A Guide to installing Slackware the only one you will ever need
By Riot
Ok now I don’t recommend using slackware as your first Linux distro you ever use you should something more user friendly because if there is one thing you will soon learn about slackware is that problems is something that you wont have to little when you first set up your machine.
Here is also your system requirements most people can skip this part unless they are doing an install on an older machine.
You will need at least a 386 processor for an install of slackware 9.0 for any thing above that you will need a 486 or higher, 16MB of ram, 500MB of hard disk space, and a 1.44MB floppy, and or CD-ROM drive depending on how you are going to do your install this tutorial will use a CD-ROM install if you don’t have a CD-ROM you could go to the slackware site http://www.slackware.com and you can find information on a floppy install.
Now with that out of the way here is how to install your brand new version on Slackware.
1. Ok first start by going to your favorite Linux distro site and download a copy of slackware. You can also get it from http://www.slackware.com for free or you can purchase the official Slackware cd which will come with some information on installing but you don’t need that because you have this guide.
2. Burn it to a cd using your favorite burning software but make sure that you burn it as an iso image so you can install from them. Usually you can go to file - burn .iso in most software.
3. Now make sure that your BIOS is set to boot from cd so you can do the install. Once it is put in the first cd and restart your system.
4. After your first disc has finished booting you will need to login. Login as root there is no password.
5.After booting up and logging in you need to make a partition on you hard drive for your new install. To do this there are 2 different methods that can be used fdisk and cfdisk. In this tutorial we will use fdisk because it is more functional but I will explain cfdisk briefly incase you want to use it.
To use fdisk you will need to start it by typing in fdisk and running it for the specific hard drive you want if you have more than one you will do this by typing in “fdisk /dev/hda”, but before you do any thing let me explain something ever thing in slackware is represented with a directory even hardware so hard drives are no different and they are kept in the /dev directory the on and IDE cable the first hard drive on the cable the master is know as hda and the second one the slave is known as hdb and so on ( just thought I would let you know about that). Now after you typed in fdisk /dev/hda you will get a prompt you can type “m” for help but we want to see our partitions so we type in “p”, this will display a bunch of information about your partitions. Now you will want to delete your partitions and create new ones to do this you will type in “d” and you will get a prompt like this.
Command (m for help): d
Partition numbers (1-2): 1
you will type in the number of the partition to delete it do this until all of your partitions are deleted. Then to put on your new partitions you use the “n” command and we want to make 2 partitions one called the swap and then the primary partition for all of your data to be stored on when using the p command it will look like this.
Command (m for help) :n
command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
P
Partition number (1-4) :1 - make it number one(1)
First cylinder (0-1060, default 0) : 0 - start it at zero(0)
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (0-1060, default 160) : +120M - this will be the amount of space on your first partition which will be the swap
now you will do this from both your swap and you primary partitions. Now they recommend for your swap to be double the size of you RAM I don’t do that I would put it the same size as your RAM or just under depending on the size of your hard drive and the size of your RAM and remember that your primary should take up the rest of your hard drive, so don’t only put like 5 or 6 gig of space on it if you have a 120gig hard drive.
Ok now for those who want to use cfdisk just type in cfdisk at the prompt instead of fdisk and you will get a menu which will display all the information of the partitions that are all ready on your hard disc drive. At the bottom of the chart there is a box which you can maneuver through by using the keyboard arrows. cfdisk if very self explanatory to delete a partition you go to delete and the same to make them except you go to new partition. Using cfdisk is very easy and I would recommend it to first time users of slackware
6. Next you will type setup into the prompt and a menu will appear, Like always you can use the arrow keys to maneuver from one option to another. The first option is a help option and I recommend reading if this is your first time installing slackware or even if this is your second time(remember you can never read something to many times). You will not need to use the second option if you live inside the united states which I do so we will skip that option but it is not hard to do if you need to do it. Now the third option down we need to take a look at you should open it up and enable your swap you maid it will be a step by step process so I am not going to go into it. Next go to setup your target partitions. Here you will setup the primary partition we maid before the first option in this section will allow you to choose a partition to mount to your root directory(/) their should only be one their to choose from unless you maid more than one. After you select one it will ask you a few questions just go through them it really dose not matter how you answer them because it will only be options for checking for errors before the install which their should be none.
7. Now it should bring you right to a screen with the heading SOURCE MEDIA SELECTION after your finished with step 6. All you need to do here is choose from wear your installing slackware we are installing from option number 5 (install from CD-ROM) after selecting that click ok or enter. After you click enter if will offer to find your CD-ROM automatically or to let you manually find it select the auto find, it is easer and safer and there is no need for you to do it manually because it should automatically find it with no problems.
8. Once finished with step 7 a screen with the header PACKAGE SERIES SELECTION should come up you must pick series A to have a working system all others are optional you should choose what you think you need.
9. The next step is selecting your prompt mode. Now I would again recommend reading the help file but it is up to you. Most people do not choose option 1(full) which will install every thing but if this is your first time maybe that will work best or you. I recommend choosing the 3rd option (menu) and choosing the packages that you install and not just installing every thing because that will just cause unused packages to take up space.
10. After you have chosen the packages you want you will be prompted to install a Linux kernel
in this tutorial we are going to choose option 2(cdrom) Use a kernel from the Slackware CD.
11. You will be prompted to make a boot disc next this is up to you I make them when I install because you never know what problem might pop up but it is still up to you.
12. I am going to skip the modem config because it can be done after your install so just go ahead and select no model for now. Next your prompted for a time zone I cant really help you with this because I don’t know wear you live but its not hard to figure out.
13. Next is the mouse config this is easy just choose what type of mouse you have and press enter.
14. Just choose option 1(no) there is all most no chance that your system clock is running on UTC or GMT time.
15. Step 15 I usually skip and install them later but if you want to you can install all the custom fonts you want.
16. Here you are prompted ware to install LILO (LInux Lodder) simple should work for you but if your dual-booting you will need to use expert option but I will assume your not dual-booting because you will soon have slackware what other operating system would you need.
17. Skip the network config you should do that after you have installed slackware and go to the CD-ROM detect you should just click yes and have it automatically mount your CD-ROM drive to /cdrom at boot up because remember I said that in slackware ever thing is mounted to a directory even hardware so you cd drive will be in /cdrom.
18. Here you will select a default windows manager for X if this is your first or even your second install of slackware I recommend option 1 initrc.kde (KDE: K Desktop Environment) or option
2 initrc.gnome (GNOME :GNU Network Object Model Environment) then press enter and that’s it your done you have installed one of the greatest operating system ever invented.
I would like to thank Patrick Volkerding for giving us all this great system and I wish him well as most know he has been sick for a wile.
If you have any questions about any thing I have said in this tutorial you could PM me or if you have any question on something that I have not gone over also I intend to write a tutorial on the basic configuring of slackware after the install so keep looking back to the tutorial section for it.
Hope ever one like my tutorial your feed back would be greatly welcome.
