[PLUG] Admin Problem #2

[AthlonRob]

On Sun, 2003-03-09 at 07:53, Rich Shepard wrote:

>   According to the Slackware.txt file on the distribution cdrom (#1), there
> are supposed to be two directories: bootdisks/ and rootdisks/. However,
> they're not there.

If you ordered the official disk set, they may be on one of the other
CDs... they were taken off the first CD to make it small enough to fit
on a CD-R.  One-CD installs is what Pat was going for.

Grab them from your favorite mirror (leave ftp.slackware.com for the
mirrors to sync against).  I really like ftp.kpn.be, it is one fast
mirror and I know the admin.  :-)

>   If I read and understood the text file correctly, I need three floppy
> disks: a boot disk (bare.i), a root disk, and the pcmcia.img disk. Since the
> cdrom doesn't have the two directories it's supposed to, I'm wondering if I
> need to search the disk for the specific files then dd them to floppies.

Infortunately... the root disk is now something like six disks long in
Slackware 8.1.  The kernel can load one compressed initrd disk or
multiple non-compressed disks... so when Pat's root disk went over a
compressed 1.whatever megabyte disk size, he had to run it uncompressed.

He overcame the problem with 9.0 with the idea (I think) of putting just
the bare minimum on the initrd and then copying files from a second disk
after it loaded.  As boot/root disks are backwards-compatable (but *not*
forwards-compatable) you can use the boot/root/pcmcia from
slackware-current to install off the Slackware-8.1 CD.

A friend and I came up with the idea of a one-CD boot for those with
ATAPI CD-ROM drives but a BIOS unable to boot the new 8.1 CD (which
booted differently than 8.0 and earlier did - it didn't emulate a floppy
like they did)... we created a FreeDOS bootdisk with loadlin that loaded
an image off the CD-ROM drive.  It worked well, but I don't think would
work for your PCMCIA CD-ROM drive without a little hacking (to add
drivers for the PCMCIA controller).

>   I checked the Slackware Web site, but there's no general user mail list,
> only announce and security-announce. Other than one person in Ohio who I
> know runs Slackware, I don't know where to get educated. Some of you do run
> this distribution so I hope that you can help me over this first hurdle.

If you search groups.google.com for alt.os.linux.slackware, you should
find answers to most of your questions.  Otherwise, there are at least a
few Slackware users here on the PLUG list, and I think a few more over
on the PDXLUG list.  There are also a few general user lists out there,
I think.  There are also forums at www.userlocal.com (web-based) along
with links to a lot of other stuff.  Then there are a lot of packages
available at www.linuxpackages.net if you decide to go the precompiled
package route for things (which I don't suggest - just get the source).

Have fun, happy Slacking.  :-)

Rob