Slackware for Pandora 14.2

[Linux-SWAT]

The gpg error may be linked to a wrong date. Try as root:
ntpdate 0.pool.ntp.org
then relaunch sbopkg.

Or maybe update the ca-certificates:
slackpkg update
slackpkg upgrade ca-certificates

About the -current, don't waste time on it (unless you want to play with hardfloat), the build is outdated and some things are broken.
Anyway, there is the dev thread:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/slackware-inside-pandora.60258/
I post there when something moves.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Montoya]

The problem I had with sbopkg was caused because my pandora had an incorrect time and the date was set at the year 2000.

I have been thinkering a little bit with sl4p and I liked it a lot: It is cool to have the convenience of using pnd, but I also love the fact that it is Slackware and you can thinker it as you want. It is very well optimized too! Going into runlevel 3 it just uses 24 mb of RAM and using a text browser feels really snappy. It allows me to rediscover the love for this little machine.

 

[t40]

Hold my pyra pre-order pcb, I'm going in

 

[b_o_b]

Gave 4.2 a try yesterday on a Classic Pandora. Have been on my to-do list for a while. Want to setup one Pandy for Slackware only especially for packages that are not longer maintained.

SD-card Toshiba M203/EA 64 GB => EXT4 failed => EXT2 I could install it but after the initial success it failed and needed to fix errors on the card and got into a loop. ctrl-d to prevent rebooting didn' t work only entering root password prevented that.
Then formated the card to exFAT but as I already expected that didn't work (ton of "Cannot change ownership to uid 0" messages)
So EXT-2 was the only filesystem that worked with this card. The install process itself is pretty easy and straightforward. Takes a while to copy all the files and the system was not as snappy as Zaxxon.

I know slackware is extremely picky regarding the SD card, so I will try another one and report back.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

It's not Slackware which is picky, it's that cheaper cards electronics only support fat32.
With time passing and experimenting, I also suspected that there is good and bad sd card readers.
On the OP, ext4 will fail if you don't have a "recent" Zaxxon firmware, but maybe it was simply the copy over the card which failed ?

Some readings:

Software projects/OS/Slackware - Pandora Wiki

pandorawiki.org

SD compatibility list - Pandora Wiki

pandorawiki.org

Formatting SD cards - Pandora Wiki

pandorawiki.org

 

[b_o_b]

It's not Slackware which is picky, it's that cheaper cards electronics only support fat32.

Sure - tried a Kingston 32Gb card and that was a huge difference. https://www.kingston.com/netherlands/en/memory-cards/canvas-select-plus-sd-card?capacity=32gb
Copying to the card a lot faster and also after starting slackware it is a lot faster. Rebooted 2 times and no SD card errors.

Changed the fontsize / appearance to make XFCE readable, connected to WIFI and started a bit of browsing with seamonkey. Checked emacsversion (25.3) might give it a try to update to 27
Updated gslapt - everything works very nicely

Now syncing sbopkg - as your helpful wiki page mentioned that indeed takes a long time and will try to install some programs later (will probably start with Fbreader)

 

[b_o_b]

As mentioned tried to use sbopkg to install FBreader. Fbreader is available in the slackbuilds repository.

SlackBuilds.org - fbreader

SlackBuilds.org - SlackBuild Script Repository

slackbuilds.org

Only dependency libunibreak
So first I used sbopkg to install libunibreak. I don't think there were any issues installing that.
FBreader installing failed though. No error message that helps me finding out what is wrong.

/tmp/SBo/fbreader-0.99.4/zlibrary/ui/../../makefiles/qsubdir.mk:14: recipe for target 'QtWaitingSpinner.o' failed
make[2]: *** [QtWaitingSpinner.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/fbreader-0.99.4/zlibrary/ui/src/qt4/tree'
Makefile:94: recipe for target '.objects' failed
make[1]: *** [.objects] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/fbreader-0.99.4/zlibrary/ui'
Makefile:9: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 1

Attached the complete log file, maybe that helps.

Also installed Artha, that works fine. Any ideas?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

As the error is QT-related, I'd manually download everything needed to build this package from slackbuilds.org, then in the slackbuild I'd change:
export UI_TYPE=qt4
into
export UI_TYPE=gtk

Then:
su -
cd into the folder and
sh fbreader.SlackBuild

 

[b_o_b]

Thanks - it took a very long time compiling but unfortunately another error (a different one though- so there is progress )

Linking FBReader .../tmp/SBo/fbreader-0.99.4/fbreader/../zlibrary/core/libzlcore.a(ZLibrary.o): In function `ZLibrary::init(int&, char**&)':
ZLibrary.cpp.: (text+0x308): undefined reference to `initLibrary'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile:19: recipe for target 'all' failed
make[1]: *** [all] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/fbreader-0.99.4/fbreader'
Makefile:9: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 1

Doesn't seem to be QT related this time.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Now I can't tell sry... There's not that much options in the slackbuild, maybe you can find a patch in the gentoo ebuild ?
Btw did you try to run the fbreader's pnd ?

 

[b_o_b]

Now I can't tell sry... There's not that much options in the slackbuild, maybe you can find a patch in the gentoo ebuild ?
Btw did you try to run the fbreader's pnd ?

The gentoo repo doesn't seem to provide any clue what to use. Not sure if I am up to the task to use patches anyway.

https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/log/?qt=grep&q=fbreader

Haven't tried the fbreader pnd, but I don't really need to do that - the main reason for trying out Slackware is being able to install the latest version(s) of software that are not maintained anymore on the Pandora.

I think I will post the question on https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14// as well. Seems to be the most active slackware forum, maybe someone there has a suggestion. Might also try to use code::blocks and see if it compiles.

[edit] Tried to install coolreader https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/office/coolreader/?search=coolreader - that one installed fine and seems to work without issues. Pandora PND version 3.0.57.02 on slackware 3.2.54
Posted a question on linuxquestions, currently waiting on admin approval. Would be nice to also get FBreader to work.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

FBreader pnd isn't the latest version ?

 

[b_o_b]

FBreader pnd isn't the latest version ?

FBreader PND verion says 0.12.10 and the slackbuild version 0.99.4
Tbh that doesn't mean a lot. They went from 0.12.10 to 0.99.4 between april 2012 and november 2012. After that FBreader became commercial software and development only continued for Android/IOS.

It is not a very big deal if it is not possible because current FBreader version works fine (coolreader is nice as well). Just trying to get the hang of Slackware and fixing a problem (even if it fails) is great way to learn how it works.

 

[b_o_b]

I've been playing around with Slackware some more. Tried the PND FBreader and works fine. Installed latest version of MComix - 1.2.1.
MComix is fork of Comix (available in the Pandora repo) after Comix development stopped in 2009.
Tried to install foliate via slackbuild. It did built (needed Flatpak) but has dependencies that gave warnings.
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/calibre/ failed due to missing QT version error.

I am fine with FBreader and Coolreader and MComix so slackware will become my 'reader OS'.

@Linux-SWAT Emacs version installed is 25.3. Looked for a more recent slackbuild but couldn't find it. The slackbuild 14.2 repo isn't even mentioning any emacs version.
I did find a slackbuild for -current but not for 14.2 https://mirror.slackbuilds.org/slackware/slackware-current/source/e/emacs/
What is the best approach for installing? Try the slackbuild anyway?
Source emacs: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/

 

[Linux-SWAT]

As Emacs is part of the standard distribution, you don't need sbopkg.
Just go for:
https://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware-current/source/e/emacs/
Grab everything, eventually customize the slackbuild with ARM flags, "su -", launch the slackbuild and see what happens :^) .

 

[b_o_b]

Great, it is running now - will probably take a while. I thought slackware-current was Slackware 15.0, good to know I can use these builds as well.
Didn't customize anything, the build mentions "Automatically determine the architecture we're building on" so hope it runs fine without any adjustment.

 

[b_o_b]

Slackbuild ended with

"WARNING: zero length file install/slack-desc
Slackware package /tmp/emacs-27.2-arm-1.txz created.

Is there another step involved (do a installpkg with the txz file) or did something go wrong?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

upgradepkg /tmp/emacs-27.2-arm-1.txz

 

[b_o_b]

upgradepkg /tmp/emacs-27.2-arm-1.txz

That worked!
Thanks for guiding me through this. Even having the latest emacs version only is worth installing Slackware for.

Did some browsing with eww, created an org file (version 9.9.4 included), a bit of file handling with Dired. Everything works fine

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Glad you could make it :^)