Hey, I'm removing Mandrake and installing Slackware Theses are the steps I'm going to take, but if you know of any better ways please tell me.

From MS-DOS prompt: fdisk /mbr
(remove LILO)
Reboot and insert Slackware install disc.
Use fdisk to reformat my hdb drive (windows is on hda, mandrake has 2 partitions on hdb).
Install Slackware to hdb.

Just a few question:

1. Does Slackware automatically install a boot loader? Mandrake installed Lilo and that works fine. I don't really care what boot loader I use (grub, lilo etc).

2. I'd like to use Fluxbox as my WM, does that also come with Slackware installation or do I get that separate.

Thanks.

1. yes, and you can use either one (actually, you have the choice to install the bootloader automatically or manually -- edit: oops, no grub knew there was a reason i use lilo ).
2. i don't think fluxbox comes with slack (on the free cd, at least). it's easy enough to get separately, though, plus then you're getting the most recent version.

tip: when you are making your slack partitions, use cfdisk instead of fdisk. it's a bit more graphical and easier.

1. Yes, Slackware you have the option to install to the MBR, first sector of a hard drive or to a floppy. It will use Lilo, no grub option with Slackware.

2. AFAIK it doesn't come with Flux, but that's just a simple download and install afterwards.

Oh and during the installation and before you type setup to start the install, you'll know when the time comes, but you might want to consider using cfdisk instead of fdisk. Its easier to use in my opinion.

After booting the slack cd, and after typing in your keyboard type and logging in as root just type:

cfdisk /dev/hdb

To partition your drive.

Have fun.

There's a link to a slackware fluxbox.tgz package at the
fluxbox.org website (which is excellent).
It's dead easy to configure, make, checkinstall the tarball too.

Try this in your .xinitrc:
gkrellm -w &
the -w option is "withdrawn mode" so it can go in fluxbox slit.
You get gkrellm on all 4 "workspaces"

I used the full slackware-current-image-9.1 dated 05-SEP-2003 (with KDE and GNOME), but I choosed not to install them (noKDE, noGNOME) during the installation.

And this is found on /usr/X11/xinit/

[root@tx97e:~]$ ls -1 /etc/X11/xinit
README.Xmodmap
xinitrc -> xinitrc.fluxbox
xinitrc.blackbox*
xinitrc.fluxbox*
xinitrc.fvwm2*
xinitrc.fvwm95*
xinitrc.twm
xinitrc.wmaker*
xinitrc.xfce*

Fluxbox is realy slim n good ..

Back to the best way to install Slack:

If u still have free space on yer /dev/hdb, I suggest to multiboot them. During the installation slack-Setup will guide u to config the mounting the partition of windows, linux ..
After installation, slack-setup has a menu on how to configure lilo for multibooting of them. Just accept the basic option should give u a workable /etc/lilo.conf.

I prefer to have another distro on the HD, for comparison of their configuration (sometime it is usefull, sometime it confuse also). But naturaly I surely prefer slack then other distros ..

Thanks I've taken notes of all your replies.

Another question though:

When I ran cfdisk, I got this:

Name Flags Part type FS Type [LABEL] Size (mb)
hda1 Boot Primary Win98 Fat32 (LBA) 800025.75


Why doesn't it show my other hard drive? I tried the up and down arrow keys but all I got was 'No more partitions'.

You didn't read my first response very well, I clearly stated:

cfdisk /dev/hdb

You have to specify the drive your partitioning, if you don't, it will default to the first hard drive.

Regards.

Oh I'm sorry

Don't worry... you are forgiven.



Make sure you report back with any and all problems that went unsolved elsewhere on this forum, but more importantly... report back when you have everything up and running smoothly, without having had the need for any help other than from your own brain.



-zsejk