Hi there. Attempting an install of slack after having enough of Windows Vista. Setup up my swap partition and root partition no prob, then ran setup and configured mount points and that.

When i tried installing the packages it wouldn't detect my CDROM. I read about using loopback to install from the ISO file and that all mounted fine. I got a bit further this time but when it starts installing the packages i get a fatal error, this being one of the reasons that I abandoned Windows

I'm installing slack 11.0 on a HP NX6125 laptop, AMD Turion64 1.7Ghz, 1GB RAM, 100GB hard drive. Any help would be appreciated.

which error?

just read that slack 11 uses 2.4 kernel by default so gonna try using 2.6 (the stable one) and will report back. Wish me luck

hey erklaerbaer. I'm gettin fed up trying the install, fixing my mbr, coming into windows to ask questions on the web and trying the install again to be honest. is there a log i can copy to my FAT partition that will explain all?

right, the newer kernel recognised my dvd-drive no prob, however it still throws an exception when I try to install the actual software. Once the exception occurs, I can't get back to the shell (tried Alt+F1, Ctrl+Alt+F1, Esc, q, etc) to retrieve any logs. This is the message I get when trying to install:

there was a fatal error attempting to install /var/log/mount/slackware/a/ACPID-1.0.4-i486-2.tgz
the package my be corrupt, the installation media may be bad, or something else has caused the
package to be unable to read without error. you may hit ENTER to continue, but if this is an
important required package the you installation may not work as is.

not particularly verbose is it not sure what the i486 means (not really sure what chip has what architecture but as I said, mine is x86_64 so not sure if this is the correct package. actually, never come across i486 before. i386, i586, x86_64 is all I know of). I tried hitting ENTER to see what happened but the next package threw the same error. And the next, and the next, and the next........Btw, I have verified the downloaded ISO with the md5 checksum and that was all fine.

I installed Ubuntu a little while ago and had to set no_acpi in the boot options otherwise I had problems. don't really know what acpi is to be honest but would it actually help to add that to my boot options? Just so you know, I didn't stick with Ubuntu because it felt too much like Vista. All a little too gimmicky for my liking. Give me Enlightenment, XFCE, Shell any day Slack seemed to be the best distro for actually LEARNING linux, not just using it!

p.s I'm such a geek aint I?

486 is processor type.
acpi is responsible for power management on modern systems, but acpid is just a package.

i don't know, if your 64bit architecture causes problems. what is the output of dmesg? have you tried every kernel?

Usually you terminate a program with C-c ( or try to suspend it with C-z). M-F1 doesn't work, because you are already at the first console. try M-F2..


something else could be an hardware error, e.g. a broken RAM stick. on the other hand ubuntu seemed to install fine...

the best way to learn linux, is to read the accompanying Documentation

have you tried debian?

I had the same problems. then i found out that the dvd burning util that i was using on my windows machine had bugs. so i downloaded a trial version of nero and every thing worked. but that may not be your case. i thaught i'd throw that in.

@ Matrex & the OP - I too have seen 'corrupt packages' messages due to a faulty burn of the ISO. It was a Slackware variant incidentally, but that's irrelevant. If nothing else works, try burning the CD again, at the lowest speed possible, and IMHO, use something besides NERO, for example, 'InfraRecorder' for Winbloze.