Questions about Slackware

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Currently I use Mandrake 8.0, but I have started to become unsatisfied with it.

I am thinking of switching to Slack 8, but I realize that there is 0 automation in it's install, which will make it much harder than Mandrake.

So, my question is, what kinds of things do I need to know about my system to get Slack running? IRQs? What else?

Also, how do I go about getting this information so that my slack install will go smoothly and I won't have to guess everything? :)

[MandK_10]

Actually, all you will need for setup is an ability to follow prompts, and a little patients.

The hard part will be configuring once you have it installed.

I recommend making sure that you have a few hours to run set up. Go through it once and if you feel that you messed something up, run setup again.

Once you get it installed then you need to run xf86config. this is where you will need to know your mouse, video card and monitor specs.

Once you have X working then you can worry about sound and modem.

I would get it going and ask questions as you go. That is what I am doing. I have everything except sound and my modem only works in KDE. It was not that hard to get where I am now.

Mike

[Dark Ninja]

Yeah...Slack really isn't THAT difficult to setup. Like MandK_10 said - sound card is the rather difficult to setup. Also, xf86config can be slightly confusing if you've never looked at it before. Just take it step by step - and stop back here if you have questions. ;)

Dark Ninja

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

My main problem is that this is the only computer in the house. if something goes wrong, and I'm stuck without internet, then I have no way of getting help and I'm pretty much SOL.

Another question I have... I have two HDs. One is Fat32, and it has windows and my Mandrake install files on it (I only need windows for scanning atm). The other drive is 3 partitions, /, /home, and swap. What I want to know is, will it be possible for me to install Slack onto a formatted /, but keep /home intact without backing anything up?

I don't have a CD burner, or any way of backing anything up off-site.

[ronmon]

As long as you are careful to not format your /home partition, it will be just as you left it. Make sure you know which one it is to avoid tragedy.

[r0nster]

Hi Rob,
Your module config is kept in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file. When you have it installed, read the rc.modules file and uncomment the line that pertains to your sound card like the SB Live value:
# /sbin/modprobe emu10k1
remove the hash mark.
Setting up Slack takes some getting used to but it's not impossibe. I came from a Redhat background myself and it didn't take me long to learn it. Most linux distributions like Mandrake and Redhat use System V init. Slackware uses BSD type init.
I strongly suggest getting the Slackware essentials book. Let me tell ya, once you switch from 'Drake 8 to Slack 8 (or debian), and get used to it, you'll wonder why you didn't try it in the first place :).

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Originally posted by r0nster:
<STRONG>Most linux distributions like Mandrake and Redhat use System V init. Slackware uses BSD type init.</STRONG>

Can you elaborate on the differences a bit?

<STRONG>I strongly suggest getting the Slackware essentials book. Let me tell ya, once you switch from 'Drake 8 to Slack 8 (or debian), and get used to it, you'll wonder why you didn't try it in the first place :).</STRONG>

I hope so!

Thanks everyone! :)

[Legg83]

Actually, my slackware installation went rather smooth. After I selected packages I wanted installed, I rebooted the system, and checked out /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. This file actually had every peice of hardware I have already preconfigured, all I had to do was uncomment the corresponding line.

As for my soundblaster live, I had to

chmod 666 /dev/audio
chmod 666 /dev/mixer
chmod 666 /dev/dsp

to get that working for my user.

My NIC was automaticly detected by 'netconfig', so network installation went by like a breeze. I'm still not sharing a connection yet, but that will come later.

My USB mouse works like a charm, with a few uncommented USB lines in rc.modules.

The one thing I'm a little bit weary about is my geforce3. I do have "openGL" support right now, but I'm not sure which nvidia drivers slackware is using, so I imagine I will manually update thoes.

But overall, I believe slackware 8.0 was almost as easy as any other distrobution out there. (ie Mandrake).

Be brave young Slackware jedi. The force is with you.

[frank754]

also, mandrake offers interim iso images
for upcoming packages, on www.mandrakesoft.com (http://www.mandrakesoft.com)
you can get a beta version of 8.1 by
looking up the mirror sites, and burn it
on a CD

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Ok, I'm having trouble downloading Slackware. The problem is, it doesn't fit onto the 2GB partition that it needs to fit onto. (2GBs for windows, 2 GBs for linux install files, and 10GBs on a seperate drive for actually running linux on).

Anyway, is there somewhere that I can download slackware not in ISO format? Because with ISO format, I have to download the whole thing, whereas if it was not in ISO format I could simply not download packages I don't want (like EMACS). I'd really like to ge out and buy the CDs, but a) I'm broke and b) Nobody sells slack in this neck of the woods. I've seen mandrake, redhat, and suse cds in stores, but no slack. :(

Thanks guys!

[BobjoB]

see slackware.com for mirrors. all the ftps will have both iso and packaged versions you can download. however if you do get the iso its only temporoary so burn some stuff to free up enough space. get the image, and burn it. then do a minimal install or custom install to remove any packages you dont want.

[danrees]

Just to add experiences of my own - I bought PC Plus yesterday and Slackware 8 came on the cover DVD, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Already I believe it is "my" distribution. There is some configuration to do post-install (the audio /dev/ file permissions which Legg83 talks about for my Ensoniq/Soundblaster PCI 128), and XFree86 setup, but other than that it is a breeze for even a slightly inexperienced user, if you take your time.

The whole system is a lot quicker than anything I've experienced with SuSE or Mandrake (e.g. GNOME loads up in about 2 seconds), and it does feel like you've got control over your system.

I would recommend recompiling the kernel though (2.4.5 as provided with Slack, or a new version - I'm using 2.4.8), so that you can disable a lot of the stuff you don't need, and my enable iptables for firewall protection.

Other than that - a fantastic distro! They've managed to fit all the important apps onto a single disc (install.iso). FYI, I haven't actually used anything from the extras.iso disc, and it doesn't really seem worth downloading this extra iso TBH.

A happy :cool: SLACKWARE :cool: user. :p

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Originally posted by BobjoB:
<STRONG>see slackware.com for mirrors. all the ftps will have both iso and packaged versions you can download.</STRONG>

I realize that now, thx. This time I'm just not going to download the ISO directory and hopefully that extra 1.8 GBs won't get filled up by the other stuff :)

<STRONG>get the image, and burn it.</STRONG>

No burner :(

danrees - sounds great, I can hardly wait. I see what you mean about feeling in control of your own system, as Mandrake just loads you up with a bunch of stuff, and you're not sure if you really need it, whereas slackware lets you choose everything you want, none of that bloat or anything :)

It should be fun compiling all my own stuff. Hopefully the speed increase will be dramatic :)

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Ok, I've attempted the installation twice, with varying results.

The first time around, I mounted my dos partition to /mnt, so I could read some of the documentation as I was installing (thought I'd take advantage of true multitasking, right?). Little did I know that it was going to mount my future / partition there as well. This was pretty funny, as the end result was that I was attempting to install linux onto a fat32 drive, and needless to say, it didn't work.

Second time around, I got it to go smoothly. The only real problem was, I corrupted my mbr, and the only way I knew how to fix it was by reinstalling windows. I remember somebody was ranting about not installing lilo in the mbr, but didn't say why. The Slack install did mention it was dangerous, but I did it anyway because 'Drake did it without any trouble. I'd like to know why lilo in the mbr is bad, and what other things that I can do to get linux to load by default without a) lilo in the mbr and b) using a bootdisk to get into linux.

I managed to actually boot into slack on the second install using the bootdisk that I made, and I fooled around a bit. Man, Slack default install is lit up like a christmas tree! I was running at least 30 different servers, most I had never heard of. I was lucky that my network connection didn't work, otherwise I'd just be inviting attack. I'm going to try and install without enabling every daemon in existance.

But I must say, I love the Slack install procedure. It may be less automated, but that just means it gives me more freedom during the install. Being able to ALT+Fn between virtual consoles and do multiple things at once is great, you don't see that in the 'drake installer :)

So, does anybody have any ideas or suggestions about my experience? Things to do differently, maybe? :)

[Slackmonster]

I haven't tried Slack 8 yet, still on 7.1 here but I love it. The easiest way for you to fix your MBR is to get a DOS boot disk and put the fdisk program on it. Then, boot to the disk and type fdisk /mbr and it will renew your MBR and you will boot windows automatically next time. So...you wouldn't have had to install. Also, if you would like, I can arrange to send you copies of the slack discs if you like.

[Slackmonster]

Oh and one thing I ALWAYS do when installing a distro is to avoid letting it install X on it's own. I have found that I get far better results from compiling it from source than anything else. But, that is my personal quirk!! :)

[Slackmonster]

Oh, last post here I promise! :)

Did you tell Slack to mount your fat32 partition during the setup program? It should have seen it and asked whether you wanted to or not. Just curious.

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Yeah, it asked me to do that, but I told it not to, becuase there's nothing terribly important (except the slack install) on the fat32 drives. I figured I'd just mount it when I need it.

I haven't had any trouble with precompiled installations of X.

Anyway, you didn't answer my two main q's, how do I get slack to not run 30 different servers by default (I looked around in /etc/rc.d/, specifically rc.inet1 and rc.inet2, but I didn't find many daemons to remove).

For example, the slack install doesn't want to let me install the ssh client (which I need) without the ssh daemon (which I don't need). So if I want ssh capability, I need to be needlessly running the ssh daemon? Sorry, don't think so. Sure I could kill the PID every boot time, but how do I stop the daemon from running in the first place?

Also, how do I make Slack be the default OS on the system if LILO can't go in the mbr? Lilo not in the mbr means I need a bootdisk to load linux, and loading anything off of a boot floppy is slow as hell and frankly an unacceptable solution.

[spickus]

how do I get slack to not run 30 different servers by default (I looked around in /etc/rc.d/, specifically rc.inet1 and rc.inet2, but I didn't find many daemons to remove).

The rest will be in rc.M & inetd.conf

For example, the slack install doesn't want to let me install the ssh client (which I need) without the ssh daemon (which I don't need). So if I want ssh capability, I need to be needlessly running the ssh daemon? Sorry, don't think so. Sure I could kill the PID every boot time, but how do I stop the daemon from running in the first place?

No, you don't have to start a ssh server to use the client. Install the package, disable the server in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 and when you'd like to make a ssh connection type :
ssh host.to.connect.to