ok, so I'm going to give this thread about another three days or so. I seemed to have come up with a problem that no one is able to help me with. If I can't find a solution within three days i'll just let this thread die and go back to windows where, while it kinda sucks...it does, however WORK. Thanks everyone for trying.
melee

ok, one last run down for anyone else who might want to take a stab at this problem:
my box at the moment:
AMD Duron 1GHz
256MB RAM
20GHz hdd
CDROM and floppy drives

Iam trying to install Slackware 10.0. All goes well until I get to the installation phase. I set up 3GB root (bootable) and 2GB swap (type 82). I select the default reiserfs type (though I have tried the install with ext2 and ext3 and recieved the same results.) I select to install all packages and I select Full install (though I have tried selecting only packages A and N, and tried newbie install as well.) After it searches for my Slackware CD#1 (and finds it), it begins the install. Almost immediately it flashes an error message,

"There was a fatal error attempting to install /var/log/mount/slackware/a/aaa_elflibs-9.2.0-i486-1.tgz the package may be corrupt, the installation media may be bad or something else has caused the package to be unable to be read without error. You may hit enter to continue if you wish, but if this is an important required package then your installation may not work as-is."

If I hit "OK" (which is the only option it gives me) it continues on, without installing that package. However, before I can blink, it flashes up the same error message, though referencing "/var/log/mount/slackware/a/apmd-3.0.2-i386-1.tgz" instead. And so on and so on. Here are the first five packages that cause the error:

/var/log/mount/slackware/a/aaa_elflibs-9.2.0-i486-1.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/a/apmd-3.0.2-i386-1.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/a/bash-2.05b-i486-3.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/a/bin-9.2.0-i486-2.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/a/coreutils-5.2.1-i486-1.tgz

These are only the first five. I counted over 250 error messages on the first disc alone. When I proceeded to put in the second disc, the errors continued.
I have checked the checksums on the copy of slackware I have and it seems to be correct.
I have made new copies of Disc 1 to see if that was the problem...it wasn't
I have tried mounting the cdrom before setup...no luck
When trying to access the CDROM's contents "by hand", I could not (even though I was logged in as root)

I want to learn to use Slackware, but this has gotten so frustrating.....<clueless>
Thanks for everyone's help so far. please reply if you think you can help. Surely I'm not the only one this has ever happened to.

melee

Alright, I'll take a stab at this. I don't know what the problem is but I'm going to propose a workaround. I had a similar problem trying to install slack from a mounted iso. Since for some stupid reason there seems to be a problem accessing the files on the cd/iso. I suggest you try a harddrive installation. I'll go over the steps as I remember them (someone correct me if I go wrong):

1. Boot into an OS. I would get a stripped-down version of linux, and install that. Otherwise you can load Windows again. It doesn't matter. Remember not to use all the space on your harddrive cause fdisk cannot resize partitions.

2. Once you have an OS loaded, copy all the data on the slackware cds. onto your harddrive. i.e. if you are using windows, copy the everything on the cds into C:\slak-cds

3. Boot the slak cd. Actually I used the boot floppies (I don't have a cd-burner). I don't know how similar the cd install is to the floppy install. If something does not make sense from this point on, its probably cause I used a floppy and you are using the cds.

4. Mount the partition that contains the data you copied from the cds.

5. Use fdisk to create your slack partitions.

6. Run setup.

7. When setup asks where you want to install slack from choose your harddrive. The installer asks for the partition the slack files on and where on the partition they are. If I remember right, you want to give it the location of the 'slackware' folder. i.e. C:\slak-cds\slackware. Just follow the directions.

8. Choose full install.

There you go! This worked for me. If you need help, let me know.

King4lex that's a great idea! If when partitioning a partition was created that later could be used for /home we could use it to hold the files for install. For example this is how I would setup the partitions if it was my machine. 512 swap 1.5G for /home and the rest for / (set bootable of course.) Also I would use a LiveCD of linux to do this install. Something like Slax or Knoppix. I would boot from the CD to a command line. Use fdisk to partition the harddrive. Use mkswap and run swapon so the LiveCD can use the space we just made. Then I would run mke2fs. Copy the files for the install onto the nonbootable linux partition. Then reboot using the install CD or a boot floppy. Make sure you remember the partition number where you put the install files. After you have done a HD install edit /etc/fstab and add an entry to set /home on the nonbootable partition and you are done. Well you will need to delete the install files to free up the room.

King4lex that was a stroke of genius.

edited to protect the innocent.

Joseph_M: What does X have to do with a Slackware install? I thought Slackware installation process was meant to be as simple as a menuconfig?

Well, this is weird since now I have burned my Slackware 10.0 CDs and got no problem installing it...

I'm sorry I had two threads open at the same time. I posted here what I meant to post on the other thread.

Well, that explains the "xdm crash..." :-P

But maybe you could edit you post to explain that you posted wrongly? Just to prevent confusing others... (I was a bit confused at first :-P)

Hey wpyh, I see you are in Beijing. I lived in Beijing for three months. It is my favorite city. Beijing people have very warm hearts. But the air can get a little thick at times. I was there in 1992 and was a student at the language institute. But I was a poor student and didn't go to class.

I can't offer any help I'm sorry to say, but I have experienced the problem outlined in this thread using the "menu" and "expert" install options. It seemed to me that the installer became VERY confused during the install process. Using the mount command on a second console the device /dev/fd2 was mounted as the "/" root partition and as read only. The correct device which should have been selected as "/" was /dev/sda2 (/dev/sda1 being /boot and /dev/sda being swap). This is why the packages were failing to install on my server (Dell Poweredge 1750 / 36Gb SCSI RAID 1). Using the "All packages" option worked fine - though I'm left with numerous packages to install (Sendmail and BIND top of the list - BEGONE YE SCURVY BILGE RATS!!!).


However! On another PC (Mini-ITX Epia 5000 motherboard + not much else) the menu / expert options worked fine.

ok, first, my apologies for not responding more quickly, my cable is down (aftermath of Hurricane Jeanne.)
second - I'm a bit confused. *read as complete and total linux n00b*.
King4lex - If I understand you correctly, what I should do is copy all of my slackware discs onto a hard drive and then install from there. Ok.. no problem. So I hook my other drive up in the PC. Its a 60GB and it is currently running Windows XP /dodges flames
I set this hdd up as the master and the linux drive up as the slave. I start windows xp and copy the discs into d:/slackcds. I reboot with the slack install cd in and try to mount the partition where d:/slackcds resides. Slackware tells me that it doesn't particularly care for me or my stinky NTFS partition. Hmm... I restart Windows XP and create a Fat32 partition hoping that slackware will be a little more kind to me...it isn't. The problem is, if I create a linux partition (either with fdisk, cfdisk, or PartitionMagic), Windows won't see it, so I can't copy the cd's over to a partition that slackware likes. I fully admit that I might be doing something wrong (and this is most likely the case), but like I said, "total linux n00b". So far my only experience with linux is contained in the history of this thread. The part that worries me is...I haven't even gotten to the hard part!
However, King4lex...you have given me new hope. I shall perservere...at least for a while.

Please forgive me if I don't respond to your post very quickly...still waiting on internet access
melee

Well the first problem is you used windows. Now you are bumping up against one of the big reason that widows sucks. It's proprietary file system is one.

You don't need to use windows at all, you already have all you need in the Slackware install CDs. Get the windblows hard drive out of the system and put the 6 gig for linux back in as the master hard drive on the first IDE channel, you don't really need to have it as the master on the first channel but it makes writing this guide a lot easier.

Here is a step by step guide as to how to get your system up.

Step 1: Boot from second Slackware install CD. This is a rescure CD, among other things, that will give you all the tools you need. The first prompt you will see is to pass parameters to the kernel on boot. You need to pass nothing so just press enter.

Step 2: Log in as root. Start fdisk and delete any partitions. Next make a bootable linux partition of 3.5 gig. Make this the first partition, number 1. Don't forget to set the partition type, linux, and set it bootable. Then make a linux partition of 2 gig. And last use the remaining space for a swap partition. Yea yea don't worry 512 meg is more then enough for swap space.

Step 3: At this point we should have three partitions on the hard drive. The first is a bootable linux partition, hda1. The second is a nonbootable linux partition, /hda2. And third a swap partition, hda3. At this point I would suggest that you read the man pages for mkswap, swapon and mke2fs. Now lets setup the swap space. Run mkswap /dev/hda3. Remember /dev/hda3 was setup as a swap space. Now we can use swap run swapon. We now have swap space and the running kernel can use it. To setup the second partition run mke2fs /dev/hda2 or if you want to use an ext3 file system run mke2fs -j /dev/hda2. And while we are here we can setup the bootable partition with mke2fs -j /dev/hda1.

Step 4: Ok now we can start to copy the files to the hard drive. We need to mount the CD that is in the CD drive so we need to know what IDE channel it is on. If you know it great if not run:
dmesg | grep ATAPI
This will spitout a few lines and one, or more, will be about your CD. Mine comes up as hdc so I will use that for the example but yours might be different. So create a directory with mkdir /CD. Then run mount /dev/hdc /CD. Remember the /dev/hdc is just an example your system will/might be different. Now we need to make a place to put the files. Run mkdir /home. Then mount it with mount /dev/hda2 /home.

Step 5: Run cp -R /CD/slackware/* /home to copy the files you need from the second install CD to the hard drive.

Step 6: Run umount /CD to umount the CD. Then eject the CD using the button on the drive. Insert the first install CD into the drive. Run mount /dev/hdc /CD then
cp -R /CD/slackware/* /home to copy the files from the first install CD to the hard drive.

Step 7: After all the files have copied over reboot using the first CD, it should still be in the drive.

Step 8: Now you can do a hard drive install from /dev/hda2.

Step 9: After slackware is installed, and before any users are added to the system, you will need to edit /etc/fstab. We want to use the second partition for the /home directory. Add a line to /etc/fstab like this:
/dev/hda2 /home ext3 defaults 1 1
Make sure that you use the correct filesystem type, ext2 or ext3 depending on if you used the -j switch with mke2fs. You can now delete the files in /home and create users.

This should be easy and maybe even a little faster to install because the harddrive is so much faster then the CD. I think the next time I do a slackware install I will use this.

ok, so i tried this and still...no luck. I used the 20 GB hdd instead of the 6 GB because there is actually something wrong with that hdd. I partitioned exactly like you said, followed your instructions exactly and everything went just fine until I got to the install step. It is still doing the same thing as before. I choose Full install and immediately an installpkg error pops up, and another, and another, and so on. <sigh> I tried both the install from a hard drive option and the install from a mounted partition option...same results. One question though, when I choose the install from hard drive option, it asks which device to install from...I type /dev/hda2. Then it asks what directory to install from. I just hit enter. Is this the right selection? If so, I'm afraid its another dead end. Thanks for your tutorial though, I'll use it with a different pc someday..=)
melee

I'm stumped. I wonder if there is a hardware problem. Did you run memtest? If not, or even if you did, please try it.

Gee I must have hit my head, I just had a thought. Did you boot from the CD? If so please make a boot floppy and boot with it, actually you will need two boot floppies read the readme abut boot floppies. Also you will need to copy all of the first CD to the second partition.

Well, if you can't access the /cdrom directory (it's actually a symlink) maybe you can do something like:
chmod 777 /cdrom
This is to give full permission to the directory (pointed to by cdrom). Do this before and after mounting (best to do it twice, since sometimes mount changes the permissions of a directory)

If that does not help either, you can try removing /cdrom (after unmounting the cd) and making a /cdrom directory:
umount /dev/hdd
rm -rf /cdrom
mkdir /cdrom

Then try the steps above (mounting the cdrom, copying the package files from the cdrom, etc.)