Screenfetch (bash screenshot information tool) is a Bash screenshot information tool. It’s a very handy Bash script that can be used to generate nifty terminal theme information with the distribution’s logo in ASCII that I’m sure you’ve seen in screenshots of many Linux users. It automatically detects your distribution and an ASCII version of that distribution and displays some visible logo information on the right.
I will teach you how to install it via SlackBuilds.
But what are Slackbuilds?
Also called SBo’s, Slackbuilds are shell scripts with the function of automating the creation of tgz packages for Slackware, and must be found in the source directory of the program from which the tgz package will be generated.
Installing with Slackbuild
Step 1: Go to www.slackbuilds.org. In the search field type screenfetch, select your version of Slackware and click “Search”. In my case I am using Slackware 15.0, but this version is not yet available to be selected (probably because it is still new), but we can select version 14.2 which I have already tested and works for 15.0. So we arrived at this link.
Step 2: Download the SlackBuild application to a directory of your choice. In my example, /home/patterson/Downloads. After downloading, unzip the downloaded .tar.gz file with the command tar -zxvf screenfetch.tar.gz. You should have a directory tree that looks like this:
- README
- screenfetch.SlackBuild
- screenfetch.info
- slack-desc screenFetch-3.9.1.tar.gzStep 3: Download the source code of the program from the link screenFetch-3.9.1.tar.gz and save it in the same directory where you extracted the content of SBo.
Just as a reminder: the SBo script does not include the program’s source code. The two files must be downloaded separately.
Step 4: As root, give the screenfetch.SlackBuild script execution permission with the command:
# chmod +x screenfetch.SlackBuild
and run it with the command:
# ./screenfetch.Slackbuild
When running the previous command, a file should be generated /tmp/screenfetch-3.9.1-noarch-1_SBo.tgz
Step 5: Enter the /tmp directory and install your new package as root with the command:
# upgradepkg --install-new /tmp/screenfetch-3.9.1-noarch-1_SBo.tgz
And that’s it! You now have a new package. If you want, you can delete the program source and the SBo script to save some space on the HD.
When you want to remove the package, simply enter the /var/log/packages directory and remove the package with the command:
# removepkg screenfetch-3.9.1-noarch-1_SBo.tgz
Conclusion
And that’s it, now you have Screenfetch installed in Slackware.
To test run:
# screenfetch
And you should see an output like the one on the cover of this article.
