NVidia drivers are installed, Chrome is up, and I have finally figured out how software installation works. It’s a tad tedious, but overall, the package manager for Slackware will let you install just about anything.
Slackpkg is really just for making sure your system core and bare essentials are up to date- everything else must be installed manually with installpkg, which uses .tgz, txz, etc. Unfortunately, few of these are available in this format. Instead, you must construct them with a .Slackbuild file from here: http://slackbuilds.org/.
Slackware does NOT automatically install dependencies, so be sure to install everything it says to download (some, but not all, can be downloaded as .txz from pkgs.org). Also be sure to download all of the necessary files for the .Slackbuild script (the source, and the .tar.gz under “slackbuild”), then:
ls -l
cd directory_where_everything_is (extract the slackbuild tar, but NOT the source)
chmod +x whatever.Slackbuild
sh whatever.Slackbuild
installpkg whatever.txz
Fortunately, this does not always have to be in such a tedious manner. There are two programs available (deb2tgz, and rpm2tgz) which will build you .tgz from deb or rpm, hence the broader range of potential software I mentioned before.
rpm2tgz: http://pkgs.org/search/?keyword=rpm2tgz
deb2tgz: <will post when I find a stable, working copy>
install, and obviously just
ls -l
rpm2tgz whatever.rpm
installpkg whatever.tgz
Fair warning, you will still need to install dependencies manually, as well as ensure compatibility. The Slackware installer came with the dependencies for chrome, so I was able to grab the 32 bit rpm and run it with zero problem.
Only thing left to fix up is getting a Chrome icon in KDE, which I will be reading up on, and possibly posting about shortly
I wouldn’t recommend converting packages from other distros. It’s a bad habit, kill it quick. These packages were built on very different (often heavily patched) environments so you may experience all sorts of unexpected behavior. I suggest getting more familiar with how Slackware packages, and its package management system work.
There are two recommended options when installing applications not included it Slackware.
#1: compile for source, use makepkg to create the package, then installpkg to install.
more detailed instructions here: http://www.slackwiki.com/Building_A_Package
#2: SlackBuilds.org (as you mentioned) There are tools to some what automate the SlackBuild process, sbotools: http://dawnrazor.net/sbotools/ for example, is actively maintained, takes care of building/installation, updates, removal and also handles requirements.
It can all seem a little daunting at first but you’ll begin to love the simplicity of Slackwares package management system.
It has been interesting to see your progress so far
Yeah, I’ve learned a ton about it since posting that, and I use ports now. Thanks for the heads up though!