Questions installing Slack along Red Hat.
 

i have Redhat 9 and Windows XP runnign at the moment. have 2 HDDs, one for Windows , other for RH 9. GRUB loader is installed in MBR.

i want to install Slackware 9 in this current setup. i have downloaded Slack CDs 1 & 2. i tried once installing Slack off of first CD, w/o gnome & kde, qt. but currently i have only RH9 and Windows.

my questions are:

1. during setup, it doesn't ask for CD2 if it couldn't find(and eventually didn't install) some piece and just gave a fatal error and continued. how the setup works for downloaded ISO images CDs? i made boot & root disks, but is there a way to make a bootable CD not requiring me floppies? and how Slackware setup would ask/require me the other CD? (too many questions packed in one :) )

2. if i install LILO, then how should i configure it to get the settings from GRUB loader(insatalled in MBR), or... how can i DON'T loose Redhat and Windows (if LILO is to overwrite grub)?

3. does Slackware.com has the same policy for updates/patche as Redhat? that i have to purchase service plans bla bla, to keep getting updates and patches? if so, is there any linux available which is really "FREE" as in freedom?

thanks .

anyone? anybody? any answer? any help?

Re: Questions installing Slack along Red Hat.
 

Since you haven't gotten any help, I'll try the best I can.

First, during the Slackware install it asks which packages you want. If none of the ones you choose are on the second CD, it shouldn't ask for it.

Yes, you can make bootable CD's. Go to this address http://www.slackware.com/getslack/ and choose a mirror near you. Then download the first 2 CD's for the version of Slack you desire. For example, I used slackware-9.1-install-d1.iso and slackware-9.1-install-d2.iso to install Slackware 9.1.

Slackware setup will ask you what packages or applications, I forget what they're called, you want. Then it will tell you when to insert the next CD. It's very easy to install, IMO.

Second, I have never successfully installed GRUB on my own, but LILO is easy for me. If you understand the bootloader, and where your partitions are located, you may choose the expert mode of LILO installation with Slack. Then it will ask you where you want LILO and tell it MBR. It will show you what it finds, and you can put them in LILO. You may want to ask this in a separate thread, or at least search LQ and Google and see if you can understand some of the posts. If you post a new thread, just ask how to install Slackware and setup LILO with your two present OSes.

Third, Slackware doesn't have a system like RedHat's up2date. You do not have to pay for any patches to Slackware. Slack does have Swaret, which I believe allows you to get updates from Slackware specifically, but that is not the same type of thing as RedHat's service plan.

There are different schools of thoughts on updates. I prefer to leave my system alone once it's setup and working properly. Different people have different opinions. We use our computers differently. I use my computer to generate work, not to play. These things matter when you decide about making changes to your system. However, you can download everything from Slackware.com for free. You could purchase CD's, I believe.

BTW - your control panel says you have RH8 but this post says RH9 :scratch:

thanks chinaman.

hmm....may be that's why it didn't ask me for the second CD., coz i didn't choose kde,gnome & qt during install and may be these were the ones on the second CD. but it did spit out the error messages like "Fatal Error installing application", something like that,... like if it couldn't read from the CD what it needed.

i wasn't sure about the grub and the lilo stuff and wanted to make it sure that i don't overwrite my existing systems. i'll search and google for it.

that's good, at least Slackware is "free" , till now, who knows tomorrow :-)

my second CD'll take about 2 more days ( dial up connection :| )) , till then i should have more information reg. bootloader & stuff and 'll give it a shot.

thanks.

p.s: oh yes, actually i recently upgraded to RH9, but i have updated my cp now :)

Don't have a clue about that error, but if you need help with it again, write it down exactly - then search here and Google, and if no results, post a new thread.

If you know what is your RH9 /root partition, and then what will become your Slack /root partition, you should be able to use LILO just fine in the expert mode. Read the file Slackware-HOWTO on CD1, as it gives you plenty of Installation information. Section 4.7 deals with LILO, and IMO if you can't install from that document you aren't a candidate for Slackware, yet.

Slackware (or Debian) is the oldest Linux distribution. It isn't a commercial distribution like RedHat, so I don't think you'll have that problem. Any package developed for the linux kernel will work with Slack - you don't have to get packages from Slackware.com specifically.

If you know what you want to install, it might be easier to install with the first CD and then get the extra stuff via internet, rather than the whole CD. I'm not certain, but it's a thought. If you're able to compile from source, you can just go to http://www.linuxpackages.net/ and get what you want. If you're not familiar, it might be better to download the second iso and burn a CD. At least you'd get the stuff installed right from the start, even if you had trouble with something later.

Okay, you should be well on your way to getting it done. Let us know what other help you need, and of course, your successes!

:cool:

thnaks chinaman.,

today my second CD is downloaded so i'll try installing slack today sometime.and will post the results...hopefully, good ones :)

hmm..i think i know a little bit abt lilo, so i'll try using it.

and will post the OUTCOME :-)

anyway, thanks

Post back if you have any questions. And try searching here, and at www.google.com/linux for help, also. A lot of times you can find an answer from someone else's post. Google will have links leading to LQ threads, and sometimes the search engine at Google finds more specific results than here at LQ. At any rate, the Google search will give you part of the post rather than just the title, which is helpful to give you an idea of the post before you actually go there.

You'll do fine. :cool:

As i understand it, when you want to use grub or some other bootloader that's installed in the MBR, you should install lilo to the superblock of the partition where Linux is installed, then boint the other boot loader to that. I always install lilo to a floppy and save myself a lot of grief that way. Slower and not elegant, but I shed no tears like so many who have a nice XP installed or even well configured multi-boot system and then install lilo to the MBR. It can be done, but you'd better 'have all your ducks in a row' first!

yes, i have Slack's boot disk to boot . i tried installing lilo in the MBR but the Slack couldn't. so right now i'm looking/finding for a way to put an entry for Slackware in the GRUB. the Slack "/boot" partition is "/hdb6".

any ideas how to add entries into the grub?

You don't setup LILO for the /boot partition, but for the / (root) partition. That's probably what failed. I know it "may sound right" to use the /boot partition, but you use /. The kernel image is in /boot but the Slack install put that there and LILO takes care of that choice for you. All you have to tell the LILO setup while installing Slack, if you choose to put LILO in the MBR, is where your / (root) partition is located. Look at my /etc/lilo.conf ->
and after you change LILO you must run /sbin/lilo

Reboot with your boot disk and then look at your /etc/lilo.conf. If you have the proper entries for your XP, RH, and Slack; there is no reason LILO won't work. How did you setup LILO when installing Slack? Make sure you give it the correct path to the root partition, which is / and not /boot.

Rather than trying to boot a computer with a floppy disk, just post your /etc/lilo.conf and also the results of ->
# df -h
and
# fdisk -l
here and we'll tell you what to put in LILO.

Pisces

you can get grub if want for slackware here.
http://www.linuxpackages.net/pkg_details.php?id=1972

I am new to slackware, so others may disagree, but after running pkgtool or installpkg to install this tgz file, I found folder /boot/grub had no stage 1 or 2 etc files. I pinched some from by dual boot mdk.

Then I editted the /boot/grub/menu.1st to my liking.

to install into mbr I used
grub-install /dev/hda (or whatever your drive is )

Lilo looks ok but I am more used to grub.

got it!!!
 

thanks guys for your help...
after about 3 days in a row, wrestling with LILO/GRUB (haha) i finally settled down with LILO. my setup now is:

1. hda : Windows XP and Redhat9
2. hdb : Slackware

so what i did was, installed LILO in MBR from RH and installed LILO in root partition (hdb) for Slack. so, now i can boot three of them. and finally i got this booting problem solved.

thanks guys for your help.
have a good one.

Good news! Glad you're now triple booting. And thanks for posting back and letting us all know what you did. That may help someone else who Searches for an answer.

:cool: