Slackware Setup Instructions

Here are a list of all the general things I did to install Slackware Linux 8.1 on the eBox. I must say, the Slackware team have done a great job with 8.1 - half of the tweaks I had on my 8.0 instructions page have been done already in 8.1. Of course it also includes the latest versions of all the included software packages as well.

I make a lot of assumptions here, so you'll probably need to know at least roughly what you're doing (ie. don't just follow these blindly). In particular, with my system Samba is running but NFS is disabled, I'm not using devfs, and I use ext3. Anyway, here we go:

Installation

You will need to select "expert package selection" to be given the option of selecting which packages you want to install.

Disksets

Deselect disksets E, F, T, and Y.

Packages

This list describes what you need to select and deselect (differences from the default settings). Anything else, just leave it as is. The idea here is to create a cut-down installation with the necessary libraries and utils so that you can compile and run most applications if you need to, but without all the junk that you don't need (ie, exclude most desktop and server apps). Of course, feel free to adjust this list to suit your preferences.

Diskset	Deselect	Select
A	devfsd, genpower, jfsutils, loadlin, lprng, pcmcia_cs, reiserfsprogs, umsdos_progs, tcsh, xfsprogs
AP	apsfilter, a2ps, ghostscript, gimp-print, gnu-gs-fonts, hpijs, jed, joe, ksh93, mc, mt-st, quota, raidtools, rexima, seejpeg, zsh	at, cdparanoia, sudo
D		nasm, python
K
KDE	kdeaddons, kdeadmin, kdeartwork, kdeedu, kdegames, kdegraphics, kdenetwork, kdepim, kdetoys, koffice
L
N	apache, bind, bitchx, dhcp, epic4, fetchmail, inn, ipchains, lynx, mailx, metamail, mutt, ncftp, pidentd, popa3d, ppp, procmail, sendmail, tcpdump, tin, trn, ytalk	ntp, samba
TCL		expect
X		xfree86-fonts-100dpi
XAP	Fvwm, fvwm95, gimp, gnuchess, gv, imagemagick, mozilla, netscape, rxvt, sane, windowmaker, xgames, xfce, xfractint, xsane, xvim, xxgdb
GNOME	abiword, bug-buddy, dia, enlightenment, eog, eterm, evolution, gaim, gal, galeon, gedit, gftp, ggv, ghex, glade, gnome-pilot, gnome-pim, gnome-print, gnome-userdocs, gnome-utils, gnomeicu, gnotepad+, gnumeric, gqmpeg, gqview, gtk-engines, gtm, gtop, guppi, nautilus, pan, pilot-link, sodipodi, xchat, xalf

Post-install

General

Add the following line to /etc/fstab (enables the USB device file system, which is required for a lot of USB stuff):
```
none            /proc/bus/usb   usbdevfs        defaults        0 0
```
Run the following to make a convenient link for the dvd drive (some programs will expect this to exist):
```
ln -s /dev/hdX /dev/dvd
```
Where hdX is the device for your DVD drive (hdc in my case, because it's the master IDE device on the second channel).

Edit /etc/inetd.conf and comment out all uncommented lines (these are services you most likely do not need or want - the ones you will want are probably provided by external daemons anyway). This default service configuration is one of Slackware's only problems - honestly, having things like comsat enabled by default is insane.

Tune startup

Run the following:
```
cd /etc/rc.d
chmod a-x rc.nfsd
```
Edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 and comment out loading of rpc portmapper, nfsd, lpd, mounting of nfs filesystems
Comment out ldconfig line in /etc/rc.d/rc.M

Samba

In case you didn't already know, Samba allows Windows machines on a network to access files (and printers as well) on your Linux machine through My Network Places/Network Neighbourhood, and vice versa.

If Samba isn't already installed, install it (insert the Slackware CD, mount it, then run installpkg /mnt/cdrom/slackware/n/samba-2.2.4-i386-3.tgz)
Copy /etc/samba/smb.conf-sample to /etc/samba/smb.conf
Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf, and make sure the following lines appear in the [global] section (replace existing ones if they're already there - be careful). Don't forget to set the workgroup name, and enable some shares in the bottom half of the file, as well.
```
load printers = no
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/private/smbpasswd
map to guest = bad user
```
Add a guest user (ignore "unable to open passdb database" warning you get from smbpasswd):
```
useradd guest
smbpasswd -a guest
```
Run the following so that Samba starts automatically on boot:
```
cp /usr/doc/samba-2.2.4/examples/rc.samba /etc/rc.d
```

Kernel

For a system like the eBox, it's worth recompiling the kernel so you have what you need and no extra junk. If nothing else, it will speed up starting the machine.

Make sure you install the kernel source (2.4.18) during install, or use pkgtool or installpkg to install it afterwards.
If X is set up and running, use make xconfig which brings up a nice Tk windowed configuration system, which I prefer. Otherwise use make menuconfig instead.
Select what you want for the kernel. The following is a guide:
- Compile in: MTRR support, ACPI (bus manager, system, processor, button), APM bios support, Generic use PCI DMA, loopback device support, input core support (keyboard, mouse, joystick, event interface), Ext3 journalling file system support, DOS FAT fs support (MSDOS, VFAT), UDF file system support, VGA test console, Preliminary USB device filesystem, UHCI/OHCI (depending on your motherboard), USB Human Interface Device (full HID) support, Enhanced Real Time Clock support
- Modules: /dev/agpgart (AGP support), I2C support, I2C bit-banging interfaces, I2C device interface, I2C /proc interface, Video For Linux, BT848 Video For Linux, TV card (bt848) mixer support, appropriate sound card drivers
- Not required: local APIC, math emulation, /dev file system support, Video mode selection, frame-buffer support

Save, then run these (bzImage & modules will take a while on some systems):

make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
rm -rf /usr/lib/modules/2.4.18
make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-custom

Edit /etc/lilo.conf and add a new option for the new kernel (copy an existing image= block of lines and edit as appropriate. Don't forget to make sure each item has a unique label line. You may also want to make sure the option for the new kernel you just made is the first image= block defined in the file, and set the timeout to 20 (this means 20 decisections, ie. 2 seconds). Make sure that the boot= line is correct - generally unless you're using some other boot menu as well as LILO I would suggest setting it to /dev/hda (this way LILO goes into the master boot record of the hard drive and is guaranteed to be booted first).
Run lilo -v
If all is well (ie. no errors), reboot