Friends... please offer me aid as i'm now an officail newbie.

In the ubuntu series i find my harddisk description as this:
/dev/sda

As we know in slackware for partitioning we either use 'fdisk' or 'cfdisk'
when i use fdisk, like mentioned:

fdisk /dev/sda

it says disk cannot be found.... or something like that

I think i know why? but i need the help of you all ... you see my hardisk has the D: E: F: as extended partitions comprising logical drives and only my C: drive is pure primary. Does this have any connection with my problem?

As from my explanation you can find that i'm atotal wreck with computers.. but i'm very thrilled to learn linux....

Also friends the reason why i need slax is that i require a traditional root account....


Do answer....

If you need root in ubuntu, run sudo passwd, set your password, then su - whenever you need to run a root terminal. Or just ctl+alt+F1 out of x and login as root.


As far as this slackware problem, I imagine a few possibilities:

• harddisk controller/disk kernel module not loaded
• loose sata/scsi/ide/power cables
• /dev/sda not being where your hard disk is (try fdisk -l)

Btw, each storage device gets its own letter. Partitions are numbered. Your extra windows formatted partitions will show as /dev/sdx5 and more along those lines.

for slackware 10.1 use /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 and so on.

If this is a SATA drive, you probably need to load another kernel while booting from the CD. I can't remember for sure what the correct kernel should be but I think it's sata.s. Where it says boot, type the kernel name that you want to use and press enter.

hello again.. i looked into using hda.. but it asks if u want to start with a zero partitioning table{y/N}....

I do believe Wim is right. Been a while since I've used Slackware. Also, sata drives use scsi commands and drivers, and so will be listed as /dev/sdx. Pata (ide) hard drives show as /dev/hdx.

And like I said, look at fdisk -l. It will print a list of your disks and their partitions. You could even post it here : ) lspci -v prints a list of your controllers and the like, useful to see how slack sees them. lsmod tells you your loaded modules. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if there isn't an sg module, your scsi hard disks won't work (see again, Wim's suggestion of booting with the sata enabled kernel).

Is there a reson you are using an old version of Slackware? The current version is 13. You would have no trouble having your sata drive recognized in the newer version.

I have not used Slackware 10 in a long time. Have you checked the notes (read me) on the cd? You may have to boot using a different kernel. You will see instructions for that when the cd first boots.

when i typed scsi1.s it says no kernel module found... any way is there any place where i can get the compressed iso of slackware 13

Hi,

Which controller are you using? This will define the choice as scsi.s, scsi1.s or scsi3.s for version 10.1 to create your bootdisk.

As for the Slackware 13 ISO you can select the mirror within the country of choice.

This link and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Having used a "few" of the Linux distros I can confirm that the rules of calling the hard disk partition names are kernel driven and by the embedded arrangements of the maintainers putting the distros together.

It is not unusual to find IDE hard disk partitions called sdax and Sata hard disk partitions hdax. The latter is particularly popular with the older and traditional distros.

The saftest thing to do is in the distro's root terminal issue the command
Whatever being use by that Linux is fully shown. So just go with the flow! Why speculate?

Hi,

Agree! But if the controller is not recognized because the proper bootdisk was not created then the only option is to get the controller recognized. You do this by selecting the proper image. For the OP, it would be to use scsi.s, scsi1.s or scsi2 for version 10.1.

Depending on the hardware the OP has then I would look at using a newer version of Slackware if possible. The only problem that may occur is with legacy hardware support.

use hda and as for the zeroing out I've usually said no with out any problems unless one of the long time users says different.

The problem is ubuntu, newer version of puppy, and a few other distros identify ide hard drives as sda, where as slackware uses hda. If one does fdisk -l in these distros the ide hard drive will still be identified as sda, just tried it in puppy 4.1. this causes confusion for newbies, who may not know what kind of hard drive they have, and for those trying to help will assume that the op has a scsi drive when they do not.

colorpurple21859,

Your assertion that the newbies are confused is true but not a Linux problem.

It has been widely publicized that after kernel 2.6.20 all SCSI, IDE, Sata and USD disks will be standardised with a common naming system of sda, sdb, sdc,... etc and the old IDE names of hda to hdd will no longer be supported.

Older distros keep the old naming system going only for the sake of running the existing systems or users prefer the old style and its stability.

Also hda to hdd IDE partitions support a maximum of 63 partitions each but the sda system limits to a maximum of 15 partitions.

I know it's not linux problem that newbies get confused, I stay confused more than most but google is my friend. I'm just saying that because some distros use the older naming system and some distros use the newer naming system that those who try to help will sometimes assume one has an scsi hard drive when they do not. I was just attempting to point this out when one is trying to help someone using a distro that uses the new hardrive naming system, trying to install a distro using the old harddrive naming system

colorpurple21859,

I only intervene if I see my comment can contribute a better understanding of the subject when there is seemingly a confusion. I could be wrong too but then other can step in.