I am new to Slackware but have used and installed Ubuntu/FC before. I read the installation chapter in "Slackware Essentials" and are getting ready to become a slacker. But I have quite a few questions. After searching the forum for answers I decided it might be easier to get the straight answers by posting my questions, here they are:

1. Boot disks: The Ubuntu install was quite easy compared to Slackware (at least on paper). Do I need to create a boot floppy? Can I burn everything I need on a DVD and install like Ubuntu? One of the sticky posts seems to say yes but the book didn't give me the answer.

2. setup program: The book says I need to run "setup" program and start to configure. But it doesn't seem to mention 'boot disk' anymore. Is this 'setup' program coming from the boot disk? Or is it a regular Linux command?

3. Grub/Lilo. I am familiar with Grub on my Ubuntu. The book indicates that I need to use Lilo. How will this work if I want to dual-boot Ubunbu/Slackware? Can I still keep my Grub loader?


4. 12.1. My goal is to install Slackware 11.0 (strange? don't ask me why for now). Can I first start out with the latest 12.1 and downgrade to 11.0 later?

Hi,
The Slackware 12.1 can be downloaded as a DVD iso or cd iso(s). For a install of Slackware 12.1 with the cd(s) you will need cd1, cd2 & cd3 (if you need kdei). The reason you can't use boot floppies is the kernel 2.6 size will no longer fit on a 1.44 MB floppy.

You can burn the dvd iso image or the cd(s) iso images. Be sure to check your md5sum for each iso you download. I would also suggest that you check the burnt image cd/dvd to the original iso md5sum to confirm that burn is valid.

The setup program is on the install media (dvd/cd(s)) just like it was on the boot disks of earlier versions.

If you want to use Grub instead of lilo you will find it in the '/extra' directory on cd3 or dvd. You will install it after the installation.

Edit: just chainload your Slackware with your current Grub.

Sure you could use Slackware 11 but the advantage of Slackware 12.1 is the newer kernel plus more packages. Slackware 12.1 will fit your newer hardware as compared to 11.

I would suggest that you read the documentation that PV has provided; Announce 12.1, Slackware-Howto, CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, UPGRADE.TXT. Plus the other text files relevant to your needs.

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

There is no longer a boot disk for Slackware, since the kernel will not fit on a floppy disk. You can just burn the first 3 CDs (the first CD is bootable) OR the 1 DVD, which is also bootable. The easiest way is to just burn the DVD .iso image to a DVD and boot your PC with the DVD in the drive.
The 'setup' command is just a script located on the install CD/DVD. When booted with the CD/DVD, just type `setup` at the command prompt (after logging in as root and creating your partitions -- you must set up your partitions before running this command using `fdisk` or `cfdisk` [or using a LiveCD like gparted, etc.]).
You can use GRUB with Slackware if you wish -- but Ubuntu's GRUB must be patched for the default 256-byte inode size of ext2/ext3 filesystems (if you decide to use one of those filesystems, of course). I'm not sure if Ubuntu's GRUB comes patched or not. You could also format the partitions manually (or with another utility other than the Slackware installer) to create ext2/ext3 partitions with a 128-byte inode size. This is assuming that Ubuntu's GRUB is not patched -- it may be, in which case you could ignore this.

You could also install Slackware's LILO to the superblock of the root partition of your Slackware install INSTEAD of to the MBR and then just chainload LILO from GRUB. Search the forums for chainload for more information.
Downgrading is a difficult and undocumented process. I would wish you good luck if you choose to do this. You may as well just install 11.0 from the get-go if that's what you really want (why do you want to install 11.0? Fan of the 2.4 kernel?).

That book is getting outdated. Best to ask questions if anything there is unclear.

No boot floppies anymore with Slackware. That went bye-bye with release 12.0. You can create installation CDs or one DVD, whichever you need and your hardware supports. You can find the ISO images at any Slackware mirror.

During the installation you will be asked to create an emergency boot USB, which takes the place of the old emergency boot floppies. You do not need to create an emergency boot USB as you can use the CD1 or DVD as an emergency boot disk.

When you boot from CD1 or the DVD, and after you login, you type the command 'setup' and away you go. The setup command is Slackware specific.

You do not need to use lilo. I have used GRUB for years despite Slackware using lilo.

If you are familiar with GRUB then you are familiar with manually editing menu.lst. You can add a new Slackware boot option to menu.lst before or after installing Slackware. If you add after installing, then you have to first reboot into Ubuntu because obviously you do not yet have an option for Slackware. You can edit menu.lst before installing Slackware if you know the exact partitions and kernel names, etc.

Just be sure when the installation script ask you to install lilo that you respond "no" and you will avoid a mess.

That would be messy. Doable possibly for an experienced person, but messy for just about anybody. Slackware 11.0 used the 2.4.33 kernel. Slackware 12.0 started using the 2.6 kernel and the system tool chain all changed then too.

If you have Ubuntu's grub installed to the MBR, and you are planning to keep Ubuntu on a separate partition and dual boot with Slackware, then when you install Slackware, choose 'do not install lilo' when you get to the lilo part of the install. Then just add Slackware to Ubuntu's grub and you will be fine.
You will have to boot the huge-smp kernel to start out with, then create an initrd for the generic-smp kernel as per the README in SLackware's boot directory so that you can boot with the generic-smp kernel. You should use the generic-smp kernel after you install Slackware as per the Changes and Hints.txt:
http://slackware.oregonstate.edu/sla..._AND_HINTS.TXT
For reference, here is my Slackware 12.1 entries for the generic-smp and huge-smp kernels from Ubuntu's grub:
Note the initrd line is present for the generic-smp kernel, and not for the huge-smp kernel.

Hi,

Regarding my last question, if I chose to install 11.0 then would the installation process change from 12.0? For instance would I have now to create a install floppy instead of burn everything into a DVD?

The boot floppies were intended for installing on older hardware which could not boot from CD drives. If your hardware could boot from CD or DVD, like all modern hardware, you didn't need them. So, no you don't need to create them if you plan to install earlier versions of Slackware.

Hi,

That will depend on how early of a Slackware version you want to use whether the use of cd vs floppy install.

I got a couple more basic questions reading "Slackware Linux CD-ROM Installation HOWTO" for 11.0.

1. It's clear that 11.0 can be installed from CDs. I read before that I could use "dd" to burn bootdisks images (e.g., bare.i, sata.i) onto floppies. Can I use the same "dd" to burn those images onto CDs? I am using FC6 machine to do this.

2. disk partition: it seems that I can partition the disk drive during the install. Before I read I needed to do it before install. Now my machine only has a single partition for my Ubuntu. Does it mean I will have to resize and repartition my drive before install using gparted?

Thanks.

The images you speak if are from floppies (obviously) and so won't work as CD images. Also the dd command won't work - you'll need cdrecord or similar if doing this from cli. In any case - why do this ? If you are going to burn a CD then burn CD1 and 2 .iso files and install properly. If your machine won't boot from CD then look into other means of getting an install booted. The floppy disk images from Slackware 11 are here and there is a readme explaining their usage.

If you have no free space on the disk to create a new partition then you'll have to resize and create new ones for Slackware. You may share the swap space from FC6.

I am now even more confused. To boot 11.0 should I use CDs or floppy disks? I of course prefer CDs as it's hard to find floppy these days. If those images (bare.i etc) are only for floppy disks then where are the 11.0 iso images?

Sorry if I may have confused you - I thought you were referring to the floppy disk images , as I said here. These are for booting a machine that won't boot from CD.

This really is simple stuff - just download the CD/DVD iso's , burn them and boot up from CD1 (or DVD) and install.

No different from any other Linux distro really.

The Slackware 11 iso's are available here

I have a single SCSI drive that has a single partition (besides the swap partition) for Ubuntu 7.10 using ext3. To install slackware 11.0 I need to repartition it to make some room for slackware. When I highlighted the single partition /dev/sda1 in gparted the "resize" menu was grayed out. Why?

Is this normal? What else can I do to resize using gparted or other tools?

Firstly make sure you have free space on the filesystem - this is a bit obvious really. Then make sure you have the latest Gparted boot disk - you can get it here here - its version 0.3.9-4. If this still won't work you could try disk director or some other partitioning tools (although disk director is non free).

Another approach may be to drop to Gparted's terminal and try resize2fs and cfdisk/fdisk to manually resize filesystems and partitions but first I'd try purpose built tools as the cli method is a bit more involved (and risky).

edit: I found some more free tools here

I used Gparted to created a new partition for slackware. The partition table looks like:

So the /dev/sda3 is the new one. /dev/sda1 is the one hosting Ubuntu now. On slackware setup, it complained about it couldn't find any Linux partition on the disk. Why didn't it look for /dev/sda3?