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              Outbreak Magazine Issue #15 - Article 7 of 11
          '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'


Beginners Guide to Slackware Part 1
-----------------------------------

1.0 Introduction
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you are reading this have probably decided that you want to install 
Slackware Linux on your PC. This guide will assume you have absolutely no 
knowledge using Linux, UNIX, or any kind of command line utilities. However it
is assumed you have a little common sense, and a decent understanding of what 
Operating Systems are supposed to do, and how they work.

This is part 1 and will focus on the initial installation, including the 
following:

* Finding and Downloading Slackware.
* Burning it onto CD.
* Making bootdisks (if necessary).
* Booting.
* Creating and formatting partitions.
* Configuring the Graphical User Interface, X Windows.

! IMPORTANT NOTE !

It is EXTREMELY reccommended that you keep a notepad and pencil/pen near your
computer the whole way through installations like this. Unless you have a 
photographic memmory...

1.1 Selecting a Version
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

As of writing the most recent version of Slackware Linux (reffered to as Slack
from here on) is version 9.0. This version uses the Linux 2.4.20 Kernel.

  ########################################################################
  # The Linux Kernel                                                     #
  # ****************                                                     #
  #                                                                      #
  #  The Linux Kernel is essentially the "brain" of the OS. It tells it  #
  #  how to handle hardware and software, hard-drivers peripherals etc.  #
  #  This is not to important to know at this stage!                     #         
  #                                                                      #
  ########################################################################

It is always best to use the latest "stable" release. When selecting the file
to download stable releases are always clearly marked.

1.2 Downloading
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It is as simple as visiting http://www.slackware.com/ and locating the download
mirrors. It is reccommended that you download the *.iso CD image. The files are
about 600MB a piece, however you will only need disc one to have a full working
distribution!

1.3 Burning
^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm going to, for the sake of the length of this text, assume that you know how
to burn an ISO image onto a blank CDROM. It is evident, by this stage, that you
have a CD-Writer, or know someone who can get you a copy of this distro.

-----
 PLEASE ensure you've some free space that's not on a partition before going on
 You can do this by using a program like Partition Magic, or if you know how to
 you can do it with FDISK. This part is simple enough, and most people can free
 space using the partition managers help system. You are on your own with this!
-----
   

1.4 Booting
^^^^^^^^^^^

If you have a CDROM drive on your computer, there is a high chance that you can
boot from it. This differs from system to system, but the general gist of it is
that you reboot, and press the delete key and you will be given a BIOS menu. If
it is not delete, it will be specified by a message upon boot. Once in the menu
navigate to the section which controls how your machine boots. It'll usually be
something like the following:

* Floppy Drive
* CD-ROM or removable media
* Hard disk Drive

If it is not, ensure that the CDROM option is placed above the HDD option. Once
you have done this you can insert the Slackware CD into the drive, and reboot!

-----
If you cannot boot from the CDROM, refer to http://www.slackware.com for floppy
disk instructions!
-----

2.0 Installation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Once the CD has booted you get the follwing prompt:

	boot: 
	
Just push enter here, and you will see loads of text scrolling down the screen,
after all the text has finished whooshing around you will get this prompt:

	Enter 1 to select a keyboard map:
	
Do as it says, and enter the number "1". Then you will be presented with a nice
menu where you can select the keyboard layout. You can view more by using PagUp
and PagDown keys.

After you have selected the map, you will get yet ANOTHER prompt:

	Slackware login:
	
Either push enter here, or type "root" and then hit enter. You'll now be logged
in as root, which is the Linux equivelant of Administrator, except with quite a
bit more freedom and power. After logging in you will see this prompt:

	root@Slackware:/# 
	
This is the Command Line Interface-more commonly known as the shell or CLI. The
next step is to configure your partitions

2.1 CFDISK & partitons
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

At the prompt, type in "cfdisk" (without the quotes obviously!) and you will be
presented with a semi-graphical user interface for the FDISK utility. There are
instructions on how to navigate the menu's and options on-screen. What you must
now do is create two partitions. The first is a "Linux Swap" partition which is
similar to the Virtual Memory in windows.

Select "create" and make a swap with TWICE the space as memory you have like so

* If you have 256MB of RAM, make a 512MB Swap.
* If you have 512MB of RAM, make a 1024MB Swap.

And so on, and so forth. The next partition needs to be larger than 2GB for all
of the software that you need. Make this new partiton as a "linux" partition.
It must also be set as "bootable" for a method we will be using later on...

Now select "write" and then "quit"

2.2 The Setup
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The next step will be the actual installation of the linux system! type "setup"
and there you have it--more menus!
Follow these VERY easy instructions, and you will be told to reboot...

3.0 The Next step
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The next article will focus on configuring a graphical user interface, if you 
would like a bash at setting your own up type:
	
	XF86Config
        
and then type
	
	startx

When you are done!