Problem with zipslack
 

I'm trying to get zipslack to work, as my first linux experience.

I'm only trying zipslack first because my burner is messed up and won't let me burn anything.

Anyway, when I tried to load it using the command...

E:\ Loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev hda3 rw

It started to load up, then I got this message...

Warning: Unable to open initial consol
Kernel Panic: no init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

How can I fix this?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Re: Problem with zipslack
 

Try:
e:\loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 rw

that's was a typo, sorry. I knew the slash was supposed to be there.

Is /devhda3 a valid partition?

How did you install zipslack?

I installed it by unzipping zipslack.zip to an epmty partition, as instructed by the docs.

Is hda3 a valid partition?

I'm pretty sure, I have a 5gb secondary partition from a 20gb HD, and that's what I'm trying to install it to.The faq said think of the drives as numbers and not letter, so E:\ turns out to be 3. I tried hda3,hdb3,hdc3,and hdd3, and none worked.

Not true. If you partitioned with DOS fdisk or windows then usually

c: /dev/hda1
d: /dev/hda5
e: /dev/hda6

partitions 1-4 are called primary partitions
partitions >=5 or called logiical parititions or in DOS a logical drive in an extended partition.

A logical partition is the method by which you create more then 4 partitions. Since the original hard drive for the PC could only have 4 partitions. An extended partition is a special type of primary partition and in a nutshell is a container for logical partitions.

You can use DOS fdisk to display your partitions.

I tried hda,b,c,and d with 6 and still got nothing :-/

Is this the only hard drive on your PC?
hda - 1st controller master
hdb - 1st controller slave
hdc - 2nd controller master
hdd - 2nd controller slave
etc. etc....

As far as guessing try hda1-5 and see what happens.

To get a listing of the partitions
You can download this boot floppy disk
http://www.toms.net/rb/

Boot the floppy disk and run the following
fdisk -l

http://www.toms.net/rb/

I have another 3gb hard drive.

My main hard drive is the secondary master, and that's the one with the 5gb secondary partition, designated for linux.

It's my secondary master because my cd drives are the priamry's.

The way drives are assigned in DOS for two disks
The first disk primary partition is C:
The second disk first primary partition is d:
Then all of the first disk logical drives are assigned.
e:...
Then all of the second disk logical drives are assigned

So your e:\ drive looks like it is /dev/hdc5.

Yep that was it. Thanks.

When it booted up, All I got was a ommand line, is there any way to load up a gui, like with a desktop and whatnot?

Type 'less /faq.txt' at the command prompt and read Question 1.

Basically, download the *.tgz in the /x directory of a Slack mirror and installpkg them and configure and 'startx'.

Thanks alot for all the help. I got stuff working now.