Since Redhat 7.0 sucked so much, I decided to try switching back to the first distro of Linux that I ever used -- Slackware. I hadn't used it in probably four years...as the last version was like 2.0 or something, maybe 3.0, I don't really remember. However, I am tired and fed up with Redhat and their product. Cause in fact it is beginning to suck more and more. Debian's looking better and better, however, I feel that Slack's where it's at. Their webpage is: Slackware.com
The Basics:
Just like with Redhat you are going to have to do a few things before you get it up and running. One, you gotta figure out how you are going to boot into the install program, two, you gotta install the OS, three you gotta configure the OS (depending on the OS, it might do all this for you) and four you play with your new OS.
Booting:
Alright...chances are that if you used a ide harddrive you are going to want to make your bootdisk "bare.i".
rawrite bare.i a:
You do this using rawrite. This can be found in the bootdsks.144 directory. (however if you have an older model of floppy, the 1.2 meg kind, then you use the bootdsks.12 directory) Well, you don't have to do this if you can set your cd-rom to boot first in your bios. Therefore you can boot right into the setup program and not have to make a floppy disk. About halfway through the loading of the kernel you might be asked to stick in the second disk (depending of if you did the cd-boot or the bootdisk start...and you will be asked for the root disk you formatted...oh you mean I didn't tell you about that yet? ^_^) Usually, if you are installing Linux onto a Linux partition then you would want to use the color.gz as your root disk file. Again, you use rawrite to copy this onto floppy.
rawrite color.gz a:
Typing that will make your floppy drive the root disk. Ok, so now theoretically you have the root disk, now you are ready to pop in the boot disk, and restart your computer with the boot disk inside. Yes, it takes *two* disks...go cry to somebody who cares. Disks are cheap! When prompted pop out the boot disk and insert root disk...and that should load the setup program.
Setup Program:
Alright, if you saw your computer run through a bunch of text, don't worry, that's just a mini-kernel loading to your ram or virtual memory. Eventually, if all went well, it will ask you to log in as root. Here, you just type "root" and there's no password so you don't have to worry about that. After you login, depending on if your harddrive is partitioned correctly already or not you will have to run "fdisk" or something first, but when you are ready type "setup" and this will bring up the graphical setup program.
It's a little different than Redhat's setup program...each have their advantages and disadvantages. In Slack, you most likely are going to start by confirming the location of your swap drive, and having it format and activate that. If you do that you can just follow the setup commands by choosing "ok" after you do something and it will take you to the next step without having to go back to the main menu.
Since I have only installed this a few times on my computer, I really don't recall the order of stuff all that well. However, here's what basically goes down in the next few minutes. It asks you where you want the "/" (root) drive. Then after you assign that it asks you to format it and what type of format. I just chose the default format cause well, that's what it recommended and I don't know anybetter! :) Then after it's done with that, if you made any other specific partitions on your harddrive for say "/home" or "/boot" or something, then you will have to choose those and format those as well, along with defining what they are after the setup program formats them.
Here is about where you go through the package install. It will ask you where the packages are you want to install (source) and well I had a cd-rom so I chose that and you get to pick what you want to install. I took the default for the first menu...then on the second menu, instead of choosing "full" or "newbie" I think I chose one that had to do with a menu driven package selection. I did that and chose my packages and it went through installing all the different disk sets.
Eventually after that's all done, it begins to ask you about where you want to put LILO (I chose MBR, which was option 3 I think) and it asks you about networking, stuff like what com port your modem is on (if you have one) and if you want to setup your network card. It also asks about your hostname in there somewhere too. Also it might ask you about your video card, and then it asks you if you want to use a font for your Slack. I always choose the "m.font" cause well, "m" is for "Mattoid" and that's good enough for me! LOL! Actually it looks pretty sweet too though. The very final thing it does is ask you to enter a root password. After you do that and it likes it...then you are all done!
Restart your computer and when it boots up you should have your login prompt if no major errors occured. As for the font that you chose earlier, it won't appear (at least it didn't for me) the first time you login, I had to restart (shutdown -r now) before I saw my console in my "m.font" that I chose earlier. Congrats! You did it!
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