Ah, beautiful! Thanks, guys!

I should be good to go. I'm just going to read the tutorials first, and if it all seems straight-forward, I'll go ahead and do an actual install- or, if it sounds "iffy", I'll try an install on a virtual machine first, to be safe (Although I haste to do that, as it will likely take a long time...and it will all be wasted time).

I think I am about to embark on something great here!

Indeed, Sumguy misread my post. Here is what I actually said:

(Emphasis on occupies was added)

I was talking about Slackware taking up 6.8Gb of space on your hard disk once it is installed. The XZ compressed packages are substantially smaller.

I should also mention, there have been two releases since 13.37. Slackware 14.1 is closer to 8Gb installed. As a side note, this is substantially smaller than a modern Windows or MacOS install and yet includes a lot more useful stuff out of the box.

Indeed! Mr. Volkerding ensures that high quality software is included with each release of Slackware.
Slackware forever, man.

You can stray as much as you want from Slackware, but regardless, somehow, someway, you always come back to Slackware. It's just that good.

3 members found this post helpful.

Welcome on board (well, almost!) In addition to what other Slackers already suggested, I recommend that you subscribe to Slackware's mailing lists, in particular to the "slackware-security" one. This way you will receive every announcement regarding important security updates directly into your mailbox, and you will also experience another aspect of Slackware's stability: you're not going to have to update your system very often. Moreover, right now a release is supported, de facto, for at least five years: that's true LTS.

I'd say that the website is definitely up to date, see the changelogs, while it does provide some "historical" information. Regarding floppies, the book Slackware Linux Essentials was released in 2000 (1. edition) and in 2005 (2. edition), so it made sense to mention them. The book is still an excellent, valuable, enjoyable reference, and it's definitely worth reading. For more recent stuff see also the revised Slackbook (still a work in progress), the documentation project and also the docs included in the distribution's file tree.

Yes. For example, right now I'm typing this one on a 2000 Pentium III laptop (fluxbox), while relying on a more powerful box (2003 Pentium IV) for more demanding tasks (X11 forwarding via ssh). I personally don't need more, most of the time.

So you're from the Blue Grass Country. That's cool. I've read somewhere (probably an interview) that PV used to pick the banjo himself.

Funny- I haven't even installed Slackware yet...but learning what I have about it, so far, I'm thinking "Once you go slack, you never go back".

Thanks! I think I've found a Linux subculture here which is far more to my liking than some others.



...and the beauty is, if the security updates are few and far between, I may actually DO them! (I'm the guy who, back in my WinD'oh's daze[sic], used WIN98 from '99-'07, and I think I updated it twice.)



It was just weird, looking for installation instructions, and reading about floppies!


Well, actually I'm an ex-New Yorker.....but believe me, I'm more hillbilly than most of the natives! .....until I open my mouth, at which time I inevitably hear "You ain't from around here, are ya?" -at least that's what my wife/sister says....

One quick questione, guys:

When installing Slack, can I skip installing the LILO [I'll be dual booting with my existing Crunchbang], and then do as I did when I installed my last distro< which was: After the installation, boot-up my other OS, and then temporarily mount the Slack file system, and run "update-grub", so that my existing grub will recognize the Slack? Or should I just use the included LILO, assuming it will recognize my Crunchbang- or can be made to, without too much difficulty?

One more! One more!

My hard drive is already partitioned, with a common swap area; a Crunchbang root and home; and my AntiX OS. Do I have to first wipe the Antix, or will the Slackware installer just format and write in that partition if instructed to? (I'm watching a Slack installation video on Youtube right now...but the guy just kind of skips over the details of that part, as he is using his entire disk.)

I probably won't get around to installing Slack for a few days- as I don't want to rush it; I want to wait till I have a nice block of time, where I can take my time and do it right- plus do the requisite reading in advance. So keep the tips coming!

Um Sum... you may want to requote a few of those statements... I never said some of them. Heh.

Done and done! Sorry about that, my grim friend.

You install LILO into the Slackware root/boot partition and add it as a chainloader to your favorite boot manager. Then you boot Slackware just as you boot DOS, Windows or every other x86 PC OS: by activating and chainloading its partition.

Slackware won't detect anything, it's up to you to add different OSes to LILO. Install their boot loader into their root/boot partition and then add it to LILO as
or use liloconfig. Note: "update-grub" from a different Linux distribution might not boot Slackware correctly, because its "Linux auto-detection" doesn't know Slackware's initrd. So if you want to use GRUB, use Slackware's GRUB, it has been modified accordingly.

BTW: Most distributions install GRUB into the reserved no man's land behind the MBR, which is an unreliable practice, I don't recommend. If you want to use GRUB, create an extra partition for it and install it there. Then uninstall GRUB from the MBR and install a standard MBR with
The LILO standard 'ext' MBR (which is not LILO itself) is also able to boot activated extended/logical partitions, so you can have your favorite boot manager anywhere. Just remember to activate the partition, which contains your chosen boot manager.

It will ask you, what to do (and which filesystem you want to use).

(If this sounds overcomplicated to you, it's actually GRUB, which overcomplicates things, LILO uses the standard IBM PC boot process defined 30 years ago.)

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Ah! I think I get the gist of that. I'll just use the LILO, since it sounds like LILO is in keeping with Slackware's philosophy. So, even if I use the LILO, I still have to keep GRUB for Crunchbang- but move it out of the MBR, and essentially point LILO to it, for when I want to use Crunchbang?
That's the very type of scenario I was worried about. [I couldn't have phrased it so...but I was on the right track! ]- I'll try the LILO- I have no loyalty to GRUB; it's just that it's a "known"- whereas LILO is unknown to me.

In theory, I "get" that.


So as long as I know which existing partitions I want to use for Slack, there's really no need to even run fdisk at the beginning of the installation, right? Just choose the appropriate partitions when I get to the screens that deal with such?

Heh, yeah, I saw recently that GRUB does seem to be quite complex. I've always been of the opinion that the best way to do something, is usually the simplest and most straight-forward- which, from the little I know of it, seems to be the way LILO does it!

Thank you very much for all the helpful info!

I read a little of an installation guide last night; and watched a video. The Slack installation seems pretty straight-forward, and much like other distro's. Shouldn't be a problem once I get past the partitioning [I understand partitioning; it's just the different ways that every installer handles it which can be confusing] and any boot-loader issues- but now, thanks to you, I've got a handle on that. (And I still have a live ISO CD of Antix...so if anything goes wrong, I can always use that to get online and find solutions....)

I just wish that I had the time to do the install today! Unfortunately, it's looking like either Saturday night or Monday night will be "go" time.

I did the same with my first install of Slackware but I did not to empty the partitions. I ended up with a bunch of extra files I had to clean out ( still cleaning them) , but it kept my home directory and some of it's settings. As well as a few working programs from the previous distro. Wasn't the best idea but helped me learn about what was/wasn't needed in slack.

My second install ( a week later on a new machine) went even better. Nice and clean hard drive.

I would recommend backing up what you need & wiping out the partitions your planning on using (except for the swap ...you can share that). It will give you a nice clean Slack experience.

Indeed. It's quite hard to get GRUB2 out of the way, because GRUB developers think, that it has the right to own the MBR. It's even more intrusive than Windows, which keeps to the IBM standard. You get messages like
Unlike Slackware most Linux distributions don't even ask you before overwriting everything with their own boot manager. (Although the Ubuntu GUI installer allows you to choose the boot loader partition.)

Yes, just make sure you choose the right partition.

Agreed. Also as previously mentioned back-up everything that you cannot afford to lose before you start the Slackware installation.

Hey Guys!!!

I'm posting this from SLACKWARE!

Got it up and running from inserting the DVD to starting the XFCE desktop in about an hour and a half (Would've been quicker, but I had some trouble with nano during configuration- was working and wouldn't let me uncomment a mirror to use! )

All the fear and trepidation was for NOTHING! The Slack installer was probably the nicest; easiest; and least-confusing of any I've used.

I printed-out the post-install configuration docs- luckily- so I was able to set my mirror; establish an interweb connection; and get x started.....

Still lots of work to do...like switching to a generic kernel and all......

.....but it's up and working! And so far........it looks good!

Anybody here use Slack with the Icewm? (I may try Fluxbox- I used it once as an experiment...don't remember if I liked it or not, 'cause I tried a few at the time- I just remember that I abhorred Xmonad!)

Wee-heee!!! I'm using Slackware [5 minutes later, computer blows-up]