I am trying to install Slackware just to try out the distro, I have used Red Hat and Mandrake before but I had a lot of problems with them. Their installation were easy, well much easier than Slackware. I have downloaded the iso of Slackware and have successfully burnt it. I am a newb to Linux and not sure how to partition my drive. Here is what I did:

Created:
hda1 - primary drive, Linux native, 83
hda2 - primary drive , swap, 82

I tried to use the simplest setup so it wont go wrong. But instead after the WHOLE installation, just when it seems that everything was going good, there was an error. After I rebooted my screen looked like this:

ERROR
0x00
ERROR
0x00
ERROR
0x00
and so on.. and so on... my whole screen.

I cant go anywhere from there and tried several times installing it with different partitions: I tried making my swap partiion a Logical instead of primary drive to no avail. I read that there might be something wrong with my iso cd and that some person had to burn it 3 times. I have no idea how to check that my cd is correct, except for a program called md5sum or something? Could anybody tell me what i am doing wrong? and the exact url on where to get md5sum to check my cd, and how to use md5sum cuz i am a noob.

Here are my system specs:

AMD Athlon 1.5ghz
80gb hard drive
128 mb ram

Thank you for any replies!

I am not sure but the problem described sounds like it might be a left over master boot record on the hard disk from the prior installs. Slack is based on lilo, and the other distros you mentioned I think are based on Grub. I would suggest first attempting to install lilo to the master boot record, MBR, of the hard drive and give it a try.

I do not think another install is reguired. Boot the install CD and at the boot prompt, enter "bare.i root=/dev/hda1". Use the partition that currently has the root of the Slackware install. The system should boot and load the Slack install. Login is root using the password you setup. Then at the console prompt run the script "liloconfig". I would suggest using the expert mode and answer the questions. Install location use the MBR option. Be sure to add your root partition and boot kernel, etc. Just name it Linux for simplicity. It can be changed again later if you desire. Install lilo and then exit, reboot.

I think the system will at least then boot the kernel and start loading the system.

To verify at least your slackware install directory on the CD, then boot the install CD and answer all the prompts like you normally would. Log in as root. Mount the install CD and proceed.

mount /dev/hdd /cdrom #use the device for your cd reader
cd /cdrom/slackware
md5sum --check CHECKSUMS.md5 | less

The process will report each of the files as it is checking them. Please expect errors on the k and kdei trees normally. I think it is something like 262 files that are missing because they will not fit on the CD. If all is well, then you should have a good Slack install.

Thanks bud, slackware is now on my computer and works great. I just have one more little question could anybody tell me how I would get Gnome to work? i know i have to type startx for kde but how about gnome?

thanks!

Run xwmconfig after you login, select gnome and then do startx.

Thanx got it to work now from your help!
Wow this forum is great for newbies like me.

haha one more thing i stumbled upon, how do i get my mouse wheel to work? kinda frustrating since i was so used to it.

thank u.

I just completed my first installation of slack 8.1 and linux in general. Do i always need a boot disk to start LInux? When i reboot it just hangs at the dos screen with a cursor.

Thanks from a newbie

Got it booting correctly by writing LILO to the MBR but if i wanted to dualboot i would see this as a problem.

Crows, if you want to dual boot you just add an entry to lilo.conf for the second OS, and run lilo to update the MBR.

saiz66, you need to edit your XF86Config add the following to the pointer section,