Slint Handbook (version 15.0)

Two installation modes are proposed: Automatic (the installer prepare the drive chosen by the user and install Slint on it) and Manual (The installer format the Linux partition chosen by the user, format it and install Slint on it). The installer includes a documentation.

Slint is accessible to visually impaired users, with speech and braille, from installation to usage in a console as in graphical environments.

A wide assortment of software for servers, desktops, and laptops is installed in all Slint systems, which include two graphical desktop environments: MATE and LXQt, and lightweight window managers. MATE and LXQt provide easy access to all applications and system operations, with auto-mounting of removable devices, plus notifications of available updates of installed software, immediate Internet access, stopping, rebooting, and hibernating the system.

The language chosen will be used for internationalized applications.

The Slint Dashboard centralizes access to hardware and system settings, packages, system tools, documentation and utilities.

Slint ships with many applications out of the box to create, edit, view and convert documents in various formats, communicate by email, text and audio chat, play audio and video, send and receive documents peer to peer, edit audio, video and graphical documents, develop applications. It is fully usable as a server on a console and using one of the several included desktops.

Many applications are accessible to visually impaired users, a wide choice of TTS and associated voices is included, if you still need others they are easily installable, usable both in a textual environment (console) as well as on the desktop.

Several in-house tools ease administration and configuration of your Slint system.

Many more applications are easily built installed as software packages through a simple command or a few clicks. Thousands of software packages are at your fingertips!

Slint users are notified about upgrades of installed packages as soon as available, easily installed upon request. This keeps your system safe.

Default preferred applications settings are provided and can be easily customized.

The Slint installer provides only a complete installation.

Slint follows a "semi-rolling" release model, meaning that during the life cycle of a given version, in addition to updates as security fixes and major bug fixes, some software are selectively updated to bring enhancements, and added to bring new features. This is the case for software contributing to make Slint accessible to the blind, like screen readers.

We recommend that users switch to a new version as soon as possible after its release. We recommend that they do a full backup of all data they want to keep followed by a an installation a new and a restoration of the backup.

The latest version of the Slint distribution is 15.0

The latest installation ISO image is always available in this directory

This ISO image can also be downloaded using a Torrent Client from this page:

The link to the torrent, after the label "Slint Torrents", is:

A magnet is also provided.

The file name of the ISO indicated below is just an example, that you will adapt to the current name when downloading.

If you are running Windows, an Internet search with as argument "check sha256sum windows" will tell you how to proceed.

If you are running Linux you can download the ISO image and its sha256 checksum typing:

To check the integrity of the downloaded files type this command:

The result should be : OK
Else, redo the downloads.

You can use either a DVD or an USB stick as installation media.

In this document 'format' a partition means: create a file system in it to manage the files it will contain.

If after having type 'start' you type 'm' for manual partitioning you will first select the root system partition, which will be mounted as "/", then the type of its file system among: btrfs, ext4, xfs.

The installer lists for selection only partitions of size at least 50G and of Linux (can also be named Linux filesystem), not encrypted. This partition may be formatted or not, but in any case its content will be wiped out and a new file system generated by the installer.

In addition the Manual partitioning mode require on the same drive as the root system partition:

It is better to set up both partitions to allow switching between Legacy and EFI modes if the drive has a partition table of type GPT.

Using for Slint existing partitions or creating them is up to the user. Already installed systems using the BIOS boot and the EFI partitions will not be affected, only the root partition will be (re)formatted, and an existing /home partition only if requested.

The installer includes several partitioning applications: cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk, cgdisk, gdisk, sgdisk, parted. The applications with "g" in their name can handle only gpt, parted can handle DOS partition tables as well as GPT. fdisk, cfdisk and sfdisk can handle DOS partition tables. In addition, wipefs (to erase previous partition table and file system signatures) and partprobe (to inform the kernel of a partition table changes) are available. The blkid and lsblk applications display information about block devices and partitions.

Of course you may also create the partitions form another system before starting the installer.

If need be, setup the firmware of the machine to boot off the DVD or USB stick that you have prepared.

Insert the installation media (DVD or USB stick) and reboot your machine. To help blind users a tune is heard when the boot menu is displayed.

Start the installer just pressing Enter.

The installer will first probe you sounds cards.

This can help setting a working one as default, and also is used for speech during installation used by some blind users.

If the installer finds more than one sound card it will say in English for each:
press Enter to choose this sound board <sound card id>
Press enter as soon as hear that, to confirm that the proposed sound card is working. This setting will be saved in the new system in /etc/asound.conf.

At the next step, when asked you will confirm (typing s) or deny (just pressing Enter) that you want speech during installation. Braille is always available during installation.

You will then choose, confirm or change the language used during installation. Then all screens will be in the chosen language if the translation into this language is complete.

If you need to append additional kernel parameters to the boot command line, before pressing Enter do what follows :

For instance to configure the speakup driver for your hardware synthesizer you could type a kernel parameter like:

You can also include in the boot command line the settings for your Braille device, in this form:

For instance to install with a Papenmeier device connected through USB with a French text table type:

In any case, as there is no timeout, booting will only begin when you press [Enter].

Speech and Braille are available at the beginning of installation.

The installer first probes the existing drives and partitions to assess the possibilities and options of installation and let you choose between an automatic or manual preparation of the partitions used by Slint.

If you choose 'manual' you are presented the Linux partitions where Slint could be installed (size at least 50G), select one of them and choose the type of the file system that the installer will create in it: btrfs, ext4 or xfs as mentioned in Optionally prepare partitions for Slint

If you choose 'auto' you are presented the drives where Slint could be installed (size at least 50G), and the file system will be of type btrfs.

In case of btrfs sub-volumes will created for "/" and "/home" with files compressed, and /swap to host a swap file. 'Copy on write' will ease making snapshots and possibly revert a faulty system update. Tools to manage the snapshots are included in Slint.

In both modes the user chooses which existing Linux and Windows partitions will be automatically mounted after booting Slint, and their mount points names, easing access to exiting systems and data from Slint.

Then the user is proposed to encrypt the root system partition, to prevent data steal in case of loss or theft of the machine or the drive where Slint is installed. If accepted the installer records the passphrase allowing to unlock this partition. The user will when typing it at boot time when requested by GRUB to display the boot menu.

After all that the installer summarizes your choices and let you confirm them or not. Up to this point no modification will have been done to the installed systems and data so you can safely deny, then type start again or just reboot without any harm.

Then auto partitioning is done case occurring, the Slint root partition is encrypted if requested, the root partition is formatted and the first software packages are installed.

If you opted for an encrypted disk you type the passphrase that will be used to unlock the drive at each boot up.

You choose a password for the user "root." This is the system administrator, who has all privileges.

You also set the login name and password of a regular user.

You indicate if you will need accessible Braille output, and whether you want to log in text or graphical mode. If you used the language English (USA) during installation you choose the language to use in the installed system, else the installer sets the same as during installation.

The installer attempts to establish an Internet connection, and if successful proposes a time zone corresponding to your geographical location that you confirm, else select one in a list.

You are asked if you will need Braille, then if you prefer to start in a console or in a graphical unless you used speech during installation or need Braille: then you will land in a console after reboot, for safety.

The installer then creates a swap file. This can take a long time, please be patient.

The packages are installed on the drive. If an Internet connection has been established it downloads and install the most recent version of each package, including those provided since the release of the ISO image.

Installation of all packages takes about 10 to 40 minutes depending on the hardware.

You will be asked to select a desktop (even if you start in a console at first) among fvm, lxqt, mate and wmaker. Other choices will be available after installation typing 'xwmconfig' if you start in a console

Then, the system is configured and the GRUB boot manager installed. Slint can boot in both Legacy and EFI modes. The boot menu will include a "rescue" boot entry to detect and allow any installed OS to be booted.

You can display a preview of the boot menu before rebooting.

Then, remove the installation media and reboot to start your new Slint system.

If you are acquainted with the command line, you may skip this topic.

The main installation menu is displayed below:

As soon as this menu is displayed, you have the hand on the installation process.

You read the screen and type commands in a virtual terminal. The installer includes 4 virtual terminals sharing the same physical keyboard and screen, that can be used in parallel.

The installer starts in the virtual terminal 1 named tty1 but you can switch to another one. For instance you can switch to tty2 by pressing Alt-F2 then Enter to activate it and later go back to tty1 by pressing Alt-F1, without erasing information displayed in both terminals. Alt-F1 means: press and hold the Alt key then press the F1 key.

This can be useful to continue reading the documentation during installation: for instance you can switch to tty2 to begin installation, switch to tty1 to continue reading the documentation, then switch to tty1 again to proceed to the next installation step.

This can also be used to consult the glossary while reading other documents.

The installer has several modes of interaction with you, the user:

In Auto mode the installer proposes to encrypt the root system partition. If you agree, at each boot the GRUB boot loader will ask you the passphrase that you will have typed during installation to unlock the drive, before displaying the boot menu. Be aware that unlocking the drive will take a few seconds (about ten seconds).

Having an encrypted root system prevents the steal of data it contains in case of loss or theft of the machine, or of a removable drive. But this won’t protect you if the computer stays running and unattended, only if the machine has been switched off completely!

During installation the Slint system partition will be encrypted, and also the additional partition that you may request.

A Slint system (or root) partition will the be named: /dev/mapper/cryproot once opened, if it has been encrypted.

This is shown by this command:

Which gives an output like:

This command instead:

gives:

/dev/sda3 is now a "raw" partition that includes the so called "LUKS header" that you will never need nor ever should access directly. It hosts all that is needed to encrypt or decrypt the partition /dev/mapper/cryptroot, which actually hosts your data (in this example the Slint system).

To avoid weak passphrases the installer requires that the passphrase include:

GRUB assumes that "us" keyboard is in use when you type the passphrase. For this reason, if during installation you use an other keyboard map, before asking the passphrase the installer will set the keyboard map to "us", and after having recorded it restore the previously used one. In this case the installer will also spell each typed character of the passphrase, as it may differ from the one written on the key.

The application cryptsetup is used to encrypt the drive. To know more type after installation:

This chapter is intended for users needing a screen reader but not acquainted with Speakup.

Keep numlock off to use Speakup.

The CapsLock key is used like a shift key. For instance "CapsLock 4" means:
hold down the CapsLock key like a shift key and press 4.

Here are the first tasks to perform after installation

In this document, all text after a # character are comments of the suggested commands, not to be typed.

A window is a rectangular area associated with an application. Windows can be moved, re-sized, maximized, restored reduced, closed (terminating the application it handles) using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts.

To allow having a lot of windows opened in an orderly fashion, the graphical environment provide several work spaces and allow to switch between them. Each work space will display the same desktop and panels, but windows can be placed in specific work space or in all of them. This setting is available with a right click on the top edge of the window. Switching to another workspace can be done clicking on its position on the bottom panel of the screen, in the work space changer, as indicated below.

The desktop encompasses the whole screen, on which other components can be be put, in case of Mate and as shipped in Slint a top and a bottom panels, and four icons which from top to bottom allow to open in windows:

Windows of application you start as also put on the desktop.

Mate includes two panels, which presents themselves as slim rectangular horizontal areas, one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen.

Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Tab allow to cycle between the desktop, the top and the bottom panels

Pressing Alt+Tab allows to cycle between the windows on the desktop.

It presents, from left to right:

It presents, from left to right:

We will end this introduction to Slint’s usage by presenting the Slint Control Center. You can display it from the application menu on the top panel or clicking on its icon in the desktop or typing qcontrolcenter in a "Run…​" dialog raised with Alt+F2

The goal of the control panel is to gather applications that are useful for system administration, documentation, and settings in a consistent fashion in all window managers. By clicking on a category in the left menu, you can display the corresponding applications in the right pane. We will present them in table format. This will give us the opportunity to present the administration tools that have a graphical user interface as well.

Most administrative tools should be used with administrative privileges. You will be asked for the root account password in order to launch a tool.

You can type commands in graphical mode as in console mode, if you open a window with a terminal in it. In Mate you can just press Ctrl+Alt+t, or click on the mate-terminal icon on the top panel, or open a "Run…​ " dialog pressing Alt+F2 then typing mate-terminal in the small window that opens.

Most of the information below about the command line and the shell in Console mode also apply to typing commands in a terminal. You can close mate-terminal pressing Alt+F4 as with any other window.

We present here the default key bindings for the Compiz window manager and the Mate desktop, and how to customize them.

root is the conventional name of the "super user" which have all rights to do administrative tasks, including those that could harm or even destroy the system.

You can (but this is not recommended for beginners) log in directly as root. To do this type root as user, then root’s password. To inform you (and warn you about the associated risks and responsibilities), the prompt will look like this:
root@darkstar:s~#
the character # (number sign, also commonly named hash) indicates that the commands will be typed as root (not as regular user), with the associated rights, but also risks and responsibilities.

If you are already logged as regular user, you can "become root" typing:
su -
then pressing Enter. In this command, su (which stands for "Super User") is the name of the command, and the character - (hyphen-minus, also named minus) tells that you are opening a "login shell": you will first be asked root’s password, then be directed to its home directory /home/root as if you had logged in as root at startup. This will avoid that you inadvertently write files in your home directory as regular user (/home/didier in the example) which cause issues later.

The regular user registered during installation and other users members of the 'wheel' group can also type commands reserved to root preceding the name of the command by 'sudo' like this for instance:
sudo update-grub

If the start-up up sequence is interrupted, jump into Slint from its installer to try to solve the issue. Insert or plug-in the installation media (USB stick or DVD where you have written the installation ISO) then follow the instructions below.

From Slint you can modify the system to solve the issue. Here are some examples:

Almost all keys listed below are located on the numeric keypad. The Insert or 0 key on the keypad acts like a shift key. For instance, Ins 2 means "hold down the Insert key like a shift key and press 2". Keep numlock off to use Speakup.

Scope: these key bindings can be used with hard synthesizers and with espeakup, and also with speechd-up.

First keys to remember:

Keys used for screen review:

Other keys:

These key bindings (for US keyboard layout) don’t need a numeric keypad. If you have one, use the speakup desktop keys easier to use, especially if you use another keyboard layout than US.

The CapsLock key acts like a Shift key.
For instance, CapsLock 2 means "hold down the CapsLock key like a shift key and press 2".
Keep numlock off to use Speakup.

Scope: these key bindings can be used with hard synthesizers and with espeakup, and also with speechd-up.

First keys to remember:

Key used for screen review:

Other keys:

In Slint software is provided in the form of packages. A package is a bundle of files provided in a compressed archive file, put together to provide all that is needed to run the software. Packages are included in the installation ISO and stored in remote servers from which they can be downloaded and installed. Installing a package means extract the files from the archive file and copy them to some directory of the system.

Installation and removal of software are recorded in a database made of text files in these directories:

The files in /var/lib/pkgtools/packages record information about the packages, mainly their content: the list of files they include and where they are installed.

The main commands to manage the packages are listed below. All of them have associated man pages.

These commands require administrative rights, associated to a specific account named 'root', for which you have specified a password during Slint installation.

To issue a command as 'root', first type su - then enter the password for root and type the command.+ or use sudo.

Commands below can be run from a graphical terminal or in a console, but gslapt that only works in a graphical environment.

The packages shipped in the installation ISO come from the repositories listed in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc

Do yourself a favor: read the comments in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc and /usr/doc/slapt-get-0.10.2t/README.slapgetrc.Slint in the installed system.

After having installed Slint, you’ll be notified of updates of installed packages coming from repositories listed in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc

You can install additional packages using the command slapt-get or the graphical application gslapt, if stored in a repository listed in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc

slapt-get and gslapt provide a search feature that helps you finding packages.

Keep your system safe installing the software updates provided by Slint as soon as they’re available.

All updates are listed in the ChangeLog: http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-15.0/ChangeLog.txt

After Slint installation or any change in the file /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getr run this command once:

To synchronize the local list of available package with that of the repository, this command is automatically run every two hours:

You can also run it manually.

This of course requires that the machine be connected to the internet.

To download and install the upgraded or rebuilt packages run as root the following command:

Alternatively you could also use gslapt, a graphical front-end for slapt-get.

To get new packages listed in the ChangeLog as "Added", type:

or to make sure you have installed all packages shipped in Slint, including those added to the repository after you installed Slint, type:

On the desktops, a small icon is displayed in the notification area of a panel (the top panel in MATE) to notify of available software updates. Just make a left click on it and follow the instructions mentioned there.

Be aware that some packages are blacklisted in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc, i.e. can not be automatically upgraded or installed.

New kernels are provided whenever necessary, either to bring security fixes or enhancements.

Usually no manual intervention from the user is necessary when this happens, but it can be useful to know how the kernel upgrade is done and what to do if something unexpected occurs.

Several packages include files associated with each kernel, namely: kernel-generic, kernel-modules, kernel-source, kernel headers. kernel-source and kernel-headers include files used to build software, only kernel-generic and kernel-modules are needed to run a Slint system.

The package kernel-modules ships files called modules, which are pieces of code that are "plugged in" the kernel to provide a specific feature or handle a specific hardware.

As soon as both a kernel package and the associated kernel-modules package are installed, the script /sbin/wrapupgradepkg builds an initrd associated with this kernel (with modules taken from the package kernel-modules) and installs it alongside the kernel in the /boot directory.

Then previous kernels (not in use at time of upgrade) are removed.

Then the script updates the GRUB configuration file /boot/grub/grub.cfg, read by the OS loader to build the boot menu.

This boot menu will then include at least two boot entries each indicating, to indicating a kernel and its associated initrd to use. From the top:

This provide kind of a "safety net" in case Slint wouldn’t boot with the new kernel: in this case just arrow down once when the boot menu is displayed to start Slint with the previous kernel

You can preview the new boot menu before rebooting, typing as root:

Then an emulated or "fake" boot menu is displayed, with the same layout as the real one which will displayed at next boot.

You can navigate in it with the down and up arrow keys to highlight (put the focus on) a boot entry of which you can display the details pressing 'e'. You can go back to the menu pressing Escape.

To exit from grub-emu press c then type exit and press Enter.

Alternatively you can type as root:

The easiest and recommended way to get additional applications not shipped in Slint is to use slapt-get or its graphical front-end gslapt. This gives you access to all packages in repositories enabled in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc by default in addition to the Slint repository:

If the application you want is not installed and also not available in one of the repositories enabled in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc you could make a package for it, using build material provided by volunteers @ https://slackbuilds.org. To know how-to proceed, read https://slackbuilds.org/howto/ and https://slackbuilds.org/faq/

The packages built this way should be compatible with Slint.

The application slapt-src and its graphical front-end sourcery allows you to build and install packages using the build material provided at https://slackbuilds.org, to be used as root or using sudo.

We will describe slapt-src in more details.

pavucontrol stands for PulseAudio Volume Control and is a graphical application. You can start it from a terminal or application menu, or doing a right click on the sound mixer icon on the top panel of Mate. Actually it allows more settings than just the volume control, take the time to explore all its features.

You can also use volume control applet in the notification area of the panel: a left click allows to adjust the volume, a right click gives access to other settings and allows to start the pavucontrol mixer.

alsamixer is a ncurses application, providing a semi-graphical user interface.

To use it type in a console or in a graphical terminal:

then:

The command is of the form:

For instance to set the main volume to 70% type:

To know more, type one of these commands:

sam allows selection of the sound card to work on when there are more than one such device in your machine.
When there is only one, it directly presents the different mixers for configuration.

All selections, be it sound cards, mixers or a given feature of a specific mixer are selected by scrolling through the available options using the up and down arrows, then entering on the desired one:
q leave the selection list and/or quits.
Shift-q exits the program from anywhere.
F1 Displays any extra information if available.

When the name of the desired option is known, one can instead press its first letter. First-letter navigation is case-insensitive. That will then take you to the first selection starting with the pressed letter. Pressing the same letter again, will move you to the next option starting with that letter if more than one option like that exists. Repeating the letter will cycle among all those options starting with that letter.

The settable features of a mixer can be listed pressing F1.
They are presented as a selection list, showing briefly all relevant information, e.g. "playback volume down from 84 percent" is the option to lower the playback volume setting. As you can see, it also tells you what the current setting is.

These utilities are similar, with commands in this form:

For instance to set the volume to 70% for the default sink type one of these commands:

To know more, type:

Both of these command line applications control a running PulseAudio daemon.

To know more:

Just make the file /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa executable. As root:

At startup, this script will restore the previous sound settings if saved, else will set default volumes and store them, so that they will be restored at next reboot.

If you don’t want that this script to set the default volume type as root:

You can change these default sound levels with alsamixer or amixer then typing as root:

Then at next startup the script will restore them.

To know more: