So, I recompiled my kernel, and it, uh didn't work too well. And I realised I should never use the command "make install", I suddenly realised it deletes my old kernel (or at least not the kernel itself, other stuff vital to loading it) and replaces it. Yeah. So as someone suggested, I am going Slackware! (Hopefully it has good packages - only two ISO files look suspicious to me)

But as someone (else) told me, is it correct that Slackware doesn't have an fdisk tool I need to clear out my old Linux partitions? And slackware doesn't have a install from hard disk option? Thus I would need an external kernel whose root partition resides somewhere else, like a floppy?

I think I made one before, but it was more of a boot disk to load the kernel on the disk. The thing is, how can I make such a floppy (perhaps using a ramdisk) with the kernel such I can boot off it, then use whatever I needed. Like a floppy containing fdisk. I would assume after initrd, it would be safe to remove the floppy?

Or maybe not the floppy, maybe from CD. I just need to format my disk partitions! I mean I can't actually log in to Mandrake and format it like that (not to mention my kernel is screwed), can I? Or should I use Windows fdisk?

And I don't feel like running Knoppix either. I would use one of my install CD's, except they don't format the partition until they do the actual install, and one of them (my first one) uses X with the option of a backdrop shell so you can call up games like Penguin Solitaire and Freecell on install (quite useful when waiting), however, uh, they mount the hard disk even during the start so I can't fdisk it from the CD.

But I need a CD with the minimal requirements. And what I need, is to create it, from Windows , since my original Linux system has been messed up.


Help

Slackware has fdisk and cfdisk, you can use either or when installing. You can also use a Slackware disk to boot from in case your kernel is messed up, etc.

Also when compiling a kernel in Slackware, you can safely use the make install command, you just need to do some simple editing to your lilo.conf file before hand and also edit the Makefile before compiling on version 8.1 and later.

Check out the kernel recompiling sticky in the Slackware forum, has good details as to installing/recompiling your kernel in Slackware. Hasn't once failed me yet.

I'm going to kill the person who told me that Slackware doesn't have fdisk...

Most standard distros always include fdisk.

Most likely all you need to do to fix Mandrake is boot off CD#1 using rescue mode. Edit lilo.conf and rerun lilo. I doubt that make install would delete your old kernel.

But trying Slackware is another good choice. The 2 iso's have plenty of programs.