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So I ran xorgsetup and now X runs with only occasional lockups. If anyone has any ideas about tracking down problems with X, let me know. My guess is an unstable ATI driver, but I’m not getting any log messages.

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OK, I’ve done it. I’ve started the upgrade from Slackware 10.2.0 to Slackware 12.

I’ve been avoiding this for a while, but my backup hard drives don’t have room for all my work stuff anymore, so I decided I needed a new drive. Ordered up a Seagate ST3500320AS, 500GB and 32MB of cache from New Egg last week.

Slackware 12 installed easily enough on the new drive, but I’ve had a few difficulties. Here is a summary of my status and the problems I’ve had.

Done

• Installed Slackware 12 on new drive
• Configured network connections
• Configured firewall
• Configured Sound

To Do

• Configure CUPS for printer
• Move existing files from current drive (did this once, but I keep having to roll back to my current drive for work)
• Configure SSH server
• Install latest versions of software (Opera, Firefox, anything else I use)
• Configure camera software to download photos
• Configure X to run in 1680×1050

Problems

lilo - When I attempted to install lilo through the slackware setup it just didn’t take. Tried both the root superblock and the mbr, but no success. Finally just went back to a command line from the boot disk, chrooted and ran lilo manually. Works fine now.

X11 - Every time I start X it crashes. It will run for two or three minutes, and then the whole machine will just lockup. I have been running my current configuration with a 2.6.15 kernel for some time without any problems at all. Slackware 12 defaults to the 2.6.21.5 kernel build. It defaults to the generic-smp kernel and my system is running a single core Athlon 64 processor, not sure if it’s that, some incompatibility with the video hardware when running Xorg, or what. I can’t find any error messages in the system log or any kind of record of a kernel panic, so I’m at a loss.

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten for now. I think Slackware is a great distro, but some of these things could definitely be easier. I might go out and see what’s in Slackware current and pull down the latest stuff. Wish Slackware 12.0.1 was available.

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For years, my father has had a dream. He wants to live in a tower.

More specifically, he wants to live in a concrete tower silo. Appearantly, sometime during the middle of the 20th century, farmers could order kits for these concrete silos. Concrete blocks and cables to hold them together would be shipped to your location for a fairly reasonable sum. Today, of course, we have all kinds of ridiculous things like weight limits from UPS and building codes. Building a concrete silo is no longer as trivial as it once was.

My father’s idea is to take one of these old silos and build an internal structure with a staircase and an observation deck at the top. I’m fairly confident that if we had an ocean nearby he’d want a lighthouse too.

The point of all this is, that I’ve found my Dad’s kindred spirit with this water tower conversion in the Netherlands.

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