Finished full slackware install and nothing
 

The laptop just does nothing on the boot. It doesn't say "no image found" or anything. If that's how it loads up, with my computer doing nothing and that stupid ass blinker just sitting around fine. But I've been working on the damn install since at least 4PM.

Specs? The laptop is OLD I don't know the specs, but I don't see how this is a issue. I just followed an FAQ and made a main partion(most of drive) and a swap(128). It's got 32mb of ram a 233 pentium and a 40gb harddrive.

If the first run takes forever. Or if there is some way I can fix it with a boot disk. I'd like to know. Try to keep in mind I'm totally new to linux.

Latest version of slackware, regular install, bootdisk seems to be a piece of crap. It wanted a 1.68 disk to begin with.

Welcome to LQ!

You need an attitude adjustment. Between your Slackware post and your Mandrivia posts you've already demonstrated nothing more than a spoiled brat, make it work for me attitude. This won't get you anywhere but on the ignore list of knowledgable Slackers.

If you're ready to proceed, take a deep breath and read!
http://slackbook.org/html/
http://slackbook.org/html/installati...OFTWARE-SERIES
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

To run the latest version of Slackware with a GUI like KDE is going to require a PC with similar specs to Windows XP's requirements. Alright, that may be overstating it a bit... :) But unless you just want access to the command line, don't expect a lot from those specs.

As far as the problems you're having goes... Did you get any errors when installing the software or when installing the boot loader? The fact that it does nothing suggests to me that your boot loader didn't install.

Yeah. I made a partion, put an OS on it, and that partion was set to bootable. It won't boot though. Obviously, I am asking for something to help me make it work.

Nope. There were no errors. Is there anyway I can attempt to install that bootloader? I would expect the regular error my BIOs gives me when it finds nothing to boot up with.

It's all in your ability to read. Some guys may post stuff to you that is already in the links I gave you to read. I'm not one of them...

Yeah, I read the bleeding garbage and figured out how to reconfig my bootloader from the command line that my install CDROM gave me. Which is totally thanks to the other guy.

Why are you pulling an attitude with members of a forum that give up their time to help others? Don't give grief due to your ignorance of Linux procedures. It's not the install's fault; it's your lack of knowledge about it.

Either chinaman has been irked since my first post here. Or he just searched up an old post because he knew this post alone wasn't enough to bitch about. I'm not pulling an attitude with the guy who actually gave up time to help me, but rather the guy who gave me the auto-reply.

Jbernoski:
Installing a bootloader at the head of a partition doesn't do any good unless there's a bootloader on the MBR of the hard drive that points to it.

What probably happened is that you, the user, chose the default option of installing lilo (the LInux LOader, a bootloader) on your root partition, instead of on your hard drive's MBR. So when your laptop boots up, your BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) searches for a bootable drive (MBR on your hard drive), doesn't find it, and blinks away at you (which seems to be aggravating you).

What you need to do is boot from the slackware rescue CD (disk 2), and install lilo on the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the hard drive. This involves booting from the rescue cd, creating a mount point, mounting your root partition on that mount point, editing your lilo.conf file, and rerunning lilo with the appropirate options to reinstall lilo at the MBR.

It would look something like the following:
If your root partition is not hda1, then adjust accordingly.
You'll want your lilo.conf to have the following entry:
boot = /dev/hda (NOT /dev/hda1)

If you need more detailed instructions they can be provided. However, it's still unclear as to whether your problem is solved or not - More of your attention is going to people's opinion about your attitude than to your actual problem. What I'm saying is for you to post an update on the current status of your problem.

BTW: As far as people responding to your attitude and not your problem. That is because of comments such as:
and
You need to realize that you, as a totally new user to linux, are making harsh criticisms towards linux, particularly slackware linux, which is the favorite linux distro of most users on this forum. What else did you expect?

Thanks. However, I'm now knee deep in dcop and GUIs.
I meant the floppy bootdisk, and the normal blinking cursor(you know the blinking _). I realize that goofy anger toward storage media and digital objects seems very harsh to you, and I apologize.

I like slackware as it's the first distro to actually RUN the installer, furthermore to install on this machine.

I understood the first time.

You know, a lot can be learned by what I posted above. Instead to insist on focusing on the negative and shoveling your ____ here. With that attitude you won't learn very much about linux.

I'll just quote what I previously posted, since you must not have seen it:
So. . .what's the status? Believe it or not I'm actually trying to help you out.

Compared to Windows, Linux requires more RAM and less CPU. If you can't update that RAM to more than 128MB, you won't be able to run a desktop environment such as KDE. You can use a window manager, such as Fluxbox. Perhaps ICEWM might work also, ymmv.

It's going to be slow loading anything GUI with only 32MB RAM. My 5-year old daughter has an old Compaq laptop which now has 96MB RAM after I upgraded it. She's been running it for over a year (using Fluxbox) and it runs Firefox and Thunderbird reasonably well. They load slowly, but then work fine. The only editor we really tried was Abiword, which was okay, but not fast.

Sorry for not being clear. I figured it out the second someone mentioned that the bootloader didn't get installed. So I just read how to do it from a command line and did that.

Now I'm trying to get dcop to run KDE, even though it's likely to run like a slug on this system, I just want proof of concept. Unless the other environments run without that.

I'm messing around with the usernames and that stuff, reading the absolute reams of stuff on this dcop error message. :study:

With that box, you might want to read A Slackware Desktop Enhancement Guide. Darrell has a section titled Optimizing KDE for Older Hardware, but to substantiate what I stated earlier, he says, I hope his entire site will help you to customize your Slackware box so that you can have a great experience with older hardware. Slackware is, after all, famous for just such as that.

Edit: As for usernames, if you haven't done it already, as root issue "adduser <your_name>" and after creating a normal user, logout as root and login as that normal user. Running a Linux box as root is the same as a "screen door on a submarine."

I thought I could use XFCE or something without having to worry.

I did make another user account, but I can't currently run things from it. I don't have the network card for this system currently (which isn't a problem is it?) so I'm not currently worried about security.

Before reading this. Remember I haven't configured anything really. So if there is some sort of device or basic configuration I've missed. I've checked the documentation and I can't find anything specific.

My XFCE error follows:for KDE in a pop-up I get
Could not read network connection list.
/root/.DCOPserver_darkstar__0

when I try to run dcopserver I get
I can't see how to get out of it to get into command line stuff.

EDIT: Okay. I can manage a slew of different error messages by going in as a normal user,but it still seems like it has issues with dcop.

Before someone else comes along, I'll just mention that I don't understand "run dcopserver" at all.

For Slackware, if you're using the default method of starting in runlevel 3, you'll come to a "login:" prompt where you login to the system. This is where you need to login as a normal user. (And yes, even without being on a LAN or WAN, you should use the normal user account, except for needed system administration work. This keeps you from hosing your install, or messing up critical system files.)

After that, you can issue "xwmconfig" and choose your window manager. After you select one and enter OK and it takes you back to a user prompt, you will enter "startx" to start the X server.

With the system you have, I highly recommend you read Darrell Anderson's information I referred you to in my last post ... before going any further. Just give yourself a day or so to get familiar with what is in the Slackware Handbook earlier referenced, and the Slackware Desktop Enhancement Guide, then start configuring it.

I imagine you're anxious to "do something." However, if you do too much now, you'll more than likely hose your system (especially logged in as root) and decide that reinstalling becomes your only option to fix it.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

Fair enough.

I'm getting different errors as a normal user.
Been messing around with xauth, and iceauth with root(i'm supposed to use root for that, right?). I just really don't know exactly what I should do.

do x run on this?

Never found a reason to mess with them here. I'd say don't.

As for this error:
That can be ignored. It's in every /var/log/Xorg.0.log I've ever had.

Where are you getting those other messages?

I think the first is a typo? It should be called "dbus-launch" with the trailing "h" and I have found it in /usr/bin. It came with my installation of Freerock Gnome but is not included in the stock Slackware packages (and should therefore not be essential I guess).

I'm wondering why you have to deal with xauth iceauth and that stuff. I never had to treat the X server as root despite the initial configuration with xorgconfig (and editing the file to get my scroll mouse working). So did you create those files as root or changed unintentionally the permissions of user worm's home folder?

Try to start a simpler window manager, not a desktop environment to check if your X server is configured right. Type "xwmconfig" as user and choose blackbox, fluxbox or something like that from the list but not KDE, Xfce or Gnome. You can change that again the same way easily but can hopefully be sure that the basic X server is running nice.

Did you run xorgsetup or xorgconfig before trying to startx? You may want to read this page: http://slackware.com/config/x.php

Possibly!
for fluxbox I get
mkdir: cannot create directory /home/worm/.fluxbox input/output error

Then it complains that no /.fluxbox exists

I attempted adding the user to 'disk'. But I'm really confused otherwise.

One more question. Why does it call my OS read-only on occassion?

Anyway, well trying to put a password on my root, I locked myself out of it. EDIT: I can fix this part.

Just as I suspected, and mentioned in earlier posts. You've gotten way off the beaten path, and messed up your installation. I'll not offer any new advice at this point, since you weren't willing to follow earlier advice. But you might find yourself reading Post #16.

Links for you...

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/slackware-basics.html
http://humanreadable.nfshost.com/sdeg/
http://slackbook.org/html/

What output do you get from "ls -l /home/worm/" or even "ls -l /home/"? The files and folders should be owned by user "worm" and group "users".
If you screwed it up maybe you can fix it as root with "chown -R worm:users /home/worm/" so that the /home/worm folder and all files and folders below will get the right permissions ...

I think Chinaman is right, you screwed something up. May be that the changes are not soooooo great, but prepare to do a new install and take it as a learning experience.

Chinaman, although I agree with your initial assessment of his attitude, I'll say that it looks like he's definitely improved his approach since the first few posts. I think your last couple of posts were a bit harsh. (You and I have spoken before (irc and here), although not in a while, and I hope you'll see this as just my observation and not a personal dig).

Jbernoski, keep at it. This is what I imagine has happened:

You got slackware installed. The boot loader was installed improperly to the
root instead of to the MBR. You fixed that. Good on you. Now, there is either
a software or hardware problem prompting the 'input/output' error. The likely
hardware problem is a failing hard drive. Linux is typically much more tolerant
than most other OSes, so it's conceivable that you got it installed and partially
functional even with that.

The possible software problem could be one of two things:
1) While fixing the Lilo/mbr issue, you neglected to add an option which prompts
linux to remount the root filesystem / as read-write. When linux first boots, it
is mounted read-only by default, in the event that the machine was taken down by a power outtage, to prevent further corruption and allow an 'fsck' to run and fix it. If you do 'cat /proc/cmdline' you should see something similar to this:

BOOT_IMAGE=slack-2.6.15.4 ro root=302

If that 'ro' bit is missing, this is the problem.

The second possible software issue is that you ran 'useradd' isntead of 'adduser'. The 'useradd' command expects you to set up the user's details (home directory, permissions etc) manually. 'adduser' does this automatically. Checking the permissions as suggested above should fix this.

Since, however, you're getting the 'input/output' error as root, as well, I suspect it is either the failing hard drive scenario, or the 'ro' lilo configuration scenario.

For further help, please post up the output of 'cat /proc/cmdline' and 'mount'.

-- Shade

I just usermod -p'ed when I should have well whatever that other damn password command was. I searched a little on how to fix it and am starting with a fresh install. My HDA's are numbered wrong. I'm sure there's a way to fix it. But if it works, I'll live with it.

I appreciate the links. Erstwhile, someone hit the nail on the head.

On a personal note, do you really think linking to a FAQ on how to ask good questions is anything but trolling? Do you post these replies to people who you believe "don't know their place"? Has this condscending crap helped any of the people you linked it to? I'm not trying to insult you, I just really question your methods.

I'm getting perfectly good help from other members of this forum none of which have taken offense at my post. I just don't understand why you keep posting this non-help stuff.

No. It went from box to laptop. If it was a failure wouldn't uh I don't know. Wouldn't filling the entire part of the harddrive where I'm having errors have prompted an error in itself? I've really thought about this, and I just don't believe it's the harddrive.

This is probably it. Thanks.

On the contrary. That article has been very useful to me. It will not only teach you how to present your problem in a mature, thought-provoking way; it will also teach you how to get help from people who actually know about the software or hardware you're dealing with.

I chose to look at your thread because the title was "Finished full slackware install and nothing." After a few years of full Slackware installs, I wondered how anyone could do so and come up with nothing?

Upon reading your posts, I felt you would benefit from reading "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" as much as I have.

Haha, I provoked a thought!

Anyway, fresh install and now it runs great. And we can print out this post and hang it on our fridges, and all give ourselves gold stars, because WE DESERVE IT!

One question. Will giving a 32mb system a load of swap space create a noticiable improvment in KDE?

KDE won't run on a box with only 32MB RAM.
If you give swap 512MB, it will help, but
swap still isn't as fast as RAM, so it will
be very slow at best.

No. It actually does run. Just a little slow.

It's like running one of those systems that are loaded up with spyware. I haven't tried Mozilla or anything like that of course. Though,it really doesn't run so bad with all the bells and whistles turned off.

Heh. A Windows convert will feel right at home...
Anyway, consider Fluxbox or Xfce to work well. I have a 600 MHz, 32 MB RAM box. With Fluxbox, it works very well; with the others, it... doesn't. I am playing with Wmii at the moment. It is fun...

And if you happened to have another drive, put your swap on it for better performance. Fluxbox will really run well, and there's a thread here with some screenshots. You can dress it up all nice. This box has an AMD 64-bit 2 Ghz CPU, 1 Ghz dual channel 400 MHz RAM, and I still prefer Fluxbox. KDE is just such a resource hog, and resets things in your system without you knowing it. It reminds me of running Windows, where the more you try to do, the more it bogs down your system.

Well, the main reason I didn't give up on slackware is the same reason I want to see if I can get KDE to run on this laptop. I could make a huge swap. But with the slow CD-ROM I don't want to sit through another install.

XFCE is a dream, and I really don't need a whole damn office suite on the run. Though, can anyone explain in short how programs work between the different environments? If I were to unpack open office, can I just run it in any environment, or would there be a minimum environment requirement? I realize I need to read up on all this package garbage, but if someone could give me a snippet I'd appreciate it.

A quick step by step that MIGHT work.

1) Try starting x-windows by typing

X all by itself on the command line.

If you get the bare X desktop with mouse pointer, try moving the mouse pointer around. You can exit by pressing CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE.

2) If 1) doesn't;t work you have to configure x-org and the slackware book will help you with that

3) If 1) worked you can use the wmconfig command to select XFCE as your default desktop and you should be good to go.

Ooops,

I didn't notice that last two pages. Did you use the Slackware scripts to add the user? I have a lot of authourity problems if I add a user by hand in Slack unless I am scrupulous in following the direction. The recommmended scripts works fine. Maybe you should delete you user and add them with the script?

They should work in every environment. Though you need to have KDE-libs installed to run KOffice for example. You don't have to install all KDE packages to work with it, but if you have it shouldn't hurt :)
Openoffice.org doesn't require a special DE or window manager, I can work with it in KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox, IceWM, Xfce ... I guess it requires again some libraries, but these are met with a full Slackware install.

I just ended up with a clean install and everything works. Thanks though.

So, the reason that KDE wallet appears in XFCE but kword does is because ... ?

I'm guessing that each environment fetches the programs from the same place. So I don't know why I can't run the koffice programs in xfce, unless they are written into KDE itself.

yup ... kind of. If you can run something on KDE, you can run it on XFCE, or WindowMaker, or any other window manager you got, it only depends on finding the proper libraries.

I don't use Koffice since OpenOffice.org 2.0 came out, though it might be too heavy for your specs :rolleyes:

Some kde progs need kdeinit to run first. I run the korganizer alarm demon and it doesnt work properly without starting kdeinit beforehand

:confused: I didn't know that one ... well I can't ever stop learning, can I? :p

nice sig, btw :D

I got it here http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~tony/cookies

But it sums up my first vi experience ;)

Well, that sounds like a sequel! The earlier versions are less intensive?

I think the biggest change from OO 1.x to OO 2.0 is the use of the open document format. It's well worth getting if it works on your system since it's the way things are heading (bye bye ms :) )