Installing Zipslack directly to a Linux Partition
 

I love slack 9.1. Very fast and impressive. I'm also comfortable enough to try something I've been very interested in doing. That is...installing zipslack.

Problem:
The only windows partition I'm running is NTFS, and I know it's not a good idea to put slack on that. But even so, I want to install zipslack directly to a linux partition, and build a completely customized slackware for myself. So how would I install it directly, to say, ext3 or reiserfs?

Finally, I know this isn't a Gentoo forum, but does anybody know how the 16mb gentoo ISO works? Is it anything like zipslack, and could I also build a system from scratch using it?

Thanks:study:

here is how I would do (have done) it.

create a fat32 partition big enough to install zipslack on.. around 120 MB last time I did it, check for requirements of recent release.

This partition will be used later after moving zipslack to another partition after install, so decide how big you want /swap /boot or some other partition and make it that size, at least big enough to hold the install.

Once you finish the basic install boot into zipslack as the documentation shows.

Now create the other linux ext3 or whatever partitions you plan to have and copy the install to it. Install lilo and make sure the new partition boots ok. Then you can setup the old install partition as a linux partition (I used mine as /boot), populate it and add it to /etc/fstab.

links or wget is good for downloading more packages. When you get gcc installed you can start getting source code for other stuff.

I would get X up and use twm until I could get wmaker or some other wm installed

I agree with David on most of his procedure. The only change that I would suggest is to temporarily change your existing swap partition (you do have a swap partition, don't you?) to FAT32 and use that for your initial zipslack install. That way, you don't have to try to figure out some use for a 120MB partition. It seems too big for /boot, too small for /home or /tmp or /var.

Just a thought. However you do it, let us know how it works out for you.

Oh, one more thing: You might want to check out Linux from Scratch:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

They have a step-by-step book online that explains how to build your own linux system from source tarballs. It's not as difficult as it sounds. Working from an existing install, you can read through it and cut-and-paste most of the commands from your browser into a terminal. The whole procedure takes about 4-5 hours.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

Maybe this was not very clear. The install partition does not need to be that small it can be 50GB if you want, it just needs to be big enough for the install, and it should be the size of a partition you are planning to use. You just need to be able to move the install to another partition. If you want it to stay where it's at then you need to move it and change the partition type then move it back.

If you have another linux distro on the machine you can do it a number of ways, I built mine on a windows machine with no other linux installed.

I used my install partition for /boot but it could have been swap or anything else, just make it the size it's going to be.

zipslack has some great scripts. When you boot into zipslack run pppsetup if your on dialup

Thanks for all of the replys :)

I think I'll look into LFS, too. I've heard about it before, but was under the impression that it took months to build anything usable.

One of the things I like about slack is the installpkg and removepkg commands. Could I easily add those into my own LFS if I chose to build one?

I would be careful removing packages. Some of the source code may cause entire folders to be removed.