i downloaded slackware 10.1 and there is three files in it
1)slackware-10.1-install-d1 649,158kb
2)slackware-10.1-install-d1.iso 1kb
3)slackware-10.1-install-d1.iso.asc 1kb

ok so far I tried burning all three files on one cd and I got errors that it cannot read... then I tried burning just the main ISO file, that got me to the point of installation, however after I picked a full install(recomended) it said that some file was corrupt or missing. I've used ISORecorder for burning the image at speed 8. I deleted the winxp from hard drive, I partitioned the space for linux, what am I doing wrong?


note I have never installed/used linux before, and I dont want to use any beginner/user friendly linuxs, I want to use slackware.


the PC is compaq presario 5451

At what point in the installation did you get the error message? Did the installation script find the installation cd?
Mike.

i'm guessing that the iso you downloaded was corrupted somehow. i've never done it myself, but you can verify the integrity of any package you download using


md5sum package.tgz



i'm pretty sure you can do this for the iso too...gimme a sec....


yeah, found this page with these instructions:


then there's a list of the md5's for you to compare with.

hope that helps and good luck.

i downloaded http://www.md5summer.org/ file seems ok. this is how far I got with it:

it boots up nice with welcome screen blue slackware like nothings wrong
then it says boot: i just press enter

probing for usb devices

keyboard map I press enter for US default

then I type 'cfdisk' which brought me to a dark screen with partition options, at this screen I set Linux and I tried seting it as a prime and logic, bootable and blank none of them allowed me to write.
so I typed 'setup' which brought me to a blue screen with several options, I picked the 'target source' then it scanned and found linux on a cd, installation started all nice but...


there was a fatal error attempting to install
/var/log/mount/slackware/ap/a2p5-4.13b-i386-2.tgz

the same followed for these

/var/log/mount/slackware/ap/acct-6.3.2-i386-2.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/ap/alsa-utils-1.0.8-i486-1.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/ap/cdrdao-1.1.9-i486-1.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/ap/cdrtools-2.01-1486-1.tgz

/var/log/mount/slackware/ap/enscript-1.6.3-i386i1.tgz



right now the installation is just showing me errors like the above

thanks for replying.

It sounds like your burn failed. Try burning the image again. Maybe slow down the burn speed a little; stuff I intend to keep I burn at 16x or lower on a 52x drive. Otherwise, I'd suspect your cd-rom drive isn't reading 100% correctly; either because of hardware or driver issues.

Also, you are aware that you also need the second install disc to install Slackware, right? You said you only downloaded the first one, and you'll be in for a surprise if that's all you have halfway through the install process.

Yes make sure that you get that second cd before you go through with the instalation. From what I have read it might also be that you are not preparing your HD. Linux requires swap space as well as root space. So when you partition it out, give it a swap primary. Then a root one as well.


You might just want to try download the discs via bit-torrent. I used it and it worked great, and I was able to get all 4 discs no problem (only two are needed to install slackware).


Run through your cfdisk or fdisk operations a little more detailed this time and let me see if I can offer you something.

It looks like your problem is you did not successfully partition your hard disk:

You need to have at least one Linux partition (and preferably one Linux swap partition) before you can install. There should be lots of help available on the 'net. Start by taking a look at this:
http://www.slackware.com/install/partitions.php
Mike.

well, as the previous poster noted, you should make sure you have well-burned copies of both disk 1 and disk 2 before you start.



but it sounds to me like this is where your problem is. before you run setup, you need to have a partition table set up with a minimum of

/swap
/


can you give us a little more information about what happened when you tried cfdisk? also try fdisk, it's not flashy, but it's what i use and it gets the job done nicely. to help us figure out what's wrong please post any errors that you get when trying to set up your partition table, ok?

While your'e downloading that second iso, take a look at this:
http://www.lissot.net/partition/
Mike.

By the way, don't get discouraged. Despite what many people believe, Slackware is very easy to setup and maintain. Partitioning the disk is probably the most difficult part of the installation, and even that is really not so bad if you do a little reading and take it slow.
Mike.

thanks alot guys. I appreciate all of you taking time to help me out.

Iam downloading the second disc right now(torrent) and I'll try burning it at 4 speed, because 8 doesnt seem to work.

one thing I forgot to mention earlier, couple of times when I booted the disk it would still give me the welcome screen,
but after I hit enter it gave me these lines:

loading /kernels/bare. i/bzImage
loading initrd.img
ready.
uncompressing linux...
crc error
--system halted

after that I restarted and then it read the cd






as for partitioning this is how far I got:


I typed 'fdisk' which then gave me the following:

usage: fdisk[-]] [-b SSZ] [-u] device

E.g. : fdisk /dev/hda (for the first IDE disk)

or : fdisk /dev/sdc (for the third SCSI disk)

or : fdisk /dev/eda (for the first PS/2 ESDI drive)

or : fdisk /dev/rd/c0d0 or : fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0 (for RAID devices)



I typed the first one fdisk /dev/hda which then gave me this :

the number of cylinders for the disk is set to 1643.
there is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

than I hit M for help which gave me a list of commands. I hit D to delete anything that was there and then I hit N to make a new
partition, then I hit P to set it as primary partition number 1

first cylinder (1-1643, default 1) I hit enter
last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1643, default 1643) I hit enter



and now its awaiting for my next command which I dont know what to do

For the most basic partitioning scheme, here is what you should do:

I'm going off of memory, so if I forgot something, I apologize. Basically, what this sets up (and what you want to tell it during installation when it asks where you want to mount everything) is three partitions. /dev/hda3 will be your root partition (mounted to / ) ... /dev/hda2 will be your swap space and /dev/hda1 will be mounted to /boot

Hope this gets you started. Enjoy!

If you are getting a crc error there is either something wrong with your hardware or with the disc. Is the disc dirty or scratched? Is it a cheap cdrom drive? If you have never had problems with the drive before this, I would guess it's the disc, clean it and check for scratches. If that does'nt solve your problem, I would try burning a new one (maybe on a different brand of media).
Mike.

check this out... http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/harden...ap=4#doc_chap2
it's from the gentoo setup guide, but it works the same for slack, and it's imho just a perfect explanation on how to setup your discs