FAQ

Common questions and troubleshooting. See also Configuration, Security, and Repositories and Priority.

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Does slacker work on Slackware 15.0?

No — and it never will. slacker targets Slackware64-current. 32-bit -current support is coming. See Status and Roadmap.

Do I have to copy config files after installing?

No. The binary package puts the config files in place under /etc/slacker/. You only edit two of them — mirrors (pick one) and repos (set priorities). See Installation.

update says a repo's packages won't download (a doubled path like .../extra/extra/...).

That repo is a distribution subtree (extra, patches, testing, pasture) and needs the subtree flag in repos. Its PACKAGES.TXT lists locations relative to the distribution root; the flag tells slacker to fetch packages and the key from the parent URL. See Repositories and Priority.

error: repos: ... duplicate priority

Binary-repo priorities must be distinct. Give each binary repo a unique number. (Tag-priority lines may share a priority — that is fine.)

error: repos: ... two active mirrors / "no mirror"

In mirrors, exactly one line must be uncommented. Zero leaves the official URL empty; two or more is an error.

Why didn't upgrade-all upgrade my SBo / alienbob package, even though there's a newer version?

Priority. slacker never migrates an installed package to a different-priority source or downgrades it. A candidate is only proposed from a repo of higher or equal priority. If you want a specific repo's build, pin it: slacker upgrade alienbob:vlc. To make a source always win, give it a tag priority. See Repositories and Priority.

install-new keeps offering things I removed / never offers a package I removed.

install-new is for packages whose name is newly added to the distribution — not packages you removed (those already exist in the tree). To put a removed package back, use slacker install NAME (or install @repo). See Commands.

history emacs shows nothing, but the package is installed.

Names match exactly. If the package is aircrack-ng, history aircrack finds nothing — use the exact name. See Package History.

history shows an upgrade as old → new for something I'm sure was removed.

The pkgtools removed_packages/ directory keeps one filename per package id, so a later removal overwrites an earlier record — some history is lost by the tools themselves. slacker reconstructs as much as it can and infers a lost upgrade target from the next known entry. See Package History.

A repo is in quarantine and provides no packages.

slacker quarantines a repo that fails vetting (unreachable or malformed/hostile metadata). Re-check with slacker vet-repo NAME; if you judge it a false positive, slacker trust-repo NAME lifts it (at your responsibility). See Security.

"key-substitution attack" / a key won't import.

slacker pins each repo's GPG fingerprint on first import (trust on first use). A later key with a different fingerprint is refused. If the key legitimately changed, you'll need to clear the pin for that repo under CACHE_DIR and re-import. See Security.

How do I keep extra/testing/patches packages from being removed by clean-system?

Mark those repos immutable in repos. Their installed packages are then kept without blacklisting each one. See Common Workflows.

Can I run queries as a normal user?

Yes. search, info, file-search, check-updates, show-changelog, and history run as any user. Everything that changes the system needs root.

A command says another instance is running.

Mutating commands take an exclusive lock (/run/slacker.lock); only one runs at a time. The lock releases automatically if slacker exits or is killed. Queries take no lock.

Colours are messing up my logs / terminal.

Set NO_COLOR=1 (colour is also auto-disabled when output is not a terminal). The pager for long output is $PAGER or less -FRX.

How do I report a bug or request a feature?

Open an issue at https://forge.slackware.nl/rizitis/slacker/issues.