Ladies and gentlemen, hobos and tramps, flies and mosquitoes, and bald-headed ants,
For some time I have been creating a set of TDE build scripts for Slackware. Like many such projects, this started as a way to scratch my own itch. The scripts are written in the spirit and style of stock Slackware, SBo, AlienBOB, and Salix build scripts.
On both 64-bit and 32-bit Slackware 15.0 I am able to compile 163 of 179 R14.1.4 packages. Spot tests on the desktop shows most everything functions. I built most of R14.1.4 on Current 64-bit, but a few glitches remain. For vintage computer users and for fun, I built most of the R14.1.4 packages on 14.2 64-bit (requires some updated stock packages).
Excluding tde-18n, which at the moment builds as a single package, the build time for the remaining 162 packages is about 2 to 2.5 hours in a VM on my 8 year old 4-core system with SATA III SSDs. A 32-bit VM runs a bit slower. A test run on a dual core with 4 GB RAM and using the SATA II SSD as working space rather than tmpfs required about 5.25 hours.
The scripts will compile with debug symbols for those who want to help debug and troubleshoot.
The scripts are flexible with many build options.
For many Slackware users the script collection likely is complete.
Sounds encouraging so many packages can be compiled, but there remain challenges beyond my skills and experience. Although good quality beta at this stage, minutia and hair balls remain. Time to let this child go and let more capable hands finish the scripts.
Remaining needs:
* Expertise to finish the language bindings scripts. * LDAP and (Heimdal) Kerberos expertise to finish related scripts. * Split the i18n packages into individual language packages.
* Test and break the scripts (they work well here but who knows). * Find missing patches, fix nuances, etc. * Patch TDE cmake and automake files to improve Slackware support.
* Usability testing to ensure packages compiled correctly. * Ensure debug symbols create useful back traces.
Gory details are available in the script documentation. Yes, there is documentation as well as significant commentary in the scripts.
I ask the following:
* Consider the build environment to be quality beta, usable and fairly solid but incomplete.
* Please inform me if the scripts are moved online to a centralized location. I am letting go of the project, but I'm curious to see how my baby grows up.
* I have no intention of joining or creating accounts on git flub or any other such service. Doesn't interest me. If you move the scripts online in that manner I will help through email as best as I can when asked.
* As best as I can I will reply to emails about what rope I was smoking when I conjured up certain code and functions. Please do not flood me with a multitude of questions in a single email. I'm an old man, sometimes a grumpy old man. One or two topics per mail please.
* I am not paid tech support. I have taken the scripts as far as I can go. As best as I can I will help but from now on, you break you fix.
* I am not tethered to a phone or the web. I check email but do not expect Pavlovian replies.
* I accept that just about everybody has different perspectives and ideas how build scripts should function. My hope is my approach is good enough for others to finish and polish.
I hope Slackers use the scripts at a personal level, but my long term goal always has been that the scripts are massaged to become part of the TDE packaging system. I want all interested Slackware TDE users to benefit. This move would provide a centralized set of scripts for all Slackware users, but would provide a way to allow Slackware users to download binary packages, much in the way of other third party repos like AlienBOB and Salix.
Okay. Enough of the sales pitch. Here is a link to a 13.2 MB tar.gz of the script collection:
https://www.remembertheusers.com/files/tde-slackware.tgz
To use the build scripts, unpack the archive and read tde.GETSTARTED.
To help resolve known issues read tde.FIXME.
The script collection could be much smaller, but I included build script collections for two untested obtuse third-party packages for k3b and koffice.
Statler and Waldorf commentary about my scripts or senility should be forwarded to /dev/null.
Thank you Jim Diamond for your reviews, patience, and insights with the scripts. I learned a few things from you.
Thank you for your attention. May we always see darkstar on our first boot. :-)
D.A.