Went and Did It

Yeah,  I did.

I went and put in an order with Mr. Volkerding, et al, from the Slackware Shop, and had a Slackware DVD (and a copy of the Slackware Linux Essentials book) waiting on me when I got back home.

I'd prepped prior to trying out the install process.  And, thankfully, the install was painless.  Just to test, I installed the 32-bit version of 14.1 on my Thinkpad T400 (Core2Duo at 2.53 Ghz, 3 GB RAM, and a 160 GB HD).  Hardware detection was flawless, and everything was set up perfectly.  (Even the touchpad, which had me a bit worried.)  I installed Network Manager, and it picked up my wireless without a hitch.

Of course, being a drone who watches YouTube far too much, I immediately set about installing Flashplayer.  (I know...)  I ended up going to the SlackBuild route, which was an adventure, but one I wanted to take.  I wanted to get familiar with the system, so...  Luckily for me, smarter souls have left instructions.  Took some minor modifications, but I got it installed.  And I could watch movies.

But I couldn't hear them.

No sound, whatsoever.

OK, let's think this through logically.  The first thing to do is panic, and desperately try to think what the hell I've done wrong?  What didn't install right?  What's wrong with the plugin?  Etc., etc.

Luckily, through the haze of general ignorance came a sudden spark of realization:  Remember all that time playing with Puppy Linux?  Remember having to occasionally monkey with the sound manager?

Took me for freaking ever to remember the name "alsamixer".  Jump into the terminal emulator, fire it up.  A few seconds, and problem solved.

I now have a nice, functional install of Slackware 14.1.  I chose to use XFce, as KDE and I don't always see eye-to-eye.  Everything works, and Good Grief, how much software they jam into this thing!  I am a bit curious about CalligraOffice, which I've not used much.  (The BrainDump program from the Calligra folks looks particularly intriguing.)

And, as a side note, installing Slackware knocked the sense into me to figure out what I did wrong with that copy of Salix 14.1 that I thought I'd botched.  I now have a nice install of Salix on one of the ancient Toshiba's.

So, there's been a bit of an overkill of Linux installations this weekend.  But I'm having fun.

Until the next round...