Slackware Linux CD-ROM Installation HOWTO Patrick Volkerding v10.0, 2004-06-17 This document covers installation of the Slackware(R) distribution of the Linux operating system from the Slackware CD-ROM. ______________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Sources of documentation 2. Hardware requirements 3. Slackware Space Requirements 3.1 Preparing a Partition for Slackware 3.2 Booting the Slackware CD-ROM 3.3 Using Linux fdisk to create Linux partitions 4. Installing the Slackware distribution 4.1 The ADDSWAP option 4.2 The TARGET option 4.3 The SOURCE option 4.4 The SELECT option 4.5 The INSTALL option 4.6 The CONFIGURE option 4.7 LILO 4.8 Networking 5. Booting the installed Slackware system 6. Post-installation configuration 6.1 /etc/rc.d/rc.modules 6.2 Configuring the X Window System 6.3 Hardware acceleration with X 6.4 User Accounts 7. For more information 8. Trademarks ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Linux is a multiuser, multitasking operating system that was developed by Linus Torvalds and hundreds of volunteers around the world working over the Internet. The Linux operating system now runs on several machine architectures, including ARMs, Intel 80x86, Sparc, 68K, PowerPC, DEC Alpha, MIPS, nd others. The Slackware distribution of Linux runs on most PC processors compatible with the Intel 386 or better, including (but not limited to) Intel 386, 486, Celeron, Pentium I/MMX/Pro/II/III/Xeon/4, AMD 386/486/K5/K6/K6-II/K6-III/Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP/Athlon MP, Cyrix 386/486/5x86/6x86/M-II, Via Cyrix III, Via C3, and the Transmeta Crusoe. Linux is modeled after the UNIX (R) operating system. The Slackware distribution contains a full program development system with support for C, C++, Fortran-77, LISP, and other languages, full TCP/IP networking with NFS, SLIP, PPP, a full implementation of the X Window System, and much more. 1.1. Sources of Documentation If you're new to Slackware, you'll be happy to know there is a *lot* of documentation and help available both on the Internet and on the CD-ROM itself. One of the primary sources of Linux information is a collection of documents known as the "Linux HOWTOs." You can find these on the Internet on, in the /pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO directory. These are also installed on a Slackware machine in /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/. Other useful documentation at that site includes: /pub/Linux/docs/FAQ -- answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Linux /pub/Linux/docs/LDP/ -- Manuals written by the Linux Documentation Project. /pub/Linux/docs/LDP/install-guide -- Matt Welsh's "Linux Installation and Getting Started" book. Although the installation information contained is a little bit dated, it's still filled with useful information. If you're unfamiliar with UNIX, you'll find this guide to be a handy introduction. 2. Hardware Requirements Most PC hardware will work fine with Slackware, but some Plug-and-Play devices can be tricky to set up. In some cases you can work around this by letting DOS initialize the card and then starting Slackware with the Loadlin utility. Setting the computer's BIOS to configure Plug-and-Play cards also may help -- to do this, change the "Plug and Play OS" option to "no". Here's a basic list of what you'll need to install Slackware: Sixteen megabytes (16MB) or more of RAM. If you have less than 16 megabytes, we strongly suggest adding some additional RAM. If you have low RAM and booting the CD-ROM or boot floppies fails, you can try installing with the Zip version of the installer, or install ZipSlack plus the swapfile. See the documentation in the rootdisks directory for more information about these options. If you have 16 or more megabytes of RAM, you'll be just fine. You also will need some disk space to install Slackware. For a complete installation, you'll probably want to devote a 4GB or larger partition completely to Slackware (you'll need just about 3GB to install everything, and then you'll want extra space when you're done). You can make a smaller subset of Slackware fit into as little as 100 MB (see ZipSlack as an example of that), although an average installation uses around 500MB to 2GB. The amount of disk space required varies dramatically depending on the amount of software you've chosen to install, the number of users on your machine, and the amount of swap space you've given Slackware. If you haven't installed Slackware before, you may have to experiment. If you've got the drive space, again, more is going to be better than not enough. Also, you can always install only the first software set (the A series containing only the basic system utilities) and then install more software later once your system is running. If you use SCSI, Slackware supports most SCSI controllers, but you'll need to select the correct Linux kernel. Check the list of bootdisks in the bootdisks/README.TXT file to see if there's a bootdisk for your controller. You also might consult the SCSI-HOWTO for specific information about your controller. You'll be able to load the appropriate kernel from the CD-ROM without needing to use floppy disks in most cases, but the README file in the bootdisks is still a good source of information. To install from the CD-ROM, you'll need a supported CD-ROM drive. Again, check the bootdisks/README.TXT file to see if your drive is listed. If it's not, you still have an excellent chance of finding a bootdisk through trial and error that works with it anyway, since many CD-ROM drives sold by brand-X companies contain electronics manufactured by one of the companies that make a supported drive. Also, more and more drives made today use the ATAPI/IDE standard -- these drives will all work fine under Slackware. 3. Slackware Space Requirements Slackware divides the installable software into categories. (in the old days when people installed Linux from floppy disks, these were often referred to as "disk sets") Only the A series category (containing the base Linux OS) is mandatory, but you can't do very much on a system that only has the A series installed. Here's an overview of the software categories available for installation, along with the (approximate) amount of drive space needed to install the entire set: A The base Slackware system. (101 MB) AP Linux applications. (148 MB) D Program development tools. (334 MB) E GNU Emacs. (74 MB) F Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Linux. (33 MB) GNOME The GNOME desktop environment and applications. (349 MB) K Linux 2.4.26 kernel source. (201 MB) KDE The K Desktop Environment, applications, and Qt. (524 MB) KDEI Language support for the K Desktop Environment. (468 MB) L System libraries. (205 MB) N Networking applications and utilities. (149 MB) T TeX typesetting language. (183 MB) TCL Tcl/Tk/TclX scripting languages and tools. (18 MB) X X Window System graphical user interface. (133 MB) XAP Applications for the X Window System. (297 MB) Y Classic text-based BSD games. (6 MB) If you have the disk space, we encourage you to do a full installation for best results. Otherwise, remember that you must install the A set. You probably also want to install the AP, D, L, and N series, as well as the KDE, X, XAP, and possibly the GNOME sets if you wish to run the X Window System. The Y series is fun, but not required. 3.1 Preparing a Partition for Slackware If you plan to install Slackware onto its own hard drive partition (this offers optimal performance), then you'll need to prepare one or more partitions for it. A partition is a section of a hard drive that has been set aside for use by an operating system. You can have up to four primary partitions on a single hard drive. If you need more than that, you can make what is called an ''extended partition.'' This is actually a way to make one of the primary partitions contain several sub-partitions. Usually there won't be any free space on your hard drive. Instead, you will have already partitioned it for the use of other operating systems, such as MS-DOS or Windows. Before you can make your Linux partitions, you'll need to remove one or more of your existing drive partitions to make room for it. Removing a partition destroys the data on it, so you'll want to back it up first. If you've got a large FAT partition that you'd like to shrink to make space for Slackware you might consider purchasing Partition Magic, a commercial partition re-sizing tool: Anyone who installs their own operating systems will find this to be a very valuable tool. There are also free options such as GNU parted (which is included on the second disc), but it's not nearly as user- friendly. If you plan to repartition your system manually, you'll need to back up the data on any partitions you plan to change. The usual tool for deleting/creating partitions is the fdisk program. Most PC operating systems have a version of this tool, and if you're running DOS or Windows it's probably best to use the repartitioning tool from that OS. Usually DOS uses the entire drive. Use DOS fdisk to delete the partition. Then create a smaller primary DOS partition, leaving enough space to install Linux (hopefully 700 MB or so, and if your machine doesn't have a lot of RAM room for another partition of 32 MB for swap space). You'll then need to reinstall DOS or Windows on your new DOS partition, and then restore your backup. We'll go into more detail about partitioning later, and you don't need to create any new partitions yet -- just make sure you have enough free space on the drive to do an installation (more than 2GB is ideal), or that you have some idea about which existing partition you can use for to install on. 3.2 Booting the Slackware CD-ROM If your machine has a bootable CD-ROM drive (you may need to configure this in the system's BIOS settings) then you'll be able to directly boot the first CD-ROM. If not, then see the README files in the bootdisks and rootdisks directories for additional information about starting your machine using floppy disks. The FAQ.TXT also has good information about alternate methods of installation. Now it's time to boot the disc. Put the Slackware installation CD-ROM in your machine's CD-ROM drive and reboot to load the disc. You'll get an initial information screen and a prompt (called the "boot:" prompt) at the bottom of the screen. This is where you'll enter the name of the kernel that you want to boot with. With most systems you'll want to use the standard IDE kernel, called bare.i. To boot this, just enter bare.i on the boot prompt: boot: bare.i (actually, since the bare.i kernel is the default, you could have just hit ENTER and the machine would go ahead and load the bare.i kernel for you) If you've got some non-standard hardware in your machine (or if bare.i doesn't work, and you're beginning to suspect you need a different kernel), then you'll have to enter a different option on the boot prompt. Slackware comes with many kernels to support a wide variety of hardware -- read the details below to select the one that's right for your machine. First, the "IDE" kernels (so named because they do not have drivers for any SCSI controllers built in): bare.i This is a kernel to use for installation on most IDE based PCs, with support for nearly all IDE controllers and support for IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM/DVD drives. Most CD-ROM drives made today fall into this category. bareacpi.i This is similar to the bare.i bootdisk, but the kernel also contains support for ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). This performs similar power management (and other) functions like APM (Advanced Power Management) and is typically used on laptops to control battery charging and power related functions. Unlike APM which can be loaded as a kernel module, ACPI must be built into the kernel. If you find that your laptop does not support APM, you may wish to install using this bootdisk/kernel (or install the kernel later on). If you aren't using a laptop, then you probably will not need ACPI (or APM) support. ataraid.i This is a bootdisk with support for IDE RAID controllers. The install disks now have preliminary support for these controllers as well. The drivers included are: 3ware Hardware ATA-RAID controllers. Promise Fasttrak(tm) IDE RAID. Highpoint 370 software RAID. Many of these controllers will require some degree of do-it-yourself setup before and/or after installation. lowmem.i This is a really stripped-down Linux kernel which might be useful for installing on IDE systems with a low amount of RAM (less than 8MB). If bare.i runs into problems, you might try this. NOTE: On systems with extremely low memory (4MB), ZipSlack plus the add-on (found in the zipslack directory) may boot and run even in cases where lowmem.i doesn't. If use have to use lowmem.i to install, you'll then probably have to compile a custom kernel with the minimal additional features that your machine requires. old_cd.i This is a version of bare.i with additional support for old CD-ROM drives on non-standard proprietary interfaces. The CD-ROM drives supported by this kernel are: Aztech CDA268-01A, Orchid CD-3110, Okano/Wearnes CDD110, Conrad TXC, CyCDROM CR520, CR540. Sony CDU31/33a CD-ROM. Sony CDU531/535 CD-ROM. Philips/LMS cm206 CD-ROM with cm260 adapter card. Goldstar R420 CD-ROM (sometimes sold in a 'Reveal Multimedia Kit'). ISP16/MAD16/Mozart CD-ROM drives. (Boot time command line options (or 'append=' options in /etc/lilo.conf) are: isp16=,,, Valid values for drive_type include: Sanyo, Panasonic (same as Sanyo), Sony and Mitsumi. Default values are: port=0x340, irq=0, dma=0, drive_type=Sanyo.) NON-IDE Mitsumi CD-ROM support. Optics Storage 8000 AT CD-ROM (the 'DOLPHIN' drive). Sanyo CDR-H94A CD-ROM support. Matsushita, Kotobuki, Panasonic, CreativeLabs (Sound Blaster), Longshine and Teac NON-IDE CD-ROM support. pportide.i This is an extended version of bare.i with support for a wide variety of parallel-port IDE devices. Supports parallel-port products from MicroSolutions, Hewlett-Packard, SyQuest, Imation, Avatar, and other manufacturers. Then, the SCSI kernels (these also support IDE): adaptec.s This kernel supports most Adaptec SCSI controllers, including these models: AHA-1510, AHA-1520, AHA-1522, AHA-1522, AHA-1740, and AHA-2825. The AIC7xxx models, which include the 274x EISA cards; 284x VLB cards; 2902, 2910, 293x, 294x, 394x, 3985 and several other PCI and motherboard based SCSI controllers from Adaptec. This kernel also supports all of Adaptec's I2O based RAID controllers as well as the DPT SmartRaid V cards. In addition, drivers for OEM Adaptec RAID controllers used by HP and Dell, and Adaptec branded AAC964/5400 RAID controllers are also included. ibmmca.s This is a kernel which supports MicroChannel Architecture, found in some IBM PS/2 machines and laptops. It is a bus system similar to PCI or ISA. Support for most MCA SCSI, Ethernet, and Token Ring adapters is included. jfs.s A version of bare.i with support for IBM's Journaled Filesystem. Adaptec SCSI is also included. raid.s This is a kernel with support for some hardware SCSI and IDE RAID controllers. The installer now has preliminary support for these controllers as well. The drivers included are: 3ware Hardware ATA-RAID controllers. AMI MegaRAID 418, 428, 438, 466, 762, 490 and 467 SCSI host adapters. Compaq Smart Array controllers. Compaq Smart Array 5xxx controllers. Highpoint 370 IDE RAID. Promise Fasttrak(tm) IDE RAID. IBM ServeRAID hardware RAID controllers. Mylex DAC960, AcceleRAID, and eXtremeRAID controllers. Many of these controllers will require some degree of do-it-yourself setup before and/or after installation. scsi.s This is a SCSI bootdisk with support for various controllers. Note that this disk does not include Adaptec support any longer -- you must use the adaptec.s bootdisk for that. This disk supports these SCSI controllers: AM53/79C974 PCI SCSI support BusLogic SCSI support EATA ISA/EISA/PCI (DPT and generic EATA/DMA-compliant boards) support Initio 91XXU(W) and Initio 91XXU(W) support SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support Qlogic ISP SCSI support Qlogic QLA 1280 SCSI support scsi2.s This is a SCSI bootdisk with support for various controllers. This disk supports these SCSI controllers: AdvanSys SCSI support (supports all AdvanSys SCSI controllers, including some SCSI cards included with HP CD-R/RW drives, the Iomega Jaz Jet SCSI controller, and the SCSI controller on the Iomega Buz multimedia adapter) ACARD 870U/W SCSI host adapter support Compaq Fibre Channel 64-bit/66Mhz HBA support Domex DMX3191D SCSI Host Adapters DTC 3180/3280 SCSI Host Adapters Future Domain 16xx SCSI/AHA-2920A support NCR53c7,8xx SCSI support NCR53C8XX SCSI support scsi3.s This is a SCSI bootdisk with support for various controllers. This disk supports these SCSI controllers: Western Digital 7000FASST SCSI support Always IN2000 SCSI support Intel/ICP (former GDT SCSI Disk Array) RAID Controller support PCI2000I EIDE interface card PCI2220i EIDE interface card PSI240i EIDE interface card Qlogic FAS SCSI support QLogic ISP FC (ISP2100 SCSI-FCP) support Seagate ST01/ST02, Future Domain TMC-885/950 SCSI support. SYM53c416 SCSI host adapter UltraStor 14F, 24F and 34F SCSI-2 host adapters Workbit NinjaSCSI-32Bi/UDE support speakup.s This is the scsi.s (standard SCSI) kernel with support added for Speakup. Speakup provides access to Linux for the visually impaired community. It does this by sending console output to a number of different hardware speech synthesizers. It provides access to Linux by making screen review functions available. For more information about speakup and its drivers check out To use this, you'll need to specify one of the supported synthesizers on the boot prompt: speakup.s speakup_synth=synth where 'synth' is one of the supported speech synthesizers: acntpc, acntsa, apolo, audptr, bns, decext, dectlk, dtlk, ltlk, spkout, txprt xfs.s This is an extended version of bare.i with support for SGI's XFS filesystem. Support for Adaptec's AIC7xxx SCSI controllers is also included. You'll want to choose a kernel from the list that supports your installation media (such as a CD-ROM drive) and the hard drive you'll be installing to. For example, to install from an IDE CD-ROM drive to an IDE hard drive, you'd use the bare.i kernel. Or, for a system with an NCR 53c810 SCSI controller, SCSI CD-ROM, and SCSI hard drive, you'd use either the scsi.s or scsi2.s kernel (since they each have an NCR driver). Once you've entered your kernel choice and hit ENTER, the kernel and install program will load from the CD-ROM, and you'll arrive at the Linux login prompt. (You're running Linux now. Congratulations! :-) To log into the system, enter the name of the superuser account and hit Enter: root Since there is no password on the install CD, you will be logged in right away. 3.3 Using Linux fdisk to create Linux partitions At this point, you should have a large chunk of unpartitioned space on your hard drive that you'll be making into partitions for Slackware. Now you're ready to create your root Linux partition. To do this, you'll use the Linux version of fdisk. To need to partition a hard drive, you need to specify the name of the device when you start fdisk. For example: fdisk /dev/hda (Repartition the first IDE hard drive) fdisk /dev/hdb (Repartition the second IDE hard drive) fdisk /dev/sda (Repartition the first SCSI hard drive) fdisk /dev/sdb (Repartition the second SCSI hard drive) [NOTE: If you prefer, you may also try a newer menu-driven version of Linux fdisk called 'cfdisk'.] Once you've started fdisk, it will display a command prompt. First look at your existing partition table with the 'p' command: Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1024 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 702 5638783+ 4f Win95 FAT32 (LBA) Here we can see that there is one DOS partition on the drive already, starting on the first cylinder and extending to cylinder 702. Since the drive has 1024 cylinders, the range 703 - 1024 is free to accept a Linux installation. If the FAT32 partition were using the entire drive, you would have no choice but to delete it entirely (this destroys the partition), or go back and use some kind of partition resizing tool like GNU parted or Partition Magic to create some free space for the installation. If you need to delete a partition, use the 'd' command. You'll be asked which partition number you want to delete -- check the partition size to make sure it's the right one. Next, you'll want to use the 'n' command to create a primary partition. This will be your root Linux partition. Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) You'll want to enter 'p' to make a primary partition. Partition number (1-4): 2 Here, you enter "2" since DOS is already using the first primary partition. Fdisk will first ask you which cylinder the partition should start on. Fdisk knows where your last partition left off and will suggest the first available cylinder on the drive as the starting point for the new partition. Go ahead and accept this value. Then, fdisk will want to know what size to make the partition. You can specify this in a couple of ways, either by entering the ending cylinder number directly, or by entering a size. In this case, we'll enter a size. To do this, you need to enter +sizeM -- in this case, +2300M. Here's what the screen looks like as these figures are entered: First cylinder (703-1024): 703 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (33-92): +2300M You have now created your primary Linux partition with a size of 2300 MB. Next, you'll want to make a Linux swap partition. You do this the same way. First, enter another "n" to make a primary partition: Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) Enter "p" to select a primary partition. Partition 1 is in use by DOS, and you've already used partition 2 for Linux, so you'll want to enter "3" for the new partition number: Partition number (1-4): 3 Since this is the last partition we plan to make on this hard drive, we'll specify the end cylinder manually this time. Here are the entries for this: First cylinder (999-1024): 999 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (999-1024): 1024 Now we need to set the type of partition to 82, used for Linux swap. The reason we didn't need to set a partition type the last time is that unless otherwise specified Linux fdisk automatically sets the type of all new partitions to 83 (Linux). To set the partition type, use the "t" command: Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-4): 3 Hex code (type L to list codes): 82 Now you're ready to save the updated partition table information onto your hard drive. Use the "p" command again to check the results and be sure you're satisfied with them: Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 92 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 702 5638783+ 4f Win95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 703 999 2385638 83 Linux /dev/sda3 999 1024 200811 82 Linux swap This looks good, so we'll use the "w" command to write the data out to the drive's partition table. If you want to exit without updating the partition table (if you've made a mistake), then you can exit without changing anything by using the "q" command instead. When you exit fdisk using the "w" command, fdisk recommends that you reboot the machine to be sure that the changes you've made take effect. Unless you've created extended partitions, you can go ahead and run setup without rebooting. Note: Sometimes fdisk will give you a message like "This drive has more than 1024 cylinders" and warn about possible problems using partitions with DOS. This is because MS-DOS suffers from a limitation that only allows access to the first 1024 cylinders on a hard drive. At one time, LILO used the standard BIOS routines to read sectors, so this was a limitation of LILO, too. Luckily recent versions of LILO use the LBA32 method of accessing sectors, so this limitation no longer applies. If you see the warning from fdisk, you can safely ignore it. 4.0 Installing the Slackware distribution Now that you have one or more Linux partitions, you are now ready to begin installing software onto your hard drive. To start the Slackware install program, enter the command "setup" and hit enter: # setup The installer will start up with a full-color menu on your screen with the various options needed to install Slackware. In general, you'll want to start with the ADDSWAP option. Even if you've already created and activated a swap partition manually, you'll need to run this so Slackware adds the swap partition to your /etc/fstab file. If you don't add it, your system won't use the swap space when you reboot. Installing a typical system involves running the following options from the setup menu in this order: ADDSWAP, TARGET, SOURCE, SELECT, INSTALL, and CONFIGURE. You may also start with KEYMAP if you have a non-US keyboard layout, or with TARGET if you don't want to use a swap partition. For the rest of this section, we'll walk through a typical installation process. 4.1 The ADDSWAP option: First, we select the ADDSWAP option. The system will scan for partitions marked as type "Linux swap" and will ask if you want to use them for swap space. Answer YES, and the system will format the partition and then make it active for swapping. Once it's finished, setup will display a message showing the line it will add to /etc/fstab to configure the swap partition at boot time. Hit enter to continue, and setup will go on to the TARGET section of the install. NOTE: If you created a partition to use for swap space, but setup doesn't see it when it scans your drives, it's possible that the partition type hasn't been set in the partition table. Use the Linux "fdisk" program to list your partitions like this: # fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1024 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 702 5638783+ 4f Win95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 703 999 2385638 83 Linux /dev/sda3 999 1024 200811 82 Linux In this case, if /dev/sda3 is meant to be a Linux swap partition, you'll need to start fdisk on drive /dev/sda: # fdisk /dev/sda Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-4): 3 Hex code (type L to list codes): 82 Command (m for help): w This will change the third partition to type 82 (Linux swap) and write the partition table out to /dev/sda. When you run setup again, the ADDSWAP option should detect the Linux swap partition. 4.2 The TARGET option: The next option on the setup menu is TARGET. This lets you select which partition(s) you'd like to install Slackware on, and will format them using a Linux filesystem. Depending on which kernel you chose to boot with, your filesystem choices may include ext2 (the traditional Linux filesystem), ext3 (a journaling version of ext2), and Reiserfs (the first journaling filesystem written for Linux; it stores files in a balanced tree). When you select the TARGET option, the system will scan for "Linux" partitions on your hard drives. If it doesn't find any, you'll need to make sure that you've created partitions using the fdisk program, and that the partitions are labeled as type 83 (Linux). This is the same process shown above. If you've created one or more partitions for Slackware using Linux's fdisk program then you shouldn't have any problems, since Linux fdisk (and cfdisk) sets all new partitions to type 83 (Linux) by default. You will see a menu listing all the Linux partitions. Use the arrow keys to select the partition you'd like to use for your root (or primary) Linux partition and hit enter. The setup program will then ask if you'd like to format the partition, and what type of filesystem to use. If this is a new installation of Slackware, you'll need to do this. Otherwise, if you are installing software onto an existing Linux system, you don't need to format the partition. For example, the partition might be used as your /home and contains home directories that you want to keep. If you choose not to format a partition, you'll see "partition will not be reformatted" on the top of the screen as you confirm your choice, so that there can be no question about it. There are a few options you need to know about when you format Linux partitions. First, you'll need to decide whether or not you'd like to check the partition for bad blocks when you do the format. This is usually not necessary unless you know the drive in question has problems. Checking takes quite a while longer than a normal format (and most IDE drives do self-checking anyway), so you'll probably want to just go ahead and use the "Format" menu option to format the drive without checking. If you have drive problems later on (and can't just replace the hard drive with a better one), then you might want to go back and try again using the "Check" option to map out the bad sectors on the drive. If you are using an ext2 or ext3 filesystem, once you've picked your formatting mode, setup will prompt you to provide the inode density. On Linux filesystems, entries called "inodes" store the names of files and the locations of the blocks that make up the file. You need at least one inode for each file, so if you run out of inodes then you can't make any new files, even if there seems to be plenty of space on the drive. Inodes themselves take up space on your drive, so you need to consider how you will use the partition. Usually, the default value of one inode for every 4096 bytes on the drive is fine. But if you're planning to use the drive for something that uses many small files, then you may wish to increase the inode density to one inode for every 2048 (or even 1024) bytes. Once you've selected the inode density, setup will go ahead and format your root Linux partition. You will then return to the menu showing the partitions available for Linux. You'll notice that the partition you just formatted is now listed as "in use." If you made some other partitions for Slackware, you'll need to go through the same process of formatting them, selecting whether or not to check for bad blocks, and setting a reasonable inode density. With these partitions there will be an additional step -- you'll need to select where you'd like to put the partition in your directory tree. MS-DOS/Windows assigns a letter such as A:, B:, C:, etc, to each device. Unlike DOS, Linux makes your devices visible somewhere under the root directory (/). You might have /dev/hda1 for your root partition (/) and put /dev/hda2 somewhere underneath it, such as under your /home directory. When prompted for a mount location, just enter a directory such as /home, and hit enter. As you format each additional partition and place it in the filesystem tree, you'll be returned to the partition selection menu. When you've prepared all of your Linux partitions, you'll go on to the SOURCE option. 4.3 The SOURCE option: The next menu option is SOURCE, where you select the physical media from which to install Slackware. SOURCE displays a menu offering the choice of installation from CD-ROM, a hard drive partition, NFS, or a directory (mounted manually). You'll want to make sure your Slackware CD-ROM is in your drive, and select the first option: "Install from a Slackware CD-ROM" Next, the system will ask you if you'd like to scan for your CD-ROM drive or pick manually from a list. (unless you're trying to show off to your friends, go ahead and let setup scan for the CD-ROM drive automatically) Setup will then try to access the Slackware CD-ROM. If this is successful, setup will tell you that it found and mounted a CD-ROM on a Linux device such as /dev/hdc. If the CD-ROM was successful found, you may skip ahead to the SELECT section below, otherwise read on for some CD-ROM troubleshooting tips. If setup is not successful in accessing the CD-ROM drive, you'll need to figure out why before you can go on. The most common reason for this is that you used a kernel that doesn't support the CD-ROM drive. If that's the case, you need to restart the installation CD-ROM and specify a kernel that contains a driver to support your CD-ROM drive (if the drive is connected to a SCSI card, for example, you'll need to use a kernel with support for that card). You can also try switching to a different console with Alt-F2 and mounting the CD-ROM drive manually and then installing from a pre-mounted directory (if you prefer a hands-on approach). If you have no idea which device an IDE CD-ROM drive is connected to, you should have the system scan for it. You also can look at the messages generated by the system as it boots -- you should see a message that Slackware detected your CD-ROM drive along with information about what type of drive it is. You can look at these messages by using the right shift key together with the PageUp and PageDown keys to scroll the screen up and down. If you don't see a message about your drive, you're probably using the wrong kernel. If you're not sure which kernel you need to use, try these steps: If you have a CD-ROM drive is connected to a SCSI controller, you'll probably need to specify one of the SCSI kernels like adaptec.s, scsi.s, or scsi2.s. See the list of SCSI kernels in section 3.2. If you have an IDE controller, you should have no problems, but if you do try IDE (.i) kernels. Watch the screen for a message saying that Slackware detected your CD-ROM drive. If your machine is a little older than average, you can try the old_cd.i kernel. This contains support for a bunch of older CD-ROM drives that predate the ATAPI/IDE standard. Many of these drives came with a proprietary interface card, or were connected to sound cards (sometimes bundled with the CD-ROM drive). If Slackware still won't detect your drive, look at the file BOOTING.TXT on the CD-ROM. This contains a list of extra parameters you can pass to the kernel when you boot the Slackware CD-ROM. These parameters can be handy to force hardware detection when the autoprobing fails. For example, you can tell the kernel to look for a Sony CDU31a drive by entering the following command line on the bootdisk's first prompt: ramdisk cdu31a=0x1f88,0,PAS This tells the kernel that you've got a Sony CDU31a drive connected to an interface card at address 0x1f88, interrupts are disabled, and the interface card is a Pro Audio Spectrum. 4.4 The SELECT option: The SELECT option lets you select software to install. When you start the SELECT option, you'll see a menu where you can choose which categories of software you're interested in installing. The first series (called the A series) contains the base filesystem structure and binaries that are crucial for your system to boot and run properly. You must install the A series. Make sure that at least the selection for series A has an [X] next to it. Most of the other choices will also have an [X] next to them, and while you can use the cursor keys and the space bar to unselect items to save space (see the space requirements above for details), you're better off with a complete installation if you have the space for it. Once you've selected the general categories of software you wish to install, hit enter and you'll go on to the INSTALL option. 4.5 The INSTALL option: This option actually installs the selected packages to the hard drive. The first question the INSTALL option will ask is what type of prompting you'd like to use during the installation process. A menu will show several options, including "full", "newbie", "menu", "expert", "custom", "tagpath", and "help". The help option gives detailed information on each of the choices. Most people will want to use "full". Others might want "menu", "expert" or "newbie" mode. We'll cover each of these in detail now. The first option to consider is "full". If you select this mode, then setup assumes you want to install all the packages in each selected series and installs them all without further prompting. This is fast and easy. Of course, depending on which software categories you've chosen, this can use a lot of drive space. If you use this option, you should be installing to a partition with at least 2GB free (and hopefully more like 3GB or so) to insure that you don't run out of drive space during the installation process. Because Linux allows you to split your installation across multiple partitions, the installer cannot know ahead of time whether the packages you've chosen to install will fit your partitioning scheme. Therefore, it is up to you to make sure that there is enough room. The "newbie" mode (which was formerly known as "normal" mode) installs all of the required packages in each series. For each of the others (one by one) you'll get a menu where you can answer YES (install the package), NO (do not install the package), or SKIP (skip ahead to the next series). You'll also see a description of what the package does and how much space it will require to help you decide whether you need it or not. The "newbie" mode is verbose, requires input after each package, and can be tedious. It certainly takes a lot longer to install using newbie mode, and (in spite of the name), it is easier to make mistakes in newbie mode than by simply doing a full installation. Still, using it is a good way to get a basic education about what software goes into the system since you actually get a chance to read the package descriptions. With a full installation most of the package descriptions will fly by too quickly to read. If you can decide which packages you want from less information, the "menu" or "expert" options are a good choice, and go much faster than a "newbie" mode installation. These options display a menu before installing each series and let you toggle items on or off with the spacebar. In "menu" mode, certain packages that are considered crucial will be installed by default, and won't be shown on your selection menu. The "expert" option is similar to the "menu" option, but assumes you want control over every package that could get installed. The "expert" mode lets you toggle packages individually, allowing the user to make bad decisions like turning off crucial packages or installing a package that's part of a larger set of software without installing the other parts. If you know exactly what you need, the "expert" mode offers the maximum amount of flexibility. If you don't know what you need, using the "expert" mode will allow you to install a system that's missing crucial files. In either case ("menu" or "expert"), when you have selected the packages you want, you hit enter and all the selected software from the series is installed automatically. This process is repeated for each software series. The "custom" and "tagpath" options are only used if you've created "tagfiles" for installation. In the first directory of each disk set is a file called "tagfile" containing a list of all the packages in that series, as well as a flag marking whether the package should be installed automatically, skipped, or the user should be prompted to decide. This is useful for situations where you need to install large numbers of machines (such as in a computer lab), but most users will not need to create tagfiles. If you are interested in using them, look at one of the tagfiles with an editor. If you're new to Slackware, and you have enough drive space, you'll probably want to select the "full" option as the easiest way to install. Otherwise, the "menu" option is another good choice for most beginners. If you think you need (or would just like to see) the extra information offered by the "newbie" mode, go ahead and use that. Once you have selected a prompting mode, the system begins the installation process. If you've chosen "menu" or "expert" mode, you'll see a menu of software to choose from right away -- use the arrow keys and spacebar to pick what you need, and then hit enter to install it. If you've chosen the "newbie" mode, the installation will begin immediately, continuing until it finds optional packages. You'll get a selection menu for each of these. If you selected "full", now it's time to sit back and watch the packages install. If you've selected too much software, it's possible that your hard drive may run out of space during installation. If this happens, you'll know it because you'll see error messages on the screen as setup tries to install the packages. In such a case, your only choice is to reinstall selecting less software. You can avoid this problem by choosing a reasonable amount of software to begin with, and installing more software later once your system is running. Installing software on a running Slackware system is as easy as it is during the initial installation -- just type mount the Slackware CD-ROM: mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom Then go to the directory with the packages you want to install, and use the install-packages script: cd /mnt/cdrom/slackware/xap sh install-packages Other options for installing packages later on include "installpkg" and "pkgtool". For more information about these, see the man pages ("man installpkg", "man pkgtool"). Once you have installed the software on your system, you'll go on to the CONFIGURE option. 4.6 The CONFIGURE option: The setup's CONFIGURE option does the basic configuration your system needs, such as creating links for your mouse and modem, setting your timezone, and more. The CONFIGURE option will first ensure that you've installed a usable Linux kernel on your hard drive. The installation program should suggest installing the same kernel from the CD-ROM that you used for the installation process, and you should go ahead and do this. There is a generic kernel (kernel-ide) that comes with the A series that is actually the same as the bare.i kernel, but the best kernel to install to your hard drive is the one that you used to do the installation. If you used a bootdisk rather than booting the CD-ROM, you should install the kernel from your bootdisk by selecting the "bootdisk" option on the kernel installation menu. The menu will prompt you to reinsert your installation bootdisk and hit enter, and then setup will copy the kernel from the bootdisk to your hard drive. If you don't want to use the recommended kernel, you can pick any kernel from the menu of kernels available on the CD-ROM, but if you install the wrong kernel the machine likely won't boot -- it's really a much better plan to install the same kernel you installed the system with. Since you used it to successfully install Slackware, you know it will work on the installed system as well. NOTE: If you install a kernel on your system that doesn't boot correctly, you can still boot your system with the CD-ROM. To do this, you need to enter some information on the boot prompt. For example, if your root partition is on /dev/hda1, you'd enter this to boot your system: bare.i root=/dev/hda1 noinitrd ro The "noinitrd" option tells the kernel not to load the installer image into RAM, and the "ro" option makes the root partition initially load as read-only so Linux can safely check the filesystem. You can also start the system with an installation bootdisk, but the syntax is slightly different: mount root=/dev/hda1 ro Once you've installed a kernel, you'll be asked if you want to make a bootdisk for your new system. This is a very good idea, so insert a formatted floppy disk and use the "Create" option to create a bootdisk for your system. Next, you'll be asked if you have a modem. If you do, pick the device from the list shown. This will make a link in /dev pointing to the correct device, such as /dev/modem -> /dev/ttyS1. Similarly, you'll be asked what type of mouse you have. Pick the mouse type from the menu (or hit cancel if you don't have a mouse), and setup will create a /dev/mouse link. Most computers use a PS/2 mouse, which is the first choice. After this, other installation scripts will run depending on which packages you've installed. For instance, if you installed sendmail you'll be asked if you're running TCP/IP or UUCP. 4.7 LILO LILO is the Linux Loader, a program that allows you to boot Linux (and other operating systems) directly from your hard drive. If you installed the LILO package, you now have an opportunity to set it up. Installing LILO can be dangerous. If you make a mistake it's possible to make your hard drive unbootable. If you're new to Linux, it might be a good idea to skip LILO installation and use the bootdisk to start your system at first. You can install LILO later using the 'liloconfig' command after you've had a chance to read the information about it in /usr/lib/lilo. If you do decide to go ahead and install LILO, be sure you have a way to boot all the operating systems on your machine in case something goes wrong. If you can't boot DOS again, use the DOS command ``FDISK /MBR'' to remove LILO from your master boot record. (You can use a Windows Startup Disk for this) The easiest way to set your machine up with LILO is to pick the "simple" choice on the LILO installation menu. This will examine your system and try to set up LILO to be able to boot DOS (Windows) and Linux partitions that it finds. If it locates the OS/2 Boot Manager, it will ask if you'd like to configure the Linux partition so that you can add it to the Boot Manager menu. (NOTE: If you use a disk overlay program for large IDE hard drives such as EZ-DRIVE, please see the warning below before installing LILO) The "expert" option gives you much more control over the configuration of LILO. If you decide to use the "expert" option, here's how you do it. LILO uses a configuration file called /etc/lilo.conf to hold the information about your bootable partitions -- the "expert" LILO installation lets you direct the construction of this file. To create the file, first select BEGIN to enter the basic information about where to install LILO. The first menu will ask if you have extra parameters you'd like passed to the Linux kernel at boot time. If you need any extra parameters enter them here. Then you'll be asked if you wish to use the framebuffer console. The 1024x768x256 console setting is a nice one to use in most cases, but you may need to experiment to find the nicest setting for your card. Some look terrible at modes larger than 800x600 because of the default refresh rates, but at least ATI cards are known to look great at 1024x768x256. If you want to use the framebuffer console, select a mode here. Next, decide where you want LILO installed. Usually you'll want to install LILO on the boot drive's MBR (master boot record). If you use a different boot manager (like the one that comes with OS/2) then you'll want to install LILO on your root Linux partition and then add that partition to the boot manager menu using its configuration tool. Under OS/2, this is the fdisk program. NOTE: If you use the EZ-DRIVE utility (a diskmanager program supplied with some large IDE drives to make them usable with DOS) then do not install LILO to the MBR. If you do, you may disable EZ-DRIVE and render your disk unusable with DOS. Instead, install LILO to the superblock of your root Linux partition, and use fdisk to make the partition bootable. (With MS-DOS fdisk, this is called setting the "active" partition) The next menu lets you set a delay before the system boots into the default operating system. If you're using LILO to boot more than one operating system (such as DOS and Linux) then you'll need to set a delay so you can pick which OS you'd like to boot. If you press the SHIFT key during the delay, LILO will display a prompt where you can type a label (typically DOS or Linux) to select which OS to boot. If you set the delay to 'Forever', the system will display a prompt at boot time and wait for you to enter a choice. Next, you need to add entries for each operating system that LILO can boot. The first entry you make will be the machine's default operating system. You can add either a DOS, Linux, or Windows partition first. For example, let's say you select "Linux". The system will display your Linux partitions and ask which one of them you'd like to boot. Enter the name (like /dev/hda1) of your root Linux partition. Then, you'll be prompted to enter a label. This is the name you will enter at the boot time LILO prompt to select which partition you want to boot. A good choice for this is "Linux". Adding a DOS or Windows partition is similar. To add a DOS partition to the LILO configuration file, select the DOS option. The system will display your DOS partitions and ask which one of them you'd like to boot with LILO. Enter the name of your primary DOS partition. Then enter a label for the partition, like "DOS". Once you've added all of your bootable partitions, install LILO by selecting the "Install" option. 4.8 Networking Another configuration menu allows you to configure your machine's networking setup. First, enter a hostname for your machine. The default hostname after installation is "darkstar," but you can enter any name you like. Next, you'll be asked to provide a domain name. If you're running a stand-alone machine (possibly using a dialup link to an Internet Service Provider) then you can pick any name you like. The default domain name is "". If you are going to add the machine to a local network, you'll need to use the same domain name as the rest of the machines on your network. If you're not sure what this is, contact your network administrator for help. Once you've specified the hostname and domain name, you'll be asked which type of setup you would like: "static IP", "DHCP", or "loopback". Loopback -------- This is the simplest type of setup, defining only a mechanism for the machine to contact itself. If you do not have an Ethernet card, use this selection. This is also the correct selection if you'll be using a PCMCIA (laptop) Ethernet card and want to set up your networking in /etc/pcmcia/network.opts. (you could also configure a PCMCIA card using the "static IP" or "DHCP" options, but in that case will not be able to "hotplug" the card) Finally, this is the right option to use if you have a modem, and will be connecting via dialout and PPP. You'll select loopback now, and then set up your phone connection later using pppsetup or kppp. Static IP --------- If your machine has an Ethernet card with a static IP address assigned to it, you can use this option to set it up. You'll be prompted to enter your machine's IP address, netmask, the gateway IP address, and the nameserver IP address. If you don't know what numbers you should be using, ask the person in charge of the network to help. After entering your information, you'll be asked if you want to probe for your network card. This is a good idea, so say yes. Confirm that the settings are correct, and your networking will be configured to use a static IP address. DHCP ---- DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and is a system where your machine contacts a server to obtain its IP and DNS information. This is the usual way to get an IP address with broadband connections like cable modems (although some more expensive business-class broadband connections may assign static IP addresses). It is very easy to set up a DHCP connection -- just select the option. Some providers will give you a DHCP hostname (Cox is one that does) that you'll also need to enter in order to identify yourself to the network. If you don't have a DHCP hostname, just leave it blank and hit ENTER. After entering your information, you'll be asked if you want to probe for your network card. This is a good idea, so say yes. Confirm that the settings are correct, and your networking will be configured to use DHCP. Once you've completed all the configuration menus, you can exit setup and reboot your machine. Simply press ctrl-alt-delete and the kernel will kill any programs that are running, unmount your filesystems and restart the machine. 5. Booting the installed Slackware system If you've installed LILO, make sure you don't have a disk in your floppy drive -- when your machine reboots it should start LILO. Otherwise, insert the bootdisk made for your system during the configuration process and use it to boot. Also, make sure to remove the CD-ROM to avoid booting it, or disable your machine's CD-ROM booting feature in the BIOS settings. The kernel will go through the startup process, detecting your hardware, checking your partitions and starting various processes. Eventually you'll be given a login prompt: darkstar login: Log into the new system as "root". Welcome to Linux 2.4.20. darkstar login: root last login: Wed May 24 12:30:39 -0700 2000 on tty2. Linux 2.4.20. You have new mail. darkstar: ~# 6. Post-installation configuration Once the system is running, most of the work is complete. However, there are still a few programs you'll need to configure. We'll cover the most important of these in this section. 6.1 /etc/rc.d/rc.modules This file contains a list of Linux kernel modules. A kernel module is like a device driver under DOS. You can think of the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file as similar to DOS's CONFIG.SYS. The file specifies which modules the system needs to load to support the machine's hardware. After booting your machine, you may find that some of your hardware isn't detected (usually an Ethernet card). To provide the support, you'll need to load the correct kernel module. Note that modern Linux kernels include a feature that allows the kernel to load its own modules, called KMOD. This will load many modules automatically without any need to edit rc.modules, and when using KMOD it might be better to tell KMOD how to load the modules you want automatically rather than loading them at boot time with rc.modules. This is an advanced topic, and outside the scope of this document. If you're interested in this, "man modules.conf" is a good place to start reading. Anyway, back to the matter at hand -- using rc.modules to load kernel modules. To do this, edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file with a text editor such as "vi", "pico", or "emacs". You'll see a list of modules, one per line. Most of these lines will have a '#' at the beginning of them which causes the line to be ignored. As an example, let's say your machine has a SoundBlaster Live! sound card. To activate support for this card, find the line with 'emu10k1' (the name of the driver for Live! cards) in it, and remove the '#' from the beginning of the line -- then save the changed file. When you reboot the system, the module will load and the kernel will recognize the card. You could also load the support manually after saving the file, avoiding the need for a reboot: modprobe emu10k1 There's a lot more information out there about kernel modules, including lists of module names and the cards they support, as well as extra options you can can add to the module lines to configure the hardware in different ways. The kernel's documentation in /usr/src/linux/Documentation has a lot of good information (see especially the kmod.txt file) as does the Module-HOWTO found in /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Module-HOWTO. 6.2 Configuring the X Window System Configuring X can be a complex task. The reason for this is the vast numbers of video cards available for the PC architecture, most of which use different programming interfaces. Luckily, most cards today support basic video standards known as VESA, and if your card is among them you'll be able to start X using the "startx" command right out of the box. If this doesn't work with your card, or if you'd like to take advantage of the high-performance features of your video card such as hardware acceleration or 3-D hardware rendering, then you'll need to reconfigure X. To configure X, you'll need to make an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. This file contains lots of details about your video hardware, mouse, and monitor. It's a very complex configuration file, but fortunately there are several programs to help create one for you. We'll mention a few of them here: xfree86setup ------------ This is a simple menu driven frontend that's similar in feel to the Slackware installer. It simply tells the X server to take a look at the card, and then set up the best initial configuration file it can make based on the information it gathers. The generated /etc/X11/xorg.conf file should be a good starting point for most systems (and should work without modification). xorgconfig ---------- This is a text-based X configuration program that's designed for the advanced system administrator. Here's a sample walkthrough using xorgconfig. First, start the program: # xorgconfig This will present a screenful of information about xorgconfig. To continue, press enter. xorgconfig will ask you to verify you have set your PATH correctly. It should be fine, so go ahead and hit enter. Next, select your mouse from the menu presented. If you don't see your serial mouse listed, pick the Microsoft protocol -- it's the most common and will probably work. Next xorgconfig will ask you about using ChordMiddle and Emulate3Buttons. You'll see these options described in detail on the screen. Use them if the middle button on your mouse doesn't work under X, or if your mouse only has two buttons (Emulate3Buttons lets you simulate the middle button by pressing both buttons simultaneously). Then, enter the name of your mouse device. The default choice, /dev/mouse, should work since the link was configured during Slackware setup. If you're running GPM (the Linux mouse server) in repeater mode, you can set your mouse type to /dev/gpmdata to have X get information about the mouse through gpm. In some cases (with busmice especially) this can work better, but most users shouldn't do this. xorgconfig will ask you about enabling special key bindings. If you need this say "y". Most users can say "n" -- enter this if you're not sure. In the next section you enter the sync range for your monitor. To start configuring your monitor, press enter. You will see a list of monitor types -- choose one of them. Be careful not to exceed the specifications of your monitor. Doing so could damage your hardware. Specify the vertical sync range for your monitor (you should find this in the manual for the monitor). xorgconfig will ask you to enter strings to identify the monitor type in the xorg.conf file. Enter anything you like on these 3 lines (including nothing at all). Now you have the opportunity to look at the database of video card types. You'll want to do this, so say "y", and select a card from the list shown. If you don't see your exact card, try selecting one that uses the same chipset and it will probably work fine. Then choose an X server. You should have installed the server recommended for your card, but if not, you can always go back and install that later. Choose option (5) to use the X server recommended for your video card's chipset. Next, tell xorgconfig how much RAM you have on your video card. xorgconfig will want you to enter some more descriptive text about your video card. If you like, you can enter descriptions on these three lines. You'll be asked next about your RAMDAC and clock generator settings. You may enter them if you know the values, but the X server will probably successfully probe for these values. The next option is to run X -probeonly to find the clock settings for the card. You can try this, and if it works it will speed up X's startup time. If it fails, it's not usually a big problem. If it causes problems with your card, don't use it. You'll then be asked which display resolutions you want to use. Again, going with the provided defaults should be fine to start with. Later on, you can edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and rearrange the modes so 1024x768 (or whatever mode you like) is the default. At this point, the xorgconfig program will ask if you'd like to save the current configuration file. Answer yes, and the X configuration file is saved, completing the setup process. You can start X now with the 'startx' command. 6.3 Hardware acceleration with X If you've used xorgsetup or xorgconfig to configure for your card, and it's one that can take advantage of X's direct rendering support, you'll certainly want to enable this. First, make sure that the AGP GART device is loaded in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules if you are using an AGP video card. Then, edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Make sure that the glx and dri modules are being loaded: Load "glx" Load "dri" These lines will probably already be in place. Next, if you'd like non-root users to be able to enjoy direct rendering support, add this to the end of your xorg.conf: Section "DRI" Mode 0666 EndSection For complete information about hardware rendering support in X, see the documentation in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc, especially the README.DRI document. 6.4 User Accounts You should make a user account for yourself. Using "root" as your everyday account is dangerous, and is considered bad form (at the very least) since you can accidently damage your system if you mistype a command. If you're logged in as a normal user, the effects of bad commands will be much more limited. Normally you'll only log in as root to perform system administration tasks, such as setting or changing the root password, installing, configuring, or removing system software, and creating or deleting user accounts. To make an account for yourself, use the 'adduser' program. To start it, type 'adduser' at a prompt and follow the instructions. Going with the default selections for user ID, group ID, and shell should be just fine for most users. Passwords and security ---------------------- When choosing passwords for a Linux system that is connected to a network you should pick a strong password. However, passwords only help protect a system from remote trespassing. It's easy to gain access to a system if someone has physical access to the console. If you forget the root password, you can use a rescue disk to mount your root partition and edit the files containing the password information. If you have a bootable CD-ROM drive, the second CD-ROM provides a full bootable version of Linux (with no root password) and makes an excellent rescue disk. Otherwise, use the bootdisk that you used to install Linux to load the "rescue.dsk" rootdisk image. At the prompt, you can manually mount the root Linux partition from your hard drive and remove the root password. For example, if your root linux partition is /dev/hda2, here are the commands to use after logging into the rescue disk as "root": mount /dev/hda2 /mnt cd /mnt/etc Next, you'll need to edit the "shadow" file to remove root's password. Editors which might be available include "vi", "emacs", and "pico". "vi" and "emacs" might be more of an adventure than you need unless you've used them before. The "pico" editor is easy for beginners to use. pico shadow At the top of the file, you'll see a line starting with root. Right after root, you'll notice the encrypted password information between two colons. Here's how root's line in /etc/shadow might look: root:EnCl6vi6y2KjU:10266:0::::: To remove root's password, you use the editor to erase the scrambled text between the two colons, leaving a line that looks like this: root::10266:0::::: Save the file and reboot the machine, and you'll be able to log in as root without a password. The first thing you should do is set a new password for root, especially if your machine is connected to a network. Here are some pointers on avoiding weak passwords: 1. Never use your name (or anyone's name), birthdate, license plate, or anything relating to yourself as a password. Someone trying to break into your machine might be able to look these things up. 2. Don't use a password that is any variation of your login name. 3. Do not use words from the dictionary (especially not "password" :) or syllables of two different words concatenated together as your password. There are automated programs floating around on the net that can try them all in a short time. 4. Do not use a number (like 123456) or a password shorter than six characters. The strongest passwords are a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Here are some examples of strong passwords (but don't use these ;-): *^5g!:1? ()lsp@@9 i8#6#1*x ++c$!jke *2zt/mn1 In practice, any password containing one or two words, a number (or two), and a symbol (or two) should be quite secure. 7. For more information For more information, visit our web site at To shop for fine Slackware products, please visit Email: (Information or general inquiries) FTP: (Updates) WWW: (News) 8. Trademarks Slackware is a registered trademark of Slackware Linux, Inc. Linux is a Registered Trademark of Linus Torvalds. All trademarks are property of their respective owners.