I am new to Linux and I am using Ubuntu as of right now. I want to get started using Slackware ASAP. I have admired Slackware from afar for quite a while now and can't wait until I can use it. I just want to know this: Before I start using Slackware, what kinds of things should I learn how to do? I will obviously have to get used to the way Linux is set up and learn my way around first, but what are the things that are crucial for me to know before getting started with Slackware? Should I learn to use the command prompt and that's it? Or what?

Read the Slackbook to see what is involved. There are very very few wizards, most things in Slackware are done by hand, but it is a very rewarding experience. Oh, and get used to the command line and to the idea of installing from source.

Thank you, I did look at this a little bit previous to installing Ubuntu but never really looked in-depth. I started reading about shell commands and in just the past half hour, I have really started learning a lot. I do have one more question though: I am using Gnome but I installed Konsol because it seems more advanced. What are the differences between the different terminals in Konsol? (Linux, Shell, and Root)

The gnome terminal and Konsole both, AFAIK, use bash - so they are pretty well equal. The difference between shells is permissions really - the root shell can do everything (so be very careful when using it as you can damage your system) whereas the normal user shells will allow you limited control.

Your best bet is to install it, following the book, and then just use it. It all becomes second nature after a while.

hai PnkFloyd27 i am a pinkfloydian so i think u will like slackware .

if u want to learn slack, install it and struggle with it
check my signature within 2 days the entire page will be reformatted
with more stuffs and nice formatting

Is the entire installation off of floppy disks? Also, should I delete Ubuntu off of my HDD first? If so how? I have Windows in one partition and Ubuntu in another partition.

I am looking at the FTP download site, I've never used FTP before so how do I use it? =x I'll try to look it up on google.

@ftp'ing- use this link, it will put you right in Slack11.0:

1. ftp://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slac...kware-11.0-iso

2. bookmark the page

<edit #3-later for clarity - thanks to simcox1 for pointing out my deficiency >

3. right click and 'save file' all the links that have *-install-dX.iso

4. use your favorite CD burner and burn the 3 CDs

5. place disk 1 in your CD drive and reboot

6. welcome to slackware

Dude, don't be so worried about Slackware. I started with slack _before_ trying anything 'easier' like Ubuntu/Kubuntu - so you're certainly starting off ahead of me. I knew nothing about linux and failed miserably for a couple of days at figuring stuff out.

Get a book ("Running Linux" is nice, also "Linux in a Nutshell") if you like to read. I do, it helps sometimes when you're lost on the 'big' topics. But for nuts&bolts fixing LQ and google are your friends.

--
well, thats entirely up to you. Do you have unused partitions on your HD? How much space do you have? Sounds like you currently have two partitions (Windows & Linux) which is OK, but there are more 'advanced' ways to set your HD up. (i.e. you may want to at least add one swap partition - depending on how much RAM you have)

If you're OK with just getting rid of Ubuntu altogether then you can just run the Slackware install program, and format your linux partition.

If you would like to keep Ubuntu around then I highly recommend gPartEd, its a liveCD partition utility that will resize/move partitions, and it has a decent and understandable GUI interface.

There are 6 CDs and a DVD in those .iso files. Do I just burn the first three CDs and discard the other four? Also, there were different kinds of boot and root disks, will the ones you told me to download work for anything? I am going to be running it on an old 1998 IBM.

just download the 3 *install* cd .isos, or the one dvd .iso (if you have a dvd player to install from)

I always use the 3 install cds myself.

another tip: the installer will give you an option for 'full, custom, newbie etc..' If you dont want to babysit the machine then just select full. If you have the time, I'd _strongly_ suggest doing the 'newbie' install, still install everything, but using the newbie mode you get to read about every package as its getting installed, an excellent opportunity for learning.

Okay, thank you very much. Will it prompt me to partition the HDD or will I have to do it myself before hand?

there are two ways (at least) to partition your HD:

1. after booting the slackware install CD1, use fdisk or cfdisk (yuk..)

2. download and burn the gPartEd tool (see above), boot into that and set up your partitions. Its almost scary easy to do it this way.

which one to use will depend on wether or not you want to keep your ubuntu partition.

Like I said, if you want to keep Ubuntu, then try the gPartEd to resize your existing partitions to make some space. Then create a some new ones (at least one for slack and one swap partition). The Slack partition should be at least 5GB (I think the full install takes ~3-4GB)

If you don't care to keep Ubuntu around anymore then just run the slack install CD1. Then I'd recommend creating a swap partition, use cfdisk _before_ running setup on the slack install CD. Its not as fancy looking as gPartEd but still intuitive enough.

A good rule of thumb for swap size is ~2x your RAM, but if you have lots of RAM you might not need any swap space. It really depends on your system and what you plan to do with it.

And keep in mind in the wonderful world of Linux nothing is permanent - you can always (almost) change stuff later on.

So now, enough questions! Install that Slack!

One last thing, after you install and reboot the first thing(s) you need to do is:

1.log on as root
2. run 'alsaconf' # unmute your sound
2.b run 'alsactl store' # save those settings
3. run 'xorgsetup'
4. run 'adduser'
5. exit and log in as your new user
6. to get graphical type 'startx'

I have IDE components in my system because it so old, do I need to use the bar.i or can I just use the one that you gave me the link for?

I went through making the different partitions (I was following this site http://www.bitbenderforums.com/vb22/...?postid=311808 how legit is that?) and I didn't seem to have enough room on the HDD, it is only 8GB. I think I will buy a new HDD and then do it.

If I was using a computer as old as that, I'd consider using an older version of slackware. Slackware 11 comes on 6 cds, whereas before that it was 4. The point is there's a lot more on it. Slackware versions are still maintained back until 8.1. I just think you might be better off with slackware 9 or 10. It'll probably be fine to use 11 for it. But you haven't mentioned how much disk space you've got, or ram. If you're short of either then there's no point in installing kde for example. In which case you only need to download disk 1 and 2.

I only have 3 slack cds.. and I only use 2/3 to install it.. Am I missing something?

slackUK links

My understanding:
SlackCD1 - boot/core packages
SlackCD2 - x and KDE packages
SlackCD3 - international and extra 'stuff' that is not needed (usually) until you're more into it.
SlackCD4 - source - definitely not needed for PnkFloyd27 at this point.

please correct me if I am wrong.

@PnkFloyd27- Please note #3 in my sig it is a circa 1999 computer also. Where I first installed slack10.2 - before 11.0 was available- 16GB HD. You can still install 11.0 just fine to an 8GB HD.

Just make like two partitions, one ~500MB (Swap) and one the rest.

I'd totally recommend obliterating anything else on your machine (i.e. winblows/ubuntu). So forget the gPartEd or fancy tutorials, just load slack disk 1, run cfdisk and make the two partitions. then run setup, the curses based installer will start and guide you the rest of the way.

As you get more $$ then you can buy more HDs and add them, thats no biggie to reconfigure. (thats what I did on #3)

An excellent point:
For an older machine I'd recommend fluxbox. But it is not so 'easy' as KDE or GNOME for a n00b.

so lets say add/insert one more line to your list of things to do:
^ not intended to favor one lightweight WM over any others, but its the only one I use - even on newer machines. Way faster IMO than KDE.

Well if he downloads all the the files ending in .iso from the link you gave, that's 6 cds. I'd like to know how much disk space and ram he's got before advising him.