The Basics of Installation
 

Hi. This is my first attempt at installing a Linux Distro. I'm extremely new to this whole thing and have no idea what I'm doing. I wouldn't like to say the other posts are over my head, because I know I'll be able to pick it up quickly if I can just understand a few basic things, first.

I've downloaded the first two ISOs of Slackware (the only two I need for installation, as I understand). Now, I'm somewhat lost. I've attempted the next few steps in installation, but have failed. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if my system just isn't compatible. So let me get into the details of my situation.

I'm attempting to install Slackware on my Acer Aspire 1640Z notebook. I currently have a FAT32 Windows partition with XP installed on it taking up 50Gb of the 80Gb harddrive. This leaves me with roughly 25Gb left unallocated because Acer has some hidden partitions with boot information, etc, etc... This is where I'm attempting to install Slackware.

So, as I said, I've downloaded the first two ISOs complete with their MD5 and ASC files. I don't know what they are, but whatever... I put them on a CD (I say put, not burned because I'm not sure I did it correctly) using Windows XP's writing application. You know... I go into Explorer from the DVD-RW drive, copy the files to the explorer window and press Write to CD. Twenty-five minutes later, I have my CD. I think. Do I?

Then, I set my BIOS to boot from the CD drive before the HDD, popped the first CD in, rebooted... twenty seconds later I was staring at the Windows loading screen. I don't know if it attempted to boot from the CD or if it just couldn't understand what was on the CD and ignored it or what... it just didn't work. Can someone shed some light on how to do this and what I did wrong here? Every tutorial I've seen thus far goes about as deep into this part of the installation as saying "Now install the CDs".

It sounds like you didn't burn the CD correctly. You need to use a burning program to "Burn Disc from Image" and then select the *.iso file. If you don't have Easy CD Creator or Nero, here's a freeware one and here's a Windows Powertoy that should give you a burn from image prompt.

When you finish burning the CD, you should see all the files inside. If you see just the *.iso file, you did it incorrectly...

Hope this helps...

It does help, thank you. I figured this would be the problem, too. My stomach was just too empty and I was too lazy to try a few other burning options. After I'll eat, I'll do this. :) Thanks, again.

Hi,

I would suggest that you read some good online reference(s). Check out my sig! I would suggest #5 Slackware basics



I would suggest that you do some maintenance on the hard drive first. Defrag the whole drive while in windows, then shrink your windows partition to a usable size. If you have space make a FAT32 partition so you can share between the os. Allocate at least 3GB for your slackware install. Allocate at least 512MB for a swap partition.


You should burn each iso as an image to individual cds'. But you should md5sum check the iso to confirm the download is valid before the burn.

The cd would not boot since you did not burn an image!