So Guys, Im new to Slackware and Linux (just downloaded Slackware 13.0 64bit to DVD). Equipment: I have a Dell INSP 1545. 160GB HD, 3GB RAM, 2.16GHZ
OSsual boot Vista and Ubuntu 9.10 with GRUB. According to Linux my partitions are as follows: 160GB HD Toshiba /dev/sda
Dell Utility 41 MB FAT 16bit /dev/sda1
Recovery 16 GB NTFS /dev/sda2
OS 102 GB NTFS /dev/sda3

42GB Extended /dev/sda4
41 GB File System Linux ext4 /dev/sda5
1.8 GB Swap Space /dev/sda6

Can you all recommend how to (easiest for a Noob) add room for Slack? Im open to simply replacing Ubuntu, but would prefer to triple boot. Please keep in mind im new to computing. Thanks! Really excited about learning.

To be honest, I don't think you've got enough wiggle room to work with here.

Your dell recovery stuff and vista take up 3 primary partitions, so even if you managed to successfully shrink vista (which is fraught with dangers - I ended up having to reinstall when I did mine as the vista disk tools refused to shrink it correctly), you still wouldn't be able to create a new primary partition in the space.

I'd suggest trying to shrink your ubuntu partition down to about 20GB using something like gparted and create a new linux logical partition in the space it makes. ( Well, actually that's not true, I'd actually suggest getting rid of Ubuntu completely and giving the whole 40GB to slackware, but you did say you wanted to keep it, so a 20/20GB split seems like a reasonable option. )


A word of caution though. Disk repartitioning is probably the most risky thing you can do. One small slip and you could lose the lot. Be very, very careful.

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Take space from Vista or Ubuntu. It looks like you have a single partition for each so either use a tool inside of Vista or boot with the Ubuntu live cd and use gparted (partition editor) to resize the partitons. Depending on how you are actually using the partitons I would take space form the partitons with the most room because 160GB isn't a lot of space for 3 OS's on a working system unless you have minimal storage requirements. A full install of Slackware is going to use about 6Gb (If I remember correctly).

There are some good free (as in beer) partition editors for Windows. I used partition wizard when I came over from windows. It was full featured and recommended above partition magic which I'd always used. It's available from download.com. But as stated above it's always a little risky.

then...lets suppose I want to replace Ubuntu, with Slackware. How would I go forward. I am fine with loosing everything on Ubuntu.

nevermind

There's nothing unusual about what you're wanting to do so it's just a matter of following the Slackware install instructions. The only difference is that you can skip the partitioning section as you are going to reuse the ubuntu partitions that have already been setup.

One good way to learn about installing slackware is to install virtualbox on your windows system and run through a few slackware installs in a virtual machine. This will allow you to cock-up as much as you like while you learn the ins and outs of slackware without risk. Then you can do the real install once you feel comfortable that you know what you're doing.

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Thanks GazL. Two follow-up questions(each with a couple subparts):

1. So, while I wont partition anything then:
(a) I simply need to know the device and partition name in order to send Slackware there right? Assuming as in my first post: 42GB Extended /dev/sda4
41 GB File System Linux ext4 /dev/sda5
1.8 GB Swap Space /dev/sda6
(b)I would then just send Slackware to /dev/sda5? or would it be /sda4?
(c)the 1.8 swap seems too small since I have 3GB RAM, how would I expand or create new swap?


2. Thanks for the recommendation on Virtual Box, just downloaded it. One quick question: When in VB, and I 'install' slack, will it ask where to send it(partition-wise)? how does this apply when using a virtual machine/memory from within Vista?

Thanks in advance guys!

The virtualbox step is really overkill. And probabaly more complicated.

Installing slackware is really very easy if you aren't going to be partitioning. Once you have started setup, there is a clearly defined menu 1 2 3 4 you can start with the swap part, and it will auto detect your current swap partition. Following the prompts will then bring you to setting the target and again it is going to know about sda5 rather than 4 as the partition to install to. If you are going the single partition route (excluding swap) then you will just select "done addining partitions/continue" It's still menu driven and graphical, just not a polished gui like ubuntu or windows. Don't be nervous, JUST BE CAUTIOUS WHEN SELECTING YOUR TARGET PARTITION and it's going to breeze by.

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Damgar, many thanks! yeah this seems to be the best option. So I will simply put Slackware on my Linux partition (currently Ubuntu) using the Target options, then it will detect my SWAP etc.

One final question and ill move onto install: given that I have 3GB RAM, don't you think my swap space that Ubuntu created (1.6 GB) is insufficient? If so, from where should I get the space to expand? Can it simply come out of my Linux Partition? (maybe I can delete my current swap partition, then that will space will go back into the Linux partition, then create swap in the installation?)


Thanks so much for all your help guys....sorry to keep this going so long!

With 3GB of RAM then 1.6 of swap is probably plenty. You could just delete those partititions with the partition editor of your choice and start from scratch, but you don't neccessarily need to do that.

Ill either just A. leave my 1.6GB SWAP or 2. Resize using Parted.


***Could I just create a "Swap File"? Ive read about this, and seems safer (for a GREEN newbie) to do rather than repartition. Plus I could at least get started sooner and do this if I need more swap. Thoughts?****


Thank you guys so very much. Dagmar, Gazl and the rest!

Brad

Either option should be relatively painless. If you want to use suspend/resume then you'll need to make swap a little bigger than the amount of RAM you have, otherwise, with 3GB of RAM, I doubt your box will do much swapping anyway. Mine certainly doesn't.

Best of Luck Brad. Happy Slacking.

Thanks! According to some sources, the 2.6 kernel is nearly as fast with swap files as partitions. So im going to go this route for now. Thanks again.