coldDeath

Slackware installation guide for Linux beginners

OK, sit down, relax and get yourself a cup of tea, we're about to install and learn about Linux, Slackware in particular!

By the end of this tutorial, you will have Linux up and running on your computer, maybe alongside windows if you like.

We will be using Slackware 10.2, it’s a great distro (flavor of Linux), with easy installation and configuration. It is the oldest distro still in development, and it is very up to date. We will be focusing on the x86 architecture and using CDs to install.

I recommend you print this out, so that when you are installing you can refer to it.

CONTENTS


+Downloading
+Burning the CDs
+Setting up the BIOS
+Partitioning the drives
+Installation
+Installing and choosing packages
+Disk 2 - More packages!
+Installing the kernel
+Making a boot disk
+Setting up your modem
+Installing and configuring LILO (boot loader) and other stuff
+Configuring your network connections
+Trying out custom screen fonts
+Setting default X window manager
+Setting up your clock
+Setting up the Root password
+Creating an account
+Setting up xorg (graphics)
+Turn on the sound!
+Installing nNVidia graphics drivers
+Slackware information
+Linux Software
+Basic Linux terminal commands
+The End


Downloading

First things first, we should go to the Slack website. (I hope you don't mind me abbreviating the word "Slackware" to Slack) The URL is http://www.slackware.org, here we can find lots of useful resources, but we are going to get these CDs downloading first.

Along the left hand side of the site you will see "Get Slack" click it or go here: http://www.slackware.com/getslack/ Here it will say the latest version (10.2 at the time of writing) and it will say a list of mirrors.

There are 4 ways you can get the Slackware CDs.
1) Order them here http://store.slackware.com/cgi-bin/store. You will get an install disk, live disk, ZIpSlack and the complete source code. All packed in a nice box.
2) Get them from Bittorrent, if you don't what Bittorrent is, don't do this method.
The torrents page is: http://www.slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php
3) Get them via HTTP (most common way) just select a mirror close to you on the list and click an HTTP server and navigate through to download the right files (scroll down to see which files you need)
4) Get them via FTP just select a mirror close to you on the list and click an FTP server and navigate through to download the right files, your FTP client should download them for you.(scroll down to see which files you need)

Files needed:
We will need 2 Disks, they are:
Installation ISO disk 1
Installation ISO disk 2

The file names vary on each server, but they should look like this:
Slackware-10.2-install-d1.ISO
Slackware-10.2-install-d2.ISO

They should be about 700MB each.

Burning the CDs

You may skip this section if you ordered the disks.

OK, so we have our 2 lovely 700MB files sitting on our hard-drives. Now we are going to get those onto CDs

We want to burn each ISO file to a separate disk. So get 2 blanks CDs ready. Now we are not going to burn a normal data CD, that doesn't work, we need to burn what is known as an "image" of the disk. This will keep its directory format and other things. Burning an image is different for every CD burning software, so you must use Google I’m afraid.

If you don't want to use your CD burning software you can use the free ISO Recorder. There is a guide of how to use it here: http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

Once you have burnt those CDs, label them disk 1 and disk 2 so that you don't get mixed up.

Setting up BIOS

This may already be set up on most of your computers, but it is worth reading this anyway.
We are going to get your computer to boot from a CD if there is a boot table CD in the drive as opposed to booting from the hard drive. Don't be scared of BIOS because there are many options and settings, you will find it easy enough.

Boot up your computer, now it should say what key to press to get into BIOS somewhere, it is usually "Del" or "F1" but it varies. When you are in BIOS you will see a few options use the arrow keys to navigate and the enter key to pick a menu option. We will be looking under the heading "Advanced BIOS options" it could be different on your BIOS. You should see something similar to this:

First Boot Device: HDD 0
Second Boot Device: FLOPPY
Third Boot Device: HDD 1

If you select one and press enter you can change it, we want it like this:

First Boot Device: CD ROM
Second Boot Device: FLOPPY
Third Boot Device: HDD 0

This means that if a bootable CD is int he drive it will load that, if not it will look for a floppy disk, if there isn't a floppy disk it will boot from your hard drive.

Now save your changes (F10 on my BIOS) then exit it. Your computer will reboot into Windows.

Once in Windows, put your Slackware 10.2 Installation Disk 1 in (which you so cunningly labels so that you wouldn’t mix them up). Then reboot your computer.

If all goes to plan it will load up the CD, you will see a bit of text about the installation and a prompt saying Boot:

Press enter here.

The kernel boots up and asks you to log in as root. Simply type root and press enter, it creates and encrypted password which you can later change to your own.

Woo hoo.

Partitioning the drives

This is the hardest that the installation will get, so once you get this over and done with the rest will be easy.

There are 2 tools that we can use fdisk and cfdisk, both are good, but I think cfdisk is slightly easier to use, so we will use that. (If you are confident with using fdisk, by all means use that and continue to the next section when done)

Type in the command: and press enter.

You will see every partition on your drive. Now if you want to install to an empty drive it is easy, but if you want to have windows as well it is harder.

DRIVE WITH ONLY SLACKWARE:

OK you can now delete every partition on your drive, if there are any. All data will be lost. You can use the Left and Right arrow keys to select an option and the Up and Down arrow keys to choose a partition. Select one of the partitions then press left to select Delete and press enter. Do this for every drive until you only have free space left. Then continue.

DRIVE WITH SLACKWARE AND WINDOWS:
You can use the Left and Right arrow keys to select an option and the Up and Down arrow keys to choose a partition. You should be able to see a place called "free space", if you don't, you will have to resize the original windows partition so it is smaller. Select the appropriate drive and select resize then press enter, type in the size you want it to be and press enter. Then continue.


Now we can make our partitions (oh joy). Highlight the free space (using up and down arrows) then use your left and right arrows to select new and press enter. Use the left and right arrow keys to select Logical then press enter. Now you must type in what size you want your "swap partition" to be. This acts like RAM (memory) and you want it to be double you memory size. So if you have 256MB of RAM, make it 512MB and press enter. Select beginning because that is the fastest part, then press enter.

You should be back to the main screen now, but with a new partition (cool). Select new and press enter again, this time select primary. For the size, it automatically puts it to the size of all the space you have left. This is the best option so just press enter here.

Now select the first logical partition we made and highlight "Type" and press enter. It says "Enter file system:" type in 82 then press enter, 82 is Linux Swap.

Do the same but for the other partition we made, put its file system as 83. IF you are a more experienced user you may want to choose something different.

Select the partition that isn't the swap partition and make it boot table by using the option on the menu.

Now our partitions are designed, but we must save these changes.

Select "Write" and press enter. Now type "yes" and press enter again.

It will now write the table to your drive, this can take quite a while, but it will be OK. If will take a bit longer if you needed to resize a windows partition. Maybe make a cup of tea/coffee then return to find it completed.

You will be back at the main screen with the options for cfdisk again. Select "Quit" and press enter to return to the prompt.

Woo hoo. We have finished partitioning.

Installation

We can now install Slackware :-).

Type setup and press enter it will run the Slackware setup program.


Ahh how pretty we have colours. Here is the main install "checklist" scroll using the arrow keys and select using the enter key. Select "add swap". If Slackware has found your swap partition that we made, it asks if you want to install it as a swap partition select yes and press enter. It'll take a while to format it and search for bad blocks depending on how fast your system is. Make another cup of tea.

When completed, press enter. Now select you other partition that we made and press enter. You can do either a quick format or a check. Check takes longer but searches for bad blocks, it’s up to you. Whatever you do, don't select no. It will now ask which file system to use. We want to pick a decent file system. Experienced users take what you want.

We won't use Ext2 as it doesn't support journaling. We will use Ext3 as it is stable and fast and has journaling, feel free to choose reiserFS if you want though. You can find more information on these file systems on Google, if I keep adding extra information this tutorial will become bloated and irrelevant.

Now we have to choose what installation media to install from, we are using a CD ROM (if you followed correctly) select it and press enter. On the next screen press enter on Auto. Next we can pick our packages. (Yay.)

Choosing and installing packages

Here we will pick which packages to install and which not to. Most of it is entirely down to you and what stuff you want.

We can use the arrow keys to scroll up and down the packages, the space bar to elect and deselect, and enter to go onto the next group of programs.

Select as many as you want and whatever ones you want, get both of the help ones as they are need, and get pico and/or Emacs-nox as they are invaluable tools for editing config files. Make sure you get the Linux source as well.

Now when we have finished selecting we press enter to begin installing. This will take a long time so go and get another cup of tea, and maybe read a bit further on this tutorial.

Disk 2 time - more packages!

After installing, your Cd drive will pop open presenting you with disk 1, it asks you to replace it with disk 2. Do so. Push the CD drive back in again and wait a few seconds, then press enter.

You are shown a similar screen to the one when selecting packages. The same controls apply as before:

We can use the arrow keys to scroll up and down the packages, the space bar to elect and deselect, and enter to go onto the next group of programs.

Again it is up to you what you install, so choose what you want and when they are installing, make a cup of tea

Installing the kernel

We will be taken to another screen ready to install the Linux Kernel (less scary than it sounds .. honest!) we are installing from a CD ROM so just select that and press enter. You will be shown a selection of different kernels, it may seem daunting at first but we are going to use: /CD ROM/kernels/bare.I/bzImage, advanced users can use whichever they like.

It will now install the kernel, so ... you guessed it, make a cup of tea and relax for a while.

Making a boot disk

If you want to make a boot disk (highly recommended in case LILO, our boot loader stops working) make one here, it will ask for a floppy, then it will make a boot disk or you and you can continue on.

Setting up your modem

Select your modem form the list, but if you plan to connect through another computer use : no modem. I'm selecting no modem, as mine requires special drivers. After that you will be asked if you want to enable hot plugging, select yes as it is useful.

Installing and configuring LILO (boot loader) and other stuff

Experts can choose what they like at this screen, but I suggest using "simple" as it usually works. Next, you have to set the console settings, select whatever you want, if your computer can handle it. Old machine might have some trouble with this, so select standard if that applies to you.

The next screen allows you to pass arguments onto the kernel when LILO boots it, experts can do this, but we have no need to. So just skip it by pressing enter.

Now you will be asked where to install LILO, select Floppy if you are security conscious, but that means you will have to stick a floppy in every time you boot (argh) so we choose Root, this will let us dual boot and its what we need. You can also use the MBR which can be good for dual boot.

Next you can select your mouse, select it as usual and press enter, on the next screen press enter as well.

Configuring your network connections

You can configure this later if you like, but if you want you can do it now. You can set your host name to whatever you like, unless it’s a server. Next make up a domain name (except servers). After that you can set up you IP.The next screen asks for more networking information. You can skip this by pressing enter or type in the details.

After this you are asked what services you want to run, it is up to you again.

Trying out custom screen fonts

When it asks you if you want to test out the custom screen fonts, just pick no, there is no point.

Setting default X window manager

It will ask you to select which Window manager you want to become default, just choose whichever you want (KDE is my favourite). You can change which Window manager to use at boot, here are a few popular ones: KDE, fluxbox, blackbox, Window Manager, etc.

Setting up your clock

You must select your time zone when it asks you, it’s really easy, just pick a country, and then pick the closest city to you.

Setting up the Root password

You'll be taken to a screen telling you that you haven't made a root password yet!
Select yes and enter a password, then press OK to continue. You have to confirm it by typing it in again and pressing OK.

Finalizing the Installation

Just press exit and you go back to the setup screen where you select quit. Your CD drive will open again, take out the CD and close it, then you will be back at the prompt again. Next we use the reboot command to restart your computer, which should boot in to Slackware now.. Yay.


Creating an account

If all went well, it should have booted into Slackware, It will ask you for a login and password, type root for the login, and type in your root password for password.


It will display a cool quote if you did it correctly. Now we need to make a new user account, because you shouldn't go on root for general things, it is for system admin etc.

Look at the example below, to see how you set up an account:


Now type logout, and login as your new user to test it out.


Setting up xorg (graphics)

Logout again, and login as root. You must be bored of typing now, and want to use the mouse and click and see windows and stuff well we will set it up here.

Firstly run the command "xorgconfig" it guide you step by step on how to setup Xorg, it is worthy of a book, or at least a 10 page tutorial, so I suggest you find one and print that out as well. <Should I put a link to one to print out here, or describe each step on how to do it here>

Once you have run xorg config, it will be fully setup, you can run startx to start it up and admire the wonderful colours.

It’s all very well but what if you want to boot up and see the xorg straight away, easy.

As root type in: pico /etc/inittab

You will see it is laid out like this:

label:runlevel:command:process

Change the runlevel from 3 to 4, then save and exit (CTRL+X).

Turn on the sound!

Login as root.
To "turn on the sound", run alsaconfig, then run alsamixer to set the volume (they are muted by default) then run : alsactl - store.

Installing nNVidia graphics drivers

Installing NVidia drivers is as easy as pie! note: you only need to do this if you have an NVidia graphics card.

Head over to http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d..._1.0-7676.html and download the file: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1.run.

Shutdown Xorg, but typing telinit 3 as root, then use the command: sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1.run to begin installing, follow it through until the installer exits.
Then type:

and change Driver "nv" to Driver "nvidia" and remove Load "dri" and Load "GLCore" and add Load "glx" then save the file and restart x. (telinit 5).

Slackware information

You can find help and other information at these places:

http://www.slackware.org - Official Slackware website
http://www.userlocal.com - A Slackware community website
http://www.SlackwareNews.org - The URL says it all
http://www.tldp.org - The Linux Documentation Project
http://www.Linux.com - Cool Linux Website

Don't forget to visit #Slackware on irc.freenode.net !

Linux software

Here I’m going to put a small list of programs that can be used for everyday things.

-Web Browser
+Mozilla Firefox
+Konqueror
+Mozilla
+Galeon
+Opera
-Mail client
+Mozilla Thunderbird
+Mozilla Mail
+KMail
+Balsa
+Mutt
-Office Suite
+Open Office
+KOffice
+GNOME Office
+Corel WordPerfect (commercial)
+GWP
-IRC Client
+X-Chat
+BitchX
+KSIRC
+ircII
+KVirc
-Instant messenger
+GAIM
+Kopete
+AIM
-Text Editor
+pico
+Vi
+Emacs
+gEdit
+kEdit
-MP3 Player
+RythmBox
+Noaturn
+XMMS
+XINE
+M-Player

Now you can see a few options as to which programs you use, it’s up to you, I put my favorite of each category at the top. A lot of these programs don't come with Slackware, so you'll have to download them separately.

Basic Linux terminal commands

Here I will show you a few console commands, you can open it up at: K>System>Terminal Program. You can also switch to a full console using CTRL+ALT+F1 and you have 6 consoles, so you can just use this: CTRL+ALT+F(number), when you want to return to the desktop you can use CTRL+ALT+F7. But the Terminal Program is fine if you want to use that.

I'm going to discuss: ls, cp, rm, mkdir and cd

cd:
cd stands for change directory, if you use cd /home/<username> you will change to your home directory, then you can execute commands from there.

ls:
ls can’t be used to list files and folders in a certain directory. You can also use ls -l to see a long version or ls -s to see a short version. Try to cd to your home directory then use ls to display the files.

mkdir:
This will make a directory (folder) in whichever place you cd'ed to. Example:

cp:
cp means copy, it takes 2 arguments, the first is the source file then the second is the location to copy to. Example:

rm:
rm stands for remove, it can remove a file. if given the -rf argument it will delete files and directories and won't ask the user for permission. Example:

I hope that has given you an understanding of basic UNIX terminal commands. If you want to learn more check out this website that I found : http://www.computerhope.com/unix.htm

The End

You should have a wonderful Slackware system up and running now, it can do everything you need

Any feedback is welcome just PM me or get in touch at #programmingforums at irc.freenode.net

Have fun! and introduce your friends to the power Linux/Slackware Operating system!

--ColdDeath

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Pizentios

Well written :-)

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Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand.

Check out my Blog <---updated Nov 30 2007!

coldDeath

Thank you.

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Nebula

I ran into a problem :/

When i first got my computer i divided my HD into 2 partitions. One has 120 gig and the other has 40 gig on it. Now when i'm in the Slack partition setup you said you should see a place called free space. Well its not on mine and then you said

"Resize the original Windows partitions so it is smaller" Yea, i dont have a resize option either? What should i do?

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When will Jesus bring the porkchops?

coldDeath

I am very sorry i thought that it had a resize button, i beleive you have to go back into windows and resize the partition using another program.Such as Partition Magic or Paragon Partition Manager.

You can also try the free partition resizer: http://zeleps.com/
Thank you Pizentios for the last link.

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Nebula

What do you mean by resize? Like make 2 partitions or something? I dont really know what you eman by "Resize"

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When will Jesus bring the porkchops?

coldDeath

Well say your whole drive is in one partition and it has windowss on it, there is no room for another because it is full.

Pretend:
Drive size is 40GB

Windows Partiton takes up 40GB so there is no room for another, we resize it to make it smaller, say 20GB.

Total Size: 40GB
Windows part size: 20GB
Free Space : 20GB

When we make our partiitions we make it look liek this:

Total Size: 40 GB
Windows Part Size: 20 GB
Linux Part size: 19.5 GB
Linux Swap Size : 512 MB

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Nebula

Ok thats what i thought, was just confirming. The word "Resize" confused me a bit. So i will make 2 partitions put Slacks on one and keep Windows on the other. More or less.

Thnx!

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When will Jesus bring the porkchops?

ivan

It would be great if somebody moves this into tutorial section...

But, excellent job!!!

Nebula

To be honest i kinda like it here...Easy to access but w/e the admins choose.

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When will Jesus bring the porkchops?