Adding X to zipslack (from my slackware 9.1 cd)
 

Hello, i recently got zipslack going (might i add from my NTFS filesystem on winxp) and im now wondering how i will throw X or any form of Gui on to it?

I have slackware 9.1 (2 cd's) and am wondering if this eliminates me from having to download the appropriate measures for getting x to work with zipslack.

Ill need to know what measures to take, what files to copy from my cd (Will it be just a case of throwing a few files in to my C:/Linux Dir?)

And mostly i can seem to be able to mount my cd drives (i dont know how its done)
I assumed just typing cd /mnt/cdrom but this dosent work
.
Zip slack has pkgtool and pkginstall so im wondering what to do.
I read the Phoenix Guide one of the members here made but it does not answer this question.

Thankyou.

There is info on installing X onto zipslack on the slackware web site
www.slackware.com

to mount the cdrom (you have to do this from root, well on mine I do)

mount /dev/hd? /cdrom

hd? where ? = a =ide0, b=ide1 etc

/cdrom is in the top level dir on my zipslack


just use installpkg to install the X packages and what ever window manager you want

These are the files i just took from my slackware CD and i want to know if they are the right ones i need.

xfree86-4.3.0-i486-5
xfree86-fonts-misc-4.3.0-noarch-2


(Weirdly they have no real format but somhow they are showing as Winrar icons and i am able to view there contents, are these the ones i need? if so i have put them in my root dir and will pkginstall them there.

There should be an extension. They should come in sets of three, with a tgz, txt, and asc. You'll want the tgz. And those two will do a minimal X. You'll probably need the devel .tgz, too, though, eventually.

Yep the asc ones are xxx.tgx.asc then the text and then the the extentioneless ones i mentioned, so they must be it.

What other packages can you see me having to install to have a nice X without to much to overwhelm me.

Im already guessing i wont be able to figure out installing those pckages unless they simply install with no configuration needed after i pkginstall them (of course i have to xconfigure).

I wouldent mind using somthing Sleek and fast, but configurable and robust.
As i am using a radeon 9200 im not planning to use any 3d games.

I forget. I think that covers it except for some of the other font packages - you may or may not need those, depending. There's some other X stuff like xnest, but that's completely optional.

To get X going in ZipSlack is really pretty easy, depending on how X gets along with your display. IIRC, the only configuration necessary is the XF86Config file. You can do more, of course, as far as customizing your X startup and app defaults and on and on, but the one config is about all that's really vital.

Alright cool sounds promising.
When i have finished downloading this Live freebsd distro that caught my attention i will bot zipslack up and see how it all goes.
Mind you i have had utter hell with my graphics card and booting X on all the distros i have.

I quite like the idea of zip-slack, i just dont get why it is not so popular, i mean most of the people like slackware for a few reasons- one of them always seems to be the mention of it not being so bloated- but dosent zip-slack deplete that more so than the full slack?
So where is the fan base?

Well, while it can be put on a regular Linux filesystem, it's really intended to run on UMSDOS and supposes you have a DOS-based (6x or 7x) system with a FAT partition to run it from. With a lot of people on NTFS or not wanting to have an MS system to boot it from, I guess it's just not as popular. Plus maybe people misunderstand what it is and think it's some busybox-based hacked version and don't realize it's a real Slack except for the default filesystem. Does wonders for a P100 with a tiny hard drive, too. :)

Hope you have good luck with the display. I'm running it X-less this time, but it did well for me once.

All you have to have is the xfree86-4.3.0 and xfree86-fonts-misc packages. But you'll want a windowmanager alos. I recommend windowmaker from /xap series.
Even though there is a /cdrom dir I usually create one in /mnt:
mkdir /mnt/cdrom
Then:
mount /dev/hd? /mnt/cdrom
then:
cd /mnt/cdrom and continue navigating to /slackware/xap
then 'ls' to see the packages, then
installpackage windowmaker*.tgz
You'll also need libungif from the /l series for windowmaker to work
windowmaker will get you a nice start unless you want go with kde, in which case you'll need kdelibs and kdebase as a minimum
Then before actually running X , you'll need to run xf86config in order to configure it. There are also xf86cfg, xf86cfg -textmode, and xfree86setup that will help do the same thing. However xf86config is the best of the 4.

Thanks for the thumbs up, but i have a pondering question.
Im running WinXP home (NTFS)- I can run zipslack, is my system alienated or is this normal.
Is it not FAT only?

Thanks also for that gnashley, i will definatly be giving that a shot and posting back how it all went.
Im eager to do this now but i wont take the risk of not being able to resume my so far 350 of 550 mb download.

(i really hate Australian internet limitations, compared to the Americana's and other countrys our limits and bandwith should be illegal)

You're running ZipSlack on a WinXP NTFS partition? How'd you manage that?

(If you want to try fluxbox, I don't think it needs any additional libs at all. But most xaps will, anyway, so it doesn't make much difference.)

I did absaloutly nothing to get it working, i simply throw the floppy in to boot it, and of we go.
Had problems at the start but eventually through some play with the configs i got it running.

Yeah, I wanta know also how you got ZipSlack to run on NTFS. Are you sure you don't have XP running on FAT32? If you really have it running on NTFS we're going to have to give you a medal or something. I've never tried it since it not supposed to. So give the details.
What I like best about ZipSlack is this: I repartition my hard drive a lot and using ZipSlack I can alwas make a new ZIP file of the whole thing and save it somwhere, then after rearranging everything all I have to do is unzip it, edit linux.bat, and immediately I am running just like before: no lost configurations, mail, favorites or anything. And when I want a larger install on a ext2 or reiserfs partition I just copy it over, add what I need and Voila!
Details about that NTFS, please.

Drive G:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 8.14 GB (8,735,211,520 bytes)
Free Space 4.97 GB (5,337,853,952 bytes)
Volume Name
Volume Serial Number 04A096EF

I've been running around for the last 20 minutes rebooting four different systems on two different boxes copying crap from hard drives and cds and floppies. Finally got rawrite and the bootdisk and zipslack and NTFS - all my ducks in a row. I just get a UMSDOS failure and then a reiser (?) failure and a kernel panic, just like before. (I tried it once from the hard drive and using a regular boot disk when I was trying to help someone else out with their zipslack.)

You just used rawrite on the bootdisk.img out of the zipslack stuff? What do you pass at the prompt?

Cuz, yeah - a medal would definitely be called for.