Various VIM builds for slackware -current
In the past couple of days I have been staying unusually aware of updates and patches from the VIM project. I have uploaded several packages that have the latest patches of the 7.2 branch. Then for kicks and giggles I pulled down the 7.3a unstable build, but it is nothing released or ready.
One thing in particular, the 7.2.446 build does have --enable-rubyinterp compiled in, for supporting the Ruby interpreter. Someone had sent a link for the lusty-explorer script for VIM. While the prospects of the script look great, I was unable to give it whirl, since the stock VIM in slackware currently does not have the ruby interpreter compiled in.
Enjoy, and feel free to drop me your feedback.
Take care,
vb
Blogs!
Much time spent today surrounding blogs of sorts. Adding new services for friends and customers. Upgrading to the latest wordpress 3.0, and so forth.
I figured it may be a good time to bump this blog of my own. If for now other reason, but to express how nice, simple and easy a LAMP stack is on Linux.
After attempting to play support for a family member's OSX server. The voodoo happening that is running many of the services, is beyond my interest of discoverying why and how Apple is venturing away from being a Unix. It seems they are going the way of Microsoft. Little signs like keeping files like /etc/resolv.conf present, but symlinked off somewhere else. Furthermore, it includes a warning the most processes of the operating system do not use it. How frustrating.
Give me a Linux host.
Take care,
vb
using the new rpm2tgz, with flags!!
In slackware-current as of 2010-02-23, the traditional command used for very basic archive conversion of RPMs into a TAR'd.Gzip'd archive, just got a hint of flare. 
Normal usage is typically for easily converting an RPM that you'd like to review, like a 'src' RPM.
But you may find yourself saying, if I could just quickly/easily install <xyz>.rpm on my system as slackware package, it would make life a bit easier. Well now there are several flags available, to be used AT YOUR OWN RISK 
If you execute rpm2tgz with no arguments, it will output the following
$ rpm2tgz
/usr/bin/rpm2tgz: Converts RPM format to standard GNU tar + GNU zip format.
(view converted packages with "less", install and remove
with "installpkg", "removepkg", "pkgtool", or manually
with "tar")
Usage: /usr/bin/rpm2tgz [OPTION]
(Outputs "file.tgz")
-s extract the install scripts to /usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/
for review.
-S extracts the install scripts to be executed on package installation
(only pre-install and post-install scripts used)
USE WITH CAUTION!
-n name the output package using the rpm's metadata
-r extract what the rpm's "requires" (dependencies)
as documention to /usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/
-d attempt a wellformed slack-desc from the rpm meta data
Everything is pretty straight forward on what it does, but lets have an example. Say you want hulu-desktop, so you download a file called "huludesktop-x86_64.rpm", and with traditional usage of rpm2tgz, you would have a resulting archive named "huludesktop-x86_64.tgz". This is fine if you are not going to install it, but if you do plan on installing this archive, now it does not conform to the naming convention.
With the flags available, you can specify the following command
$ sudo rpm2tgz -srdn huludesktop-x86_64.rpm
and get a resulting package called "huludesktop-0.9.7-x86_64-1.tgz".
All flags are not needed, for every situation, and particular ones should be used with care (-S), which can and may frequently wreak havoc on your system.
Take care,
vb
linux 2.6.32.3 and the Broadcom STA wireless driver
on the recent release of the 2.6.32 series kernel in the slackware-current branch, currently 2.6.32.3, it has posed a bit of a minor frustration on this Dell mini 9" and its broadcom 4312
vbatts@mini:~$ lspci | grep Network
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)appearantly in the kernel headers, the definition of schedule() has moved around a little. Using the drivers downloaded from here (currently version 5.10.91.9.3), if you are getting an error like
vbatts@current:~/bcm1$ make KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd` make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.32.3' LD /home/vbatts/bcm1/built-in.o CC [M] /home/vbatts/bcm1/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o /home/vbatts/bcm1/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c: In function 'wl_free': /home/vbatts/bcm1/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c:705: error: implicit declaration of function 'schedule' make[2]: *** [/home/vbatts/bcm1/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/home/vbatts/bcm1] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.32.3' make: *** [all] Error 2
then the following patch will just add include the needed headers to move you along in compiling your wl.ko module
cat ../hybrid_sta-2.3.32.patch | patch -p1
at which point you should be gravy to proceed as usual.
vbatts@current:~/bcm2$ make KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd` make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.32.3' LD /home/vbatts/bcm2/built-in.o CC [M] /home/vbatts/bcm2/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o CC [M] /home/vbatts/bcm2/src/wl/sys/wl_iw.o CC [M] /home/vbatts/bcm2/src/shared/linux_osl.o LD [M] /home/vbatts/bcm2/wl.o Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 1 modules WARNING: modpost: missing MODULE_LICENSE() in /home/vbatts/bcm2/wl.o see include/linux/module.h for more information CC /home/vbatts/bcm2/wl.mod.o LD [M] /home/vbatts/bcm2/wl.ko make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.32.3' vbatts@current:~/bcm2$ ls Makefile Module.symvers built-in.o lib/ modules.order src/ wl.ko wl.mod.c wl.mod.o wl.o vbatts@current:~/bcm2$ sudo mv wl.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ vbatts@current:~/bcm2$ sudo depmod -a vbatts@current:~/bcm2$ sudo modprobe wl
and do not forget to `unset ARCH` before compiling
Take care,
vb