Is Slackware dead in 2021?

bassmadrigal · 05-27-2021, 10:33 AM

It might cause breakages elsewhere if programs have a hard requirement for it. I noticed in the changelog that procps-ng was recompiled adding elogind support, however, I don't know if this led to a hard dependency on it. In case you weren't aware, procps-ng contains quite the array of commonly used programs (at least for me). Their gitlab states the following:

free - Report the amount of free and used memory in the system
kill - Send a signal to a process based on PID
pgrep - List processes based on name or other attributes
pkill - Send a signal to a process based on name or other attributes
pmap - Report memory map of a process
ps - Report information of processes
pwdx - Report current directory of a process
skill - Obsolete version of pgrep/pkill
slabtop - Display kernel slab cache information in real time
snice - Renice a process
sysctl - Read or Write kernel parameters at run-time
tload - Graphical representation of system load average
top - Dynamic real-time view of running processes
uptime - Display how long the system has been running
vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics
w - Report logged in users and what they are doing
watch - Execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen

It seems modemmanager and networkmanager have elogind support as well, so they may not function without it installed.

hazel · 05-27-2021, 10:59 AM

elogind is the go-to these days for distros that don't use systemd. So many packages have become dependent on systemd-logind, for which elogind is the drop-in replacement. For example, I noticed in my last LFS build that PAM now needs either systemd or elogind.

corbis_demon · 05-27-2021, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

elogind is the go-to these days for distros that don't use systemd. So many packages have become dependent on systemd-logind, for which elogind is the drop-in replacement. For example, I noticed in my last LFS build that PAM now needs either systemd or elogind.

I completed an LFS build last week, and PAM (ver. 1.5.1) didn't have a dependency on either systemd or elogind. It's the other way around, I think, in that PAM is a recommended dependency for elogind, but not required. polkit can also be built with elogind support, but again, is not required.

GazL · 05-27-2021, 11:31 AM

My CRUX system is also running happily without elogind.

hitest · 05-27-2021, 06:16 PM

I think that this poll has the most Slackware-like results I've ever read. Forty one members have voted that Slackware is undead. Haha.

For the record. Slackware is very much alive.

ttk · 05-27-2021, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

It might cause breakages elsewhere if programs have a hard requirement for it. I noticed in the changelog that procps-ng was recompiled adding elogind support, however, I don't know if this led to a hard dependency on it. In case you weren't aware, procps-ng contains quite the array of commonly used programs (at least for me).

And for me! So I dug around a bit.

The link-time dependency is hard, but if the way procps/proc/readproc.c uses sd_pid_get_session is representative of its elogind dependencies more generally (which warrants further investigation), it's very tolerant of elogind not being available at run-time:

Code:

    if (0 > sd_pid_get_session(p->tid, &p->sd_sess)) {
        p->sd_sess = strdup("-");
        p->sd_seat = strdup("-");
    } else {
        if (0 > sd_session_get_seat(p->sd_sess, &p->sd_seat))
            p->sd_seat = strdup("-");
    }

There, if the request fails, it uses placemarkers for "don't know" instead of bombing out with an error, and that's good.

FungalNet · 05-28-2021, 04:26 PM

seatd works fine with wayland and sway runs like a champ with it.
it is a tiny fraction of code of what elogind weighs.

The same source for seatd also provides a minimalist dm called greetdm that works with wayland

https://github.com/kennylevinsen Kenny Levinsen

If there is a sincere interest there will be a way

tumble · 05-29-2021, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ttk

The link-time dependency is hard, but if the way procps/proc/readproc.c uses sd_pid_get_session is representative of its elogind dependencies more generally (which warrants further investigation), it's very tolerant of elogind not being available at run-time
...
There, if the request fails, it uses placemarkers for "don't know" instead of bombing out with an error, and that's good.

I've confirmed this.

Removing the elogind package from -current prevents /usr/bin/{free,pstree,top} from running.

And if the elogind package is installed but the elogind server is not running, these programs have libelogind.so loaded into their address space while functioning normally.