I am having great difficulty finding a final release
Slackware 9.0 in an .iso file. The following location
has a Slackware-9.0 CD1.iso but it contains the
wrong kernel sources so a recompile or package
installations get screwed up:

ftp://ftp.biochem.uthscsa.edu/pub/li...kware-current/

The last .iso I copied from:

http://128.173.184.249/ISO/slackware-current-nightly/

that was supposed to be the final 9.0 did not contain any
kernel sources (package /k), so is virtually useless.

I'd like to try creating my own .iso using the Win32 version
of 'mkisofs' but trying to download each directory/subdirectory/
file of the 9.0 source tree would take too long and be overly
laborious.

Does anyone know of a tree package gzipped or otherwise
that I could download and decompress into a directory
resembling the install tree, which could be used to create
the .iso?

TIA

Perhaps this will be of use...

http://www.userlocal.com/articles/isohowto.html

Well thanks, I've read it and plan to use it to create the .iso,
but this doesn't help to find a SINGLE compressed file
containing the install tree files.

So far, my understanding of mirrored Linux trees is that they're not compressed. Except for the actual packages within the directories in the tree or if an official ISO is released. So, if you find a compressed, not ISO'ed, directory tree of a Linux release, please share with us. Actually, it would be a good idea to create such a file, tho. Then upload it to the 'net for all to peruse. hmm! Now you got me thinking.

All the the Slack 9.0 install iso images that I have seen have removed the kernel sources because of CD space limitatons. (as well as the kdei set) But it is simple enough to just download the kernel slack package after installing, or download the kernel package along with other packages from the extras directory and burn to a 2nd CD to install from when required.

Also, the info to create a bootable Slack install CD should be in the isolinux directory in the README.TXT file if I recall correctly.

Oh, in regard to the other issue of the actual files. I am not sure but it sounds like the iso image is still the answer. Simply mount the iso image directly using loopback. Example:

mount -t iso9660 -o loop slackware-9.0-install.iso /mnt/cdrom

Of course use the image file and mount point that you desire in the above example.

But once this is done the files can be copied out using the "cp -a" command to a tree where you can work on creating your own custom iso image. In fact the mkisofs program is not restricted to a CD space limitation. You can combine everything, extras, sources and all of it. The mkisofs program would then create about a 2 GByte iso image than can be mounted under loopback or burned to DVD if you desire.

Perhaps it will help.

Excalibur,

Mounting the ISO file like that is one of my favorite ways of installing Slackware at home. My CD Writer acts up every once in a while, so I don't burn ISO file to CDs much.

raypen,

http://www.userlocal.com/articles/isohowto.html

I'll be trying that one out soon.

The space problem is definitely causing the removal of
certain parts of the distribution tree from those mirrors
or other locations that actually create an instsll ISO.

The Slackware mirrors that do this usually exclude the
kernel sources and kde. However the Austrian mirror

http://www.slackware.at/

creates an ISO including both gnome and kde but excluding
the kernel sources. This is the one I ultimately used, since
it was the only one to contain both gnome/kde and actually
detect and setup my network card on install.

Fortunately, it was a simple matter to download the kernel
sources directory and copy it to Linux file system installed
from the ISO burned to a 700MB CD-R and run the install
directly from the k/ directory:

./install-packages

--------------------

I had been using the beta release ISO created nightly from

http://128.173.184.249/ISO/slackware-current-nightly/

They usually included the kernel sources but left off kde.
However, their final release would not detect my network card
so I would have to recompile, which would have required more
time and effort.

Beware of:

ftp://ftp.biochem.uthscsa.edu/pub/li...kware-current/

as their ISO contained sources for the 2.4.18 kernel. Maybe they've
fixed that by now.

As far as the following goes:

mount -t iso9660 -o loop slackware-9.0-install.iso /mnt/cdrom

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but I generally want
to install to a machine that does not have an OS installed.

'mkisofs' is the way to create an ISO no matter what the size but from
a distribution that contains all packages. The key limitation is
the size of the medium which can accept a larger size than a 700MB
CD-R(RW). The answer is, of course, DVD.

However, you still need an install tree with everything included.
If I ever find a compressed one that can be downloaded as a single
file, I'll post it's location.

Final follow up:

Well I bit the bullet and created the install tree on my
Win2K machine and copied the content to each directory
from a mirror. I only copied the necessary recommended
portions of the install tree contents as indicated in

http://www.userlocal.com/articles/isohowto.html.

I then ran 'mkisofs' as recommended and it seemed to
work very well. An ISO file of 645,760KB was created and
contained both gnome and kde (not kdei) and the kernel
sources.

I'm not sure how it will work, once burned to a CD, but I
am curious about a portion of the content in the install
tree. Every package includes 3 files; e.g.

aaa_base-9.0.0-noarch-1.tgz
aaa_base-9.0.0-noarch-1.tgz.asc
aaa_base-9.0.0-noarch-1.txt

Does anyone know what the .asc represents and if this
file is necessary to the proper creation of a bootable CD?

Yes, you might as well get the whole distribution tree. For example:
wget -r ftp.your_choice_of_mirror/pub/.../slackware-9.0 (-r stands as in many cases for recursive).
In the directory slackware9.0/isolinux there is a README.txt file with complete instructions (that is precise command you need to issue) on hwo to make a bootable Slackware-9.0 CD. I excluded gnome and kde/kdei stuff (ended up with something about 530 MB) but probably if you exclude kdei it might fit on a 700 MB CD. After that you can make additional install CD (whatever did not fit on the first one) plus zipslack, extras and two (again one will not be enough) source CDs. If you are interested only in binary stuff i again recommend to read README.txt in isolinux subdir and exclude from download all directories that are preceded by -x switch in the example of mkisofs command.

Please also consider buying the official CD when they are out to support Slackware or become a subscriber (see www.slackware.com for details)