this is my second round installing slackware 10.0 today (newbie, previously tried mandriva); recurring problems during the installation are:

1) inability to install LILO to MBR or hda (both simple and expert mode); "cat: write, no space left on device..."

i suspect that i may need to create a small partition at the head of the table for LILO?

later, the boot floppy was unable to locate "vmlinuz", even though i had specified the correct address ("/dev/hda1").

2) creating the password for root; "cannot lock the password file; try again later."

a solution to the LILO problem? i am unable to continue installation without LILO. i suppose i could get by without a root password...

thanks in advance.

woah. something seriously wrong is happening here.

You shouldn't need to make a seperate partition for LILO, ever. The MBR is the best place for it, and if you're having problems writing there, you have a bigger problem.

Are you 1000% sure you have the correct drive? I'd like to see your partition table. It sounds to me like you're trying to use something thats read-only, like the CD drive.

ok use the boot cd that came with linux..if u have any way of load external media aprt from u drive..then tell me
and i will show u a link...if thats ok for everyone

ohmyachinggut:

yeah, i tried writing to the MBR multiple times, and the same error message always results. i suspect that there is something wrong with MBR + my comp. i looked around my computer's 'setup' but could find nothing pertaining to the restriction of MBR.

partition table goes something like this:

/dev/hda1...../...............410 MB.......primary
/dev/hda2.....................3689 MB.....extended
/dev/hda5.....swap.........256 MB.......logical
/dev/hda6...../home.......820 MB.......logical
/dev/hda7...../usr..........2613 MB.....logical

whizbit:

yes, i have the boot CD, in addition to a boot floppy. i can load external media via CD/DVD and floppy drive.

thanks again.

Are you using any 3rd party partitioning or boot loading software? (Partition Magic, etc.) Does your BIOS have a "hardware virus protection" feature? If this is enabled, it can cause problems writing to the MBR.

i am not using any 3rd party partition or boot loading software (none that i know of). i don't think my BIOS has the "hardware virus protection" feature, for i have been unable to find it -- but if i've overlooked it, can possibly tell me where to find that in my BIOS?

thanks.

What kind of motherboard do you have? I can try to find out if your BIOS even supports that feature.

i can't find the motherboard information in my computer's documentation, but i know that the system chip set is "intel mobile 430TX PCIset".

If your root partition is only 410 MB, you're going to have space issues and I think that's the cause of your problem now. I would first try enlarging the / partition.

Use 'df' to see the space available/used on each partition.

thanks mdg and matir, i will do that. i finally suspected that i might have space issues when i ran out of room during the installation of 10.1 (not 10.0).