Linux Slackware installation blues

V

Vignesh

Adept
This is the first time ever am trying to install/use any form of Linux ever. I downloaded all the 4 installation disks and burned them onto 4 CDs
( Slackware 10.1 ).
However when I tried to boot using the first disk, it went straight to the HDD and started loading Windows. And then I found the bare.i image from the 3rd disk, wrote that to a floppy using rawrite and got the vmlinuz stuff loaded. According to the readme file in the 3rd iso, it said I have to rawrite install.1 & install.2 onto two separate floppies and then use them for booting. When I tried to do that I got a "unrecognized image" error. Thinking it could be a floppy problem, I tried with several ones, still got the same error.
Question is
1. Can I make a bootable iso out of the contents of my first disk?
2. If 1 is not possible under Windows, then how should I go about the installation?

Thanks,
Vignesh.
 
Hi,

To make sure that the installation CD is booted into, while your computer is just booting up (you are hearing the beeps), keep pressing the DEL key till you reach a menu with various options. In one of the menus, you will find an option called "First boot device" or something. Set it to CDROM. Now the installation process should start as usual.

If you want to boot into the installation cd's from DOS or Windows 9x, then search the forums for "loadlin" and see my post on booting into ISO images. Post if you want a detailed slackware specific guide for that.

Also, if this is the first time you are using unix, its better to caution that slackware isn't as easy to use as some other distro's like Mandrake, Fedora etc. Better try them out. You could even try Vector Linux, its easy to use and slackware based, and a really slick distro. If you are adventurous, go ahead with slackware :)
 
Slackware isnt all that difficult. only thing is tat it doesnt have lots of things preinstalled and installing some of those can sometimes be a pain in the ass.

I wonder if it is just the boot order problem he is facing or is it the disk.
 
just a word of warning if u have not partitioned the drive for linux then using slackware for partitioning will result in data loss.

As for ur problem boot from the 1st CD and hit enter, as ujjwal said select the CDROM as the boot device from bios or at boot time.
 
Slackware is easy to install but do read abt Linux partitioning systems beforehand.
Ur trying just way too hard to install it. burn the iso 1st CD so that u have the bootable CD. then u can install from the Cd or in expert mode u can install from a HDD partition where u will keep all the FILES extracted from the ISO's in a folder & then when setup asks u will point it towards the folder. thats a fast way as HDD to HDD transfer is fastest.

Slack installer is easy, but its different. so make urself familiar with reading alot.
 
Thanks guys for the replies. I traced the problem to the CD I was using to boot. I wrote the ISO to another CD-RW disc and it works like a charm now. Another mistake I did was not asking my friend to write the ISO as an image - he had written as a data disc.

I installed Slackware with all the options to my friends laptop ( PIII 800Mhz, 256MB RAM ) and its running really well. First time because of the corrupt CD, few of the packages were not installed properly. Then using the CD I had written, managed to install all the packages. Am going to install it on my desktop too very soon. Now to learn how to fine tune the installation.
Linux is really cool :)
 
Thats good to hear, if you want some good install & post install info about slackware, check the revised book at slackbook.lizella.net
 
Back
Top