Slackware 10.1 freezes at boot time without an error
 

Here's what happened:

I downloaded the packages from ftp.ale.org (and some from ftp.slackware.com), then booted from a floppy with bare.i then install.1 and install.2

I pointed it to hda7 for a swap partition, then hda3 for /, hda5 for /home, and hda7 for /usr. There was not an error at any point during installation.

Now, when I boot from a floppy disk bootloader into slackware, it says:

Uncompressing Linux... OK, Booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.4.29 (root@midas) (gcc version 3.3.4) #6 Thu Jan 20 16:30:37 PST


then nothing happens for a long time...

When I install a new version of Slack, or even one to play with kernel building, I never let it install lilo. I think that is what you did. Now you have to add it to lilo.conf, then run lilo to add it to the bootloader.

I am also assuming a typo - that you did not use hda7 for both swap and /usr.