LINUX INSTALLATION

A - The base system. Contains enough software to get up and running and have a text editor and basic
communications programs.

AP - Various applications that do not require the X Window System. D - Program development tools. Compilers, debuggers, interpreters, and man pages. It's all here. E - GNU Emacs. Yes, Emacs is so big it requires its own series. F - FAQs, HOWTOs, and other miscellaneous documentation. GNOME - The GNOME desktop environment. K - The source code for the Linux kernel. KDE - The K Desktop Environment. An X environment which shares a lot of look-and-feel features
with the MacOS and Windows. The Qt widget library is also in this series, as KDE requires it to function.

KDEI - Language support for the K Desktop Environment. L - System libraries. N - Networking programs. Daemons, mail programs, telnet, news readers, and so on. T - teTeX document formatting system. TCL - The Tool Command Language, Tk, TclX, and TkDesk. X - The base X Window System. XAP - X applications that are not part of a major desktop environment. For example Ghostscript and
Netscape.

Y - Games (the BSD games collection, Sasteroids, Koules, and Lizards).

Extended 2 or ext2 the classic Linux filesystem. Its hallmarks are reliability and resistance to fragmentation. However, it is not a journaled filesystem like most modern ones. Extended 3 or ext3 is a more recent version of this. It is ext2 but it has journaling support, allowing for quicker recoveries when filesystems are not properly unmounted. ReiserFS Reiser is a journalized filesystem and is extremely fast on small files (no greater than several hundred megabytes). Reiser's design can boast very incredible benchmarks. Reiser4 Reiser4 is an updated version of ReiserFS. It recently made it into the official kernel source tree. It boasts even faster performance than ReiserFS. This filesystem supports plug-ins, which could lead to some very interesting and cool developments. XFS SGI's XFS provides full 64-bit file capabilities and easily scales from gigabytes to exabytes to handle extremely large files. The XFS file system integrates volume management, guaranteed rate I/O, and journaling technology for fast, reliable recovery. File systems can be backed up while still in use, significantly reducing administrative overhead. JFS IBM's journaled file system technology, currently used in IBM enterprise servers, is designed for highthroughput server environments, key to running intranet and other high-performance e-business file servers. ISO9660 this is the CD-ROM filesystem. UDF some DVD's use this format. swap In Windows you have a swap file, but in Linux a seperate partition is best for performance. If you have a low amount of memory then you may need twice the amount of swap space but once you have more than 128MB to 512MB then your swap parition should equal your memory amount.

Get yourself a copy of Slackware burn it on a blank CD and insert the disc in the optical drive of your computer. Boot from the CD:

Then, if you're not using a US keyboard you can select a different keyboard map if you press the 1 key, or just hit enter to leave the keyboard layout as it is:

Now, type root to login:

I used cfdisk to make a Linux bootable partition and a SWAP one on a previously formatted hard drive. Here's how: First of all, you should know how to use cfdisk: - up/down arrow lets you navigate through partitions/free space - left/right arrow lets you navigate through the existing functions - enter key executes a function when selected Now, if you have some left over partitions on your hard drive, please select them (one by one) and with the left arrow select the "delete" function. Your hard drive is empty (no partitions) now so you can start the partitioning process:

Create swap partition 1. Select "New" 2. Select "Primary" 3. With the Backspace key delete the existing size (which is the total amount of your hard disk) and type a new size that should be double the RAM of your machine 4. Navigate to "Type", hit enter twice and set the value at 82 (which is default, so all you have to do is hit enter again). Create root partition 1. Select the Free space with the down arrow 2. Select "New" 3. Select "Primary" 4. Leave the size as it is, or if you don't want to distribute all the remaining space for the server, you can type a new size (minimum 5 GB). 5. Select "Bootable" Now the swap and root partitions are created, navigate with the left arrow until you reach the "Write" function, hit enter, type yes to write all the changes to disk. Select "Quit" and then type setup to start the installation wizard:

Main Menu is the same as always, first option is HELP, where you'll find some useful information about the installation process if this is your first time installing Slackware. The KEYMAP section allows you to map your keyboard if you didn't do that when the CD/DVD booted:

If you mapped your keyboard, go directly to the ADDSWAP section so you can choose and activate your SWAP partition (it's a good thing to activate it before you begin to install the packages, so it can run much faster):

Then you'll be asked to choose the target hard drive partition where you want to install the system, and then you must select a filesystem to use for the specified device:

You must then select the media from which to install Slackware (CD-ROM, HARDDRIVE, FTP). In our case, the first option is the one we need, so just press enter, and on the next screen select auto and the installer will search and detect the Slackware CD:

You'll arrive at the package selection screen, from where you can select which packages to install on your system:

The default selection is perfect for every beginner, so just press enter and on the next step select the full option to install everything:

The package installation will start and it will take some time (about 15-20 minutes, depending on your computer specs):

When the package installation is over, you will be asked if you want to create a USB Linux boot stick; I've chosen to skip this part:

Then you can configure your modem (if you have one). And on the next step you can install the LILO boot loader. Press enter on the default option (simple) which is recommended for beginners:

Choose the frame buffer console. Default is good:

Input extra kernel parameters (ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING)! If not, press ENTER here:

LILO destination should be on MBR (default option):

Configure your mouse and then select 'Yes' to load the gpm program at boot time. gpm allows you to copy/paste text on the virtual consoles with the mouse:

Would you like to configure your network? Hit ENTER:

Then enter the hostname, domain name and then select the type of connection you have in order to connect to the Internet:

I have DHCP (default option). If you choose DHCP, you'll be asked for a hostname and if you don't have one, just hit ENTER:

Confirm your DHCP setup:

Select which processes to start at boot time (if you don't know which process to remove or select, just hit ENTER):

You can then try out some custom screen fonts, set the hardware clock to UTC select your timezone, choose a root (system administrator) password and set the default desktop environment:

Congratulations! Installation is now complete, exit setup and reboot your machine with the CTRL+ALT+DEL key

combination:

Remove the CD from your optical drive and boot from the hard drive. You will see the LILO boot loader, press enter to boot the system. When the boot process is over, you must login and then type startx to enter the desktop environment you've chosen on the installation process. Enjoy your new Slackware system!