users to use their own ISO?
So please package the full install. I can tell by the packages left out that the person in charge doesn't use Slackware, because no one in their right mind that has actually used Slackware would leave out the packages you've left out, let alone go for a partial install. It's ok, Slackware isn't for everybody. But take it from the years and years of pleading from actual Slackware users, and just PLEASE PACKAGETHE FULL INSTALL: It's easier for you, and it's easier for us.