DOCBOOK: docbook, jade, openjade, dsssl etc. How do I get it to work?

Yes, it is time for another newbie question. Or actually I am not a newbie
at all when it comes to Linux where I am tyring to set up a complete
SGML/XML documentations system but after 2 weeks of trying I am thinking
about giving up. I use Slackware 8 and want to set up the environment to be
able to write some documentation on that system and think I have read every
tutorial that is out there about how to get things up and running but I
still get my two basic problems :

Jade doesn't compile!
Using openjade gives errors when processing a simple test sgml file download
from the net.

So have anyone documented in a step-by-step description how they have set up
their own system please send me a copy...

Regards,

Fredrik Eriksson