Installing Zipslack

[BoNz1]

I hope this is the right forum to post this in, anyhow here is my problem. I wanted to install linux onto an older computer, p1 133. It has a small harddrive like 1.7GB plus the cd drive doesn't work. It is like 4X and won't read cdrs. So I wanted to install a small version of linux. I figured zipslack probably would be the best bet. So I downloaded it and put it on my zip drive, then copied to c:\. Then I edited the bat file, and booted to dos and installed the thing using the batch file. Everything seemed to be all and good, it prompted me for a password, I typed root and hit enter. Then it said something like root@slackware: # or something like that. Now I am stuck, what do I do next? I know I don't have to create another partition or do fdisk or anything like that but how do I setup or actually start this thing? I am sorry I have been reading the documentation for the past couple hours and I can't figure it out. Probably is pretty easy. I should also say that I am also running windows 95 on the primary partition as well. If anyone could help I would be grateful. :)

[killingspree]

sorry i don't know the answer to ypur problem other than to suggest to just use another cd rom drive for installation.

i just think this thread rather belongs to the linus forum!

take care
steVe

[gldblade]

sorry i don't know the answer to ypur problem other than to suggest to just use another cd rom drive for installation. I doubt this has anything to do with it.

Everything seemed to be all and good, it prompted me for a password, I typed root and hit enter. Then it said something like root@slackware: # or something like that. Now I am stuck, what do I do next? I know I don't have to create another partition or do fdisk or anything like that but how do I setup or actually start this thing? You were expecting some sort of GUI, weren't you? Something that looks vaguely like the Linux screenshots you see on the net, right?

Sorry, but ZipSlack doesn't come with any of it. In order to make ZipSlack small, X was removed. What you are seeing ("root@slackware: #") is the console prompt. Essentially, you're using a DOS-like environment at the moment.

If you want X, you can get it here: ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware/slakware/x1/. It will take considerably more space though.

Correct me if anything in this post is wrong. I am a Linux newbie myself, and I've never actually touched ZipSlack.

[gldblade]

This might help you: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/linux/shopper/157.zipslack.html

Ignore the "Shopper CD" stuff.

[BoNz1]

You were expecting some sort of GUI, weren't you? Something that looks vaguely like the Linux screenshots you see on the net, right?
Yes, exactly. I will try X though, thank you very much.

[BoNz1]

Ok, I have the xfree files downloaded. But I don't know which directory to put them into. Everytime I boot it, it renames them from .tgz to .00 and I can't install them. Can someone please explain to me how to do this?

[mtc]

If it is anything like a normal slackware installation (which does exactly the same thing...giving you the root@slackware prompt) you should just be able to setup at that promt and carry on with the install, it's all text based and reasonably easy to follow, and once setups finished, I think then would be the time to go ahead and install X...although as mentioned by others, X could be very slow on that machine.

[BoNz1]

Hmm, setup was the first thing that I tried to do, but since zipslack is very very minimal it does not seem to have this. On the slackware page it tells you how to install packages such as X if you are using zipslack, http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=zipslack#3 However, it doesn't tell you which directory to put the tgz files into, so I have tried several different directories but when I start up linux it says that these files are mangled and it renames them to .00 or .01 inhibiting me from installing them from pkgtool. I suppose there is a certain directory which I must put these package files so that it doesn't rename them and so I can actually install them.

[mtc]

I wouldn't have thought it mattered what directory you put the .tgz files into, so long as you ran installpkg from that directory. However I generally just save stuff to my home directory in linux, and everything works fine.

By the sounds of things, zipslack itself is running as it should, (ie you can move round the linux filesystem using ls, cd etc) so it sounds like you have struck something weird, having never used the zipslack variant of Slackware I don't think I can really be of much more help to you...maybe try a slackware room on IRC or something?

Good luck

Chris

[BoNz1]

Ok, figured it out myself, I have X installed now, still not sure why it was behaving so strangely though. What I did was put the .tgz files in c:\ and then booted up linux typed cd \DOS\ and then installpkg *.tgz then I ran xf86config and that seemed fine. Then I typed startx, it seems to load everything but it can't find the default font so it doesn't start. Probably I missed a file when I was downloading them all.
EDIT: Yup, that looks like that is exactly what happened, I forgot the minimalistic set of fonts, stupid stupid. :)

[mtc]

That's cool you got it working.

Just out of interest, what does it run like (with X) because I'm thinking of installing it on a simlar PC (pentium 150) seeing as both redhat and mandrake ran incredibly slowly on this system.

Thanks

[BoNz1]

Well, it doesn't run very well. It starts up the thing ok, but I get a screen that is half white and black and you can't do anything, nothing works. The only thing I can do is ctrl+alt+bkspc and kill it. Could be that I configured xf86config wrong I'm not sure. Will let you know if I get it to work properly. The great part about zipslack is that I don't really need X, if I use the command line. I was thinking about just using the computer as a router, would be a lot cheaper, plus it should be rock solid. We shall see though.

[mtc]

I get a screen that is half white and black and you can't do anything, nothing works. The only thing I can do is ctrl+alt+bkspc and kill it. Could be that I configured xf86config wrong I'm not sure.

It might just be that you need to install a windows manager...blackbox would probably be a good one to use in this situation.

[BoNz1]

Ok thanks.

[BoNz1]

Tried blackbox as well as icewm, neither would install. When I go xwmconfig it says that I only have some very minimal xwindows manager running even though it says ice and blackbox installed successfully when I run pkgtool. Anyhow, I've pretty much lost patience with it, at least for today. :)

[Neo Neko]

Bonzi. Slackware is great. But may I make a suggestion. If you have a good internet connection or a stable one and a nic in that computer try a net install of Debian. Get the boot flopy images off their site and select the stuff you want like X.(it will offer premade configs that you can add on to) Leave it running over night and you should have the system installed and running exactly as you like after going through quick configuring of the packages.

I am sure that you could probably download the files locally and do it that way as well. But I have to tell you it works great. The Debian package management system kicks the crap out of RPMs and are a bit easier than dealing with raw tar-balls. apt-get update ;)

As to system speed I run a Pentium 60 with 10/100 nic and 8Gb HD called Spanky as a mail server. I have had X installed with blackbox and it by all accounts ran faster than when it was dealing with Win 95/98. Right now he is just console but still running smooth. http://interface.darktech.org/files/ut.png 215 days solid baby!

[BoNz1]

Thanks Neo, I will definitely try that once I get the time; probably sometime after my final exams are done. Which means I won't get the time again for another couple weeks :o But, I guess it won't take too long since it is all automated.