slackware help?

i just installed slackware linux 9.1 on my comp and i'm having a few problems, some of them might seem pretty basic, but im kind of a n00b so, here they are:

1.) i can't shutdown-- i got it so that i can sudo and do shutdown, thats not the problem. the problem is: after it executes shutdown, it just sits there... i have to physically press the power button to turn it off. is that harming my computer or is it supposed to be like that? it used to power off by itself when i did a soft shutdown with windows xp and also when i used livelinux cd's like phlak or knoppix STD. so, how can i fix this problem? if it is, in fact a problem

2.) i cant get any sound. i've run alsaconfig and it sees my video board(its an onboard VIA something or other board) and says its ready to play sounds, so i go to alsamixer, and unmute and turn up every setting i can. then i try to play an mp3 with xmms and it shows the little "bar thingies" bouncing in the corner(they're supposed to represent the music visually or something, you know what i mean?) , but i dont hear anything. i can get sound easily with live linux cd's like phlak and knoppix.

3.) alot of things that i want to install or compile say "requires <this version> of <this library>" how do i find out if i have a particular library and what version it is?

4.) i cant make my mouse work with the "rolly thing" i added an option to my xconfig file about it and it doesnt work. i want to be able to roll it to scroll up and down pages and press it to get the little circle with the triangles so i can scroll with that. how do you do that?

5.) can i upgrade to slackware 10 without burning more cds and formatting the hd? i installed slackware 9.1 on my only box with a cd burner and i dont know if i can make cd burning work very easily, plus i'm running low on blank cd's.

1.) if it says power down at the end, the kernel isn't instructed on how to shut down the box (acpi), you might need to recompile the kernel to add that functionality.. When it says power down it is safe to use the power button to do so..

2.) do you have more then one soundcard, if so check if you are using the correct one, some modems also 'pose' as soundcards to alsa..

3.) if there's an (automake) ./configure script for the stuff you are compiling, it is supposed to check for librarys.. same with installing slackpacks with tools like swaret

4.) http://jinx.etv.cx/tut/index.php?url=xconfig.bbc

5.) yes you can.. ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/dist....0/UPGRADE.TXT

for the sound issue, here's what i did:
i have an onboard soundcard, a VIA something brand. i ran alsaconf, it saw the card, i selected the card, it configured it and said it was good to go, then i tried to play an mp3 with xmms and i couldnt hear anything. it appeard to be playing the song, the bar was moving and the time was going and there was that little bar-graph music visualization thing in the corner. i ran alsamixer and turned the sound for everything to unmute/100%(i dont know which particualr volume would matter so i just got em all), tried it again and still no sound. my actual output device is a pair of headphones, if that makes a difference... they have been working well with other computers that i have.

edit
i had already followed a guide like that and added those lines to my xf86config fle and it didnt work. i just did it over using the guide you posted and it still doesnt work. i never realized how dependant i've become on this scrolly wheel thing before i cant handle having to actually click the scrollbar, its too much hastle ;)

You might want to go to the ALSA website and install the latest version. IIRC, the version that came with 9.1 was rather flakey.

You can probably find out first if you have a particular library by typing slocate <lib name>. You could then do a strings <lib name> | grep version to find the version (I do that sometimes to verify which is which). It's possible that you might be missing libraries or need newer versions (Slack 10 is the latest version of that distro). Swaret is an excellent tool, IMO, to keep your Slack up to date and patched. Might want to download that and get it running. :)

a new problem: i was able to fileshare back and forth between my windows comp by using konqueror and going to smb://192.x.x.x/share, but suddenly, when i try to copy a file it hits me with this username and password box. i tried every possible acct/password i made on the windows box and it wouldnt let me in. i didnt change any settings lately on the windows comp either

Hmm, try logging in with Slackware accounts?

Have you made sure the Caps lock wasn't down?

If all else fails, a few members here can tell you I'm a trustable person to give your IP and root password too and I can look at it for you. Me and TheHorse have tag tamed a few problems like this for new Linux users, and we are trusting style people. You can PM me if you want, but I have to get ready for my class tonight, so I won't be home for a little while and when I get home I'll read your problem better and maybe be able to help. Oh, you may also want to go to http://www.slackware.com and read the books they offfer free online and that may help you out as well. IF you haven't solved your ALSA problems, I can look into that for you as well. Alsa mixer is easy to use but some users new to Linux get confused with it, and ti takes time to learn which volumes tot urn up.

I turn up Master and PCM and PCM2 (Only there if your card supports that) and then I have sound. What type fo sound card do you have?

I'll look into this when I get home tonight.

slackware accts didnt work for filesharing either. its really wierd because yesterday i could take files from the windows box with no problem. now i can view them but if i try to take anything i need a password, and i've tried every possible the relevant username/password i can think of and it doesnt work.

as far as alsamixer, i dont see a master volume, i see pcm tho. the card is a VIA Technologies VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller according to alsaconf. thanx for the help

this is also strange, when i try to get on my windows comp's share folder with gnome, it asks for a password too, and it will work if i use the username and password for the slackware acct that im on, but with the kde file browser, it wont accept any password(im sure im typing it right and that capslock is off ;))

No clue for any other questions but I also had the sound card issue.. I have an onboard VIA 8232 or something like that and to be totally honest, after searching Google, asking for help on UnError, SMDC, Freenode, and multiple other IRC servers and having many people suggest many different solutions, including ALSA, updating the kernel, and etc, the best I could do was install VMWare and install Slack as a virtual OS (got sound right away) but I was never able to get that card to work with any distro other than Knoppix and SuSE (which it was totally ****ed up.. it only played sound effects, which it lagged on, but refused to play MP3's or any other media)... so in conclusion, I can't help you, but if you do manage to get it fixed, drop me a PM with what you did.. I'd be quite happy to see it solved..

most discouraging... luckily im ordering a new mobo soon with a different onboard sound card(i needed a mobo with 8x agp for my nvidia card). anybody know whats up with this filesharing password? or why i cant get the mouse scrolling when i add that line to xf86config? i was hoping upgrading to slackware 10 might fix some of the problems, but i downloaded swaret from that link and its a .tgz.tar file and i dunno how to handle that, i was expecting just a plain tgz file that i could install with installpkg

tar -zxvf whatever.tgz.tar
installpkg whatever.tgz

i tried that, it gives me an error message like this:

Code:

---

tar -xvzf swaret.tgz.tar
 
gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

---

still

tar -zxvf swaret.tgz.tar

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

For Swaret, you just rename it to .tgz. I think that's how I did it. I believe that the instructions state that but I'm not sure.

Might I suggest a Sound Blaster Live! card? Only $30.00 and they work like a charm.

Hahaha, so long since I've touched it...

Description: Latest stable release. If the file ends in tgz.tar, rename it to end in .tgz (will fix next release).

From: http://swaret.sourceforge.net/module...download&cid=1

i got swaret installed but i dont really know how to use it... how can i just make it upgrade everything(i've got a fast internet connection so it should be ok) so ill have slackware 10?

also, somebody else said they had the same sound card as me and that it would only work with knoppix but not on a real installation of linux. knoppix uses hotplug to autoconfigure the devices and stuff, is there a way i could use that? it works perfect for me with several knoppix distros so there must be a way to make it work, right?

also, i followed that guide about enabling mouse scrolling to the letter(a bunch of times) and i never got scrolling to work, anybody know whats up with that? i can scroll in knoppix without even putting the cheatcode in for enabling it

RTFM

swaret --update

After it finishes

swaret --upgrade

when i do that it just says "all software packages are updated" and then closes. my /etc/slackware-version file says i still have version 9.1.0.

lol.. yeah.. it should..

you could eddit it.. mine says I'm running slackware current ;)

That file is only used by some programs to identify your distro and version (I know webmin uses it.. there must be more)..

You can manually check windows filesharing by using smbclient from the commandline.
Just "man smbclient" should show you what you need to know about using it.