dm-live updated to Slackware -current (v14 release pending)

Slackware 14's release is almost finished. PV marked the latest set of changes as RC2. I looked at my startup environment to see what changes were necessary to prepare to match the next release. Almost all of the packages were updated and module-init-tools was removed in favor of kmod. The busybox toolset that is used for a lot of commands was upgraded, with a few minor additions (lsof, setserial, udhcpc6). Here is the version info:

BusyBox v1.20.1 (2012-07-17 17:49:41 CDT) multi-call binary.
Copyright (C) 1998-2011 Erik Andersen, Rob Landley, Denys Vlasenko

Here is my list of packages, omitting the kernel, kernel modules, and kernel firmware:

• slackware/a/aaa_base-14.0-i486-4.txz
• slackware/a/aaa_elflibs-14.0-i486-3.txz
• slackware/a/aaa_terminfo-5.8-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/bash-4.2.037-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/bzip2-1.0.6-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/coreutils-8.18-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/cpio-2.11-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/cryptsetup-1.4.3-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/devs-2.3.1-noarch-25.txz
• slackware/a/dialog-1.1_20100428-i486-2.txz
• slackware/a/e2fsprogs-1.42.4-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/elvis-2.2_0-i486-2.txz
• slackware/a/etc-13.013-i486-2.txz
• slackware/a/findutils-4.4.2-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/glibc-solibs-2.15-i486-4.txz
• slackware/a/grep-2.13-i486-2.txz
• slackware/a/gzip-1.5-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/kmod-9-i486-3.txz
• slackware/a/lvm2-2.02.96-i486-4.txz
• slackware/a/mdadm-3.2.5-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/mkinitrd-1.4.7-i486-4.txz
• slackware/a/pkgtools-14.0-noarch-1.tgz
• slackware/a/procps-3.2.8-i486-3.txz
• slackware/a/sed-4.2.1-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/tar-1.26-i486-1.tgz
• slackware/a/udev-182-i486-3.txz
• slackware/a/util-linux-2.21.2-i486-5.txz
• slackware/a/which-2.20-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/xfsprogs-3.1.8-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/xz-5.0.4-i486-1.tgz
• slackware/l/readline-5.2-i486-4.txz
• slackware/n/gnupg-1.4.12-i486-1.txz
• slackware/n/libgcrypt-1.5.0-i486-1.txz
• slackware/n/libgpg-error-1.10-i486-1.txz

Only these packages from the startup environment based on version 13.37 were not upgraded:

• slackware/a/aaa_terminfo-5.8-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/bzip2-1.0.6-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/cpio-2.11-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/devs-2.3.1-noarch-25.txz
• slackware/a/dialog-1.1_20100428-i486-2.txz
• slackware/a/elvis-2.2_0-i486-2.txz
• slackware/a/findutils-4.4.2-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/procps-3.2.8-i486-3.txz
• slackware/a/sed-4.2.1-i486-1.txz
• slackware/a/tar-1.26-i486-1.tgz
• slackware/a/which-2.20-i486-1.txz
• slackware/l/readline-5.2-i486-4.txz

The 34 listed packages use approximately 89 MB of RAM when expanded. The gzipped kernel modules use 43 MB and the kernel firmware uses 12 MB for a total of approximately 144 MB. For practical purposes, a machine with 256 MB is the least amount that could be used to successfully load the startup environment. A couple of small optimizations could reduce the required space slightly (1. compress /usr/share/locale, remove redundant copy of busybox in mkinitrd - or remove the package).

I have been using this as part of my working day-to-day setup for over a year now. It's a good rescue and all purpose startup environment. That includes booting to an encrypted root filesystem, booting to root filesystem on external USB, or the combination: encrypted root filesystem on external USB device. USB flash memory devices are now hitting the 32 GB level at affordable prices. I've noticed some performance issues on the larger flash disks that are not present on external magnetic USB drives. Another problem have been several glitches introduced with changes to the Linux kernel itself in the past year. The glitches manifest differently on different hardware. I am using kernel version 3.2.26 on an Intel Atom CPU powered netbook, and that combination has had the fewest glitches. I will probably update to PV's 3.2.27 kernel soon and try to use lzma compressed modules to see if any slight gains in free space can be made. That said, the gains are extremely marginal on today's hardware because I don't use computers with less than 256MB anymore. Also, the gains are transient because the environment is discarded when the startup environment gives control to the actual root filesystem.

Update: 2012-08-18: PV's kernel for 3.2.27 has a significantly larger firmware footprint than what I had been using. It jumps to 45M from 12M. I did some simple comparisons to look for differences. I found a direct overlap of 8M and the rest different. These are the biggest directories in the firmware packaged by PV:

6.5M ./ti-connectivity
4.8M ./bnx2x
2.2M ./libertas
1.6M ./brcm
2.2M ./ueagle-atm
1.5M ./bnx2

Cut Slackware some slack...

This recent Slashdot headline noted there was some recent downtime at Slackware.com, .. Slackware, like a lot of free software / open source coding projects, relies a lot on unpaid volunteers. What is unique about Slackware is that it is very much the vision of one man, Patrick Volkerding. He coordinates every new release with a small team of developers worldwide, including Robby Workman and Eric Hamleers. Workman, I believe, does a lot of work on the website, Slackbuilds.org, while Hamleers is a long time developer who is the person most responsible for porting the Slackware to 64-bit Intel processors, and now is working on an important port to the ARM architecture. That will be very important going forward as cellular sized devices continue to displace the personal PC as the platform of choice. The Raspberry Pi devices could change the world! Slackware, as the oldest Linux distribution still being actively maintained and used, is going to be a part of that. As far as lags in development, from my own experience, most of the recent snags have been due to component pieces of the gnu/linux platform being deficient, notably pieces of X and the kernel itself. The shift towards different graphical paradigms caused some disruption, too. Look to those issues before blaming Patrick Volkerding.

Oh, one other thing, allow me to point out one fact about Slackware's perceived lack of popularity. Why does it appear to shine less brightly than the newer, and perceived rising stars of the Linux world? Well, for one thing, it does have a learning curve. That means it can be off-putting to some. However, once it is mastered, it provides the basis for a lean, mean, fighting machine! It is deployed in quantity by people in the know. For example, at some of the linux conferences I have attended, a few devout followers from certain industries, governments, etc. where stability is a primary asset have stated it is their primary go-to tool. And for what it's worth, those agencies may not desire to have their deployments counted.

Herbert Vetoes HB363, the Anti-Sex Ed Bill!

This was a big surprise, given that Gail Ruzika had invested so much lobbying effort to get the bill passed. The Eagle Forum (also known as the anti-sex league) must be crying in their Cheerios this morning.

It was refreshing Herbert stood up for the majority's view, and didn't pander to the ultra-right. Too bad, he didn't show the same courage last year. He should have vetoed the bill designating an official firearm, the 45 caliber long-slide, last year.

On Point: Interview with special effects artist Douglas Trumball

Interview with Douglas Trumball, who created special effects for 2001, Silent Running, Close Encounters, The Tree of Life, etc. Download audio.

NPR: Fukushima Anniversary Discussions

Monday's On Point was a very interesting discussion. There is a real possibility that Japan will mothball all of its nuclear power because the risk the industry poses to all of Japan had been previously underestimated. Download audio.

Likewise, last Tuesday's Fresh Air. Download audio. This is an interview with Dan Edge, the producer of a Frontline documentary about the disaster.

On Point Discussion: New web privacy policies at Facebook and Google

Today's On Point discusses how both Facebook and Google are changing their privacy policies. They discuss the pros and cons of these changes and completely new offerings. New to the Google mix is the Android phone penetration, which enables phone providers and Google to gather geographic and on-the-spot information.

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Audio split into 4 parts:

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Fresh Air: Baratunde Thurston

This was an interesting episode of Fresh Air, an interview with Baratunde Thurston.

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Here is the audio split into 4 parts.

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