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Old 05-12-2003, 02:23 PM   #1
Lugh
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Registered: May 2003
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nOOb install question




I could just sit here all day and watch the newbie anime.

I'm trying to install slack-9 on my laptop.

I created a boot disk, trying a few different images. I get to the kernel parameter screen and hit enter (bare.i detects my cd-rom so I figure that's good enough). It runs for a little bit and then gets to the message
"VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER"
I didn't read anything in the slack-howto about this and I don't know what to do; when I press enter I get "RAMDISK: Coudln't find..."
---
I got slack-9 on 2 CDs from someone with the intent to install. I dont want to do mkisofs myself because I don't have a burner to make my own install CD with, but the contents (of the CDs) look like the FTP site... and I have no clue at all if I can install with these CDs or not.

Thank-you!!
 
Old 05-12-2003, 03:31 PM   #2
SyntheticBlue
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Registered: May 2003
Location: Maryland
Distribution: Slackware 9.0
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the contents of the cd arn't sopose to look like the ftp site its sopose to be quite a large number of files. whoever you got the cd from probably didn't burn the iso file as an image but just burned it as data. i made the same mistake when i was install. bout it asking for a rootdisk maybe u need to make one u can download it off the site here's a link:ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/...9.0/rootdisks/ download the necessary root disk from there and right them to a floppy and try that and see what happens. between y do u have it on 2 disc??? if you burned the iso all u need is one
 
Old 05-12-2003, 03:44 PM   #3
chemzar
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Location: Storrs, CT
Distribution: Slackware 9.0
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That is true if you just burned the iso, but if you want all the features, then it won't fit on one disk. Even doing what the burning FAQ suggests won't compress it down to one disk for some reason (it used to or when I tried it didn't work).
 
Old 05-12-2003, 04:11 PM   #4
webtoe
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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Cambridge, England
Distribution: Slackware 10, Fedora Core 3, Mac OS X
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huh!?!

The cd, if you look at it in windows, will look <strike>exactly</strike> almost exactly like the ftp site location ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware-9.0/
except there will be relevant stuff on it to load a basic system and start the installer. It will also be missing the zipslack and 'extras' bit (the latter is on the second cd).

I take it your laptop can't boot from the cd? Most recent machines can, though they may need their settings changed slightly in the bios. You need to tell the machine to first check the floppy drive, then the cd drive then try and load off the hard disk.

From the sounds of it, the boot disk is politely informing you to stick the cd in the drive and let it finish the boot off that. It sounds like its being old fashioned though. You may not believe it but slackware used to be one of the distros you could install with floppies alone (and I think you still can). It's letting you remove the disk that you've just used and put the next one in. Ive never used a boot disk to install but it shouldn't have anything to do with the kernel you're using since the bare.i kernel that you've used seems to have worked fine. Check the docs again, see if you need to have another floppy ready to start a basic system, or whether you've missed putting something else on the disk that is needed.

You'll only need the first cd, the installation cd, the second one should hold extra progs and source code.

HTH

Alex

Last edited by webtoe; 05-12-2003 at 04:28 PM.
 
Old 05-12-2003, 06:44 PM   #5
Lugh
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Registered: May 2003
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Thanx for your input...

Yes, I am unable to boot from the CD. I have configured my laptop to check (in order) the floppy, CD then HD. When I boot it tells me my slack CD is not a bootable disk.

There is a directory devoted the boot disks, which contains several images. The docs say to try one after the other until your PC works, and maybe include extra drivers where appropriate. (which I have no idea how to do, or identify what i'm missing).

I was hoping someone would recognize the error and tell me what I am missing or doing wrong. I also wanted to know whether my CDs were suitable for installing from.

Thanx again!!
 
  


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