Installing From USB Question??
 

First time on these forums, so Hello! : )
Im going to get straight to it, I've been a windows user all my life and one day i just had this notion to try out a UNIX. So i picked up a couple of books and i tried Ubuntu and now I'm using PClinuxOS. Now i want to switch so Slackware because i keep hearing everyone saying
"If you learn Fedora, You know Fedora, But If you learn Slackware
(plus the fact that my PCLinuxOS doesn't have any man pages)
So i downloaded the discs from 1-6 (13.1) and i want to install from a usb, by the way i`ve read a few guides on how to do it and searched up my questions but I still cant figure them out! So here they are...

Will my USB be useless after using it to install Slackware ?

Do i have to make a partition and put all of the Slackware
disks on the computer that i`m installing it on?(If so will Slackware install on the said partition ?) ( I have an 8 gig usb so can`t i just put all the files on that???)

Will Slackware uninstall PCLinuxOS ( If No how do i do it?)
(BTW i have no LAN or any sort of connection to my linux PC)

What is a swap partition, what is its purpose and how big is it supposed to be?

A lot of sites say that the usb image is included with the Slackware installation, how can i get access to that?

Also, im on windows so how do i get the usb image on to my usb
(copy paste??? or some mounting stuff??)

Thanks guys, sorry for the loong post ; )

The article http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/welcome-windows-user/ explains how to create a USB bootable installer for Slackware if you are running Windows.

Slackware will not wipe anything off your harddisk unless you tell it to. First stage of the installation (before starting "setup") is to use fdisk or cfdisk to create any partitions you need. If you want Slackware to re-use your existing PCLinuxOS partition(s) then all you need to do is to run the "setup" right away and tell the installer to use the existing Linux partition.

Eric

Hey, thanks for the guide but i still have one problem,
The guide says "Use Winimage to extract the content of the image file “D:\usb-and-pxe-installers\usbboot.img” to the newly created directory “U:\boot\syslinux\” on the stick"
Problem is, i downloaded Disk 1-6, not the full dvd set, so i just have the ISO's, where is this image???
Also for every ISO image i have i have an .asc and a .md5 file too, what are those for??

EDIT

Okay sorry i figured it out, i mounted disk 6 and found the usb and pxe file

Okay, I have successfully made my usb, but now when im installing i cant figure out the instruction you directed me to.

can someone explain this to me a bit easier please??? also why is his code (mount -t vfat -o ro,shortname=mixed $(/sbin/blkid -t LABEL=USBSLACKINS | cut -f1 -d:) /usbinstall) identical in both spots where he mentions it??? Please hellp!!!

Eric has changed his method slightly, to make it easier, but has left some stuff from the previous instructions that is causing your confusion.

What you want to do is:
Boot the USB installer and wait until booting has finished and delivers you to a command-prompt. (Look for a line ending with # and a flashing cursor.)
Create a new directory to use as a mount point using the command:
Mount the appropriate partition.
If you labeled the stick's partition “USBSLACKINS” in step 7 above, then you can use the following command that will automatically mount the appropriate partition.
Now you can start the install following your preferred guide.

Then afterwards, when it is time to specify the package SOURCE directory, you type:
Note: You may want to change 13.0 to 13.1 in the above if you are installing Slackware 13.1

When i enter the code mount -t vfat -o ro,shortname=mixed $(/sbin/blkid -t LABEL=USBSLACKINS | cut -f1 -d:) /usbinstall i egt a big long note talking about mounting and other stuff, am i supposed to use /sbin/blkid as the directory or come up with my own? Please help! BTW i only have 2 partitions and ones a swap. (if partitions have anythign to do with that code)

That command will only work if you labeled the stick's partition “USBSLACKINS”.

To explain the above command:
mount is the command name.
-t vfat tells mount that you want to mount a vfat file system.
-o ro,shortname=mixed are options for the mount. (ro is for read only. shortname=mixed is for display the short name as is; store a long name when the short name is not all upper case.)
$(/sbin/blkid -t LABEL=USBSLACKINS | cut -f1 -d:) is a bash command substitution. It takes the output of the /sbin/blkid command, looks for the label USBSLACKINS and then isolates the appropriate device name (e.g. /dev/sda1).
That device is then mounted to the /usbinstall directory.

If you are having problems, then it may be due to your partition name. If you have already partitioned your target system then it is likely that the stick's vfat partition is the only vfat partition available.
You could try changing to
Alternatively:
Run /sbin/blkid.
Inspect the output (something like below) for the stick's vfat partition.
Then issue the command
The important information is the device name, /dev/sda1 in this example.

Okay, so i tried typing /sbin/blkid and my usb is not displayed, only the two partions are.
I think this is because i am using plop boot manager in order to boot from my usb because my bios does not support usb booting.
But something interesting did happen, i tried putting my usb in various ports and one time it was detected, i messed up and tried to mount it without making a directory and my brother pulled the plug (*tough life), but it was surprising because my usb was detected.
I found out that my usb was named USBSLACKINS and also the file was something like /dev/sdba or something like that, what i mean is that the last part of the file location which could be sda1 or sda 2 had a "b" in it, thats what i remember (in case that helps anyone in solving the question.
I also tried going to the /dev directory and i found sda1 and sda two but it hink my usb may be at a higher part of the list, because i just typed "ls" and it scrolled by fast (fat chance though, because if it was in the directory it would be detected right?)
currently i have no internet connection to that computer, also i have no operating systems on it.
Any help??? That computer used to be a windows 2000 until it became a ubuntu, i formatted that in one day and installed PClinuxOS, then i formatted that because it had no man pages and decided to with slackware, im not about to quit anytime soon, so please HELP!!! BTW plop bootmanager is able to boot from my usb yet the kernel or cmd (w/e its called) cannot detect it??

This is new information.

A device name like /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdb2 is valid. /dev/sda1 is probably the first partition on your primary hard drive.

Please post the output of '/sbin/blkid' and '/sbin/fdisk -l'.

P.S. You can do 'ls | less' to see a listing a screen at a time. Type 'q' to quit.

hey, okay
I found that when i leave the usb in my computer for a while (an hour or two) and i come back and use /sbin/blkid
Then my usb is detected :) Thanks a lot, i ran the setup over night, im at school right now so il check on it when i get back home,
It was installing lilo when i checked before, so it hink it was a successful installation, thanks a lot!
Installed slackware jsut in time for march break ;)

ARGHH!!! :(
Another problem, i finished installation, installed everything, it said it was succesful, i rebooted like it told me to and....

GRUB error 15 (blackscreen) wtf???! i thought lilo was my boot manager???
help please!!!
I tried both booting from hardrive AND nomrally!
bad start to march break :( HELP please!

It seems that you installed lilo to the root partition of your Slackware install rather than the MBR. You will need to get your bootloader to chainload the Slackware partition.

Okay so whats chainlaoding and how do i do that?
EDIT
when i use plop to boot from hda Partion 1 OR 2 i get a message saying no valid boot signature do you stilll want to boot?
i say yes but all i get is a blackscreen with a blinking cursor?
is it possible to reinstall just LILO???
EDIT
Okay forget that, i just formatted the whole drive with the setup
(luckily it detected my USB)
And my computer is currently reinstalling the whole thing
(hope it works this time ; )

Okay, problem...again!
Reinstalled slackware...lilo cant install to MBR because of video card n stuff
Then i find out i could have just pressed reconfigure system to reinstall lilo
i tried different methods of installing lilo, none worked (tried expert and simple)
LILO WILL NOT INSTALL TO MBR
Now what do i do?
Everything I find on internet about installing lilo to a cd is confusing
and constantly talks about dual booting, which i dont need.
Please explain what i should do and how??? :S
Thanks very much!
Ima stick with Slackware to the end ; )
Can i install GRUB and use it instead???It looks like that would be easier...?

This is very unlikely. Please give exact details of the any error message.
Does your system have some BIOS setting that stops the MBR from being written?
GRUB is available in the /extra directory of the install media.
That is debatable, and has been many, many times over :-)

Thanks a lot allend, You've really helped me with installing Slackware
AND
i think I've done it... just a few finishing up questions : P
First of all I learned that i could boot my system by using plop boot manager, then booting to usb THEN entering the command
So i got my first taste of Slackware! (it worked properly, i changed up the lilo.conf file to boot=/dev/sda1, yet it didn't work)
Then, I decided to try and install LILO from the setup's reconfigure option, but it turned out I could not do that anymore because i had already exited the setup!
So i formatted my partitions ...again
AND
i reinstalled Slackware and started playing around with LILO, this is the error message i get....
I learned the hard way, that i probably could have just typed
in order to run the lilo setup without having to install Slackware all over again : (
ANYWAYS
I understood a bit of the top part of the error, so when i saw "256" colors, i figured it had something to do with my choice of the frame buffer thing!
So i tried the standard frame buffer, then 640x480x64 and THEN I tried
640x480x32 (done in expert mode)
For some reason i didn't get any error messages after it said "Installing LILO" (Of course i was installing to MBR)
Yet, when i booted i got the same grub error 15 message
Of course i felt like smashing my PC against the wall but i was patient and i booted from my plop boot-manager cd
AND
in the options menu i tried booting from hard-drive partition 1
IT WORKED : D
I got into Slackware, it was all fine!
So, now I'm wondering, will i ALWAYS have to use the plop boot-manager CD??? or is their some other way to boot without having to use plop boot manager? Any changes i can make in bios to boot from partition 1?
BTW, because the error message mentioned some error with my partitions, heres some info
Partition 1, is a Linux type partition, EXT 4 journalism system and the flag is set to boot-able. (app. 79 Gigs)
Partition 2, is a Linux swap partition, not boot-able (app. 536 megabytes)
I installed Slackware over and over again multiple times, sometimes i would check for bad blocks, sometimes i wouldn't
In my last installation, i did not check for bad blocks, i just did a quick format!
I never got any errors about bad blocks anyways...
Sorry for the long post... Thanks again ; )

This bothers me. lilo is not happy with your disk partitioning and is refusing to write to your disk.
How did you do your disk partitioning? Using 'cfdisk'?
No, once you have lilo successfully set up the plop stuff will not be needed.

This thread started out with you asking for information on how to install from USB. As it has developed it has become apparent that your system does not support booting from USB without using the plop workaround and now you say that you have the ability to boot from CD. (This is really the opposite of the common USB install scenario, where a device has no CD but can boot from USB)

Given the problems you are having, I strongly recommend that you create CDs from the first three install disk isos and conduct another install from CD ensuring that you partition your disk successfully. This is a tried and true technique.

lol
the reason i cant install from cd is because my dad,
who used to work with mainframe
doesnt like the idea of me going into unix, and wants me to stick with Windows, so he wont buy me cd's.

Of course, i used the graphical option for my partitioning (cant remember which one that is), and ive been using slackware for a few hours, and ive been playing with it,
its fine so far, no problems. : )
EDIT
Will ignore table cause lilo to ignore the error it finds in my partition and still write?
If so, can i still run lilo install from slackware?

From 'man lilo':
Yes. Again from 'man lilo':
So if you have a valid /etc/lilo.conf file then the command 'lilo -P ignore -M /dev/sda mbr' may work. You may need to use the -P fix option instead.

I would still try for CDs. The first disk can be used to boot your system if something goes wrong e.g. your partition table has a problem. You could use the 'cfdisk' program on the CD to write your partition table again.

Alright thanks,
I think im set now! : )
Thanks for helping me out, lilo works now!!! : D