SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
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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:
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.
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?
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.
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