Installation Questions

[os400]

I have 2 boxes in my desk drawer, one is full of stupid answers and the other is full of stupid questions. Today's selection is from the stupid questions box.

1. I'm going to attempt to install slackware on a pc that does not have boot from cd capability. I understand I'll need a boot disk. I've read in the slackware docs about a root disk. Now, which one goes in first, boot or root? (I'm assuming boot). Do I need to fdisk the hard drive first or will the boot/root/install thing take care of that?

2. Next, assuming a box loaded with XP, drive formatted to NTFS. If I boot from cd, will the install partion the drive for NTFS and the linux FS? Do I need something like partition magic or do a complete backup and then fdisk?


btw, I'm having "STUPID" tatooed on my forehead this weekend.

 

[stefanwagner]

1.)
'goes in first?'

don't understand that.

A bootmedium must be setup correctly to be able to boot it (floppy, harddrive, cdrom, usbstick).

The bootorder - the order in which the system tries to boot from a device - is managed by the bios.

A root disk is a partition (and not a disk, but might be an entirely disk) which is mounted first while booting. It is mounted as '/' which is the root of the filesystem. It normally contains a directory /boot where you put your bzImage.

In differenece to the well known OS of evil, you don't have drives A: C: D: G:
We mount different partitions or media into our root-filesystem:
/mnt/floppy is used widely for floppys, while I prefer
/mnt/a as a reminiscence to former times, when I used the evilOs.
/mnt/usb for the usbstick
swap isn't mounted.
/opt
/usr/local are mounted partitions on one of my machines.

I don't know slackware, but if there is no hint in the docs, I would try starting to install.

2.) 'If I boot from cd, will the install partition the drive for NTFS and the linux FS?'
We may only guess. You should mention your slackware(?)distro exactly.

Backing up everything you may not reinstall (OS-System should be reinstallable from cd) is generally a good idea. Especially when resizing partitions.

There are good partition-tools around today, and some linux-distros contain such. Perhaps there is more information on the slackware-homepage.

 

[RhythmAce]

I don't use slackware but the use of a root disk sounds like something from the olden days. Actually for your setup you won't need either disk. What you need is an install boot image that loads the installer program. The installer program uses other programs such as disk druid to partition your hard drive. If you plan on creating a dual boot system, you will need to install xp first because it would overwrite the boot loader which allows you to choose which os you want to boot into. I would suggest using something other than ntfs for your xp partition because linux doesn't get along too well with that fs. If you were to use vfat or fat32 for example, you would be able to mount and use that partition from linux. Sorry I can't give particulars about installing slackware because from what I hear, it's pretty barebones compared to the rest of the distros around town.

 

[stefanwagner]

I would not recommend using fat32/vfat, as long as you don't plan to write from linux to the win-partiotion.

Even writing to ntfs is reported to being quiete stable with 2.6er kernel - though I don't know whether your slackware is already 2.6er kernel based.

Even if you write intensively to a common drive, I would suggest to create a separate partition for that (or use a usb-stick) since the disk-checks performed on fat32 partitions with windows are: annoing!

Reading ntfs-partitions is absolutely no problem - as far as I know. Perhaps RhythmAce may explain his arguments.

 

[RhythmAce]

I'd be happy to explain my arguments sir. It is true that linux has no problem reading ntfs partitions. It's when ya try writing to the booger you run into problems. There are ways to get them to play together but it requires recompiling the kernel in most cases. Not ALL cases mind you, just most of them. The man asked which floppy goes in first. I surmised recompiling and implementing a new kernel was not within the realm of his expertise. Since most (not ALL, just most ) dual boot systems are used for playing and learning, I figured why not suggest something that works and is easy to setup.

 

[stefanwagner]

Sorry - my dictionary doesn't mention 'booger'.
I guess it means something like 'WindowsNtfs or Slime or XXX', right?

I understand your point of view, but if he doesn't need to write to his win-partitions, there is only disadvantage in using vfat/fat32.