Thank You.

I will try LILO in the superblock this time.

I am right now reading the slackbook

MHG,
If you install Slackware and find that you can't get X to start after running xorgsetup or xorgconfig, or by manually editing xorg.conf, if all else fails, just back up Slackware's xorg.conf first, then just replace Slackware's xorg.conf with the one from Ubuntu or Mandriva and it will probably work. I replaced Slackware's xorg.conf with the one from Ubuntu one time and it worked. I got the idea after reading on Woodsman's site about using a Knoppix live CD for this purpose:
http://humanreadable.nfshost.com/sde...ideo_sizes.htm

And if you can't get Ubuntu's grub to boot Slackware, you don't have to reinstall Ubuntu, just reinstall grub with the Ubuntu live CD and it will almost certainly pick up Slackware and allow you to boot it:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzo...b_with_Live_CD

Hi:

Actually this has even been improved on in Intrepid Ibex where the installation partition / MBR location of grub can now be selected as a dropdown box. Previously it was necessary to type the location in grub-speak manually: eg (hd0,2) for first hard disk and 3rd partition but now the partition name can be chosen ('sda3' in this example) and this is translated to (hd0,2).

Well it worked that way for me and I am successfully dual booting slackware 12.1 with lilo on the MBR and chainloading this to Grub and Ubuntu 8.10 both on sda3.

Andrew

Have not yet gotten slackware installed. However I have been reading parts of Slackbook while working with Debian I have installed.

Very happy to say that Slackbook appears to be a great primer for any Linux, and I have figured out a few things that had me stumped by using it.

I am hopeful that I have found a resource I will be using for some time while I learn Linux.

I just noticed this thread and read it through. Lots of good help, but
if I'm not mistaken, running lilo was mentioned only two or three times.
I'll bet that it has never been impressed on the OP that /sbin/lilo has
to be run every time a change is made in lilo.conf.

On successfully booting Slackware, he had it booted in frame #25 of this
thread. He didn't know it, because he was looking for a screen full of
pretty pictures.

On xorg.conf: Using a working one from another distribution has been
working for me for many years. If X doesn't start right away, just
substitute a known good one.

mhg,

If you can find someone, locally, that uses Slackware, they could be a
great help. Of course, there will allways be lots of good help here.

Slackware is great for someone who wants to know how things work.
Someone who would tweek his car, rather than those who only want to get
in, turn the key, and go. And with Slackware, you don't have to get hot,
cold, and greasy.

Bob

I am ready to try to install again. But now I have Mandriva and Debian already installed with GRUB. So now have to decide if I am better off installing LILO in the Slackware partition, or not install it at all and try configuring GRUB (which I could not make work last time).

Guess I can always go back and install LILO later if I still can not get GRUB configured properly.

I have slackware installed, but can not boot.

This is what my grub menu looks like:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-6-686 (single-user mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-686 root=/dev/hda5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-686
savedefault

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Slackware
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-huge- root=/dev/hda6 ro
initrd /boot/vmlinuz-huge- root=/dev/hda6
savedefault

When I try to boot to Slackware I get error:
"can not find file"

I was trying to follow the instructions from the Ubuntu forum.

Please note: debian is now on /dev/hda5, and slackware is on /dev/hda6

Is the initrd line that is wrong?

Thanks

The correct path is /boot/vmlinuz-huge-smp-2.6.24.5-smp, so your kernel line is incorrect as written. However, you do not need an initrd to use the huge-smp kernel, so your initrd line can be omitted.

I think the easiest way would be to install LILO to the superblock of Slackware's root partition and just chainload from GRUB, as explained before. If you do want to get GRUB working, I'm still not sure if the 256-byte inode size (as described earlier) has any relevance here. If it does, then you will never, ever get Slackware up and running using an ext2/3 filesystem using the unpatched GRUB provided by Ubuntu/Debian (if it is indeed unpatched, which I am not sure of), unless you reformat the Slackware partition with an inode size of 128 bytes and THEN install Slackware again WITHOUT reformatting the partition. AGAIN: THE EASIEST SOLUTION WOULD BE TO INSTALL LILO TO THE SUPERBLOCK OF SLACKWARE'S ROOT PARTITION AND CHAINLOAD FROM YOUR EXISTING GRUB.

Hi mhg

Just for fun:
Try this in your grub menu.lst



title My Mighty Slack-Box (/dev/hda6)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal

That worked. I can boot to slackware.
Can not startx.
Ran xorgsetup.
added user.
logged in as user
attempted to run xorgconfig
could not save xorgconfig file (message "maybe you need to be root?")

Stuck at that point, unable to figure out how to get beyond. Restarted only to find out that I have created a problem with Debian. Something about I was logged in for less than 10 seconds, and then sends me in circles from there.

I'll take the dog for a walk and see how I feel.

If it were not for my curiosity, I would say screw this and dedicate my time to Debian.

I am booting, so that is some progress (well maybe not, one step forward getting slackware to boot, two steps back in losing debian, so I guess that means I have lsot ground)

Thanks for the interest here.

mhg:
I never mess with xorgconfig.
Try this:

boot to Slack > log in as root > "xorgsetup" (again) > "logout" > login as user > "startx"

http://www.supergrubdisk.org

Do you have a line like this near the top of grub menu.lst :
default saved
(it is needed if you use savedefault feature)

I went through the steps again.

When I "startx" I get two messages:
timeout in locking autority file /home/mike/serverauth.5501
timeout in locking autority file /home/mike/xauthority

Thanks

You need to be root to change xorg.conf. As this can entail settings for video hardware, if you have nvidia or ati boards, there are additional binary files to run. These are usually proprietary. Vesa, if I remember, did work out of box for me, though. Don't worry about X yet. You want to concentrate on getting your multibooting to work. This should be easy for you.

Midnight Commander is a great program for seeing file directory structure and for editing files. After booting as root in slackware, type cd /boot/grub and then mc and enter.

You should see menu.lst BUT perhaps also menu.lst.old... Look at the .old's for the debian entry and make the correction in menu.lst. (lst is lower case of LST). In midnight commander, F4 opens file, F2 saves, F10 exits and asks about saving.

If the menu.lst that debian originally used was on a different partition,
cd /mnt
look if hd is there. If not mkdir hd
mount /dev/hda5 hd
cd hd
then use mc to look at that partition's boot/grub/menu.lst

Concur that you do not want initrd line for slackware huge kernel. I've also never seen that savedefault line.

I would not worry about X yet until you are comfortable that your grub booting works.

After that you will need to post more info to get X working. For example, are you using kde or xfce? What did you tell slackware install to use?

What is your hardware? Motherboard and video card?