I recently did a complete reinstall of the latest edition of Slackware and I thought it might be useful to document some of the post install steps I took. This is by no means an exhaustive list of things you should do when you first boot up Slackware, but its a good start.

Add A Non Root User

THe first step you should always take with a new Linux install is create a non root user. To do this in Slackware run this command and follow the instructions.

adduser

Run Slackpkg

Slackpkg is a very powerful utility that allows you to update your installed packages with the most recent version in the slackware release tree. (Packages not included with slackware will not in handled).

Slackpkg now comes as part of the normal slackware install. However if you are running an older distribution or for some reason it is not included you can download it from the Slackpkg website.

To run it we need to complete three steps. Note: You must use the root user to complete these steps.

Step 1: Select a Mirror

As it comes installed no package mirror is selected. To select a mirror we simply edit the mirrors file and uncomment the mirror we wish to use.

vi /etc/slackpkg/mirrors

Step 2: Update Slackpkg

This step simply tells slackpkg to update itself with the most up to date packages from the selected mirror.

slackpkg update

Step 3: Upgrade Packages

This last step tells slackpkg to upgrade all packages in slackware where a newer release has been found on the mirrow.

slackpkg upgrade-all

Once you issue the upgrade command you will be presented with a pre-selected list of packages to upgrade. I simply leave it as is and select ok.

Run XorgSetup

Slackware does not automatically configure xorg when first installed. So this is the first usability issue to be addressed. Simply run the "xorgsetup" command to automatically detact and configure your display and input settings. You may experience issues with your screen resolution not sticking between reboots. This issue is addressed here.

xorgsetup

Disable Composite

If when you try to start kde you may get an error. This more than likely means you need to disable the composite setting. To do this create this file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/disable-composite.conf" and paste the following into it.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection 

Configure MySQL

If you included mysql in your install you need to configure it. This is important to A) make it secure and B) allow the akonadi server to use it. For more information here is my guide on how to configure mysql on slackware.

Fix Error: Akonadi not registered at d-bus

If you try to run kde4 as the root user you will probably get this error. The solution is to add 'user=root' to '/root/.local/share/alonadi/mysql.conf'.

In general though it is not a good idea to use the root user unless you really have to.

Install Flash Plugin In Firefox.

If you use Firefox you will have to install the flash plugin if you want to view flash videos. I have previously detailed this here.

Update Java

While java comes installed on Slackware it is not the most recent version and the plugin is not installed in firefox. The instructions to fix this are located here.

Create a Local Shutdown Script

If you look at your logs you may see an error that rc.local_shutdown is missing. To fix just create a blank copy at '/etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown'. This file is referenced from 'rc.6' the shutdown script.

Lockdown SSH

One of many things you can do to secure your slackware system is lockdown ssh. Instructions for this are located here.