Intellistation Epro, 600MHz PIII, 128 RAM, 13.5GB harddrive, no operating system.

Ive been trying to get linux on my new computer for the past 2 months now and have accomplished nothing. This is my first experience with linux and it has been insane. Previously I have tried to install Red Hat 7.2, Peanut linux, and FreeBSD all with no success (I didn't have the proper software to make the install CDs correctly). Now I have obtained a Slackware 9 iso cd which I was assured was working. It boots the computer just fine and allows me to use fdisk to partiton my harddrive. After partitioning I use setup to begin the installation. It allows me to format my swap partition and format my root partiton (to keep things simple for myself I have only been creating 2 partitions). Following that I am led to a "SOURCE" menu which asks me which installation media I will be using. I choose CD-ROM and then let it auto scan for the CD drive which contains a Slackware CD-ROM. It stops here. I have tried to select the drive manually numerous times but it still hangs.
Am I missing something painfully obvious? Is there any possibility that the CD drive is broken? And if so, is there any way of me finding out for sure? I am completely out of ideas.

also, when it's scanning the CD light comes on. I feel that's a good thing.

Two questions: 1. When the CD light comes on, what happens next? What should happen is that a status message will come up saying that a CD was detected at /dev/hdc (or whatever). Press Enter and things will start. 2. If nothing happens, maybe you Slack CD is no good, despite comments to the contrary. Did you run an MD5SUM on it? If not, you should. Many times a download and burn can appear to go smoothly, but after banging your head against the wall several times, you realize that the d/l was corrupted.

In any case, the steps you've outlined sound correct to me, at least up that the point that you say the CD light comes on. As I mentioned, your system should detect your CD and all you need to do at that point is hit Enter. Assuming that you haven't removed the CD, it should continue. -- J.W.

alright thanks. I actually just let it scan for CD for a long time 20+min. then it found it, weird. So I got everything installed but now I'm having trouble booting, I'll make a different post about that if I need to.