These SlackBuilds are intended to provide a means for a user to build and install the MATE Desktop Environment on Slackware Linux. Some of the goals of the project are:
- Do not replace any stock Slackware packages unless absolutely necessary (thus far, no packages need to be replaced);
- Keep the upstream default theme and settings;
- Try and minimize outside dependencies as much as possible; and
- Make it easy to build and install by using standard style SlackBuild scripts and slack-desc and doinst.sh files that most Slackware users have become familiar with by using the SlackBuilds repository.
The scripts are hosted in a Github and Gitlab so feel free to test and offer suggestions, improvements, patches, etc. Here are some obligatory screenshots of MATE 1.28 with its default theme and background running on Slackware64-15.0:
FAQ:
- Q: Are there binary packages?
- A: Yes, there are packages for Slackware 15.0 x86 and x86_64 available at: https://slackware.uk/msb. It is still advisable to clone the git repo and build the packages yourself but these packages are available for your convenience.
- Q: Why i don't see MATE 1.22 or newer binary packages for Slackware 14.2?
- A: MATE 1.22 and newer requires newer GTK+3 library that isn't available on Slackware 14.2, so MATE 1.18 is the last release that can be installed on top of Slackware 14.2. See our Supported Releases page.
- Q: How do i manage binary packages automatically?
- A: You can use slackpkg+ to manage binary packages. Please see supported repositories.
- Q: Is it possible to try out MATE in a live session for trial?
- A: Please have a look on AlienBOB's Slackware Live project that includes MATE Desktop.
- Q: Do the scripts build and run on -current?
- A: Yes, master branch will be targeting -current users. Please be sure to read the README.TXT, KNOWN_ISSUES.TXT, and CURRENT.TXT documents as these are updated to note any potential problems or issues.
- Q: So -current is officially supported?
- A: Yes, but with some caveat. Since Slackware -current is a moving target,
there is no guarantee that MATE SlackBuilds will build or work properly
on Slackware -current. Only a full installation of the latest
Slackware release is officially supported.
We do however tried to support -current as much as we can. Please use master branch for testing with -current. - Q: I'm getting weird issues with the panel, menu, icons, or other such things. What's up?
- A: This is rare, but if it happens, check the KNOWN_ISSUES.TXT and other docs. Usually, these kinds of issues occur when there are conflicts with other desktop environments. Backing up and moving certain directories in the user's $HOME (such as $HOME/.cache, $HOME/.config, and $HOME/.local) usually solves these issues.
- Q: How long does it take to build the packages?
- A: All the /deps, /base and /extra packages should not take too much time to build on any reasonably modern machine.
- Q: Who is behind MATE SlackBuilds?
- A: Willy Sudiarto Raharjo and Chess Griffin (Inactive). Please post bug reports at the Github repo or send us an email at mateslackbuilds@gmail.com
- Q: Are there any IRC support for MSB Project?
- A: Yes, we have created #msb channel on Libera network.
- Q: Does this site have a backup?
- A: This site's source code is hosted at GitHub and we also have secondary domain at https://mateslackbuilds.netlify.app/. Thanks to Netlify for providing us with Pro tier.