Slamd64: Slackware Linux for AMD64

One of the main disadvantages of Slackware Linux is the fact that, unlike most other major distributions, its developers have so far ignored any non-x86 platforms, including the increasingly popular AMD64 processor. The good news is that, because Slackware development is completely open and transparent, it is often just a matter of time before an itch is scratched and a new project is born. This is the case of Slamd64, a port of Slackware Linux to the AMD64 processor.

Developed by a UK-based college student named Fred Emmott, the first stable version of Slamd64 was released in June 2005 as version 10.1, following a long series of alpha releases and four release candidates. We installed it on a machine with the following specifications: AMD64 3500+ processor (2.2GHz), K8N Neo2 (Socket939) mainboard from Micro-Star International, 2 GB of DDR SDRAM, 2 x 120 GB Maxtor hard disks, Plextor PX-712A DVD/CD rewritable drive, and NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card. The monitor was a standard 19 inch LCD from Mozo International.

Before booting the installation CD, we noted a few differences between Slackware Linux and Slamd64. Firstly, Slamd64 is an unofficial port without any endorsement from the Slackware project. Unlike Slackware 10.1 and its current branch, both of which still default to the 2.4 kernel series, Slamd64 10.1 comes with kernel 2.6.10.11, inclusive of support for SATA drives. KDE, the distribution's default desktop, is present in the same version as in Slackware 10.1, but more recent KDE 3.4.1 packages are also provided on download mirrors. GNOME is not included, although contributed Freerock GNOME packages, compiled for x86_64, are available from a third-party source. And despite its name, Slamd64 will also work on Intel's EM64T chips.

The installation program differs very little from the one in standard Slackware. The curses-based, menu-driven process has not changed much in years, providing a simple, but well-tested and reliable installer. Why, then, did it suddenly collapse with a segmentation fault, right after setting up the swap partition? A quick trip to the project's online forum provided an answer - this is a known issue that occurs on certain system configurations. Our workaround was simply to skip setting up the swap partition; we added it to /etc/fstab later, once we booted into the newly installed system. Luckily, this was the only bump on the otherwise neat and smooth road.

The first boot took us to a console boot prompt. As is the case with any Slackware installation, a fair amount of manual work awaits a user who intends to set up the system as a graphical workstation - we had to make some changes to the network configuration file, set up xorg.conf and create new users. We also downloaded the most recent version of NVIDIA binary graphics driver, which installed and worked flawlessly at first try. Once done, we were able to launch KDM and login to the KDE desktop.

Compared to other major Linux distributions, Slackware is a lean system. It is slightly on the conservative side, especially when it comes to the selection of packages included with the distribution, often favoring well-established packages over newer and more progressive ones (don't expect to find GRUB or Postfix among the included packages). It goes without saying that Slamd64 is still leaner. There is no OpenOffice.org or Firefox, and besides KDE, the only other available desktop environments are Fluxbox and XFce. Since Slackware 10.1 was released some 5 months ago, most of these packages are now somewhat outdated. Of course, there is nothing wrong with running KDE 3.3.2, but since the distribution maintainers have been kind enough to provide binary packages for KDE 3.4.1, we decided to take advantage of the offer. The installation with pkgtool went without a hitch.

Next, we started looking for some other applications to install. We visited LinuxPackages.net, a web site providing the largest collection of contributed packages for Slackware Linux. To out delight, we found a section listing x86_64 packages, and although it wasn't nearly as well-populated as the i386 section, we were able to locate a few dozens of useful packages, including Audacity, Firefox, Postfix, Snort, and Subversion, just to name a few. Some of the packages already present in Slamd64 were available in newer versions - such was the case with The GIMP and K3b. Many packages were fresh - Firefox 1.0.6 for Slamd64 was released within days after its source code became available upstream. GNOME 2.10.1 was also listed. Although we discovered that the number of Slackware packages for the x86_64 architecture were nowhere near the numbers one might find in third-party repositories for Fedora, Mandriva or SUSE, there clearly is an ongoing effort to build 64-bit Slackware packages and provide them to the community.

Like other major distributions, Slamd64 ships with compatibility libraries for running 32-bit applications. We were able to install and use several 32-bit binary packages, such as OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 or Opera 8.01. According to Fred Emmott, many other 32-bit binary packages will work, although they are not officially supported. As is the case with Fedora or SUSE, the 32-bit libraries are stored in /lib, while the 64-bit ones are placed in /lib64.

Our overall impressions of Slamd64 were positive. Although we came across a minor installation glitch, once the system was installed, we found it blazingly fast. The 32-bit OpenOffice.org Writer and Calc launched in under 3 seconds, while the native 64-bit applications felt still more responsive. Like its parent, Slamd64 is a clean, robust system which is a pleasure to work with. Users who prefer a package manager with a dependency resolution feature can easily install slapt-get, which reportedly works well on Slamd64. We didn't expect to find a large number of third-party 64-bit binary packages for Slackware on the Internet, but were pleased to see a reasonably active developer community making an effort at building some of the more important ones. And although the Slamd64 web site provides little in terms of documentation, it does have a fairly active user forum and mailing list. Frequent updates in the "current" directory are a further testament that the developers of this young project are serious about building a solid Slackware-based distribution for the x86_64 platform

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