Well I've had a troublesome time with my installation process (hence my user name ).
First a windows program hid the .iso files from me since another program tagged them as a different kind of file (grrrr).

It is version 13.37 32bit.
Then I was told to md5 sum check, which I haven't done because I've never had to before and it is only cds downloaded via Utorrent.
I used the first 3 installation downloads.
Discovered that my Compaq Evo N610c laptop, 500mb ram, 2.8ghz was overheating during installation and shuting down (some ppl thought I had a corrupt download - guess I should have said I was using the cds.)

I had a partial installl of the basic OS without Windows X or Gnome, was able to ls and see the directories, but now that I have "slowly" installed (via slectable menus and ensuring my laptop is well vetilated) I cannot ls.
I go through selecting the OS from Lilo which is installed on the mbr, then logging in as root etc.
When I startx (windowsX) I get a pretty blue screen with mouse cursor, then it slops back to the console with this message:
The desktop entry file "usr/share/applications/kde4/koffice.desktop" has type= "Application" but no Exec line.
Then some Invalid D-BUS member name 'idle-hin' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.Consolekit.Session' while parsing introspection
Seems to say no such file or directory a lot.
[I can type much more of this out if you like]

Seems like I'm missing the directories.

I realise Linux is a challenge and it has been, and it WILL be worth it - but as you can imagine I am getting a bit jaded.
I do want to reinstall again, but hopefully with some advice from you guys, perhaps this issue is an obvious problem?

FYI, Gnome is no longer part of official Slackware release.

Now regarding your issues. I would believe that your partial installation is still partial and that might be the reason for your troubles. I would suggest that you reinstall using the full installation mode to make sure that no mandatory/required package is missing.

Sorry I meant to say KDE not Gnome, and that partial install of just the console was previous, I did a full format and full reinstall. Now this is where I am, WindowsX starts up, so there must be something there on the hardrive, and I can login etc, but I can't ls(directory/folder search) on the console, I'm not sure if this is normal. I can shutdown okay.

My harddrive could be corrupted or something, I haven't done that exhaustive check it asks when installing - perhaps I ought to give it a go, any ideas on how long it takes? I have a 20gb hdd.

What is the output of 'ls'?

It does absolutely nothing.

and ?

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Another thing I noticed, when it first loaded up and ever since is:

/deve/sda2 was not cleanly unmounted, check forced.
and it does the check
This happened the very first time after I installed, and has happened more than once after (unsure if every time), I don't know if I'm logging off correctly or not and this may affect this. [note: this was caused my me not shutting down correctly]

yes ls / shows me some lovely blue(text) directory/folders yay [I won't have to reinstall again]

So perhaps WindowsX needs configuring? I have no idea, I selected 322 graphics mode when I started up (that is 800x600 32bit colour).

I will upload a photo of the crash screen from WindowsX tomorrow.

Well I loaded emacs and couldn't figure out how to do 'anything' then lucky alt+F4 worked, I will research configuring windows X.

Just for the records it's called X , nothing to do with windows

Did you try to select a DE ?

What do you mean with blue windows ?

Please try to type in a terminal (to move around easilier) and maybe post your /etc/fstab file

The graphic mode you choose when booting is for the terminal session only (which seems to be OK as you have a prompt visible) and has nothing to do with the x-org server configuration.

Depending on your Graphics board the x-server should start-up without configuration in 13.37.

If you are unsure try to do as root.
That should create a xorg.conf.new file in your root dir which you can copy into /etc/X11 and rename it to xorg.conf

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I will comment on one detail and then make an observation.

Detail: your assumption that just because "it is only cds downloaded via Utorrent" you needn't verify the md5 sums is not correct. *Anything* you download is subject to corruption. It's unlikely, but not impossible. Careful system administrators verify the md5 sums before investing a lot of time in an install.

Observation: my reading of your messages suggests to me that you are not an expert. That being the case, I don't think Slackware is appropriate for you, at least not yet. It's a marvelous distribution, but it makes more demands on the knowledge and expertise of the system administrator than some other Linux distributions. You wouldn't attempt to ski the Goat Trail or the National at Stowe if you were a beginner. I would strongly urge you to give Linux Mint or Ubuntu a try. You will find that either of them offers more hand-holding to non-experts. Once you have some experience with Linux, perhaps then moving to Slackware might be appropriate, if you are looking for what Slackware offers.

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[INDENT]I agree to md5-check downloads, but I totally disagree on this.

Once people begin with Click-buntu they take all the bad habits of Ubuntu or Mint etc.

Slackware is the perfect ditribution for a beginner if he/she is willing to invest some time and start-over in the worst case, if you made a (big) mistake.

I started myself with Slackware years ago and always came back to it after trying out whatever other distro.

(to be honest the only one I kept besides Slack is Gentoo, but for the same reason, or even because the little automatic configuration done for you in Slack has to be done from scratch in Gentoo)

But there is maybe no other distro which makes you understand Linux administration better than Slackware, even because one has to read and learn a lot.

There are no (or not many) magic GUI tools for everything! Because the price you pay for this in Ubuntu and fellows are configuration files spread over many non-standard places , "alternatives" , distro specific ways to solve things .

Someone who starts with Ubuntu will learn Ubuntu, not Linux.

And if you want to change to another Distro one day, you'll be at the same point again, you'll know nothing

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You are completely ignoring what is common to all Linuxes. They all have the same filesystems, the same applications. You learn how to name Linux/Unix files in Ubuntu just as you would in Slackware. You learn how to use emacs, or vi, or Latex, or gnumeric or bash in Ubuntu, just as you would in Slackware. So your statement that, if you change from Ubuntu to something else, you start from scratch is simply false.

I also disagree with your implied assertion that if you learn Slackware, you learn Linux sys-admin, whereas if you use Ubuntu, you learn Ubuntu. Each Linux distribution has its own characteristics and quirks regarding system administration (there's an obvious divide between the systems influenced by System V vs. BSD). Regarding system administration, there is no one Linux. Slackware has its own way of doing things, just as Ubuntu does. Setting up the network in Slackware is different than setting up the network in Ubuntu or Gentoo or Debian or Fedora. Package handling is different in Slackware vs. the apt-based distributions vs. the yum/rpm-based distributions vs. source-based Gentoo, etc.

As for your "magic GUI" comments, it's not a matter of pointy-clicky vs. editing config files. Slackware is more manual than Ubuntu or Mint, or Debian, for that matter. It does less for you, an obvious example being that it does not take care of package dependencies. For experts, that's frequently a good thing, because it's completely transparent, not doing things behind your back without your knowledge, and giving you more control to tailor your systems to be just what you need and no more. But for beginners, as the OP appears to be, at least in part by his own admission, it gives him a lot of rope to hang himself, as he has apparently done.

I am typing this at you on a Slackware system. I've got many computers in my home, and all run Slackware. But I had a 46-year career as a computer professional, working on and running software projects large and small, so I'm hardly a beginner. Slackware has served me well for years (I actually first installed it from floppies on a Zeos 486 laptop in the early 90s, 1994 I think, when Slackware was the only Linux game in town). But it is simply not the right place to start for someone who is beginning with Linux and not an expert on computers in general. I'll try one more analogy, which I doubt will work with you (that's not intended as a snotty remark; I'm referring to the fact that you and I have very different viewpoints): as the owner of a stick-shift VW diesel, I would NOT advocate teaching someone to drive on a car with a manual transmission. Teach them to steer, to brake, to control the car properly first. Don't overload them with the problems of driving a stick while trying to learn more fundamental things, like steering. Then, if driving a stick is thought desirable, it can be learned later.

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So how did people learn to drive prior to automatic transmissions?

Funny thing is that I can (and have) given Kunbuntu users advice on how to install things, but they can very rarely return the favor. Why? Because as a Slackware user, I know where the person who wrote the upstream software package placed his/her/its configuration files since Slackware very rarely patches upstream software to make it fit the Slackware way of doing things. (PAM being the notable exception at the moment.)

Now, if the OP is looking to get a job being a Linux admin, I would advise him/her/it to try one of the RedHat variants. (I don't run RedHat or its variants myself, but it's what I've seen on almost every Linux server that I've logged into/developed on.)

If the only thing you've worked with prior to running Linux is Microsoft Windows, you're in for big culture shock anyways. You might as well use a distro that is as unlike Microsoft Windows as possible so that you won't be lulled into thinking that worked over there, works over here.

I learned to drive with a stick, and I can now easily drive with automatic transmission. My wife otoh learned to drive with automatic transmission and is now a disaster in a car with a stick. I also started Linux with Slackware (and am far from an expert but I get around and manage most of the problems that may occur).

You do not need to be an expert to use Slackware, as long as you are proficient with Google and prepared to rtfm.

Just my 0.02.

Before automatic transmissions, people HAD NO CHOICE but to learn on a stick. Now they do.

So let's start kids in math with partial differential equations. Then adding and subtracting will be easy.