More glibc crypt() fixes

Ever since glibc has introduced a new crypt() functions, some applications were broken and this batch of update should fix more packages, thanks to Mancha who has been helping out by testing and adding patches to work on this issues.

At long last, file is now upgraded to 5.14. This is the second attempt on upgrading file package as previous attempt broke other packages as well. Hopefully this time works as intended.

wqy-zenhei-font-ttf font is downgraded due to problems found and no exact solution for this. Let's just hope for upstream heard about this and fixed this problem. For now, downgrading is the best solution so far.

Security Updates: kernel

It's been a long time since Slackware released a security update for kernel packages, but since this update is critical (CVE-2013-2094, a bug that can allow local users to gain a root shell), Pat decided to take actions against it. He has released a new kernel packages available for both Slackware 13.37 and 14.0. Please note that Slackware-Current users are not vulnerable as this patches has been included in Linux Kernel 3.8.11 and we are using Linux Kernel 3.8.13.

Interesting updates comes in -Current as this batch upgraded a lot of things. Here are the highlights:

• Upgraded GTK+ and all related libraries to the latest version
• Upgraded GNOME related libraries to 3.8.x
• aaa_elflibs is upgraded to 14.1 (confirms our next release is 14.1)
• hplip is upgraded to 3.13.5
• Removed kajong as it requires some new dependencies
• Upgraded pcre to 8.32 (this requires a lot of rebuilt of packages)
• Slacktrack is upgraded to 2.14
• Upgraded XFCE related applications to 4.10.1
• Upgraded more X related packages and libraries
• Added several new packages
• itstool (for gucharmap)
• open-cobol
• gnome-themes-standard (for GTK+3)
• harfbuzz (for pango)
• Handle IPv6 forwarding in network-scripts

A lot of people will be happy with these updates as Slackware current already includes most of the updated version available, thus compiling third party packages will be much easier.

As for MATE users, as there has been a change in dconf package, it's better to recompile all packages that are mentioned on CURRENT.TXT on our github repository. Thanks to Patrick for including this on Slackware-Current to ease our work in MATE SlackBuild project.

Security Update: Ruby

Another security update has been released and this time, Ruby package is update to the latest patch 429 to fix a security issue in DL and Fiddle included in Ruby where tainted strings can be used by system calls regardless of the $SAFE level setting. More detailed information can be seen here

Amarok 2.7.1 Released

Amarok is now upgraded to 2.7.1 after the developer has found an unpleasant bug between QtWebkit ↔ GStreamer interaction that made continuous playing almost impossible, due to frequent crashing. There were only 8 commits from the previous 2.7.0 and here are the highlights of this bugfix version:

A modification in handling MusicBrainz ID tags was needed to avoid problems with falsely duplicate tracks.

We fixed a weird behaviour when the "Use Music Location?" question is answered "Yes" on the first run.

We now have worked around the QtWebkit ↔ GStreamer bug that caused frequent crashes on track start; this happened if the Wikipedia applet tried to load a page containing an audio tag.

The database is now also created if the home directory contains non-ASCII characters.

The Nepomuk Collection now also shows track numbers.

Security Update: Firefox and Seamonkey

Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are now upgraded to the latest stable version after they were released yesterday by Mozilla. Firefox is now at 21 which includes several new features which can be seen at their release notes.

Rexima is now joining aumix in the pasture/ directory since it's no longer works with ALSA (only with compatibility module which turns to be disabled by default).

kdelibs is patched to fix crashing when quitting KDE and some apps. Mozilla nss is upgraded to 3.14.3, while mesa is rebuilt using GCC instead of clang.

EFL 1.7.7 and Enlightenment 0.17.3 on SlackHacks

I have pushed updates for EFL 1.7.7 and Enlightenment 0.17.3 which was released few days ago in the developer mailing list onto my SlackHacks repository. Everything works fine here, so i guess it would be safe to upgrade to this version.

I have also upgraded connman to 0.14 and also switched econnman to git version. One note about econnman package is that this package is linked to icu4c-49 library, while Slackware-Current already moved to icu4c-51. So i added an ugly hack to create a symlink to make it work. Let me know if you have a better idea.

Enjoy Enlightenment 0.17.3 and EFL 1.7.7 and please report any problems using my SlackBuilds :)

tcl and samba upgraded

Patrick removed two packages from the main tree: aumix (moved to pasture since only works with OSS or with ALSA compatibility modules, which is disabled by default) and quanta (no longer build with newer version of kdevplatform).

Meanwhile tcl and tin was upgraded to the latest version after being requested on LQ. The same goes with Samba which is now at 4.0.5, taking a big jump from 3.6.8 and ccache with 3.1.9.

Due to this changes, several other packages will need to be rebuilt such as Python, Ruby, pil, pidgin, xchat, expect, hfsutil, and tix.

Kernel Updated to 3.8.13

Patrick is updating the default kernel stock in Slackware-Current to the latest and last stable kernel update for 3.8.x branch as Greg has stated that Linux Kernel 3.8.x is now EOL'ed unless someone is willing to take this branch into a longterm kernel.

Config files for previous long term stable kernel (3.4.45) is also provided in testing along with the latest stable kernel for 3.9.x branch (3.9.2). Users who prefer to use other kernel version rather than 3.8.x can use the config files to build their own kernel package.

Current State of VMWare Workstation and Player

I have mentioned before that you should avoid upgrading to Linux Kernel 3.9 and GCC 4.8.0 if you are using any VMWare products (Workstation or Player) since this combination may break the modules recompilation.

There are 'safe' combination if you want to VMWare Workstation/Player:

• Linux Kernel 3.8.x and GCC 4.8.x
• Linux Kernel 3.9.x and GCC 4.7.x

Since Patrick decided to stick with the first option, i'm fully agree with this option, since it fits with the first option and VMWare Workstation/Player should work on next Slackware release out-of-the-box. No patches needed!! Simply the ideal condition for any users out there :)

Update 1: Luigi Trovato has mentioned that he has successfully built VMWare Workstation 9.0.2 on Linux Kernel 3.9.2 with GCC 4.8.0 and it worked. I'm currently downloading Linux Kernel 3.9.2 and will compile it to try it out. I was using Linux Kernel 3.9.0 and didn't try other version.

Update 2: I have successfully compiled Linux Kernel 3.9.2 and i can confirm that this version does work with VMWare Workstation 9.0.2 and GCC 4.8.0. I didn't see any changes within the vmci source code, but apparently it worked now, so you can use both Linux Kernel 3.8 or 3.9 along with GCC 4.7.3 or 4.8.0 combination.

LibreOffice 4.0.3 for Slackware Users

Eric Hameleers has built the latest LibreOffice 4.0.3 for Slackware users. The package is built for Slackware 14.0, but they are usable for Slackware-Current users as well. For those who are still running Slackware 13.37, you should stick with the 3.6.6 release or upgrade to Slackware 14.0 to enjoy the current version of LibreOffice.

He has also managed to provide updates for steam client and several other packages in his repository. Check the ChangeLog for more information about updated packages.

KDE 4.10.3 on Slackware-Current

Patrick Volkerding has just pushed KDE 4.10.3 for Slackware-Current. Usually Eric did the push on his KTown, but since KDE 4.10.x has been included in Slackware-Current, Pat took the responsibility of building the packages, while Eric may provide updates for Slackware 14.0 users.

Besides KDE 4.10.3, several packages gets rebuilt to add patches such as alsa-lib, clucene, and ncurses.

Enjoy KDE 4.10.3 on Slackware-Current :)

Kernel Upgraded to 3.8.11

The latest stable kernel 3.8.11 has just landed on Slackware-Current along with timezone database update, thus a rebuilt for glibc is needed. Although Linux Kernel 3.9 has been released, Linux Kernel 3.8.x branch is not yet abandoned by Greg and it will be used on the next Slackware release if nothing breaks during development.

The only package outside kernel and glibc is gnuchess which is now at 6.0.3