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Chapter 1.  Building Slackermedia

Table of Contents

Which Dependencies Should You Install? Structure of Slackermedia Queue Files huge set 'a' Set 'v' Set 'g' Set Coffee Break

Now that everything is installed and configured, it's time to build your Slackermedia studio.

There are a number of small programmes, libraries, and applications that a typical multimedia system, regardless of what you intend to do on it, should have installed, simply because they are so ubiquitous that the major media apps you install probably require them anyway.

These dependencies and libraries are usually small pieces of software that you will not use directly, but that are important for the larger applications to be able to function properly. In some cases, these dependencies are also fully-featured applications in themselves, and are also used by other applications. In any case, they are good to have as a common base from which you can build upon; think of it as the missing “base install” components that you didn't get with stock Slackware.

Determining what your system will need in order to process all the different kinds of media that a multimedia artist typically encounters can be confusing and overwhelming. This is burden is alleviated in this chapter.

Which Dependencies Should You Install?

Slackware is a nice all-purpose distribution, so many of the dependencies, libraries, and backend apps required for a Slackermedia system are already installed by default, and many others can be obtained easily and quickly via slackbuilds.org and other resources outlined in ???.

As such, Slackermedia offers a list of the common multimedia-related libraries that you should install so that time spent manually installing dependencies is minimised. This list of Slackermedia dependencies can be installed manually, or you can pipe it into sport or loaded into sbopkg for automated processing.

Note

This is technically very inefficient, at least in terms of systems design but it's the fastest and easiest way to get a lot of common dependencies installed and out of the way. The theory in the design of the GNU Linux OS is that a user should only need to install what the user actually intends to use, and this is entirely possible because of the extreme modularity of the system.

However, artists rarely only do one kind of art. Even if a musician feels that libraries for graphic art are not necessary, the chances are pretty good that an album cover design eventually is going to be required, and suddenly the musician realises that a few good graphic tools might not be such a bad idea after all. Furthermore, Slackware itself approaches the problem with a monolithic solution; a recommended full install of Slackware inevitably includes software that you will never use, but for the sake of a quick and reliable installation, everything is installed regardless of your plans for your computer.

To sum up: install all the dependencies that Slackermedia recommends and you won't regret it.

Conversely, the Slackermedia dependency list is not literally all-inclusive. You may have to install more than those listed here, depending on what you intend to install for your multimedia work. But if you performed the default, full Slackware install and do a complete Slackermedia dependency install, then most everything you'll need will be ready for you when you need it.

Important

Mind the order in which you install libraries and dependencies; if you attempt to install, for instance, Inkscape before you install libsigc++ then the install will certainly fail since Inkscape depends on libsig++ to compile from source code. The sequence of install is important.

Structure of Slackermedia Queue Files

To use the Slackermedia lists of dependencies and libraries, you may download queue files from slackermedia.info/downloads.

To use the queue file with sport:

$su -

sport install $( < /path/to/slackermedia-huge.sqf )

To use it with sbopkg:

$su -

sbopkg -i /path/to/slackermedia-huge.sqf

Slackermedia originally provided four queue files, dividing installable libraries into groups like av for audio and video producers, vg for video and graphic artists, and so on, plus a huge queue file containing everything from all of those groups. This proved to be confusing and arbitrary, and most people just used the -huge file anyway.

As of 2015, Slackermedia provides three queue files solely in the interest of letting the user opt for a pontentially faster install by excluding some large programmes that are probably only useful within a different discipline.

It is strongly recommended that you just install the slackermedia-huge.sqf file. Chances are that as an artist, you do not only do one artistic thing, so the -huge support will almost certainly be useful either as an artist or simply just as a modern computer user (the added codecs, for example, will impact you every time you attempt to play non-open media types).

Tip

The directory on the Slackermedia server also contains the master file from which the other queue files are generated, as well as the shell script that generates them. You are free to download these resources, but they will not work as a queue file, since they are not queue files.

Download the queue files from http://slackermedia.info/downloads/queues and process with sport or the installer of your choice.

Warning

If you are unable or unwilling to to install the -huge set for whatever reason, but you do wish to combine two queue files, you should prune out duplicate entries. For instance, to combine the audio set with the video set: 

# sport -i $( < sort slackermedia-a.sqf slackermedia-v.sqf ?

uniq )

Of course, by the time you have combined two sets, you are probably only excluding one or two packages from being installed, so it would be easier to do the recommended -huge install.

Sometimes an automated install fails due to the loss of network connectivity, or a source code package having been moved from its known location on the internet, or an md5 checksum failure, or some other error.

Should this happen, you should note what package caused the failure. Attempt a manual install (using the Slackbuild script, but with a manual download of the source code from the location listed in the .info file in the SlackBuild tree. If that install works (it usually does), then you can resume the automated install by skipping all installed packages: 

# for i in $( <
slackermedia-huge.sqf ) ; do if [ ! -e
/var/log/packages/"$i"* ];
then sport install $i "hello" ; fi ; done

Or open the queue file in a text editor and manually delete the entries leading up to and including the failed package.

Do not proceed with more installs without resolving any issue that prevents an install. At best, some of the following installs will fail because they relied upon the package that you skipped. At worst, everything will appear to have succeeded, and then you will experience failures later because the package that got skipped is being requested by some other application during runtime and is not being found.

If something fails to install and you do not know why, post a question about it in the Slackware forums at linuxquestions.org (you may send a private message to user notklaatu if you wish) detailing what happened during your manual attempt to install the SlackBuild. It is vital that you make an attempt to install the SlackBuild manually before asking for help! Slackbuilds.org itself does not support frontends like sport or sbopkg, nor does Slackware; and they shouldn't, because the SlackBuild system is well-designed and mostly flawless. It's usually the assistance of an automated frontend that tempts a user to forego reading how to install something correctly and thereby introduces a problem (or a change in the source code location). An attempt at a manual install will most likely reveal the exact stage at which the install process fails, and that's vital information.

huge set

huge installs all Slackermedia deps and libs, and a few important applications for good measure. Highly recommended.

Without going into specifics due to additions and subtractions and other changes that the list is inevitably subject to, this set contains:

  • GUI frontends like fltk and wxGTK, which are the GUI basis for many other applications.
  • Over 20 freely-available codecs and graphic libraries so that no matter what kind of file a client delivers to you, your system will most likely be able to play [decode] it.

    Many of these codecs support an “everything and the kitchen sink” build of ffmpeg, which is a video and audio encoding and decoding engine, and tends to be important to serious multimedia work.

  • Essential multimedia tools like the system-wide patchbay JACK, some of the most versatile soft synths available, the video effect library frei0r, audio effects plugins, several GIMP plugins, Inkscape (the entire application, which is not included with Slackware), the MediaInfo analytic tool so that you can get specs on video and audio files, and much more.
  • System-level tools and libraries that you may or may not use directly but which will be needed by one or more of the applications that you will, as a multimedia artist, certainly install at some point in the future. This includes XML parsers, libdvdcss for commercial DVD playback, SDL, GNOME components that many GTK multimedia applications need, EXIF tools, ID3 libraries, Cython, and more.

Install this one no matter what your artistic discipline.

'a' Set

Set a installs the Slackermedia dependencies and libraries that primarily relate to audio work, but also those that support ffmpeg, which is primarily a video tool but is also useful for audio conversion.

Warning

If you install the Huge set, then you get everything in this set plus a lot more. It is recommended that you install the Huge set.

Without going into specifics due to additions and subtractions and other changes that the list is inevitably subject to, this set contains:

  • GUI frontends like fltk and wxGTK, which are the GUI basis for many other applications.
  • Over 20 freely-available codecs and graphic libraries so that no matter what kind of file a client delivers to you, your system will most likely be able to play [decode] it.
  • Essential multimedia tools like the system-wide patchbay JACK, some of the most versatile soft synths available, including Zyn, Alsa Modular Synth, AmSynth, and Fluidsynth, audio effects plugin sets such as Steve Harris, CALF, TAP, and Invada, Rakarrack, the MediaInfo analytic tool so that you can get specs on video and audio files, and much more.
  • System-level tools and libraries that you may or may not use directly but which will be needed by one or more of the applications that you will, as a multimedia artist, certainly install at some point in the future. This includes XML parsers, libdvdcss for commercial DVD playback, SDL, GNOME components that many GTK multimedia applications need, EXIF tools, ID3 libraries, Cython, and more.

Do not install this if you have already installed the Huge set, and you should not combine this with another set (if you want to do that, just install Huge.

'v' Set

Set v installs the Slackermedia dependencies and libraries that primarily relate to motion and stop-motion (animated) visual work, including those that support ffmpeg (the most ubiquitous video engine on Linux) but not ffmpeg itself. Since there are so many ways to build ffmpeg, Slackermedia offers a custom-built ffmpeg package that includes nearly all available codecs listed as the ffmpeg config option, which you will install later.

Warning

If you install the Huge set, then you get everything in this set plus a lot more. It is recommended that you install the Huge set.

Without going into specifics due to additions and subtractions and other changes that the list is inevitably subject to, this set contains:

  • GUI frontends like fltk and wxGTK, which are the GUI basis for many other applications.
  • Over 20 freely-available codecs and graphic libraries so that no matter what kind of file a client delivers to you, your system will most likely be able to play [decode] it.
  • Essential multimedia tools like the system-wide patchbay JACK, the frei0r video effect set some basic audio effects, Inkscape and a number of GIMP plugins (meant for titling and animation), the POVray renderer, the MediaInfo analytic tool so that you can get specs on video and audio files, and much more.
  • System-level tools and libraries that you may or may not use directly but which will be needed by one or more of the applications that you will, as a multimedia artist, certainly install at some point in the future. This includes XML parsers, libdvdcss for commercial DVD playback, SDL, GNOME components that many GTK multimedia applications need, EXIF tools, ID3 libraries, Cython, and more.

Do not install this if you have already installed the Huge set, and you should not combine this with another set (if you want to do that, just install Huge.

'g' Set

Set g installs the Slackermedia dependencies and libraries that primarily relate to graphic and non-motion visual work, including those that support ffmpeg (the most ubiquitous video engine on Linux) but not ffmpeg itself. Since there are so many ways to build ffmpeg, Slackermedia offers a custom-built ffmpeg package that includes nearly all available codecs listed as the ffmpeg config option, which you will install later.

Warning

If you install the Huge set, then you get everything in this set plus a lot more. It is recommended that you install the Huge set.

Without going into specifics due to additions and subtractions and other changes that the list is inevitably subject to, this set contains:

  • RAW image tools, including raw-thumbnailer, dcraw, and the luminanceHDR application. It does not install Darktable or DigiKam, but these can be installed later.
  • Over 20 freely-available codecs and graphic libraries so that no matter what kind of file a client delivers to you, your system will most likely be able to play [decode] it.
  • SDL tools, used in video games and other works of art that may involve non-traditional use of graphical elements.
  • System-level tools and libraries that you may or may not use directly but which will be needed by one or more of the applications that you will, as a multimedia artist, certainly install at some point in the future. This includes XML parsers, libdvdcss for commercial DVD playback, the POVray renderer, some GNOME components that many GTK multimedia applications need, EXIF tools, ID3 libraries, Cython, and more.

Do not install this if you have already installed the Huge set, and you should not combine this with another set (if you want to do that, just install Huge.

Coffee Break

A very robust Slackermedia install will involve over 100 packages from slackbuilds.org and more to be built from source. The huge queue file can be downloaded at slackermedia.info/downloads/queues/slackermedia-huge.sqf. This gives you a solid foundation for a wide variety of more discipline-specific applications. Feel free to customise and maintain your own base install list as you see fit; you may not need so many video codecs, or you may opt for a different id3 tag editor, and so on. However, installing the huge set of dependencies and libraries prepares your system quite well for a more discipline-specific set of applications.

The full huge install may take a while, so you may find this to be a good time for a coffee break. Next, we will look at a number of important multimedia components that you can install to get your artwork done, different options you have while installing them, as well as how many of them work together.