Slackware 4.0 boot disk

[Chewie]

I have just been given the 4 disc set of Slackware 4.0. On reading the related docs, I couldn't find a boot disk option for an ATAPI cd rom and a SCSI hard drive. There is an option for an ATAPI cd rom, and another for an Initio 91XXU(W) SCSI host adapter, but not in the same option. Can anyone either direct me to the approprate bootdisk, or email the file to me? Is it even possiple to email the file over? Any help gratefully accepted.

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

The SCSI boot disk should support ATAPI CD-ROM drives anyway. The module for an IDE CD drive is small but there are lots of SCSI options, hence the proliferation of SCSI disks - IDE CD support fits on each.

Don't use Slackware 4.0. It's horribly broken. Use 7.1 (or 7.0 if you want Perl to work).

[Chewie]

Could you please tell in what way is Slackware 4.0 broken? It was given to me, I can't afford to buy any different version. Can you tell me where a newbie can download Slackware 7.1? Last time I tried to download any linux Version I got pointed at a bunch of files, and didn't know which ones I actually needed. The first couple of files I downloaded only to find that they were text readme files, and they didn't help much either? Is there anywhere that I can download 1 file, burn it to a disk, and boot of it?

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

Slack 4 has a 2.2 kernel but all its progs are linked against libc5 which will cause you major headaches when you want to upgrade stuff. Furthermore its termcap settings seem all wrong making using Vim with syntax highlighting in an xterm an interesting experience (either the colours are wrong OR you get random crap on the screen whatever your type). The version of Perl that Slack 4 packages up won't work without the tcsh package (and tcsh is evil). You could argue that the latter two problems aren't serious but the libc5 issue is a big one.

If you want to download Slack 7.1, go to www.slackware.com (http://www.slackware.com) and look for one of the mirrors off the "get slack" section. The best method, if you have a CD writer, is to pull the install.iso CD image from the iso directory and burn it on to a CD - the CD will be bootable. Failing that you'll need to download individual packages. Get the boot disk images from the root and boot directories and pretty much all tgz files from the a1, f1, etc etc directories. Although you don't NEED all the packages, and once you become more experienced in Linux you'll have a list that you always take out when doing an install, it's better for newbies to grab too much than too little.

Of course the best solution is to order a CD. Because Linux is free you can get the basic installation CDs for the cost of postage and packaging. Depending on where you are in the world you might like to try www.cheapbytes.com (http://www.cheapbytes.com) or www.linuxemporium.co.uk. (http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk.) I can personally vouch for the latter: I've order from them several times (including, on one occasion, one of those cool happy hacker keyboards) and each time the delivery was on my desk when I got into work the next morning.

[Chewie]

Thanks for the help thus far, furrycat. Unfortunately I'm completely ignorant about linux as yet. I only understand the first paragraph of your previous post enough to know that I should pay attention to the second paragraph. Would the documentation I got with this Slackware 4.0 pack still be relevant at all to 7.1?
Regarding ordering a pack over the net, I live in N.Z., and am a tad nervous about either mailing a check overseas or using a credit card online.

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

Most of your 4.0 documentation will still be valid for 7.1. The changes I'm talking about are proper "under the hood" things. The installation method hasn't changed and the vast majority of stuff that gets installed will still run exactly the same from an end user's point of view.

As for the getting hold of CDs thing, I can quite understand why you wouldn't want to send a cheque in the post but you really shouldn't be overly concerned about sending your credit card details over https. A web shop (sorry, e-commerce solution) that uses SSL has your details sent encrypted to its server with up to 128-bit keys. Yes, given enough time and hardware (lots of both), someone could crack that encryption but it's non-trivial and a hell of a lot harder than simply listening in as you read out your card number over the telephone. Effectively, the risk comes down to the site's physical location being compromised and someone running off with the records. This, of course, can happy just as easily at a "real" shop. If you're really paranoid, you can just report your card stolen every few months anyway.

Why not check out www.copyleft.co.nz (http://www.copyleft.co.nz/)? They have a range of Linux distributions AND a PGP public key (ordering via a PGP-encrypted email is MUCH more secure than an https connection). Oryou could just send them a cheque. The CDs aren't cheap at NZ$15 apiece (he says answering his own question) but if you order today you'll have it by Tuesday. Plus they operate out of Dunedin and that means ... the Yellow-Eyed Penguin sanctuary.

Oh dear, it's late.

[This message has been edited by furrycat (edited 08-05-2000).]

[Chewie]

Thanks a lot, furrycat! I'll try some of those options. Can't use the credit card at the moment anyway as it is maxed out at present. I might try ordering off copyleft, however, is slackware 4 really that bad for a beginner to use to learn how to do an install?

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[Chewie]

One more question. I'm told I can expect problems with a linux install due to my hardware. The hardware is as follows:
PC100 motherboard with onboard SB16 soundcard and SiS 6326 8meg AGP'
slot 1 p2-350
64 mb ram
voodoo 2 8 meg pci card
initio 91XXU(W) pci card
Genius GE2500III pci card
Motorola voice-SURFR isa card.
So far the SiS onboard card has given me some trouble, with some of my games not being very stable. I'm told that my 9.1 GB SCSI hard drive is likely to cause problems.
Its made be Seagate. Can anyone see any obvious problems?
These may seem like stupid questions but I've read that the best way to do a linux install is to do lots of research first.

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

I can honestly say that installing Slack 4.0 would be a really good idea. You'll learn a lot and, most importantly, you'll have a system up and running quickly. All I would say is that if something goes wrong for you later on you should remember that you don't have the latest version and that an upgrade MAY solve your problem (depending, of course, on what the problem is).

By all means go and install your Slack 4.0 system today. You are right to say that doing your research is clever but you'll learn a lot more by making a hash of it a few times.

There doesn't seem any problem with your hardware. The Seagate may well blow up on you but that's because Seagates blow up and not because of Linux. Linux's SCSI support is good.

[Chewie]

Well, I did it, I installed slackware 4.0 last night. I have to say, it was a piece of cake compared to the nightmare that was 98SE. However I've struck a problem with my SiS onboard video card. I used SuperProbe and got the following result:
First video: Super-VGA
chipset: Silicon Integrated Sysytems (chipset unknown )(PCI Probed )
Signiture data : 6 (please report)
Memory: 0 Kbytes
RAMDAC: Generic 8-bit pseudo-colon DAC
(with 6-bit wide lookup tables ( or in 6-bit mode))
I'm going to look up SiS on the net and see what they've got, but I wouldn't know how to install a device driver even if I can find one.

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

Don't use superprobe. Run xf86config and answer the questions. You'll probably find that the SVGA X server will work but try the FAQ at www.xfree86.org. (http://www.xfree86.org.) Also, try not to get confused into thinking the Windows way. We don't install device drivers on Linux machines, we compiled support for hardware into our kernel (either statically or as a module). In the case of X it's simply a matter of choosing the right video card option in the setup: X takes care of knowing the difference between them all.

[Chewie]

Furrycat, you have been a great help! Please let me know of some concrete way I can show my appreciation. You have taken a great weight off my shoulders. My best friend is a programmer/hacker who is a tad lacking in patience. When he heard that I would be installing linux he announced that he would like to move out of the city for the duration of the installation process.
Again, thanks for all your help, you are taking the stress out of this operation for me.

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

I had to laugh when I read about your friend's lack of patience http://discussions.linuxplanet.com/smile.gif
You really want to show your gratitude? Well three more posts will get us a flaming folder icon on this thread! It's no good cheating, they've got to be proper posts: mention a problem you've got with the install or something. We'll get that flame eventually!

[Chewie]

Three more posts is no trouble what so ever! My next problem is that after I run xf86conig and then startx, my mouse didn't work! And I couldn't get out of the desktop! I tried ctr-alt-del and ctr-alt-backspace, but in the end used the reset button. I don't want to think about what I probably screwed up, but couldn't see another option.
I think a fair number of my problems come from being spoilt by my Amiga A1200. I've owned my PC for about 18 months, but for 3 years before that I owned my Amiga. I don't know what you know about them, but my Amiga is totally stable and doesn't require any under the hood knowledge to use effectively. Unfortunately, microshaft software doesn't work as a stable GUI _or_ CLI, which is one reason why I want to get Linux going. The other reason is to get work doing linux system admin jobs. Any thoughts re getting my mouse working with xf86config?

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

You need to make sure X knows which mouse you have. I presume that in xf86config you answered /dev/mouse to "where is your mouse?" Well then you'd better make sure that's the case. If it's a PS/2 mouse, do "ln -s psaux /dev/mouse" or if it's a serial mouse on the first serial port "ln -s ttyS0 /dev/mouse" (ttyS1 for the second serial port).
After that you need to have told xf86config which type of mouse it is. Just experiment with different types until it works.

To get out of the desktop do CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE which will kill the X server. Or CTRL-ALT-F1 which puts you back to F1 (like ALT-F1 in console mode but the extra control is needed because ALT-F1 might be a valid command for some X apps). Once you're back on the console you can "killall X".

[Chewie]

To be honest, I think I need to get the hang of the CLI first. Most of the faq's out there seem to assume an understanding of DOS that I don't have. My first computer was an Amiga so I never had to understand the OS in order to use it. For example, how do I get back to the command prompt after using man or mail? How do I call up a list of directories? How do I delete a specific file? How do I find a specific file. With Workbench I did everything from the GUI, there was no need for CLI at all. Unfortunately, the same docs that assume I can use DOS, are the ones that tell me I should avoid it to avoid learning bad habits. I need some kind of lexicon, like a technical version of the Jargon File. In the meantime, can you tell me some of the basic commands I need for using the CLI?

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[furrycat]

I always used to like digging around with the Amiga CLI, it was pretty cool but DOS, as you say, sucks bad.

Anyway, try http://www.linuxcommand.org/ for lots of newbie advice.

You'll find many tools share a few ABUWYGUTT (arcane but useful when you get used to them) features. For example, ^ and $ will take you to the beginning and ends of lines respectively, h,j,k,l are left,down,up,right, q is quit (true for man and mail), G is end (g or gg may be beginning depending on the tool) of file...
Experiment. Enjoy.

Did we get the flame yet?

[Chewie]

Thanks a heap, I now have LinuxCommand bookmarked, and hope to get a grip on the basics. Somehow I doubt that I'll really be able to use Linux effectively untill I've got the hang of the CLI. The person I bought my Amiga off ( my impatient hacker friend) used to use the CLI a lot, and only moved to PC's in order to play Command & Conquer.
We have reached the flame point, do we get a set of Steak Knives? ;-}

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[Chewie]

Another point of interest. My hacker friend, Cat, has lent me a copy of K&R's "the C programming language". After reading through the first chapter I understood enough to see how powerful C must be. I also decided that I would probably have to go back to 3rd Form maths level in order to get my neurons to rub together properly. However, from what I've seen at LinuxCommand.org, I'm begining to think that learning my way around Bash would give a pretty damn good base from which to get a grip on C. What's frustrating is that Cat has a Masters degree in Quantum Mechanics because he worked at school, while I just screwed around. So while I probably have the same basic intelligence level as Cat, I don't have the habit of concentration that allows him to assimilate data at an incredible rate. This would appear to be the cause of most of Cat's frustration, as he knows I'm smart enough, I just can't concentrate to the degree that he can. But then, few can. Another mutual friend is doing a Phd. at Colorado University. His feild is applied maths, and he also is pretty damn good at Karate, as well. With friends like this it doesn't take much to feel like a complete idiot. Sometimes I wonder how I graduated from Kindergarten. However, when I tried to get a Bachelors Degree in Business Studies with an Information Systems Major, I found that the lectures were aimed apparently at those who didn't pass kindergarten. And now I can't even afford to finish the bleedin degree. So to half of my friends I'm a computer illiterate, but to most of the people I meet, I'm some kind of Ubergeek. It's a strange world we live.

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.

[Ardith]

You're soooooo right.

[Chewie]

OK, my current problem is this. i've worked my way through xfconfig, no trouble,easy to follow instructions. Then I try startx and get a locked up KDE screen thats trying to make some kind of boot directory, or so it says. As the screen is locked up, I use alt-F2, and the next console tells my the OS has no template to make the directory its trying to make. WTF???

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Guru meditations beat B.S.O.D. anyday.
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