Installation log: Install Slackware 14 without dying in the attempt.

Greetings to all. As I have been delaying in writing this article about Slackware 14, let me tell you that taking advantage of the fact that I am about to finish this last semester of my professional career in Computing and Information Technology and they are remodeling the computer room again, now I have the possibility of make the tutorial in a calmer and more detailed way.

In the previous article, I spoke about the experience I had with Slackware with such subjectivity that I got carried away and did not clarify out of sheer enthusiasm.

Now continuing this series of articles dedicated to this legendary distro, I will introduce you to how to install Slackware 14 with some details that you may have forgotten DMoZ (like some suggestions that appear when configuring certain components), and the occasional explanation with certain steps, especially with formatting.

Let's start

Phase 1: Kernel selection and pre-formatting

While many will see a screen with plain letters that they may not understand, it is because Slackware does not automatically start a kernel. This will surely appear to you:

On the screen it explains that we have to choose between the kernel for obsolete Pentium III and lower PCs with just the console (typing huge.s), or "modern" PCs starting with Pentium IV and successors (hugesmps.s).

If our PC is decent enough to work, we write hugesmp.s and give it Enter to be able to use the kernel we choose.

On the next screen, it will show us which keyboard layout we will use:

We write «1» to be able to enter the available options it has. A menu like this will appear: +

In my case, I chose the Latin keyboard layout, which I have been used to for a long time. We give Enter to our selection, and we began to test:

Apparently he is in a good mood. We give Enter, and then, we write 1 and give it Enter to confirm our choice of distribution; if not, we write «2», we give it Enter and we choose the keyboard layout we want.

Now, Slackware will ask us to log in as superuser (or ROOT):

We simply write "root", we give it Enter and immediately we will get a screen that will tell us if we use cfdisk or fdisk to format our disk. In my case, I wrote cfdisk so I have gotten used to this application.

Well, using the simple rule of three, I designated this team with 20 GB of space that 90% was the main unit and 10% was the swap area. To be more precise, the configuration is as follows:

• SDA1 / Primary / Linux (option 83) / 90% of disk space.
• SDA5 / Logical / Linux Swap (option 82) / 10% of disk space.

With this format that I gave it, it was as follows:

We choose the "bootable" option and designate it in the main or swap partition, we choose "write" to preset the format, we confirm by typing "yes" and we leave with choosing the "quit" option.

After having carried out this process of pre-setting the format, we simply write "setup" to continue with the next phase of the installation.

Phase 2: Final formatting, choice of components, root password, choice of GUI and choice of mirrors of our main repo

Here comes the "easier" part of the installation, which is very well detailed in terms of functions. The "wizard" is like this:

We choose the "ADDSWAP" option to be able to work with the installation in peace. We confirm our choice of our exchange area:

Now, a box appears asking us if we also want to run MKSWAP to check if our hard drive has bad sectors. Let's assume that our hard drive is completely fine and we say NO:

A box will appear in which you confirm that we have already made our configuration of our SWAP selection. We give OK:

Now, it will ask us to choose the partition that we have reserved for our data:

We select SELECT, then three options will appear: Format (format), Check (review or inspect), or Skip (do nothing). We choose the Format option in order to give it a format to work with:

Generally, the EXT4 file system is recommended for convenience. We give OK to confirm the final formatting. We wait a few seconds until the following appears:

That means that our partition has already been completely formatted. We give OK.

Now, the wizard will give us to choose if we want to install Slackware from CD / DVD, through the network, and other options that it offers us:

Since I'm using the 32-bit Slackware DVD, I won't have a problem choosing the packages. We give it OK, and it asks us if we want an «automatic» (auto) installation, or a «manual» (the hard way). If we don't want to complicate our lives, we choose "car."

After you have finished reviewing the packages you have, we will see a list of options for how we want to install Slackware very similar to the menu of options that Debian has, which is classified based on system components and not on the type of utility you use. We are gonna give.

With the arrows we move to choose the options, with the space bar we mark and unmark the options that we want to install and thus avoid installing 8 or 10 GB of components that we do not want to use.

After having thought and chosen about which options are essential for us, we click OK and it will immediately show us how we want the installation progress to be shown:

We give the option "full" to see the description of each package in which it is installed throughout the process.

During the installation process, we will see that Slackware installs each package based on the order of the alphabet, and in turn, we will see a detailed description of each package that is installed (this can take from 20 minutes to three quarters of an hour, depending on the capacity of our PC, so I suggest that you take advantage of this period as best you can to do other tasks):

After having had a coffee, or killing time, it will ask us to do a USB boot. Obvienlo by choosing the Skip option.

Now, it will ask us if we will install the LILO boot loader, which is quite similar to GRUB. In case you have one or more distros and use GRUB, choose the Skip option. However, if you don't have any more distro than Slackware or barely have a Windows partition, choose the Simple option if you don't want any more migraines (so far, I haven't covered LILO in depth, so in future posts about Slackware I'll post my "research" about it):

On the next screen, the pleasant wizard asks us what resolution we want Slackware to start to work by default.

Generally, if you use Intel Integrated Video, you have the option of choosing the recommended resolution for your monitor; if not, choose the Standard option:

After having chosen the appropriate resolution, we opted to choose the mouse options. We choose the PS / 2 port if we use that port; To use a Mouse with a USB port, choose the option with USB.

After confirming with which port we are going to work our mouse, what comes next is to configure the network.

We write the name of the network, then we choose DHCP, we leave the host name with a ".", And we choose the network services we want.

Another screen that will appear will be the choice of the console font. We say no if we don't want to, or if the default terminal font bores them, we choose yes:

After doing this, it will ask us if we want to use the BIOS time of our PC or use the UTC format. In my case, I opted for the first option, and then I chose the time zone in which I am using (America / Lima):

Now, we have to choose the desktop environment:

As I got a special love for KDE and because of how light it runs on this distro, I chose it. Now, we will configure the ROOT password:

After giving a password to our Super user, it will tell us that the installation has already been carried out correctly.

And since we have returned to the main menu, we give it EXIT, we write reboot in the console and our Slackware CD / DVD will be ejected (in my case, I used the DVD).

When restarting, the LILO menu will appear with the Slackware option:

After we have given Enter (out of impatience) or just let the system boot, it will ask for the ROOT password:

After that, we will be writing:

startx

in the console to be able to launch our chosen GUI through X.org (in this case, KDE):

We do the key combination Alt + F2 to write in the box to execute «konsole», which is the console in which we will activate our main repo.

Although slackpkg explains a little about how it works, the truth is that when doing an action, it tells us that we have not configured the repo. To do so, we write in the console:

nano /etc/slackpkg/mirros

We will see several mirrors, which I chose a few from kernel.org and the like. What you have to do is uncomment the mirrors of your choice and nothing else:

And to finish this tutorial with a flourish, what we will do is type in the console:

slackpkg update

and so we activate our slackpkg.

That's all for today. In the next episode, I'll be explaining how to get Slackware ready to use, as well as giving feedback on how to use Slackbuilds and also how to install slapt-get, as well as translating Slackware into our language.

Before I go, I have to thank DMoZ for the Slackware tutorials they did, and they have really been of use to me.

Until the next post.

Continued ...