Installing Slackware and the "Not There File System" (NTFS)

As I stated in the last blog entry, I downloaded slackware and burnt it to disk.

It is about this time that I should point out that my harddrive was a NTFS partition
i.e. Not resizeable by linux (or even readable unless you have the kernel modules installed)

I had much important data on my harddrive and had already burnt 700+ CD's worth off.But I wanted dual boot so I spent another week getting what seemed like some reliable programs to re-partition my disk before the install of slackware.

Ran said programs
...
Selected my NTFS partition
...
Accidentally chose "format" instead of "resize"
...
Said program DID NOT ASK FOR F^@KING CONFERMATION!! ARRGH!!
(a note to all you programmers out there. Making radio button selection trigger the distruction of several gigs of data does not lead to happy users.)
...
Wept bitterly.

"Ah well", I thought. "at least I'll have a desktop up and running soon."
About now would have been a great time to go print off some manuals.

Still shaking from the sudden loss (ALWAYS BACKUP!) I inserted the latest slackware distro CD and started the install. The process was relatively painless and after about an hour or so the process ended.
And the prompt winked at me.

"What? where's the GUI?" I wondered. << VB HABITS BAAAD. LIKE DRINKING, BUT WITH MORE SQL AND LESS FUN.
I stared at the prompt for a couple of minutes.
It didn't change.
"Ah!" I thought, "I have to restart!"

I must admit I was impressed. Linux loading is much nicer and more informative than windows. Which is why I didn't have a clue what any of it meant. But it was still impressive.... and LOONG.
And the prompt winked at me.

I was a bit taken aback. But there it was. No GUI for me.
Still, I refused to give in to panic. I knew if I went back now, 2k would posatively OOZE smuggness. I have my pride. So I went to my manual shelf and pulled out the oldest book on that shelf (other than the 1975 special edition of a certain bunny eared magazine). And the cover quothe "DOS! The Complete Guide To The Most Advanced Operating System On The Planet"

I had read that dos was based on Unix, like Linux. So I was hoping the commands would be the same. And for the large part, they were. But no matter what I tried, no matter where I looked, I could not get a gui. I managed to get an graphical internet browser to open (i literally cried at that point.. colours, pointers, menus oh my!) but could not get get google to open. Finally, I decided that I must have done the installation wrong.

So I went and reinstalled slackware with THE WORKS.
And the prompt winked at me.

At this point I broke the first keyboard.