Slacketh

[deadly7]

@Quik: Mmkay.

@Ergot: I'll try that when I get home from school. (I have to leave now actually)

[iago]

Hah, I knew Quik would say to be wary of Lilo.

I've installed Slackware at least 20 times on different computers, and I haven't once had a problem with Lilo (ok, once -- but that was the computer's fault, the harddrive was set to slave and a master, or vice versa).

Partitioning your harddrive is easy, if you're willing to format it.  You'll want 2 partitions for Slackware -- one should be double your ram (this will be used for Swap) and the other should be whatever you have left.  You can do your partition tables before installing Slackware by running the command "cfdisk".  It's pretty straight forward to use, just don't forget to "write".

If you need to preserve what's on the harddrive, that's trickier.  Partition Magic can resize partitions, but it always seems to end up with me losing everything when I try, so I don't recommend it.

When you install Lilo, it'll let you add Windows and Linux partitions.  I would recommend choosing the "Expert" option, then, in the main menu, do "Begin" (follow prompts -- when asked, chose to install it in the MBR) "Linux" (follow prompts) "Windows" (follow prompts) "Install".  While Slackware installs, you automatically get to configure LILO -- it's the thing that asks you if you want to do simple/expert.

IF something horrible happens, Windows XP's recovery console can restore your MBR.  You'll probably want to do a search for this, but boot off Windows XP's cd, go into the recovery console, and the command is SOMETHING LIKE "restorembr" or "fixmbr" -- look it up.  If anything horrible happens (as Quik is convinced that it always will), you can do that to fix everything and have Windows booting itself again.

And yeah, Darkside is 266mhz, Slackware runs fine on it.

Any questions, feel free to post here.

[deadly7]

So yago says a "thumbs-up" for LILO.
Now to google it..

And as for slack, mmkay then, that LILO shit's done for now. i'll trust yago and if not, I'll trust my WINXP CD and GOOGLE.

Now then
Back to the Boot Disk.. which one do I need? I was reading more on their website and didn't know what to pick. :|
Root Disk: UMMMM... helps?

Partitioning HD: This is done AFTER you put your Linux CD in, right?

[iago]

You need disk 1 and disk 2.  You don't need a floppy or anything like that.

IF you don't mind starting with an empty harddrive, you can partition after you boot off Slackware.  When you first boot, you'll get a console where you can type "cfdisk" to partition and "setup" to start installing.

[Newby]

If you're really afraid of losing Windows data, get a second hard drive. 20gb is all you need.

[Quik]

There's more that you have to worry about than just that one bootdisk, because he's making his one machine into a dualboot on the same harddrive.

[Ergot]

:/ There's nothing to fear? My sister boots Win98 WinXP and RH9. There's not that much to worry about and she's a compy n00b!

[Warrior]

I have Linux on one partition and Windows on another (Well I uninstalled Linux because it was Minislack which blowed) but LILO works fine, and I did it withought losing my HardDrive data on Windows. All I did was make the partitions using fdisk and I was done. Not brain surgery like most of you make it out to be.

[Quik]

I'm trying to inform him in a correct way how to do it, not to just wing it and risk losing valuable data, or ruining anything important.

[Warrior]

Wing it? Like iago said IF ANYTHING bad happens he can use his XP disk to fix his MBR, stop being so paranoid.

[Quik]

This coming from someone who reformatted the wrong partition and lost a complete source code to an existing project. Nice backups, by the way.

[Newby]

Let's keep the personal flames (lol, warrior was owned by quik!) out of this, mmk? Help him with the problem at hand.

Quik has a point, if you fuck something up you could lose everything.

[Quik]

I was just trying to get my point across: Better to be safe than sorry. (I know it's a cliche, you'll get over it).

[Ergot]

mmhmm, but the two partitioning programs that come with slackware are pretty damn safe, i accidently removed all my partitions but I didn't write it unlike fdisk which you generously help me fuck myself up :] Yes, I know the pain of losing everyone because of a shitty ass distro.. (ThizLinux) which could not detect a partition but the whole drive and decided to format it for me :/

[iago]

I think if he explains exactly what he's trying to do here, it would make life easier.  Like, what do you have now, what do you want to have, what are you willing to lose, and what are you wanting to keep?