DeXtop CDE on Slackware HOWTO

This guide will show you how to set up DeXtop CDE on almost any version of Slackware. If you have not installed Slackware yet, do NOT install any X11-related packages. You're going to discard /usr/X11R6 later on, in favor of a tiny-X server (from XFree86 4.6.0) and XiG's X11 environment.

1. Enable portmap.

   # chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.portmap

2. Discard existing X installation.

   # mv /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11R6.bak
   # mkdir /usr/X11R6

3. Download and install tiny-X servers. As shown below, remember to CONFIRM your glibc version and adjust the wget accordingly before download!

   # cd /usr/X11R6
   # ls -l /lib/libc-*
   -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 1340373 2005-09-10 16:05 /lib/libc-2.3.5.so
   # wget ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/4.6.0/binaries/Linux-ix86-glibc23/Xtinyx.tgz
   # gunzip -c Xtinyx.tgz | tar xvf -
   bin/Xchips
   bin/Xfbdev
   bin/Xi810
   bin/Xigs
   bin/Xipaq
   bin/Xmach64
   bin/Xsavage
   bin/Xsis530
   bin/Xtrident
   bin/Xtrio
   bin/Xts300
   bin/Xvesa
   # rm Xtinyx.tgz
   

4. Select a tiny-X server.

   # cd bin
   # ln -s Xvesa X

5. Install DeXtop CDE, selecting either all packages (Full) or do a custom installation and select all packages except non-English/C support files.

   # mount /mnt/cdrom
   # cd /mnt/cdrom
   # ./Install
   # cd
   # umount /mnt/cdrom
   

6. (Optional) Set any required tiny-X options

   # mkdir -p /etc/dt/config
   # cp /usr/dt/config/Xservers /etc/dt/config/
   # vi /etc/dt/config/Xservers

   • Example: ":0 Local local_uid@tty1 root /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0"
   • Becomes: ":0 Local local_uid@tty1 root /usr/X11R6/bin/Xvesa :0 -mode 0x0140" (24-bit 800x600, works with most cards)
7. Reboot!

   # shutdown -r now
   

8. I have noticed a problem where most CDE applications will not start. This is because the "interface" font aliases don't exist. There are several workarounds: use Solaris fontserver, override default fonts in xrdb, set up font aliases.