Back to Slack 13.37 on the dv2945se: Updates

I have a fresh Slack 13.37 installed on my dv2945 again. Time to configure it. Wish me luck!

I've already created a user account. I'm kind of stubborn (and yes, we've established masochistic) so I'm doing all this from the user account. From the root account, you can drop the 'su -c' and the quotes from these commands.

13.37 has been out for a while, so first step is to update the beast. For that, I need Internet access. I'm just going with an wired connection for now. No challenge here; plug in the cord, turn on the computer.

On to choosing the server for updates. If you're not familiar with the text editor vi, replace 'vi' with 'pico' in these commands.

su -c "vi /etc/slackpkg/mirrors"

It wants one and only one server, so I deleted only one '#' from the front of the server I want. I could jump into updating now, but there's a snag. If I let it go as is, it'll be set to update the kernel on its own.

Why's that bad? I don't know. It's bad. Supposedly. Google it. Probably because Slack is masochist-friendly. The proper way is apparently to compile it yourself. Or you can be a ninny and re-install Slack like I do.

su -c "vi /etc/slackpkg/blacklist"

I've nuked all the '#' signs before the kernel entries. On to the updates.

su -c "slackpkg update"
su -c "slackpkg install-new"
su -c "slackpkg upgrade-all"

On occasion, I am tortured with the nightmare of installing Windows XP. Well, it's the newest edition I have, and I'm not about to go purchase Vista or newer. Don't look at me like that; I'm human too. I have to protect myself from zombies. And I'm not fighting with Wine to do it.

But have you met the process of installing Windows updates on XP in 2012? They alone take well over an hour. It requires babysitting because a bunch of them can't be installed at the same time. Confirm install, wait, reboot. Confirm install, wait, reboot. Confirm install...

Windows XP updates make me want to chew my toes off. And then there's anti-malware and a decent firewall and a web browser that doesn't suck and a word processing program and...

Make the nightmares stop!

Oh. Ahem. Back to Slack:

Since it's a new install, I'm telling it to overwrite the configuration files. Done!

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 2 minutes
Elapsed time waiting: 15 minutes
Total time interacting: 3 minutes
Total time waiting: 15 minutes

A moment of awesome randomness

This evening, I noticed that a little slip of paper was tucked under the windshield wiper on my car.  My first thought?  It must be about my bumper stickers!  Okay, why in the world would I think *that?*

Because it's happened before.  Now, my bumper stickers are as follows:

* Hatred is not a family value
* Freedom of religion means all religions
* Save the earth; don't breed
* Slackware Linux

Any guesses as to which one earned this note?

if (bumperStickerIsAwesome = True)
     {
       document.Write( "I DUB THEE SIR KNIGHT OF AWESOME
       CAR")
     }

Thanks, Zebobbybird and mr. smilie at envycomics.net!

Getting the wired Internet connection to work on the dv2945se

The problem is that I'm on a network that uses DHCP, but I haven't told the computer to get itself a new IP address. This probably wouldn't have been a problem if either (a) I'd plugged in the ethernet cord during install or (b) this laptop had a network card that Slackware can configure.  No matter; it's easy to fix:

su -c ifconfig

One of the first lines it gave in response was:

eth0 Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 01:2A:34:56:7B:8C

The point here is that it says "Link encap: Ethernet", and the name given is "eth0." If yours says something different than eth0, use that instead in the commands below.

su -c "dhcpcd eth0"

The quotes tell the computer that I mean for it to run both words as one command as root. Note that if I forget the last ", it will give a mostly blank line. Hit ctrl-c to cancel out of it if that happens.

Now to see if that worked.

lynx

And... success!

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 1 minute
Total time interacting: 4 minutes
Total time waiting: 0 minutes

Getting the GUI up part 1: finding the video card model and make on the dv2945se

Assuming that one likes to use a GUI on a computer (Firefox, anyone?), the most natural thing someone thinks upon starting a fresh installation on Slack is "Where's my GUI?" Or, for Windows users, "Where's my start button?"

Okay, they changed the "start" button to a nameless bubble for Windows Vista and 7, which is a shame, because I used to take great delight in hacking Windows to change the 'tar' in "start" to 'hi.' It's nice and subtle, thus people don't notice the change right away, so it served as a great amusement when I did it to the family's Windows '98 box.

Pranks aside, let's get on with Slack!

Hey, anyone got any good pranks for Windows or Linux desktops that are subtle, amusing, and nondestructive? (This means changing the screensaver or wallpaper to the BSOD doesn't count because it can lead to data loss on reboot!) Leave your pranks the comments, please!

Okay, okay, I'll get back on topic! Slack is more fun than pranks are, anyway... Well, maybe not, but the fun lasts longer and there's less likelihood of retribution...

The way you start the GUI on a fresh install of Slack is to type,

startx

Simply put, the response I got from this laptop was not normal. On other boxes, Slack happily opens up the desktop and you're good to go.  But, no.  This is one of the quirks of this laptop -- getting its video card set up is a pain.  Time to crash the GUI and install the video driver.

To get out of the GUI, hold down ctrl-alt-f1 all at the same time. This will return you to the command line, where you won't have a friendly blinky cursor. To get the blinky cursor back, press

ctrl-c

which is Linux for "Pretty please, cancel that program."

Time check...

Elapsed time interacting: 1 minute
Total time interacting: 2 minutes
Total time waiting: 0 minutes

Okay, how about asking Linux to configure the graphics? Type:

su -c xorgsetup

The su -c command causes the computer to ask you for the root password. This is necessary because ifconfig is a command that cannot be run as a regular user. Feed it its password, and the command you requested will run.  After running xorgsetup, I typed:

startx

And... still broken.

So, I need to install a graphics driver on a computer that has no graphics driver, thus no access to Firefox...

It's worth noting that it's not common for Slackware to have this much difficulty loading graphics. But you get what you get with certain fussy laptops.

To detect the hardware on the computer, I typed:

su -c lspci

Somewhere in that mess, I have the listing:

00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C67 [GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M] (rev a2)

This is a beautiful thing because nVidia provides a graphics driver for Linux.

I could be boring and look up the driver on another computer and sneakernet the file over. More on that in a minute. Here's how I dealt with this as if I didn't have another computer on hand to run to:

lynx

...which tries to start up a non-graphical web browser. I say try, because what I ended up with was a red bar with yellow text that said, "Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host." Well, as I said, the wireless card doesn't work properly on this computer, and besides, it doesn't know the password and such on my wireless router. So I'll just plug it in via ethernet cord.

Plug it in, see the nice green light in the cord's port go blinky blinky.  Let's try this again.

lynx

...same error message.

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 1 minute
Total time interacting: 3 minutes
Total time waiting: 0 minutes

Now, this issue has nothing to do with the wireless driver since I'm not using the wireless card at all. What's the problem, then? I'm on a network that uses DHCP, but I haven't told the computer to get itself a new IP address.

User account creation on the dv2945se

The first step in getting any Linux computer ready to run is to make sure we're not running from the root account.  root is all-powerful and can do anything you can do on the computer (rather like the Windows "Administrator" account).  Thing is, whereas it's normal to run as an administrator on Windows, it's simply not done on Linux.

To sign on, type

root

...then use the password you created during installation.  If you forget that password, it's possible to reset it (I've done it before, after my very first Slackware install) but it's just easier to avoid the whole mess and use a password that's difficult to crack and that you won't forget.

To add a new user account, type

adduser

...which will ask several questions.  First it asks for the user name, which needs to be all lowercase, all one word.  After that, just hit 'enter' 'til it wants a password.  Then enter the same password twice, like a good little monkey.  (Please make this password different than the one you made for the root account!)

Beautiful.  Now, to sign out of the root account, type

logout

...then sign in to the new account by entering the username you just set and the password you just made.

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 1 minute
Total time interacting: 1 minute
Total time waiting: 0 minutes

Now the fun part: Basic configuration of the dv2945se

The reason I wanted to showcase the installation on a dv2945se is that this is a difficult computer to configure.  Whereas Slack has installed both the graphics driver and the wireless card driver on other boxes I use, this one takes some argument.

Argument was an understatement when it came to Slack 13.37.  A brand new version of Slack plus a fussy laptop equaled more frustration than I can cope with during finals.  I fought with it for days to get it to behave, and ultimately I decided to return to Slack 13.0 for the time being.  Sometime in the future I expect I'll return to 13.37 and figure out how to make it behave, but not today.  The following configuration is for Slack 13.0.

Let's bicker, shall we?

User account creation

Getting the GUI up part 1: finding the video card model and make on the dv2945se

Getting the wired Internet connection to work on the dv2945se

Installing on the HP Pavilion dv2945se laptop

Now I stuff one of the three Slackware 13.37 CDs into the laptop, restart, and here we go with the install!

Now, Slack's configuration may be a bit of a challenge, but the installation process is pathetically simple.  I'm going to count the times I simply press

<Enter>

I'll put the commands to be input into dark gray boxes.  Just assume an enter after I indicate that something should be typed.

Let's watch how long this takes...

<Enter>
<Enter>
root

If you need to partition the system,

fdisk -l

Look for your hard drive; it's probably going to report devices like:

/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2

(yours may be hda1, hda2, etc.)

Drop the numbers, and /dev/sda is the name for my hard drive.

On with partitioning -- use your hard drive's name in the command below:

cfdisk /dev/sda

Now that partitioning is done...

setup

Arrow down to "Addswap" and press enter.

<Enter>
<Enter>
<Enter>
<Enter>
<Enter>
<Enter>

And now I'm waiting for it to format...

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 5 minutes
Total time interacting: 5 minutes
Total time waiting: 0 minutes

Well, that was fast.  It's done formatting.

Time check...
Elapsed time waiting: 1 minute
Total time interacting: 5 minutes
Total time waiting: 1 minute

Here we go again with the 'Enter' key...

Enter (4 times)
The system has found my Windows partition and wants me to name it: type "/mnt/ntfs"
Enter (6 times)

It's ready to install.

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 3 minutes
Total time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time waiting: 1 minute

And now it's installing...

Time check...
Elapsed time waiting: 8 minutes
Total time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time waiting: 8 minutes

It asks me to insert the second disk.

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 0 minutes
Total time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time waiting: 8 minutes

And disk 2 is installing...

Time check...
Elapsed time waiting: 4 minutes
Total time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time waiting: 12 minutes

It asks me to insert the third disk.

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 0 minutes
Total time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time waiting: 12 minutes

And disk 3 is installing...

Time check...
Elapsed time waiting: 5 minutes
Total time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time waiting: 17 minutes

It's done with installing, and now it's going to ask a few questions about setup.

This is so exhausting.  I don't know how I'm going to survive pressing 'Enter' again and again.  It's such dull and repetitive work...

Enter (3 times)
type "linux" (or "flyingtoasters" or whatever you prefer)
type "electric.sheep" or whatever you prefer -- it doesn't matter, if this isn't a web server.
Enter (6 times)
Choose your time zone
Choose your window manager (beginners will probably like KDE, but I go with fluxbox)
Enter (once)
Put in a root password -- something you won't forget!
Enter (2 times)
Select "exit"
Control-alt-delete

Installation is done!

Time check...
Elapsed time interacting: 8 minutes
Total time interacting: 16 minutes
Total time waiting: 17 minutes

Installation done, 33 minutes total.

HP Pavilion dv2945se with Slack

I've run Slack on my laptop, a HP Pavilion dv2945se, in the past.  But thanks to the fact that the Windows XP partition was crying in agony because it only had 10 GB of HDD space, I needed to do some major repartitioning.

Yes, I know, I could have backed up my Slack install, moved the partitions, then dumped the Slack install back on exactly as it was.  But maybe the shameful truth is, that would mean I'd have to find some other excuse to configure Slack into oblivion.

Sadly, even with Slack, there is indeed a point to be had where you can't think of anything else worth changing. Let's get to that 'Can't find anything else worth changing' point yet again, shall we?

My disk currently has a 30 G partition infested with Windows XP.  It also has a Linux swap partition and one huge partition for Slack.  I know I've babbled in the past about partitioning Linux' portion of a drive into several segments so that one can mount different sections of the OS to different partitions, but...  I'm thinking that that approach is only really valuable if you're mounting to different physical HDDs.

In my experience, the only result of splitting the Linux install between several partitions on the same HDD is that it greatly increases the likelihood that one of the partitions will eventually start screaming about being out of free space, while the others point and laugh.  If there's actually a reason to risk such playground squabbles when the playground is one lone HDD, please let me know.

On to the process of getting an installation DVD:

I downloaded the install disks from the official Slackware website.  From the link I just offered, I chose the country I'm in and chose a server that's both fast and nearby. This is the result:

Although this is a 64-bit computer, I'm still too chicken for the excitement of installing 64-bit applications.  32-bit it is.  I clicked on slackware-13.1-iso/, and this is the result:

Curiously, I don't see a file named slackware-13.1-install-dvd-iso.  I figured, that's okay; I'll make my own.  (I later figured out that the DVD iso is available on some servers and not others.)  I downloaded the following files:

slackware-13.1-install-d1.iso

slackware-13.1-install-d1.iso.md5

slackware-13.1-install-d2.iso

slackware-13.1-install-d2.iso.md5

slackware-13.1-install-d3.iso

slackware-13.1-install-d3.iso.md5

slackware-13.1-source-d4.iso

slackware-13.1-source-d4.iso.md5

slackware-13.1-source-d5.iso

slackware-13.1-source-d5.iso.md5

slackware-13.1-source-d6.iso

slackware-13.1-source-d6.iso.md5

Then I used md5sum.exe to check the validity of the Slack install .iso files.  (See md5sum.exe's website for detailed instructions.)  Cygwin can also check the files, apparently, and it looks like a fun toy, but it'll take longer (by far) to install and use than md5sum.exe.

What I did, and by the way, THIS DIDN'T WORK:  I wanted to burn to a DVD, not 3-6 CD's, so I turned to the program InfraRecorder.  InfraRecorder starts by showing the following screen:

I selected Data Disc (DVD).  I hunted down the directory with the Slackware .iso files.  I dragged-and-dropped each of the .iso files into the (originally blank) lower pane:

"Actions -> Burn Compilation -> to a Compact Disc" told the program to start burning all six .iso files to a blank DVD.

Well, what I ended up with was a DVD... with six .iso files on it.  *sigh*

It would have worked beautifully if I'd just bothered to burn my three CDs and have done with it.  (The first three Slackware .iso images contain the actual operating system install files; the last three contain source code, and the installer doesn't even offer to put those on the computer.  So, there's actually no reason to download the last three because even if you do want the source code, you can always download it after install.)

Around in circles a bit, I finally decided to change plans entirely.  I pulled down iso files of the first three Slackware disks for their latest version, 13.34.  I wiped out the Windows parititon entirely, so all I have on the computer is a 3 gig Linux swap partition, and after that, a great big Linux ext4 partition.

This doesn't mean that this computer won't be running Windows at all.  It will.  I'll get to that much later in the config process, though.

More to Come...

I adore Slackware. Why? Because I like to configure everything. When I get a new phone, I dig through every configuration setting and make sure it's exactly the way I want it.

Windows is useful because it's still the top dog and thus the vendors have to design drivers and applications to suit Windows.

Slack is a great big toy for anyone who actually wants to muck around in configuration. It's powerful and easy on resources, and above all, it can do almost anything a Windows computer can. A Windows user who's up for a challenge can easily learn to make the switch directly to Slack. How, you say?

Now that I consider myself a competent novice, I'm going to write up the install and config process for my HP Pavilion dv2945se, complete with notes on how long it actually takes. The laptop in question presents complications with networking and video drivers. I'll offer up everything I know about getting Slack up and running on a difficult piece of hardware. Watch for updates in the next few months!

Firing up Firefox!

Today we embark on the grand adventure of getting Firefox up and running...

startx, and...

Sweetness. It happily starts TWM. It's pathetically basic, but it's not the terminal, so that's a success!

I even have a functional mouse. What I *don't* have, though, is my Dvorak keyboard. This is really annoying. The terminal is set for Dvorak -- why is the graphical display using QWERTY? Dvorak still works in the terminal. TWM just doesn't know about it.

Okay, where's xorg.conf?

slocate xorg.conf

It replied: Could not find user database '/var/lib/slocate.db': no such file or directory.

Okay, make me a directory.

su -c updatedb (This takes a minute or so)

slocate xorg.conf

No such. Okay...

su -c xorgsetup

It replied: Only root can configure X

I thought I was root. Fine.

su xorgsetup

It replied: Only root can configure X

This is too weird.

logout

It replied: bash: logout: not login shell: use 'exit'

This might explain something.

exit

exit

(Login as root)

xorgconfig

logout

(Login as regular user)

startx

That broke it. My monitor says "Attention: Input Not Supported" Well, maybe there are drivers I can install.

This probably requires the Internet. No Firefox yet, but maybe I can get Lynx up.

su -c "ifconfig -a" shows that my ethernet card is in good shape. So far, so good.

Let's see if it can see Google.

ping -c 1 www.google.com (The -c means count, so 'ping Google once' is what this one means. Leave off the -c and ping just continues forever. It sucks. Ctrl-z will get back to a prompt, but ping will still be harassing someone in the background until the poor thing is rebooted.)

It replies: unknown host www.google.com.

Perhaps DNS isn't working.

I used my XP computer to ping Google (open the command window, type ping www.google.com) and it said the ip address is 74.125.19.104 so...

ping -c 1 74.125.19.104

Worked just fine. 0% packet loss is a good thing, here.

Well, what about a reboot?

su -c reboot

Log back in and...

ping -c 1 www.google.com

success!

lynx

gets me on the internet. It's a web browser without pictures. I know, some of you have never even heard of such a thing. But it should be able to download the file I need.

I used my Windows computer to dig through NVidia's website and found that they have 32-bit and 64-bit Linux graphics drivers for my hardware. NVidia rocks!

The file downloaded to my home directory.

ls

It replies: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run

su -c "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run"

And...

It replies: This .run file is intended for the Linux-x86_64 platform, but you appear to be running on Linux-x86. Aborting installation.

Good to know. Wonder how you do get 64 to install. But a little more Googling leads me to believe I might be better off with 32 just on the grounds of ease of finding applications. Back to nvidia for another download, and then...

su -c "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-185.18.36-pkg2.run"

Follow the menus, and everything seems happy.

startx

and...

It even looks better than it did. Beautiful. But Dvorak?

Rats. No Dvorak.

Let's try telling the HAL to use Dvorak...

su -c "cp /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/10-keymap.fdi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/"

su -c "vi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymap.fdi"

Okay, in vi, now, change

<merge key="input.xkb.layout" type="string">us</merge>

to

<merge key="input.xkb.layout" type="string">us(dvorak)</merge>

Save, and

su -c reboot

Login and

startx

Joy! We have Dvorak in TWM. No quick way to switch to QWERTY this way, and you know, I don't care right now. Maybe some other time.

Still in TWM, in the bash window, type firefox

Beyond sweet! I have Dvorak in TWM, and Firefox is up and running!!! I love it!

Configuration and Tweaking

It is certainly nice that Slackware is up and running, but I need Internet. I'm sure I'll also find other things to tweak on the way. The first project, though, is to create a new user so I'm not running as root.

adduser me (well, choose an appropriate username unless you really want a user named 'me') is the command to create a new user. There was a brief series of questions, to which I pressed enter each time. Enter a new password, and it's done.

Then to switch users, type logout

Sign in as the new user so that it's harder for you (and the other creatures in your home) to mess things up.

Now my command prompt says me@paperweight:~$. Well, 'paperweight' was a nickname the new computer got when I wasn't sure I could fix it. But it's time it got a promotion, so I need to change the computer's name. For that, the command netconfig would do it. Except that I've signed out as root, which means it won't work. Much more secure, and not that hard to get around, if you have the root password.

So do I log out and log back in as root? Nah. I get the impression that I'll never have reason to log in as root again. No, I'm just going to give my username the powers of root for a period of time.

I type su and press enter, the system asks for a password. It wants root's password. Feed it what it wants.

My command prompt looks like root@paperweight:/home/me# so I now have the authority of root. Easy enough. Why not just use this mode to issue the netconfig command? Because after I run the command, I'll still have the power of root until I exit this mode. I don't feel like remembering to exit after using su to issue one command.

su -c is the command I'm looking for. the -c tells it that anything I type after it is the command to be run under root's powers. It will do so, then cancel my root authorization. Power, without having to remember to exit.

And I'm done pretending to be root.

exit

Back to changing my computer's name.

su -c netconfig (then follow the prompts like a good little monkey.)

su -c reboot restarts the system. After logging in, my command prompt says, me@penguin:~$.

I noticed during reboot that my system defaults to booting Windows. This must be remedied.

su -c "cp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo.conf.back" (creates a back up copy of lilo.conf. The quotes tell su that the whole thing in the quotes is a command)

Next up is to use vi, which I find to be the most ridiculous text editor ever dreamt of when compared to the simplicity of Windows' notepad. But I do remember the keyboard template required for WordPerfect once upon a time, so I'm not going to complain too loudly. Nonetheless, counterintuitive is the nicest name for vi, from a newbie's point of view.

Imagine having to create a text editor that runs in text-only mode, without a mouse, without ALT or F1-F12, and oh, forget the home, pg up, pg down, end, insert, delete, and the arrow keys. Oh, and you don't get any screen space for a listing of common commands. Got that?

Now, how exactly are you going to get up and down one character/line/paragraph? To the beginning or end of a line or document? Toggle between insert and overwrite modes? Search? Cut? Paste? Save? Quit? Print? The adventurous can look here for the answer.

Truth is, vi will nearly do your laundry if you're willing to learn a hundred or so commands. Someone well-versed in vi would be able to make massive editing changes to a document much faster than a knowledgeable Word user could. And I'm pretty sure there are things that vi can do that Word won't, though probably Word would have little reason to. All that said, vi has the ability to be awesome, but to the uninformed newbie it's a nightmare.

Why then do people still rely upon a program designed to cope with such limitations when we no longer have those limitations? Yeah, don't know. I have figured out, though, that modern versions of vi (well, vim, really) can cope with the delete and arrow keys, so that's a plus.

One more question: Why would you be reading through a Slackware configuration walkthrough if you're not up for gaining a passing knowledge of vi? Those with weaker constitutions can usually use pico in place of vi. Just type pico file instead of vi file.

Back to changing LILO's settings...

su -c "vi /etc/lilo.conf" (lets me into the LILO configuration file)

On the line after boot = /dev/sda I added default = Linux (Sets Linux to start by default)

I changed timeout = 1200 to timeout = 50 (so it only waits five seconds for me to select something before loading the default)

[esc]:wq (saves the file and gets me back to the command prompt)

su -c /sbin/lilo (tells the computer to apply the new configuration file, I assume)

su -c /sbin/reboot (not necessary; just checking to see that it worked)

Brilliant.

Five seconds of splash screen, then Slackware starts up. Makes my whining about penguins on the splash screen moot, though, because I'll almost never see said splash screen (and when I do, it won't be for long). Maybe I can get some ASCII art to greet me when I login.

Three Years Later...

When I learned that Vista was soon to be released, I promised myself I'd be up and running on Linux before XP became obsolete.  No, it's not from some belief that Vista is so much worse than XP.  After all, my primary system for over a year was an ME computer, and Vista couldn't possibly be that pathetic.  The reason I promised such is because I'm better at accomplishing things when they come with a deadline. Now that Windows 7 is almost ready for release, it's past time to get moving on this.  The plan is to be comfortable using Linux before it's easier to find drivers for Linux than it is for XP.

I have a new machine, which should help matters.  It has to be a good sign that this one doesn't have an  ATI graphics card.  (Then again, ATI was purchased by AMD in late 2006, so maybe they've improved by now.)  My ex-husband, who is altogether a cool guy, was awesome enough to hand-me-down an Athlon 64 machine.  I used one of the utilities on the UBCD to partition my hard drive, featuring 15 gigs for XP.

I have Slackware 13.0, (slackware-13.0-install-dvd.iso), downloaded. I verified the md5sum and burned it to a DVD using InfraRecorder.  Reboot.

I bothered to read the help file and concluded that I want my partitions to be sized differently.  Very well, exit setup and type 'cfdisk.'  Moving around partitions was quite easy.  The only extra information to be offered is that if the program says it can't make another partition, nuke the last one and make it a logical partition, rather than a primary one.  Here's my current setup:

This is how my partitions are set up:

       Size  Type  XP Label  Linux Label
     *  15G  NTFS     C:        sda1/
     *  10G  Ext4               sda3/
     *  10G  NTFS     D:        sda4/
     *   2G  Swap               sda5/
     *   5G  Ext4               sda6/
     *  25G  Ext4               sda7/
     *  25G  FAT32    I:        sda8/

     sda1/   contains Windows XP and its programs
     sda3/   is for Linux / (boot)
     sda4/   contains a Windows Vista recovery partition
     sda5/   is the Linux swap partition
     sda6/   is for the Linux /usr branch
     sda7/   is for the Linux /home branch
     sda8/   is for music files, documents, etc.

Thanks much to whomever finally realized that the floppy is dead, therefore we need the ability to make a boot flash drive!  After I inserted the flash drive, a big pile of status messages appeared, making the option to create a boot drive or not disappear.  Does a blinking cursor at the end mean it's working, or that it's waiting for me to figure out what it wants?

I ended up pressing the 'up' arrow, and it happily gave me my 'yes' and 'no' buttons back.  Windows manager?  I Googled some advice.  Holding to the original spirit of the project (command line is my friend, masochism) I have selected TWM.

At the end of it all, I rebooted and got a splash screen that said 'Slackware.'  Sweet!  But the setup claimed I'd get "a cool penguin logo at boot time"...

After a few restarts, the computer decided it only boots XP, as the option to boot to Slackware went poof.  And my flash boot drive?  Maybe my BIOS just isn't set up to boot from a flash drive, but it's not helping.  Where's LILO?!  How do I get it back?!

I tried using the Slackware installation disk to 'Configure,' which is the menu that created LILO last time, but the menu doesn't work now.  The big question is, do I scour Google, or do I save myself a little harassment and reinstall Slackware just to get LILO back?  And if I scour Google, do I hunt for ways to fix LILO or to set up GRUB?  And most importantly, will either give me a cutesy penguin on my startup splash screen?

While pondering my penguin dilemma, I went back to the UBCD and got /sda8 to format properly.  Penguins, where do I get penguins?

Back to the Slackware install disk, I have a command prompt, which looks like root@slackware:/#.

First up is to mount the root partition.  Now, the install disk doesn't want mere mortals using the mnt/ directory.  Type vi mnt/README to see the message for yourself.  To get back to the command prompt, type :q and press enter.

To create a new directory to mount the drive:

mkdir sda2

Or you can replace sda2 with whatever name you like, so long as it's not already a directory.

To mount the partition:

mount /dev/sda2 sda2/

Though, if your root partition isn't sda2/, replace it with whatever its name is.

Trying what I found here to fix Lilo, I've typed:

chroot /sda2 lilo

Which resulted in several warnings, but the question is, did it work?

Remove the Slackware disk, type reboot, and...

Sweet.  No penguin, but the Slackware splash screen is back.  And the splash screen is just a bitmap in the boot/ directory, so I can add my own pipe-smoking penguin later if I like.

Okay, what's with the pointy-pawed rodent with the penguin beak at the top of my screen?  Hi, Tuz.  I hereby apologize for calling you a rodent, as you are clearly a pointy-pawed dog-sized marsupial.

We have much joy -- Slackware is up and running.

Gotta love the SLUG

At the community college I attend, we have a LUG named SLUG. I went to my first meeting tonight. The company of other geeks, of the Linux variety. I'm hooked.

Only three other people there. They made their case for Ubuntu, based on ease of installation and use. For those who have read my blog so far, obviously ease of installation and use isn't my top priority; I'm happy to bang my head against the proverbial wall as long as I eventually figure out to climb over it.

OTOH, it sounds like an interesting project for my Athlon 1100 box. Especially since the topic of discussion at today's SLUG was using Ubuntu to create a DVR system -- and it can be done with something as old as my 1100 box.

On the ATI sucks front, I discussed my issues with the guys at the SLUG. The advice I got was that one can't rely upon the stability of a 64-bit port. And it also doesn't help that I installed a beta (Slamd64-10.2b).

So I have resolved to give up on the 64-bit port for now and install Slackware 10.2. As for the Athlon 1100 box, I'm thinking of installing Ubuntu.

Crapfest. ATI sucks.

It's hardly a surprise to the Linux community -- ATI graphics cards don't get along with Linux. It's ATI's fault; they have poor driver support for Linux. From what I've read, apparently nVidia is a much better choice. But I have a laptop, so either I make the ATI card work, or live life by the Bash command prompt.

ATI has improved one thing about their drivers -- the latest drivers come with an installer. So, the driver apparently installed just fine; however X Windows refuses to configure, and if I try the command 'startx', the screen goes black (less a blinking cursor at the center bottom of the screen), and no command I have found will return me to Bash. Have I managed to crash Linux? Probably.

On the other hand, it *can't* be impossible. When I used Slax, there was absolutely no problem. The X Window environment started right up. And if Slax works while Slamd64 doesn't, it's probably a matter of user ignorance.

In any case, after spending at least 48 hours trying to get X Windows to run, I've had it for now. I'll return to the project in a few days, after I've forgotten how frustrating it is to get the X Window system up and running.