A week ago I decided to install slack, after downloading and burning the slackware disks, a task itself, I decided to try to install, I figured out that I would not resize my 80gig HD in Linux, so I went into XP and tried to figure it out. After failed attempts with Freeware, and Demo Partition Managers, I tried a copy of partition magic 5.0 that I loaned from someone, only to discover that you can not install Partion magic 5.0 on an XP machine.. or atleast it told me it did not support XP.. and the install quit on me..

Well my only other obtion was the reformat, so I went for it.. after several XP crashes, I got through that and went straight to slack, well I have some failed attempts, but thanks to commen sense, and some help of some guys over here I got that fixed..

Now its time to boot up the first time into slackware.. well I thought that there was a way to go back and forth between desktop enviroments, well I was wrong about that, or so I think.. I mean I installed every desktop enviroment I could.. I also thought in GNOME I could get to KDE apps, I was wrong about that again.. or so I think..

Here I am, with kind of a dissapointed look on my face, and I say okay I need to hit the hay, and get some rest I and I will fool with this some other time, for now I need to boot into fedora and set my XMMS alarm..

Here is when I felt like throwing my computer out the window, I popped my FC1 boot disk in, it started to load and I got a kernal panic INIT

I will get you the rest of that kernal panic when I get home... For now I just want to know..

Is Fedora Gone For Good?

Will I be able to switch Desktop Enviroments on Slackware?

1. as far as switching desktops, in slackware you can use the command xwmconfig to choose the desktop that will be launched when you type startx.
you should be able to use kde apps in gnome, but you might need to know the command for them (i know i have used konsole, konqueror under fluxbox that way)

2. for future referance, i *think* (have not used it personally) that knoppix has a utility that will resize ntfs partitions (and is free, as opposed to partition magic 7/8)

3. with your fedora core install, if it was on the same partition as slack, it is prolly hosed. if it is on a differant partition, you might need to make sure you are pointing your boot disk to the right partition (i had a problem w/ winxp where the partition number changed, so when boot.ini ran it tried to launch windows off my swap partition....)

The best way to run kde apps from gnome or windowmaker is to run kpanel, then you have the menu there so you don't have to know the names of the progs.

XP is a piece of junk anyway.

The easiest way to resize Fat32 / NTFS partitions is through win. Unfortunately once Win is installed it's never a guarantee a third party partitioning app will work and not hose your XP install.

I find it's easiest (although takes longer) to back up what you need from XP and just reinstall it and let the win installer reformat / partition your NTFS.

It's what I did and I found that I wound up going with minimal installation for Win. I have a few apps that "need" windows so I just have it set up for those and gaming until I can get Wine or WineX working.

To switch distros use xwmconfig. It seems to work from inside Gnome but I've had issues trying to change xwmconfig inside KDE when Xserver is running. The easiest way I've found is to log out of Xserver then run xwmconfig.

If you went with the full install of Slack 9.1 you should have Gnome 2.4, KDE 3.1.5, Fluxbox, Blackbox, WindowMaker, and ICE I believe. Using an app like swaret will allow you to update. I updated Gnome by going into gnome and running swaret, then switched to KDE and ran swaret to update KDE to 3.2

IMHO Gnome is still a hair faster than KDE 3.2, and dropline gnome is a bit faster still than Gnome or KDE. Fluxbox is the fastest but also the most minimalistic.

There is another easy way of resizing partitions: Use the Mandrake installer!!

You can use the first Mandrake CD to resize your partitions, including ntfs!! I have found this to be the easiest way for anyone needing to resize a windows partition to make way for a Linux install.

I have the xwmconfig down, seems fairly easy to me.. no back to this fedora core thing, it was one /dev/hdb2, and I don't think I did anything to it...

So I have tried Linux Rescue, it has taked me to a screen it says Your sustem is mounted under the /mnt/sysimage directory..

It gives me a terminal like thing that says sh-2.05b# with a blinking curser after that.. what should I do next?

Is Fedora Gone For good?

Good God... what's wrong with cfdisk as a partitioning tool?

Azmeen? can i know u?

boolim,

I'm always here too help, and will gladly assist should it be within my means.

BTW, what do you mean by know?

Well now I have fedora re-installed, slack running, and my little darkside windows XP going.. they all work, with no problems..

Also nothings wrong with cfdisk, yet I could not get it to resize my partition, so it did not fit my needs..