[Optional] Testing Slackware with the Live CD

1. Navigate to slackware.com and there should be a link to Slackware Live on the index page. Currently, it is download.liveslak.org. Once there, select the United States mirror for liveslak. Currently, it is found at us.liveslak.org.
2. At the bottom of the page, select slackware64-live-<version>.iso to begin the download.
3. Make sure rufus is installed and ready to go. You can get it at rufus.ie. You'll likely want the x86 version.
4. Once the iso image is downloaded, open rufus and burn it to a USB drive.

Installing Slackware

(Following In Pursuit of "Slack")^[1]

1. Navigate to slackware.com, select Get Slack, select mirrors, select Slackware ISO Images, select the directory of the latest version of Slackware at the bottom (in my case, slackware64-15.0-iso/), and download slackware64-15.0-install-dvd.iso.

   • Using Rufus (or dd), burn the ISO image to a USB drive (I'll cover this in another guide).
   • Leave the drive inserted reboot the computer.
   • Enter the BIOS setup, make sure secure boot is disabled, and put the flash drive at the top of the boot list.
   • Continue bootup into Slackware ISO.

2. Find disk name: fdisk -l. My disk is /dev/sda 476.94 GiB.

3. Create Partitions: cfdisk /dev/sda. You may need to delete partitions so that only FREE SPACE is left. I used this partition scheme.

   /dev/sda1   500M    EFI System          /boot
   /dev/sda2   4G      Linux Swap          swap
   /dev/sda3   25G     Linux Filesystem    /
   /dev/sda4   447.5G  Linux Filesystem    /home

   • The partition scheme outlined by the video was different. I took my cue from Gerard Lally's comment in Best Practise in Partitioning Slackware]^[2] and Slackbook - Partitioning^[3]. Both recommended separate partitions for / and /home; the latter even suggested a separate partition for /usr/local, but that may be explored another day.

4. Check bad blocks: no; select root partition: /dev/sda3; format /dev/sda3: ext4.

5. Select other partitions for /etc/fstab; /dev/sda4: ext4; select mountpoint for /dev/sda4: /home.

6. FAT or NTFS detected: select no for visible in Linux.

7. Install from USB stick; package series selection: keep defaults; select prompting mode: full. --Wait for installation to complete

8. Skip USB boot disk creation; skip LILO and ELILO install (important concept from YouTube video).

9. Select imps2 for mouse. I wonder if this was the right choice

10. Load GPM: yes; config network: yes; Domain name: localdomain; connect via VLAN: no.

11. Network Manager

12. Confirm startup services: default

    • rc.atd, rc.crond, rc.fuse, rc.messagebus, rc.syslog, rc.sshd

13. No custom fonts; hardware clock local time: US/Pacific; default ex/vi editor: vim; desktop environment: xfce.

14. Set root password

15. DON'T REBOOT SYSTEM!
    We haven't installed LILO or ELILO, so there is no bootloader currently. Exit setup. Unplug USB.

16. Open shell. Again, do NOT reboot or power off!

    • mount to find out where the system is mounted. In my case /mnt.
    • chroot /mnt /bin/bash
    • source /etc/profile
    • grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub
    • grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
    • mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/boot
    • cp /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

17. Encountered error running shutdown -r now: shutdown: /dev/initctl: No such file or directory.

    • "Solved" by forcing reboot with reboot -f. Not ideal solution.

18. Login with root and add new user:

    • adduser sean
    • User ID: leave blank and hit enter
    • Initial Group: hit enter then up arrow. Add "wheel" to group list.
    • Home directory [ /home/sean ]: hit enter
    • Shell [ /bin/bash ]: hit enter
    • Expiry Date (YYYY-MM-DD): leave blank and hit enter

19. Set up sudo

    • visudo uncomment %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
    • Exit root and login to new user

20. startx to start xfce display manager.

21. To change how xfce comes up, open the shell and run:

    • su then vim /etc/inittab
    • change id:3:initdefault to id:4:initdefault

22. DONE!

Further Configuration

1. Apropos wasn't working

   • Run sudo mandb -c to create the manual database from scratch. This solves the problem.

2. Shutdown and reboot commands not working though they are found in system binaries /sbin.

   • Run with root authority visudo and uncomment line below hard-coded PATH instead of the user's.^[4]

3. Missing .ssh directory in `/home/.

   • Simply create it cd ~ & mkdir .ssh & touch .ssh/known_hosts

4. Configure slackpkg

   • Uncomment one mirror (top one) in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors and run slackpkg update. Instructions found in slackpkg man entry.

5. Figure out package management in general (slackpkg seems underpowered)

   • See Slackware Package Management.

6. Find out that / partition is too small. Take steps to make it larger. Here is an account.

7. Installed UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall). The default firewall config tool is iptables.

Resources Used