Then, how you get the hard disk space to install Slackware? You had some free space on hard drive?

And very important: what size have the Linux partition you created and where you installed Slackware?

Thanks for the info. I won't go down the path and just fix up the installation.

I gave another try for half of hour or so without a luck.

I create a user and log into as the user. What I see is the same for root login, not GUI.

The command

yields an output showing sda 118.G and sda1 39M and sda2 111.7G. The sda2 is the Windows partition type which I leave it alone. If I only really have 39G for Linux, there isn't any meaning to do anything.

And in the lilo.conf file, I add
I still don't see a Windows boot option.

On what do you expect linux partition ? Sdb ?

After changing lilo.conf, you have to run as root
What does as user

Makes sense on having an 118G hard drive (probably a SSD of 128GB) and two partitions, one of 39M and one of 111.7G .

Unfortunately, 39MB is NOT equal with 39GB, and certainly you cannot install Slackware 14.2 or -current in a partition with a size of 39MB. Then you have a failed Slackware installation.

How I suspect that that 39MB partition is a boot partition for Windows, IF your 111.7GB Windows partition is encrypted, probably you lost your Windows with no way to recover it.

You have no way with this partitions setup to install Slackware and preserve Windows, then I recommend you to abandon for now to try to install Slackware and instead to try to repair your Windows. Did you have a full backup of Windows, BTW?

I apologize in front of you on behalf of other forums members, who had been mislead you in brooking your Windows installation!

BUT, probably you learned a valuable lesson: never follow blindly the suggestions made by unknown individuals on Internet without having a full&fresh backup of all your valuable data, including the operating system(s)

Thanks for your insight. Sorry, I mistyped the partition size. I don't have a backup Windows. If I can't recover the Windows boot, I have to reinstall Windows XP. It is disappointing for sure.

IF you are going to reinstall Windows XP, and you still want also to install Slackware, I suggest you to install first the Slackware, then the Windows.

A full installation of Slackware 14.2 occupies around 12GB, then I suggest you to create 2 partitions, at the end of disk, leaving a generous free space for (the future) Windows at the begging of disk:
- one of 40GB for the operating system - this is a reasonable size but maybe you want one bigger, if you intend to download a lot of files in future.
- one of 4GB for Linux SWAP -in fact, it should be equal with the size of your memory, when you have lower (or equal) than 4GB memory, half of memory size, if you have 8GB or more.

Another way is to create a NTFS partition for Windows, instead of leaving free space. Windows XP can run well from a single partition, if there is no encryption or UEFI - this UEFI thing is very important, as you should use a different way to setup your bootloaders and UEFI needs a small FAT32 partition of 30 - 100MB at beginning of disk. You should ask further questions on this case.

After you install Windows, it will break the Linux bootloader, then you should have at hand a live system or the installation kit, to repair your boot.

I test the installation. Here is my finding.

1) Slackware seem running fine with an exception on wired internet connection. It can access DVD drive, USB, as well as the hard drive.

2) the Windows boot seems messed up. I get an error after having the Windows boot and it prompts to an error check autmotically. And the PC can't fix the error.

Again, the output of "lsblk -o name,size,fstype
And in the lilo.conf file
Can the Windows boot be fixed based on the above inforamtion?

vw98008 I'm making an assumption that you are at least somewhat new to Linux and have used XP for quite some time. The importance of this is that implies you have little experience at any command line work and relate more to a graphical interface. That's fine. It just takes some consideration.

If this is true, I implore you to download something like the aforementioned Hirens or even just GParted live CD, "burn" and boot, so you can SEE how Linux lables your partitions instead of just guessing, for example, that Windows is seen as /dev/sda1. It might be since it apparently tries to boot but you need deeper tools to repair whatever is wrong with that partition/file system.

Perhaps a better method, since GParted comes with Slackware, is to just do this at your Runlevel 3 root prompt AFTER you have run "adduser vw98008 (or whatever you wish your user account to be named)

That will get you to the GUI login where you will see a menu that includes choices for WindowManagers/DesktopEnvironments, one of which should be default either by your selection during install or your running "xwmconfig" after install. Entering your name and password will get you to User Desktop where you can run "gparted" by just typing it in a terminal or the Search Bar in some launcher menu area, such as in KDE.

Then you can see exactly how your disk is divided and labelled. The advantage of a tool like Hirens is that it has BOTH a bootable WinXP environment and a bootable Linux environment you select in the initial Menu. The XP environment has partitioning and file system tools appropriate for repairs and also has bootloaders like EasyBCD that have a great deal more functionality than the windows bootloader. It may be useful until you become more familiar with dual booting to have some redundancy, in other words where Linux bootloader can boot Windows and Windows bootloader can boot Linux.

Until you can see where you are, you can't "find your way out". You have Slackware running. First get into a somewhat familiar environment, Run "startx" as your User, or run "kdm" as root. Then at least you can see.

I am really very sorry, but looks like that that Windows XP (or even bits of its data) does not exists anymore in your computer.

Because, apparently, you formatted as EXT4FS your Windows partition, then you installed the Slackware over - and this is about at least 12GB of data randomly overridden.

Then I doubt that you can recover even a bit of data from the former Windows partition, at your level of knowledge - and will be very hard even for an advanced Linux and/or Windows user to recover something.

IF you still want to repair your former Windows XP, I believe that you should reinstall it from zero.

Oops! My sincere apology. I missed the significance of the "lsblk" output. First that LuckyCyborg is correct in deducing that XP has been reformatted and overwritten and secondly the difficulty in getting by with a 120GB drive. XP by itself can be pretty small but if you install anything or actually use the system it can easily take up over half, if not most, of 120GB, especially if you are a gamer or save photos and videos.

Similarly with Slackware one can kinda get by with 30GB but very soon you will run out of space. This comes far too late (sorry) but those familiar with and dependent on Windows are best suited to use 2 drives and some even disconnect the Windows drive to avoid inadvertent mistakes.

As things are now, I suggest you get a 2nd drive to reinstall XP on it, if you wish to keep using XP. If for any reason you can't get a new drive, and feel too new at Linux, it's probably best to reinstall XP and use LiveSlack on a USB stick until you feel comfortable.

I have to reinstall Windows XP at this point and add a Linux distro such as Slackware later. To prevent any future mistakes, I need to provide the following information.

Motivation & requirement: want to have a better user experience on an old 32-bit PC. Windows XP is too slow even for browsing the web on the PC, but Windows XP is still needed for some usage situations. A command-line operation shall not be in the new OS setup (after the installation) because the old PC is for people without any CL operation skills. An addtional non-Enlgish language of the Linux distro will be preferrable.

Partition: 40G of 120G HD for Windows XP and 4G or the same size of memory for Linux SWAP. (how about root and home partition for Linux ?)

If I want to use Slackware as the secondary OS, I use to run the command "kdm" to eliminate any CL operations.

I love to see interest for slackware, but are you sure that it's what you're looking for ?

You could have a root partition of 20 GB and a home partition taking up the remainder of your hard drive. That would give you 4 partitions which would work.
No judgment here; are you paying for security updates for Windows XP? Microsoft is no longer supporting XP unless you pay for updates. If that XP install is not fully patched and connected to the Internet it's a security risk (just my 2 cents worth).
Best of luck sorting this out, mate.

How much RAM do you have? If you have less than 2 Gb, then you need to upgrade, preferably to the full 4 Gb allowed on a 32-bit machine before you do anything else.

I have an old nettop PC with 1 Gb RAM and Slackware 14.2 installed. Firefox does not run on it, even under a lightweight window manager like Fluxbox. I use it basically as a command-line music player, so a GUI is not necessary.

Install Windows first, and partition your drive as one 60 GB drive as your first partition, leaving the rest blank. After Windows is fully running, then boot your Slackware install drive, and run cfdisk. Windows (NTFS) should already be sda1 as the only partition. Create sda2 as a 4 Gb swap partition (Type 82), and the rest (56 GB or so) as your Slackware partition, sda3, type 83 (Linux). Then install Slackware the usual way.

If you create a symlink between your "C:\My Documents" directory and a directory inside your home directory, you'll be able to access your personal stuff in both Windows and Linux.

Forget about running KDE4 (of which kdm is a part) with low RAM. As you described, XP will barely run.