New - Partitioning Help (was "can't boot installation disk")
 

I changed the BIOS settings to make it load from CD first, it does *try* to read it,because the light of the reader flashes. This is my first experience with Linux, so I don't know, should I have a .iso on the CDs or separate files?
Right now, I have something like:
bootdisks
isolinux
kernels
rootdisks
slackware


As folders in CD1, and some files like "README", "ChangeLog","Packages" and "FAQ" as files.

It goes just before the booting of the OS, and displays the flashing " _ " in the black background (Which it normally doesn't do), yet it always goes to Windows, no promptingor anything.
What am I doing wrong? I haven't done any partitioning or anything, just changed the BIOS so far.
Anything else I need to do?

hi there ,

your cd looks fine ( the dir's on it ), only it won't boot.

you could do several things:

1) get " smartbootmanager " from here.
http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm
( there's a howto to make a floppy to boot with, you'll get a menu to choose bootdevice like the cd )

2) create 1 boot- and two root-floppys ( look at the README-files in /boot and /root on the cd. on howto do that. )
with these floppys you can also install Slackare.

egag

I just downloaded that .dsk file for the floppy, and copied it to a floppy disk. Rebooted, and it said "Incorrect disk, change disk and press any key to continue" :(
But what is making me unable to boot from the CD's?

you must use a program like this:
http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/rawrite/rawwritewin-0.7.zip
to write the image to a floppy. ( did you use that ?)

and maybe your cd is not 100% or maybe your pc is " old " so the cd won't boot ?
( can be more possible reasons...... )

egag

And where do I find the .img file it asks for? All I have is .i and .s things...

Took a guess and used that program to write the .dsk file to the floppy, and it comes up with "SBMK Bad!".

*whistles?*

maybe your smb-image is bad or so ? ( or that floppy ...did you try another floppy ? )

to use the boot- an root-images from the cd ( like " bare.i " is a boot-image),
just juse rawritewin to write those to a floppy ( you need 3 in that case )
read the README.TXT-files in /bootsidisks and /rootdisks on your cd.

egag

I was able to get to the installation using floppies.
Everything was well.....until I realized I only have one partition, using 100% of my hard drive...Partition Magic demo doesn't work :(

if there's nothing on that disk, just use fdisk to remove the old and make the new partitions
if you want to shrink existing partitions: there's lots of programs around
" able " to do that ; just google for " partition shrink " or so.
( i never used them and they don't promise it'll work ok, so backup data )

egag

from the command line after you get booted up, run cfdisk. I assume there is nothing you want to save or back up.

Ok, used Partition Magic (my father's copy) to resize the main partition (Windows, has stuff) to 41.582,3MB, and unpartitioned (Slack-to-be) 36.577,7MB

I'm confused at Slack's installation using fdisk though, about the starting cilinders and everything >.>

I only know I want like...29GB for me to use, and I know there are other things I need (Like /usr and /opt and such) and that0s where I want the other 6 GB to go.
Don't know what it wants when it talks about cilinders though, I only found a tutorial that talked about them, but it was about the author's own installation, not about what to do with the cilinders etc...

Tried to do it myself, and thank god it doesn't write automatically @_@

Can anyone tell me what I should do there? >.< Thanks!

Is there any way I could make the partitions in Partition Magic and use those in Slack installation? If so, how?

just use fdisk ( like "fdisk /dev/hda" ;type "m " for commands )
you only need a root , home and swap partition. ( swap = 2x memory or so ).

and just look at how many cyl.'s are free; devide the free space by that nr. and you've got the amount of MB/cylinder.

egag

Would this be ok?
http://200.89.128.101/pm2.jpg