Been reading this group and learning all about Slack for when I get the new
machine in a few weeks.

I run Mandrake 8.2. It has a few nice features that I like. Will Slack have
any of these?

1. When I power-up (not often... usually after a thunder storm) MDK comes up
as user "me" (ie. not root) and in KDE. No login, no password. It's nice. Not
a deal breaker, but can Slack be made to do that? (It would be great if I put
it on my wife's machine as she can never remember passwords!)

2. When I do a Logoff-Shutdown in KDE it actually turns off the power. This
NEVER worked in Windows. Does Slack do this?

3. After 10 minutes of no activity a screen saver comes on. After 40 minutes,
Mandrake goes into "sleep" mode powering down (but not off) the monitor. Will
Slack do that?

I don't need a lot of whistles and bells.... like a control center. I'm able
to edit config files... if I know which ones to edit. Are the above "nice
things" availalbe for the home business Slack user? Or is these basically
"large commercial distro" features?

Thanks,
Al

Adams-Blake Co. wrote:
> Been reading this group and learning all about Slack for when I get the new
> machine in a few weeks.
>
> I run Mandrake 8.2. It has a few nice features that I like. Will Slack have
> any of these?

yes. if something works on one distro, it can be made to work on another,
because it's all linux. in most cases, it'll be rather easy, in some it
might take some work.

> 1. When I power-up (not often... usually after a thunder storm) MDK comes up
> as user "me" (ie. not root) and in KDE. No login, no password. It's nice. Not
> a deal breaker, but can Slack be made to do that? (It would be great if I put
> it on my wife's machine as she can never remember passwords!)

yeah, i know this can be done. google seems to suggest you can do this by
properly configuring kdm or gdm, whichever you use: you'll boot
automatically into KDE or Gnome.

> 2. When I do a Logoff-Shutdown in KDE it actually turns off the power. This
> NEVER worked in Windows. Does Slack do this?

well, the kernel can do it, if properly set up. on a stock kernel,
'modprobe apm' may be enough.

> 3. After 10 minutes of no activity a screen saver comes on. After 40 minutes,
> Mandrake goes into "sleep" mode powering down (but not off) the monitor. Will
> Slack do that?

again, it's possible for sure, but i don't know how. (my laptop does this
by itself, regardless of the OS running.)

--
Joost Kremers
since when is vi an editor? a discussion on vi belongs in
comp.tools.unusable or something...

Adams-Blake Co. wrote:

> Been reading this group and learning all about Slack for when I get the
> new machine in a few weeks.
>
> I run Mandrake 8.2. It has a few nice features that I like. Will Slack
> have any of these?

Most anything that Mandrake has can be ported to Slackware, one way or
another. I'm running Mdk-9.0 and Slackware-8.1, so I've had some successes
in this regard.

> 1. When I power-up (not often... usually after a thunder storm) MDK comes
> up as user "me" (ie. not root) and in KDE. No login, no password. It's
> nice. Not a deal breaker, but can Slack be made to do that? (It would be
> great if I put it on my wife's machine as she can never remember
> passwords!)

Sure. Configure your desktop manager of choice (kdm) to boot you directly
to your desktop by default. This is not distro-specific.

> 2. When I do a Logoff-Shutdown in KDE it actually turns off the power.
> This NEVER worked in Windows. Does Slack do this?
>
> 3. After 10 minutes of no activity a screen saver comes on. After 40
> minutes, Mandrake goes into "sleep" mode powering down (but not off) the
> monitor. Will Slack do that?

Automagical Power Management (apm). Look in /boot/config to see what's been
compiled into the kernel or as modules. Or as root, do 'lsmod' and see if
apm is there. The worst thing you'll have to face is a kernel recompile,
and you should know that recompiling your kernel is not at all hard (the
machine does all the work.... <grin>).

> I don't need a lot of whistles and bells.... like a control center. I'm
> able to edit config files... if I know which ones to edit. Are the above
> "nice things" available for the home business Slack user? Or is these
> basically "large commercial distro" features?

Slackware is the original industrial strength distribution of Linux, and
will literally do anything that can be done with Linux. But not
automagically. And editing config files really is the way to go: you can
make back up config files in case a change goes wrong, and you can document
exactly what was done (rather than guess what the distro did).

Recompiling the kernel: You do have to have the kernel tree, usually in
/usr/src. If not, then download it from kernel.org. Unpack it in /usr/src
along with all the other trees that will collect there.. <grin> (You
should first check to see that there isn't a symlink there called 'linux'.
If so, remove the blighter!).

Then go to the new directory and type 'make mrproper'. This cleans the
directory of binaries and temps, and removes any stray config files. Then
type 'make xconfig'. When the config gui comes up (yes, it's a whole lot
easier if it's all right in front of you), import the last config file from
/boot. That gives you a place to start. Study all the configuration
categories and read all the READMEs, and make your changes. When you are
done, save the file to the same filename that you imported and add a
version number to the filename so the old one won't be overwritten. That's
how you document what you do.

(Incidentally, for the really paranoid, one can bulletproof those files by
doing 'chmod 444 /boot/config*', which means that in order to change them
you'll have to change the permissions!! Helps for those who "accidentally"
screw up by overwriting files...)

The rest is easy: type 'make dep && make bzImage && make modules && make
modules_install'. Hit return and retire for refreshments whilst the
computer does the heavy lifting. When it's done, then cd to
../arch/i386/boot and find the new file 'bzImage'. Copy that to a filename
'vmlinuz-2.x.x' and move that to /boot. Symlink an appropriate stub file
to the new image, note that in /grub/menu.lst if you're using grub, or do
'lilo' for lilo (which will then discover what's new in /boot).

Reboot and enjoy.

The hemi-demi-mini-kernel-howto is gratuitous, of course, if you already
know how....

HTH

Bill Tallman (who is not even a candidate for Bozo Apprentice. Yet.)
--
Registered Linux User: #221586
Slackware 8.1: Smooth as silk!!
IceWM and Gkrellm as always...

Joost Kremers wrote:

> well, the kernel can do it, if properly set up. on a stock kernel,
> 'modprobe apm' may be enough.

Just uncommenting /sbin/modprobe apm seemes to work for me.

--
Two Ravens
"...hit the squirrel!"

In <slrnbl7lar.c4.joostkremers@j.kremers4.news.arnhem .chello.nl>, Joost
Kremers wrote:

> Adams-Blake Co. wrote:

>> 3. After 10 minutes of no activity a screen saver comes on. After 40
>> minutes, Mandrake goes into "sleep" mode powering down (but not off)
>> the monitor. Will Slack do that?
>
> again, it's possible for sure, but i don't know how. (my laptop does
> this by itself, regardless of the OS running.)

In gnome and windowmaker just configure xscreensaver to do it, no problem
at all. Bound to be similar in kde (which I don't use at the moment).

For the OP, regarding apm for shutdown(I deleted it by accident): in file
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules uncomment /sbin/modprobe apm, if it is there. If not
(as in my slack 8.1) add this line. Shutdown in my experience always
worked flawlessly, quite in contrast to windows.

Have a nice day
Franz


--
Franz M. Sauerzopf
Atominstitut, TU Wien

Adams-Blake Co. wrote:
> Been reading this group and learning all about Slack for when I get the new
> machine in a few weeks.
>
> I run Mandrake 8.2. It has a few nice features that I like. Will Slack have
> any of these?
>
> 1. When I power-up (not often... usually after a thunder storm) MDK comes up
> as user "me" (ie. not root) and in KDE. No login, no password. It's nice. Not
> a deal breaker, but can Slack be made to do that? (It would be great if I put
> it on my wife's machine as she can never remember passwords!)
>
You'll have to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.4 in order to use kdm instead of gdm.
Just switch the gdm section with the kdm section. The password-less
login can then be set in the "Control Center"|"System Administration"|
"Login Manager"|"Convenience".
>
> 3. After 10 minutes of no activity a screen saver comes on. After 40 minutes,
> Mandrake goes into "sleep" mode powering down (but not off) the monitor. Will
> Slack do that?
>
Still in the "Control Center" go to "Power Control"|"Display Power
Control".
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

Thomas Overgaard <thover@post2.tele.dk> wrote:
> You'll have to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.4 in order to use kdm instead of gdm.

Or just remove the execute (x) bits from the /usr/bin/gdm file.
Then the -x test will fail and rc.4 will fall-back to kdm anyway.
--
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