I wrote this guide for myself when I first installed Slackware Linux 9.1 and is a bit too detailed for experienced users but is a perfect thing for newbies.
If you are looking to go with a fast distro, Slackware Linux is for you.
Part 1
Getting Slackware Linux:
Firstly you need to get Slackware. The latest version is 9.1. You can get the ISO's from http://www.slackware.com/getslack/. There are two required CD's for Slackware 9.1 as compared to only one that was there in 9.0. Though in all there are 4 CD's but you can do with first 2 of them as the other 2 just have source in them.
Installation:
Step 1: Booting from CD --> Well now that you have the ISO's burnt on the CD's we are ready to go. Take a deep breath and set your first boot device to CD-ROM in your BIOS. Now, pop in your 1st CD into the CD-ROM drive and let it boot from CD. Any recent system will boot from CD directly but if you have problems then you will need other methods which can be dealt with later.
Step 2: Chose the Kernel --> You need to chose which kernel to boot from here. If you don't know what it is then just hit . A few options are:
usb.i - For USB Keyboard and Mouse support.
scsi.s - For scsi systems.
adaptec.s - If you have a SCSI/RAID controller, this kernel has support for it
jfs - For JFS file system
raid.s - For variety of RAID controllers
xfs.i - For supporting XFS journaling file system
You can see more options along with their description by pressing F3 key on this screen.
Step 3: Keyboard Map --> Kernel will now decompress and reach to a screen where you need to chose your keyboard map or in other words what kind of keyboard you are using. Most of us use US keyboard Map or QWERTY type keyboards and thus we just need to hit enter. If you have a different keyboard type, press "1" and see which all keyboard maps are present.
Step 4: Login to the installation --> Type root and hit enter. Now you will see various "To ..." to do kind of things, but the first thing we need to do is partition our drive.
Step 5: Partition your disk --> This is the most important part. I am not saying it is difficult but yes it is not as easy cos it does not have those graphical wizards that we have in Mandrake (DiskDrake) or RedHat (DiskDruid) installs. If you had a Linux install prior to installing Slackware then you can skip this part and move on to next step other wise keep reading.
I had two HD's and I was installing Slackware on second HD i.e. primary slave. You can imagine this part according to your needs but it will be helpful if we knew how we refer to various channels on IDE.
Primary Master --> /dev/hda
Primary Slave --> /dev/hdb
Secondary Master --> /dev/hdc
Secondary Slave --> /dev/hdd
So in my case it would be /dev/hdb.
There are two tools provided with Slackware installation for partitioning the disk which are fdisk and cfdisk. cfdisk is more n00b friendly and is more graphical in nature so that is what I am going to use.
Type cfdisk /dev/hdb (change command according to which HD you chose).
Now you have a screen like we have in Windows' FDISK. You will see your disk size on top of the screen. First in bytes and then in MB.
You need to create two partitions here. One will be required for installation and other one will be for swap. Swap is same as "Virtual Memory" of Windows. You need to decide swap size out here only as you won't get a second chance. You should assign SWAP size depending on the amount of RAM you have..."Lesser the RAM more the SWAP and vice versa". I have 128MB of RAM and thus I chose 512MB of swap. Subtract 512 from the disk size you have in MB's and keep this number for future use.
If you have any partitions already there on the drive and if you don't need it then move with "left arrow" and chose "Delete". Press "enter" (CAUTION: You will lose all your data on the partition).
Now you don't have any partitions on this drive but you need to make them. Highlight "New" with help of right or left arrows and then select "Primary". It will ask you what size of partition do you want. Here you will enter the number we got by subtracting 512 from disk size in MB. You will see the new partition shown as hdb1 with "Linux" as the file system, on main screen. This is the one that will have your Linux install but you need to set it as "bootable". So you know what to do. Yup, highlight that "Bootable" with left/right arrow and enter. The partition is set as bootable now.
Time to add your SWAP. Follow all the steps I described about adding your main partition. Just change the partition size to 512 and don't set it as bootable.
You will have two partitions now. hdb1 and hdb2 where the former is bootable while both have same file system i.e. "linux". Chose hdb2 by down arrow and move with left arrow to highlight "Type". Hit enter and you will have loads of file system types on screen. Since we need swap file system, write 82 and press enter.
Now you must be back on main screen again. Move with left arrow again to highlight "Write". Press enter and Type "yes" when it asks for confirmation. The partition table is now written on the disk. Select "Quit" and hit enter to come out of cfdisk.
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