slackware

Someone posted an old Slackware 2005 setup (KDE 3.3.2, kernel 2.4) and it instantly brought back memories.

Before systemd. Before Wayland.
Just KDE 3, Konsole, and Slackware doing exactly what you told it to do.

20 years later and the philosophy hasn’t changed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/s/H0QrkazxbJ

#slackware #kde #x11

Fastpotify is a native Spotify client written in Rust, fast, lightweight, and no browser engine.

And the best part? A Winamp mini player with support for classic .wsz skins. I absolutely love this idea.

Modern Spotify, old-school Winamp.

I already made a SlackBuild for it, waiting for approval. :)

https://github.com/crmne/fastpotify
#slackware

🎉 Happy Birthday, Slackware! 🐧

Released on July 17, 1993, Slackware is the oldest actively maintained Linux distro. It has been going strong for 32 years now!

From floppy disks to modern setups, it's been a wild ride.

Did you ever try Slackware? Still using it? Share your experience below! 👇

#linux #slackware

Day two of #slackware adventures!

I ended up reinstalling, this time without the KDE sets and switching to using FVWM. While KDE is 'nice', I come from using OpenBSD with cwm, so I'm used to my X environment staying out of the way.

For the curious, the old laptop I'm using is my Lenovo X220, or what I consider to be the last laptop with a truly great keyboard.

Trying out #slackware on my old laptop today for the first time in forever. Impressions? It's exactly as I remember it 20+ years ago, except now everything works out of the box.

Two things I noticed right off: no systemd (or related dependencies) anywhere in sight, and LILO.
I've always been irritated by the systemd-ification of the linux ecosystem, so it's always nice when I don't see it, and I've never really understood how to work with GRUB, so LILO is really appreciated!

After years without compiling a kernel, I'm giving it another shot! 🐧

Building Linux kernel 6.19.3 on Slackware using Patrick's official SlackBuilds, starting from my 6.18.13 config as a base.

-> 6.19 brings some nice ext4 improvements that caught my attention:

Support for block sizes larger than page size (can improve buffered write performance in some workloads)
Faster online defragmentation using folios instead of legacy buffer heads
Smarter POSIX ACL caching, avoiding redundant permission checks on files without ACLs

Beyond ext4, there are ongoing memory-management cleanups, folio conversions, scheduler refinements, and NVMe driver improvements, which should pair nicely with an NVMe-based laptop.
Nothing revolutionary, but solid incremental polishing.

Let's see how it goes! 🤞
#slackware #kernel #linux

Since I wiped my main workstation/gaming PC the other day in a bout of frustration with, well, everything, I’ve been having fun OS-hopping. I have a fallback workstation that I can use for work purposes and to get me by while I’m noodling around in my main rig. My initial intention was to run OpenBSD for a few weeks to see the state of things on the desktop (I have a few devices running OpenBSD but all headless) but I ran into a weird USB storage bug. Just to see if it’s a hardware thing or an OS thing, I tried FreeBSD 15 and it was even worse.

https://www.kaidenshi.com/posts/os-hopping-in-2026/

#OpenBSD #FreeBSD #elementaryos #Slackware #distrohopping

Linux 6.19.4 Released

Linux 6.19.4 is now available as a stable update in the 6.19.x series, bringing small but important fixes across the kernel.

This release includes:

ext4 fixes
Intel graphics (i915) adjustments
NVMe improvements
Intel Wi-Fi driver updates
Minor power management refinements

On my ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 (i7-1185G7, Tiger Lake), this mainly means incremental stability improvements in graphics, storage, and power behavior.

I’ve also updated my ThinkPad X220 (used as a testing machine), and it continues to run perfectly fine on 6.19.4.

I’m building the kernel using the original SlackBuild scripts from Slackware-current’s testing tree, preserving the official packaging structure and only updating the upstream source.

Build notes are documented here:
https://git.sr.ht/~r1w1s1/code-notes/blob/main/notes/Slackware_Kernel_Build_Guide.txt

#slackware #kernel #thinkpad #ext4

As for the vibrancy: I tried a ton of iso's on the Thinkpad today. None were good. Then I re-grabbed the Slackware Current iso and slapped the great Cosmic spin by Nate ( @reddog83 ) on top of it. Did you know those Cosmic packages were updated the same day System76 released them? Now that's cutting edge!
Furthermore: 3 Slackware and 1 FreeBSD install over here. Just saying.
#slackware #cosmic

#qemu got added to #slackware current today. Didn’t see that one coming at all. Interesting times in the land of slack!

Kernel 6.19.9 running on Slackware -current

I updated the kernel guide build.
https://git.sr.ht/~r1w1s1/code-notes/blob/main/notes/Slackware_Kernel_Build_Guide.txt

#slackware #kernel

Slackware has always been a fantastic environment for development, and officially adding QEMU 10.2.2 to -current just confirms that! 🐧

ap/qemu-10.2.2-x86_64-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against libcacard-2.8.2, libslirp-4.9.1, spice-0.16.0,
and usbredir-0.15.0.
Thanks to Daedra.
ap/qemu-guest-agent-10.2.2-x86_64-2.txz: Rebuilt.
l/graphviz-14.1.4-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded.
l/libcacard-2.8.2-x86_64-1.txz: Added.
Needed by qemu-10.2.2.
Thanks to Matteo Bernardini.
l/usbredir-0.15.0-x86_64-1.txz: Added.
Needed by qemu-10.2.2.
Thanks to Matteo Bernardini.
n/libslirp-4.9.1-x86_64-1.txz: Added.
Needed by qemu-10.2.2.
Thanks to Vijay Marcel.
n/spice-0.16.0-x86_64-1.txz: Added.
Needed by qemu-10.2.2.
Thanks to Matteo Bernardini.
n/spice-protocol-0.14.5-noarch-1.txz: Added.
Needed by spice-0.16.0.
Thanks to Matteo Bernardini.

Think about it: a clean, solid base system, LXC for containers, and now native QEMU for full virtualization. Everything a developer needs, no fluff, straight from the core tree.

Slackware doesn't make noise. It just delivers. 💪

#Slackware #QEMU #Linux #Development

https://www.kindness.city/blog/2026-03-22-care.html

A bit of a ranty blog today.

I really want to write software that's actually good.

Increasingly, I believe the trick to doing this isn't #types, or #proglang , or formal methods, or #agile, or #XP, or #TDD, or any other fancy technique, process, or technology. It's Care.

And the reason most software still sucks? It's not stupidity, and it's not because everyone else has been duped by the "wrong" development ideology (waterfall, formal methods, agile, etc). It's the Market.

Here's what #openbsd , #slackware, and #emacs are teaching me about taking the time to work on what matters.

Procrastination might sound wasteful, but it's actually great
Slackware Mango/Niri up and running, with all extensive goodies from the slackosaurus. Received some great feedback during my travails, so all's dandy now.
That leaves Gentoo dwm for tomorrow, and luckily enough that's a public holiday here. Or was it already in the back of my mind? 🤔 Probably 🥳 Cheers! 🍻
#slackware

Wrote a howto on ZRAM configuration for Slackware -current, covers compression algorithms (lz4, zstd, lzo-rle, etc), device sizing for different RAM scenarios, and monitoring. Useful if you're tweaking the defaults in /etc/default/zram.

https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:slackware_admin:zram_configuration

#Slackware #Linux #ZRAM

the secret:

sxhkd handles the keys.
the WM handles the windows.
dmenu handles the launching.

swap any one. the others don't notice.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ sxhkd (global, WM-agnostic) │
│ ├─ super+space → menu │
│ ├─ super+p → dmenu_run │
│ ├─ super+l → slock │
│ └─ media keys → volume / brightness │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────┴──────────┐
▼ ▼
┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ dwm │ │ progman │
│ (config.h) │ │ (progman.ini)│
└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘

#suckless #unix #dwm #slackware

Slackware Patches "Copy Fail" Kernel Bug — CVE-2026-31431

Slackware has issued a kernel security update for CVE-2026-31431, the Copy Fail vulnerability disclosed April 29, 2026. It's an out-of-bounds write in the AEAD userspace crypto interface (AF_ALG) that lets any local user get a root shell via a setuid binary — the same 732-byte Python PoC works on essentially every Linux distro shipped since 2017.

If you can't patch right away, Slackware ships the affected code as a module (CONFIG_CRYPTO_USER_API_AEAD=m), so you can blacklist or remove it as a stopgap:

echo "install algif_aead /bin/false" > /etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif.conf
rmmod algif_aead

For most systems this breaks nothing — AF_ALG is a userspace front-door to the kernel crypto API, and OpenSSL, SSH, dm-crypt, kTLS, and IPsec all bypass it.

Patch and reboot when you can. slackpkg update && slackpkg upgrade-all.

Sources:

http://www.slackware.com/security/viewer.php?l=slackware-security&y=2026&m=slackware-security.1267034
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-31431

#slackware #copyfail

Added some follow-up observations to my notes about Transparent Huge Pages (THP) on modern desktop Linux systems.

After ~1 week using:

[always] madvise never

on Slackware-current with Firefox-heavy workloads:

- no swap usage
- no THP fallback allocations
- no compaction stalls
- stable desktop responsiveness

Modern kernels appear to handle THP significantly better than older Linux generations, especially on systems with enough RAM, zram, and NVMe storage.

Notes:
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/Transparent_Huge_Pages_on_Desktop_Linux.txt

#linux #slackware

The UNIX shell is still one of the best IDEs ever created.

grep/find/sed/awk/make/ssh/git/nvi often compose better than many modern “integrated” environments.

Small programs connected together still scale surprisingly well.

https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/Unix_As_An_IDE.txt

#unix #linux #slackware #vi

19 June 1984.

Bob Scheifler announces the first release of the X Window System:

"I stole a fair amount of code from W ... and called it X."

Forty-two years later, I'm still running X11 daily on Slackware.

Happy Birthday, X.

Source: https://www.talisman.org/x-debut.shtml

#X11 #Unix #Linux #Slackware #XLibre

I spent some time debugging a font rendering issue after recent fontconfig changes on Linux.

At first I thought fontconfig itself was "broken", but after testing multiple setups I realized the issue was mostly related to how Iosevka behaved with the newer font matching/rendering changes.

Issue/MR related to this:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/work_items/522
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/merge_requests/520

The funny part is that this ended up helping me discover a new font family:
IoskeleyMono (https://github.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono)

After testing it in:

st
dwm
Firefox
Senpai IRC
Geany
websites/forums

the rendering and spacing ended up being MUCH better for my workflow, especially the "Term" variant.

Sometimes a small issue sends you in the right direction 🙂

I liked it so much that I already prepared and submitted a SlackBuild.

Huge thanks to the developers working on fontconfig and font rendering. People usually only notice this work when something changes, but good typography and font matching matter a lot on a daily desktop system.

#x11 #fontconfig #fonts #slackware #ioskeleymono

I run Testing on Slackware and I see some Xorg drivers being replaced with Xlibre ones (Wacom, AMD GPU). What's the bigger picture here? Oh, and let's put that out there prior: I have zero interest in unfounded ranting allegations, except my own's. Is Slackware moving to Xlibre?
#slackware

Got that new #plasma beta 2 up and running on #crux but I also posted packages for #slackware in my little slim-plasma repo, ready for consumption.

I've finally published slackfetch.

It's a minimal system information utility for Slackware, inspired by the philosophy of ufetch while providing a few extra details such as installation age, glibc version, and Flatpak package count.

The goal is to keep the code small, readable, and easy to hack.

Project:
https://forge.slackware.nl/r1w1s1/slackfetch

#Slackware #Linux #Unix #ShellScript

Hey #slackware users, what is your preferred way of isolating (as-in what are zones/jails for Linux) daemons ? Is docker/podman the usual way-to-go or are there smarter native tools?