trying to install Slackware on a P1 computer

hello im very new to linux. Im trying to learn it and everything well i have this old P1 computer that i want to put Slackware on. I can only use floppy right know and i made the 2 install floppys. Know the problem is that after i do both floppys. It ask for disk 3 "VFS: Insert disk #3 and press ENTER" know i didnt know there was a 3rd disk. i do have on cd the slackware. But this computer i dont know y but i cant use the cd-rom so a friend told me to make these boot disk. Bare.i and color.gz and then that would be it he said. But know i have to install a 3rd disk. I have no clue what to do.

Hi Dark_Sniper*,

You need a bootdisk and 2 rootdisks (install.1 and install.2), so it's 3 flloppy. As you said the cdrom drvie is not working, you may need to do a network install and need the network.dsk too.

On another PC - it doesn't matter wether it is Windows or Linux, look at the contents of the Slackware CD. On most Linux installation CD you will find two folders, on the Slackware 10 CD at least, called bootdisks and rootdisks. On earlier releases, and on other distributions, they maybe called boot, the other dosutils.
In the bootdisks folder, you will a numer of files with the extention .i - these are the initial boot disc images. In most cases you can use the one called bare.i. The README.TXT file explains what .i file to use and how to make the discs.
The rootdisks folder contains the disc images of the files you need to start the installation. Again, the README.TXT file in that folder explains all.

Out of interest, why cannot you use the CDROM? Is because it does not allow booting from CDROM (That is, a BIOS option) or it actually does not have a CDROM drive?

If it is the former, then after booting with the bare.i & other discs, you should have access to the CDROM - in fact the installation prompt will ask if you want to install from CDROM.

If you have no CDROM, then you have several other options - one involves you having a network adapter, the other a real big pile of 3.5" floppy discs and a lot of spare time...

i do have a cd-rom and stuff but i have both install disk the bare.i and the color.gz know i know that there is a third one whats the third one i need to make so i can get this baby up and running. And as for the Bios i cant pick a cd-rom drive. It only has for different floppys i have 1.44 on. and its working but whats the third floppy. the only two i have on floppy is the bare.i and color.gz i was told that was it then it would ask for the cd and then it would work.

ok i was looking at something i have 2 slakware cds. and i made only with the first cd the bare.i and color.gz so do i have to make the disks from the 2nd cd and with files. do i have to make into floppys this is so new to me Man!!. oh well i hope you guys can tell me what to do.

I think you are using Slackware 9.0 or 10?

In that case you need to make images of install.1 and install.2, from the README.TXT file, it seems that you no longer use color.gz, even though it is still there.

Still, if you make images of install.1 and install.2 as well as the color.gz disc, then you can't go wrong

Here's the README.TXT file.

yea i have 10.0

did work is there someway that i can just boot from the cd the floppys know arent working.

The floppies don't work now?

How did you make the floppy images? Did you just copy them onto a 3.5" disc, or did you use an image writer such as rawrite?

Also, what is the motherboard of the PC? Is it a custom built PC, or a branded model?
Even a P1 era PC should be able to boot from CDROM.

i used rawrite.exe and its a old p1 socket2 mobo i odnt know what ir is. in the bios it doesnt have a cd-rom as a drive.

OK, lets step through this a bit at a time.

1. You have three floppy discs made from the following files:
bare.i, install.1 and install.2

2. You stick the bare.i disc int he drive and boot the PC.

3. After booting, you get some disc activity, and, IIRC, you get a message something like, "login as root - just hit enter"

4. You hit enter, and then after a few seconds or so you are asked to insert the first installation disc.

5. After a while, maybe seeing various messages on the screen, a row of dots or something, you will be asked for the second installation disc.

6. After you have inserted this disc and hit enter, you end up with a basic "DOS" like menu screen.

At what point does the installtion process fail?

well ill have to get other one of bare.i but when i had it it didnt do it like that after usingn the bare.i it would ask for ram disk so i had put in the color.gz so know i get disk1 and disk2 it will do it like that and stuff. so all i had made the install disk from the slackware install cd i have did i do it right.