I have a XP installation on a mahcine and I want to install Slackware also.
How do I get fdisk or cfdisk to see the NTFS partion? I don't want to install over it by accident.

What do you mean? Running fdisk or cfdisk will show you the partitions on the disk, NTFS ones included. IIRC, NTFS ones show up as type "HPFS/NTFS" or something like that.

I was trying to see the partition table in cfdisk. It only showed 3809 mb unused which was incorrect. I'm using a 40 gig hard drive. 20 was for windows and I want to use 20 for slackware.

I finallly got it installed except I somehow forgot to add the linux partition to LIlo. I know with Fedora I can boot off the cd and edit grub. Is the process similar with Slackware?

I got it installed. I tried booting slack and I get a
warning: unable to open an initial console.
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernal.

I'm lost. What would cause this?

That message could indicate a lot of things being wrong, can you post about 10 - 15 lines of output above that?

There is nothing negative at that point:

raid5: using function: pIII_sse (2548.700 MB/sec)
md: md driver 0.90.0 Max_MD
md: Autodectection RAID arrays.
md: autorun
md:...autorun DONE.
LVM Version 1.0.8(17/11/2003)
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCp/IP 1.0 for NET 4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table
TCP Hash tables configured
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly
Freeing unused kenrnel meomory: 128k freed



Further up I do see several
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter. eerno =2

I'm wondering if I should have made it boot off the root partion instead of the /boot

Did you manage to get it working?

I'm not sure, but I don't think this is very serious. I also see several lines like this when I boot, but haven't had any problems.

Are you mounting the correct root filesystem? It looks like it's getting to the point where the kernel tries to execute /sbin/init but it is failing. Can you check your bootloader config and check if you have the right root partition specified on the kernel command line.

I'm going to go through the process again. Maybe it will be easier for someone to help me.

on the setup screen I addswap
I click on Target and set up my partitions
/boot
/root
/home
/usr

Install from cd, I use the default settings and choose full install

Use a kernel from CD

This is one of the places I am confused, There are several different kernels. I have no idea which one to use. I don't know if I should use raid.s/bzImage or sata.i/bzImage. I don't have sata at the moment and I don't know if that kernel works woth ATA . I do have on board raid highpoint. I have tried both and get the exact same results.

When I get to the LILO installation (this is where I think my problem is) I have tried a simple install and Expert modes. I don't use a header since I don't know what it is or if I need one.

On the Select Lilo Target Location screen, I have tried Root Install to superblock, and MBR.
I'm using MBR on this install. I add a windows partiton then Linux. This is another place I am lost. If I add /boot I get the message I posted earlier. If I add /root it will go through the boot process and give me a welcome prompt, but I can't type a login name.

There should be an option to use the kernel that you're using currently (i.e. the one you ran with the installer). I can't remember the exact wording.

What do you mean by "header"?

Where are you adding /boot or /root to? In any case, you shouldn't be adding /root anywhere, as that's root's home directory.

The install ask for a header for Lilo when you are adding partions.

How is the OS going to function without a root partition? I was explaining from a fresh install.

The root partition is mounted on / not /root. As Nylex said, /root is root's home directory. / is the root of the filesystem.

Ok I figured out what I was doing wrong. I didn't need a /boot partition. I mounted the / partition and it worked. Another problem was it didn't like the usb mouse. I used a PS2 adapter then it worked fine. Could be an issue with the motherboard. Thanks guys.