what are window manager are u running now?
I assume it is KDE since u said something about bootmanager.

A terminal / console is the thing that looks like dos.
Instead of c:\
you get root@s9:/# (for example)

To kick start a terminal/console, click on the icon which looks like a computer monitor on your kde panel. If it is there.
If not look for xterm in the programs menu.

To read from cd-roms or floppies, you need to mount it first.
to mount a cd,

at the console(terminal) type:
mount /dev/cdrom -r /mnt/cdrom
That is assuming that /dev/cdrom is link appropriately to your cdrom drive. If that doesn't work you need to find out where is your cdrom as in Secondary master/slave or Primary master/slave. And use /dev/hdX replace X with correct letter.

as for floppy, you need to:
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

make sure you unmount it before u take out the floppy and the cd. To unmount make sure your current working directory is not at where you mounted your cd-rom or floppy. And issue this command:
umount /dev/cdrom (for cd-rom)
umount /dev/fd0 (for floppy)

You are a newbie! And very ambitious starting out with slackware.

Slackware is not difficult to install as you've found out, but you'll need to do some configuration to get it running the way you want. That's the price of having a fast stable linux system.

Best thing you can do is google up the "Slackware FAQ" and "Slackware Tips & Tricks" The second is by JacK Lai don't know who did the other one.

You'll find most of what you need to get your configuration completed.

Not to toot my own horn but theres also a How To listed under "Other How To's" that I contrbuted to www.linuxpackages.net which tells how I did some of the things you need/want to do (like getting your sound card module loaded at boot.

The correct run level you want is 4. It is expalined in a text file on your 1st install CD.

There is an ap in slack for configuring lilo> I can't remember the command and I'm not on a slack box right now so I can't check it out.

Check out the three pages I mention above for starters. If you don't understand something, google it.

If you can live without windows for a day or two use your slack boot disk untill you understand what you need to do with lilo.

It's not hard if you don't rush yourself. But your going to learn more than you'll ever learn with an eyecandy default install distro and end up with a very slick system.

Come back here and post if you need more help but you should first try to find the answers yourself and you'll need to understand a bit before you can ask some questions.

Cheers

Rick