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Installing Linux from the Setup Program
Now comes the fun part — actually installing Linux. To install Linux, you run the setup command from a command line:
# setup
A menu with the following choices will be displayed:
HELP Read the Slackware Setup Help file KEYMAP Remap your keyboard if you're not using a US one ADDSWAP Set up your swap partition(s) TARGET Set up your target partition SOURCE Select source media SELECT Select categories of software to install INSTALL Install selected disk sets CONFIGURE Reconfigure your Linux system EXIT Exit Slackware Linux Setup
Look first through the help file. Some of the steps presented there may assist you in the Linux installation process.
To move through the selections in this menu, use the arrow keys or type the first letter in each line (such as H for help).
Basically, the installation from CD-ROM is pretty simple. It follows these steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Each of these steps is discussed in its own section.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, a lot of Linux installation involves an actual installation and then additional steps that tell Linux about the installation. This is certainly true if you’ve installed a swap partition. (If you have not, you can skip this step. I have said already that there is now no need to set this up) If you used Linux fdisk you again need to tell Linux about this partition.
This selection should be rather simple: You’ll want to install to the Linux partition you set up earlier in part 1 of this document. When you select Target from the setup menu, you are presented with this partition. This section covers the choices you’ll have; for the most part, you’ll select the default choice.
Formatting the Linux partition is the next step if you have not already done so using Partition Magic. For a new installation, you’ll want to format the Linux partition; however, if you’re upgrading from a previous installation, don’t format the Linux partition.
Choosing a node density is next. Again, choose the default unless you have Linux experience and know that the default won’t help you.
After the hard drive chugs and formats the Linux partition, you are asked if you want to make a DOS partition visible (or, more technically speaking, mounted) from Linux — assuming that you’ve created such a partition. Making this partition visible won’t affect Linux performance, nor will it eat away at the size of the Linux partition. Because you may find it handy to move files via the DOS partition, make this partition visible. You’ll be asked to provide a name for the drive; what the name is doesn’t matter, so we use dos or dosc. When you run the ls command later in your Linux usage, you’ll see dos or dosc listed as just another directory, and the files in it will appear as Linux files.
You have five choices from where you want to install Linux:
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Setup Contents
Choosing the Software to Install
Now comes the fun part — choosing the software you want to install.
The setup program divides software into categories. Software is divided into mandatory and optional packages. Some of the elements of Linux, such as the packages comprising the A series, are mandatory. Other packages, such as the full terminfo database and the Objective-C compiler, are optional. During the installation process, Linux automatically installs the mandatory packages and prompts you before installing the optional packages.
The initial menu entitled Software Series Selection presents a list of the software categories and a short explanation of what is contained on them. Most of the categories are preselected, and if you’ve got the hard drive space you might as well install them. If you don’t have that kind of free space, then choose the software you think you’re likely to use. You can always run the setup program again to install additional packages when they are needed.
Mark the software categories you want to install by pressing the spacebar.
You’ll then be asked whether you want to move on to the INSTALL section, where you select the software packages to be installed. First, you need to choose a prompting mode from these selections:
| full |
Install everything (up to 386MB of software) |
|
newbie |
Use verbose prompting for Linux beginners |
|
menu |
Choose groups of packages from interactive menus |
|
expert |
Choose individual packages from interactive menus |
|
custom |
Use custom tag files in the package directories |
|
tagpath |
Use tagfiles in the subdirectories of a custom path |
|
help |
Read the prompt mode help file |
Select FULL if you have enough disk space available. Slackware Linux begins the installation.
Setup Contents
Linux will boot from either a floppy disk drive or a hard drive. We recommend that you set up the means to boot either way; that way, if you have hardware problems, you can always boot the system from a floppy disk drive. Hence, the setup program’s request to create a boot floppy disk. This disk can be used to boot Linux at any point. You can create two types of boot floppies: LILO boot floppy or simple boot floppy. These will be handy should you experience some hard drive problems or screw up your hard drive so severely that the system won’t load. Create a LILO boot disk confirming the size of the floppy. Then continue with the remainder of the installation.
Select the com port that the modem will be set up to use. This would generally be Com 2.
You can test out some of the screen fonts now. Select No if you want to simply get on with the installation.
Setup Contents
LILO is the generic boot loader. It can be configured to boot into Linux or any other operating system.
Select Expect to set this up. The BEGIN option is the first to configured. Select MBR as the target location. Choose the LILO delay before the first OS in the configuration file. Add the Linux partition to the LILO config file. The menu will show you which Linux partitions are present. Type in the location of this partition i.e. (/dev/hda2). Then give it the name of Linux.
Add any DOS partitions to the config file. As was done for the Linux partition type in the location of this partition i.e. (/dev/hda1) and give it a name such as DOS.
Again you will be returned to the Expect Lilo Installation dialog box. This time select "Install Lilo"
I selected the Bare 2 button Microsoft serial mouse as my mouse is connected directly to the mother board opposed to a serial port. Select the com port for the mouse. Com 1 would be the general choose. The next session is the enabling of the GPM program. This enables you to cut and paste text straight from the virtual terminal using the mouse. Unfortunately this does not always work with a Bare 2 button Microsoft serial mouse.
Select you time zone. If only it was always as easy as this section.
Select the default Window manager. I generally use the KDE K desktop environment.
You will be prompted to establish a password. Don't be surprise when you do not see any characters, not even the ****** symbol.
Setup Contents
Once you’ve booted the system, log in as the root user. One of the first things you should do is add a root password with the passwd command
Setup Contents
After Linux has been installed, go ahead and reboot. If you’ve installed LILO, you’ll see it appear after the PC runs through its BIOS check. As Linux boots, you’ll see a long Linux-related diagnostic as Linux checks the system and makes sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. For the most part, you can ignore any error messages you see here (such as a proclamation that the name of the machine darkstar does not appear to be supported). After all the diagnostics, you’ll finally be presented with a command prompt:
Welcome to Linux. darkstar login:
If you installed networking capabilities when you installed Slackware Linux, you were asked the name of your machine. This name should appear in place of darkstar.
Because there are no users on the system, you’ll log in as the root user, so go ahead and type root as the login. There will be no prompting for a password.
The root user is the supreme being on a UNIX system. Most of the traditional security tools within the UNIX operating system don’t apply to the root user — when logged in as root, you can do just about anything. It’s generally not a good idea to use the UNIX system as the root user, however; the proscribed practice is to set up your own account and then save the root login only for those times when you’re performing system administration.
After you’re logged in, you’ll see this command prompt:
darkstar:~#
A command prompt is where you enter commands into the UNIX system. Your first commands will be to change your machine name and to set up a user account for yourself.
Additionally, you probably noticed that the name darkstar appears as the name of your machine. You probably don’t want to leave this as the name of your machine, so you should change it right off the bat. This name is contained in the file /etc/HOSTNAME, and the default is darkstar.frop.org. To change it, use a text editor (in the example, we use elvis) and edit this file. To load elvis and the /etc/HOSTNAME file, use the following command line:
darkstar:~# vi /etc/hostname
You may have to make further changes if you’re on a TCP/IP network. For now, you can change the name to anything you’d like.
Edit this file and change darkstar.frop.org to whatever you’d like
We have now completed the installation. What we do not have yet is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) though. This still needs to be configured.
Setup Contents
