Slackware

Hi All,

I am a linux newbie. After working with my loveable FEDORA 10 for months, i found it a bit slower. I wanted to try with slackware this time. I already had Windows XP and fedora in my 80 GB SATA disk. Now i allotted 15 GB ( SWAP + / + /home/usr ). During my installation i encountered no issues. Slackware was nice. After installation, the system starts with an error "Invalid Partition Table".

I cursed myself for not reading all the documents and help for the slackware installation and wiped the whole disk ( i had no important datas ). And this time, first i installed Fedora 10. ANd then alloted the space as previous for the slackware installation. When i completed installation successfully, again i faced the same error "Invalid Partition Table".

I do not know what to do at this scenario. Because, when i try to read the partition tables with some rescue disks, i can see it well. But i do not know what part of slackware i am missing with. And i do not find any issues in the slackware installation media also.

Note :
Both the times i have installed the LILO which was provided with slackware. Do i need to try without installing LILO from slack and go with the bootloader provided by fedora?

I want to have Win XP, Fedora and slackware in my PC (80 GB ).


Thanks for reading till end

Why?

One word for you: virtualization. Go check out VirtualBox or VMWare. Stick with XP and run Fedora and Slackware as Guest OS's. Or do it the other way around.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but when you said you were using lilo to try and dual-boot XP and FC, that told me you're way over your head.

Hi Otheus,

Thanks for your reply .
But i do not wish to use the virtualisation technicques. I want to have all the three operating sytems....

Generally with XP, you need to use the NT Boot Loader or grub. The problem comes from the fact that XP really wants to be the first or second partition, which means there's a chance (if your computer's BIOS is old enough) that the Linux kernel cannot load on the 3rd, 4th or 5th partition. Personally, I find the NT Boot Loader acceptable and easier to install. There are some guides and FAQs out there on how to do this and go into more detail than I can.

First you use a live/rescue cd to partition your drive. You'll need one NTFS/FAT32 partition, three linux partitions with code 83, and one Linux swap partition (82). This is more than 4, so you'll need to create an extended partition. After this, straight away, install XP. Now go back and install Linux, but DO NOT have them install a boot loader on the MBR (the disks' master boot record) -- Instead, either use a boot disk or install the boot sector on each local partition. (Also, if possible, for simplicity, avoid using LVM - linux volume management). Let the two Linux installations share a single /boot image. You can boot into XP and configure the NTFS loader to "chain load" into your /boot partition, which will then run grub and let you select one of the other two operating systems. (Or, each linux installation has a /boot directory -- not in its own partition, and grub is configured for each partition independently).

Your issues are more with the way your HDD is partitioned! Grub can boot from an OS from withing a logical partition within an extended partition. However because you installed grub with Fedora (I assume) the Grub config file will not be available to use with Lilo which just might now be incorrectly installed in the boot sector of your drive.

You need to install grub in slackware not lilo in this case.. to the root directory of your slackware install and then edit /boot/grub/grub.config in Fedora to have your slackware install show up in the boot menu in grub so that when you boot your computer with grub there will be three separate os boot options available.

You will most likely have to put grub back in the boot sector of your harddrive using the correct command as root in Fedora to make all this work correctly.

With your setup and one HDD you can have 4 primary partitions and use them the way you need to, so running three operating systems is possible without having to setup an extended partition table.

There is no reason to create two different swap partitions as both versions of linux can and will use the same swap area you set aside on your drive.

I would strongly suggest getting a second HDD if you want to run 3 Oses, though, as the benefits of having your swap and /root on different drives are substantial if you want your linux installs to really smoke because you can swap and run from different drives at the same time.

My good old dual p111 compact server setup uses a single swap on one small size scsi (6 gig), Slackware (15 gig) on one, Zenwalk on another (10 gig) and XP pro on the first IDE channel...all with no conflicts or trouble.

Best of luck and don't give up!
Eric

Thank you so much Otheus and Reeman....I am very excited in learning Unix flavors . Unfortunately my system HDD got some issues. Dont know the crux of the issue at this point. Also i am planning to upgrade my system to ASUS + AMD. So for a while my learning is at halt. I will try your suggestions in my new PC built. Once again thanks for your voices.

Unix for MANKIND