Hints, Tips, and Tricks

This list is currently in no particular order. It's mostly to help me remember how I did things. If you find it useful please let me know, and I may put more of my secrets here as I remember them.

Google Earth

Problem: Google Earth fonts don't look right, and clicking on interesting squares displays a box with badly rendered fonts and no images.

Solution: This works in Slackware64-13.0, but not quite in 13.1 (fails on libsqlite.so, but solving that Google Earth then doesn't render right).

Assumptions: 32-bit system or 64-bit system with 32-bit multilib support, such as Alien Bob's is installed, and Google Earth is installed to the default location in the current user's directory.

  1. The following libraries run in the place of installed distribution libraries and don't recognize system fonts, so get rid of them so Google Earth will use our system libraries instead:
    cd ~/google-earth
rm libGLU.so.1
rm libQtCore.so.4
rm libQtGui.so.4
rm libQtNetwork.so.4
rm libQtWebKit.so.4
rm libcurl.so.4
  2. The following libraries just don't work right, so replace them with symlinks to our system libraries instead:
    cd ~/google-earth/plugins/imageformats
rm libqgif.so
rm libqjpeg.so
ln -s /usr/lib/qt/plugins/imageformats/libqgif.so libqgif.so
ln -s /usr/lib/qt/plugins/imageformats/libqjpeg.so libqjpeg.so
That's it!

Google Chrome

Problem: Google Chrome doesn't run in Slackware because it's looking for libraries with goofy Ubuntu names.

Solution: This works in Slackware64-13.0 and 13.1.

  1. Chrome doesn't come in the Slackware native format, so you have two choices: use rpm with --nodeps, or convert the rpm to a tgz package then install that. Life will be a little easier if we do the two-step from the directory where the file was downloaded:
    rpm2tgz google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
installpkg google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.tgz
  2. The following libraries needed by Chrome are also used by Firefox. The names are just a little different. Also, Chrome runs from a wrapper script which adds the directory in which it is installed in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, so it's easiest just to copy them there (use your version of firefox here):
    cd /usr/lib64/firefox
cp libnss3.so /opt/google/chrome/libnss3.so.1d
cp libnssutil3.so /opt/google/chrome/libnssutil3.so.1d
cp libsmime3.so /opt/google/chrome/libsmime3.so.1d
cp libssl3.so /opt/google/chrome/libssl3.so.1d
cp libplds4.so /opt/google/chrome/libplds4.so.0d
cp libplc4.so /opt/google/chrome/libplc4.so.0d
cp libnspr4.so /opt/google/chrome/libnspr4.so.0d
  3. The last ugly bit is that since Chrome is built for distributions which have Gnome and Slackware does not, two more libraries will be needed: ORBit and gconf2. There are a lot of different ways to get these. I used the Debian sid packages (your version numbers may vary): 
    ar p libgconf2-4_2.22.0-1_amd64.deb data.tar.gz|tar xzOf - ./usr/lib/libgconf-2.so.4.1.5 > /usr/local/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
ar p liborbit2_2.14.13-0.1_amd64.deb data.tar.gz|tar xzOf - ./usr/lib/libORBit-2.so.0.1.0 > /usr/local/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
    You may need to add /usr/local/lib64 to your /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig. There may be rpms from Fedora or packages from Dropline Gnome that may work as well.
That's it!

Unsupported keyboard keys in X

Problem: A keyboard with all sorts of extra special internet or multimedia keys doesn't work right in X.

Solution: Use setkeycodes to get X and KDE to recognize the keys.

Assumptions: This works for an SK-6200 keyboard, and has not been tested for any others.

  1. For some reason, even if you know the keycode you want generated, setting the keycode during bootup doesn't work, because X has different keycodes than the console. So, we trick the system by giving the console a "reverse-mapped" keycode, that when X sees it, will map that number to the number you actually want. Find the keycode you actually want in the following list, then read the "reverse-mapped" number next to it. We'll use that to set the correct key values. 
    9       1
10      2
11      3
12      4
13      5
14      6
15      7
16      8
17      9
18      10
19      11
20      12
21      13
22      14
23      15
24      16
25      17
26      18
27      19
28      20
29      21
30      22
31      23
32      24
33      25
34      26
35      27
36      28
37      29
38      30
39      31
40      32
41      33
42      34
43      35
44      36
45      37
46      38
47      39
48      40
49      41
50      42
51      43
52      44
53      45
54      46
55      47
56      48
57      49
58      50
59      51
60      52
61      53
62      54
63      55
64      56
65      57
66      58
67      59
68      60
69      61
70      62
71      63
72      64
73      65
74      66
75      67
76      68
76      70
77      69
79      71
80      72
81      73
82      74
83      75
84      76
85      77
86      78
87      79
88      80
89      81
90      82
91      83
93      186
94      86
95      87
96      88
97      102
98      103
99      104
100     105
101     224
102     106
103     107
104     108
105     109
106     110
107     111
108     96
109     97
110     119
111     84
111     99
112     98
113     100
115     125
116     126
117     127
118     213
119     214
120     215
121     216
122     136
123     118
126     95
127     91
128     90
129     171
129     92
130     172
131     94
132     189
133     124
133     129
134     121
134     130
135     131
136     176
137     181
138     182
139     120
140     132
142     233
143     178
144     165
146     152
147     147
148     222
149     195
150     196
151     149
152     168
153     163
154     197
155     198
157     117
158     139
159     148
160     113
161     140
162     164
163     160
164     166
165     205
166     154
167     199
168     200
169     201
170     190
171     202
172     203
173     204
174     114
175     206
176     115
177     167
178     150
179     207
180     208
181     101
182     183
183     184
184     185
184     187
185     210
186     211
187     212
188     137
190     169
191     134
192     135
193     141
194     218
195     219
196     220
197     221
198     144
199     145
200     146
201     151
202     223
203     153
204     161
205     193
207     194
208     170
208     93
209     122
209     174
210     123
210     175
211     89
212     225
213     234
214     227
215     228
216     229
217     230
218     231
219     191
220     177
221     85
222     116
223     142
227     143
228     232
229     217
230     156
231     173
232     128
233     159
234     158
235     157
236     155
237     226
239     112
240     235
241     236
242     237
243     238
244     239
245     138
246     179
247     188
248     133
249     192
251     180
253     162
  2. Use showkey to show the scan codes for the keys we want to assign. The keys which are unassigned will be listed in /var/log/syslog like this: 
    atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xa3 on isa0060/serio0).                                                                                     
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e023 ' to make it known.                                                                                                       
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xa3 on isa0060/serio0).                                                                                    
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e023 ' to make it known.                                                                                                       
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x96 on isa0060/serio0).                                                                                     
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e016 ' to make it known.                                                                                                       
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x96 on isa0060/serio0).                                                                                    
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e016 ' to make it known.                                                                                                       
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x94 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e014 ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x94 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e014 ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x9e on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e01e ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x9e on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e01e ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x92 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e012 ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x92 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e012 ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x97 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e017 ' to make it known.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x97 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e017 ' to make it known.
  3. Set the key values in rc.local or other boot script: 
    # SK6200
# use "reverse-converted" codes so kernel to X translation will give correct codes
# previous 160->163
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e023 160
# volume up 196->150
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e016 196
# volume down 222->148
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e014 222
# WWW 139->158
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e01e 139
# favorites 152->146
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e012 152
# back 149->151
/usr/bin/setkeycodes e017 149
  4. Restart X, and use showkey to verify the results.
That's it!