getting started with slack

booyabazooka · 04-04-2003, 03:10 PM

I'm going to put Slackware on my old PC, having nothing better to do with it. I'm just getting started here, and I'm not sure where to go.

Primarily, it seems I need to choose a boot disk. Any tips here?

I'll be wanting to use a Linksys WMP11 - Instant Wireless PCI Card . I've also got a 100 meg zip drive in there, but I won't be devistated if I can't get that working.

jpbarto · 04-04-2003, 03:24 PM

personal recommendation ... download slackware 8.1 iso and burn it to a cd. quickest and easiest way to do it.

The latest slackware is 9.0 but its been getting mixed reviews. so its your call which you go with.

On second thought... if this is a spare machine, and you have some spare time, and are really looking to learn a lot about Linux... why not give Linux from Scratch a try...
www.linuxfromscratch.org

Mara · 04-04-2003, 03:30 PM

If it's old PC, LFS is not a good idea (too long). As jpbarto, I recommend 8.1 iso (if your machine has cd drive). If not, you probably need bare.i and text.gz (or color.gz).

jpbarto · 04-04-2003, 03:32 PM

that's a good point Mara... what kind of specs are we talkin here when we say 'old pc'?

booyabazooka · 04-04-2003, 03:42 PM

hmmm, it's been a while since I've touched it...

I'd have to say it's in the vicinity of 200 Mhz processor, with ram around 64 mg.

it's a speed demon, I tell ya!

(and yes, there is a cd drive. cd-r, actually.)

Mara · 04-04-2003, 03:49 PM

So Slackware. It'd take forever to have LFS compiled on it (or if you've got a lot of time, you can try it).

booyabazooka · 04-04-2003, 03:52 PM

LFS... maybe later. if I get comfortable enough to run linux on my good pc.

I was hoping to get this working over spring break anyway... (oh, what a loser I am!)

so what's wrong with slack 9?

Dave Skywatcher · 04-04-2003, 04:14 PM

One thing to note: If the BIOS is as old as the CPU, you may not be able to boot to a CD-ROM, even though the system has one. Might be a good idea to check on that before you start. You would (probably) still be able to install from CD, but you would have to use boot/root floppies to start with.

booyabazooka · 04-04-2003, 04:36 PM

yeah, I made a lame attempt to use redhat a long time ago, and I successfully booted from a floppy and intalled from cd.

booyabazooka · 04-04-2003, 06:40 PM

I'm can't make the root disk...
with rawrite12.exe I dumped bare.i, but trying to do the same with color.gz yielded the error:
"controller has failed"
what's the problem here?

edit- nm, problem solved. I'm stupid.