righto..well i finally got slack working on my pc (like..witha window manager instead of comand line) now however, i have a few things that maybe some of you people could help me with.
for example
1)how do i pick another window server to boot
currently i log in and type in startx and ta-da kde. is there a way to switch gui's?
2)does slack have a bulit in adsl thing like in mandy, or do i have to dl a package from somewhere
3)i used slack to edit my fstab so that mandrake doesn't look for a nonexistant partition (long story), but mandrake boots retardedly, like..with loads of things failing, and my mouse doesn't work now
and i'd have to reinstall lilo, so im considering moving a few files over to the slack part and reinstalling mandrake. would that fix things or jsut mess them up more?

i do belive thats all that i am having issues with for today, and i thank you for your help

Hi Spork

To have a choice of Window Managers/Desktop Environments

Edit your etc/inittab file to runlevel 4

su to root - then

gedit /etc/inittab

change the 3 to a 4 in the id run level line near the top - save it

re-boot

click on Session to get access to the other Wm's and DE's

Well, for me it's just:

xwmconfig
netconfig (if you connect via ethernet - not sure otherwise)
Not sure, probably wouldn't hurt, but I don't know if it would help.

(I boot in runlevel 3.)

i used digiot's suggestions, simply because i think its kinda cool to boot in runtime 3. but thanks man, i might just change the runtime, it is a little annoying to have to run xwmconfig when i wanna switch, but all in all its cool, and i got the net workin 2 (i use ethernet in case you were wondering) and i found that i have another problem how do i get the scrollwheel to work?

i have a ms intelimouse 3.0 , usb connection, optical, and it will recognize if i press the wheel down as a mmb, but turning the wheel does nothing. mandrake had it working, is there like a mouse.cfg file or soemthing i could just borrow from that install? (before i kill it, cuz its tragically screwed and i want mandrake's lilo anyway) even though i couldn't set sep things for all 5 buttons, thats ok but i dont think i can live without a scrollwheel. otherwise i might plug in my old ps2 wheelmouse, but it don't work too well ( my friend glued the ball compartment shut, and now its very jagged from where i tried to knife it open)
if there is a way to get slack to realize its a scrollmouse, that would be great

i looked through the kde control center but in the X display setup thingie you pick usbmouse and thats that,..so..ya

thanks for the help guys

Add

Option "ZAxis Mapping" "4 5"

after the main stuff about the mouse in /etc/XF86Config and make sure Option "Protocol" says "IMP/S2" - it varies from mouse to mouse but that works with most and I believe it will with your ms intellimouse. (I've got an IBM and had an HP working with that, too, so that's all I know. But I think Intellimouse is actually the 'IM' in that.)

And no problem. It's a real headache to configure some of this stuff.

-- Oops. Just realized you said a USB connection. Not sure what to do about that or if it even needs anything specifically. Many USB meeses come with a PS/2 adapter - my IBM does, while the HP is straight PS/2. If you have that, I'd use it - it seems PS/2s are less of a headache than USBs.

mine has the adapter but its on my sis' win98 box but it doesn't matter, because the device is /dev/mouse, not the ps2 port, so calling hte mouse a imp/s2 worked! i have the scroll too thanks so much man
its crazy that this mouse works even if its set as a ps2..but whatever, it works, and thats the point right?

Well, /dev/mouse is a symlink that's probably pointing to the right place, so I thought it might not matter - just wasn't sure. But, yeah, either way, that's definitely my theory - get it to work *at all* first - make it nice and neat later.

Glad you got it going.

-- Wait a minute. That is bizarre after all. I typoed IMP/S2 - meant to say IMPS/2. It works with IMP/S2? Odd.

lol must be magic

um just another quick question.
you know how in kde you can configure lilo? well i wanted to use mandrake's lilo, but when i add a new kernel, and i copied the vmlinux file and the file it links to, (and renamed them so they're peachy), it asks for the ''inital ramdisk''
mandrake is set to run with the inital ramdisk "/boot/initrd.img"
and i couldn't find one in slack's ''/boot''
and so when i start slack with that it gives me a initrd error..um..kernel panic i think it says, and so i can only run slack via boot floppy, which is both slow and annoying.

edit::
it works fine if you don't put in a inital ramdisk, in case anyone is wondering.
just tried it