SliTaz Forum
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I'm not a total newb, but not so knowledgeable on linux, and very new at trying SliTaz.
I run old machines, mostly, laptops, strapped for memory and slow, but also have a couple bigger, faster machines. I like to test on the old ones so that I end up with efficient setups and then the faster machines can really fly running that same code. MS stuff is just painfully slow no matter what it runs on...
I would like to add my conky with news via rss and weather via the U.S. national weather service text version of current conditions and 7 day forecast. I may just hard code the link to the forecast text itself for my area, perhaps making the airport code a parameter so the code is reusable without needing multi-megabytes of the weather package just to type in a url and get the text back to parse. I got the conky program installed, but didn't find the weather package and I need to investigate what rss package I used to see if its available.
I would like to add xtron (its a little snakes game).
I would like to add a backgammon game.
I would like to add rainlendar2 the lite version. I downloaded a tar.bz2 file, and I know there will be some dependencies, hopefully not insurmountable.
I would actually like to have the progams add themselves to the menu and everything if I can learn how it works. I have worked with Debian and Arch flavored OpenBox distros, as well as with other window managers and their menus, like IceWM and JWM quite a bit, as well as Fluxbox a little, and am used to various menu generation methods, mostly XDG related.
I guess what I really need is a starting point, like a howto for a programmer or someone packaging something for SliTaz. Can someone point me in a good direction, please? I'm not really looking to make work for the devs here, LOL, if I can avoid it.
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Hi Thriftee, take a look here, http://doc.slitaz.org/en:handbook:packages
~(just over half way down the page)
Tazpkg Manual
The Tazpkg Manual contains a lot more useful information.
Actually, I had been on that page before, and had clicked the manual, but because it requires you to save it to a file, and you can't just browse it for whatever reason, I just was lazy and didn't delve in deeper.
Upon actually doing that, it does give the details of the command quite clearly.
I was really hoping for some kind of how to or simple tutorial in text or video if such a thing exists. Perhaps I should look for older ones, as I typically only look for things a year or two old.
I suppose linux or windows programmers have little need for such things.
Thanks for redirecting me. Perhaps searching might still help. So far no luck on even converting a simple game, as the "convert" feature doesn't like the file.
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So far, I was able to get the xtron package from debian.
tazpkg convert xtron-1.1a.orig.tar.gz doesn't work, says file is an invalid format
so then i make a tmp directory, copy the tar.gz to it, then untar it
tar -vxzf xtron-1.1a.orig.tar.gz
that creates a directory xtron-1.1a.orig and extracts the code into it and subdirectories
try to do ./configure but it says not found
then find out i need to install stitaz-toolchain
tazpkg get-install slitaz-toolchain
try to do ./configure but it says not found
than find out i need to install stlitaz-dev-pkgs
tazpkg get-install slitaz-dev-pkgs
it still says not found... hmmmm, the command says literally to execute something named configure in this directory, but there is none. Now i'm stumped. will go look at all text files in the directory.
please don't take it badly... I am more posting this for me to be able to remember what/how to do as i figure it out since I can't seem to find a tutorial or an example.
And if i get it to work, some other newb might find use for it, too
Ok, there is no ./configure
the install file says to do a
make clean
make
i try that, but the compile fails, missing a file called xpm.h. i find out its included in xorg-libXpm-dev in slitaz, so then i try to install it, but it says its already installed, so then i use mc's file find to look for it, and it turns out its in /usr/include/X11. I look at the makefile and see that the INCLUDES= line has a library like it under an I386 subdirectory, so I change the include line and try the makes again, and it compiles, and i test it and it works.
I need to add a parameter to slow it down, somehow as its too fast to play, and LOL, this isn't a super fast machine!
And then I need to figure out how to make a normal package out of it.
At least I made some progress...
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LOL, on second thought, it plays fine. Its just me that's slow...
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Naaaa, it was too fast to play. There was a delay loop in the code, and I made it configurable in the xtronrc file instead of being hard coded. It plays much better. I admit I'm not smart enough to change the playing field size though. Its just too tricky of code for me.
Now I need to figure out how to package it...
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See http://cook.slitaz.org/cooker.cgi?pkg=xtron or http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/rev/8b7008c000eb
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Hi Bellard. Thanks much for that post. Did you *DO* that? If so, many thanks. I am trying to learn how, and can use that to help me learn. I understand a lot of it, but not sure how to go about making a fork or new version, or how to store it easily accessible like that on the web.
For example, I fixed xtron to have a delay loop that is configurable in xtronrc instead of being hard coded in the program. I could make the default the same as the original, or set it for more modern machines, but should I try to make that fix available for others?
Also, there really exists a much better version of the program, based on xtron, called ktron, that is also extinct, lol, but as the k implies, it was part of kde and might be a bear to port. I'm going to have a look at that one, too.
I'm probably not a "good" programmer by your standards, but maybe could help keep the games I enjoy playing alive and working, and maybe not just for myself, but others who might enjoy playing them too...
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Tazpkg converts packages for other distros (like Debian) into a SliTaz package. It however cannot magically complile the source code of a program into a SliTaz package.
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Thanks for the reply. I think my procedure will be to try tazpkg to convert it, and if it objects, then do things by hand. I haven't gotten any to convert yet, but it will be a nice surprise when one does. Most of the stuff is either too old or too complex, maybe.
I got lilyterm running last night, and maybe will try seeing if I can get it ported properly. But I probably should experiment more with it first to see if that's the terminal I really want to run.
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