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389 lines
14 KiB
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<title>System Requirements</title>
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<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="installation.html"
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accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom">Chapter 3 Installation</td>
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<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="installation-partitioning.html"
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accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
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</table>
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<div class="SECT1">
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<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="INSTALLATION-REQUIREMENTS" name="INSTALLATION-REQUIREMENTS">3.2
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System Requirements</a></h1>
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<p>An easy Slackware installation requires, at minimum, the following:</p>
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<div class="TABLE"><a id="AEN706" name="AEN706"></a>
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<p><b>Table 3-2. System Requirements</b></p>
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<table border="0" frame="void" class="CALSTABLE">
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<col />
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<col />
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th>Hardware</th>
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<th>Requirement</th>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>Processor</td>
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<td>586</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>RAM</td>
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<td>32 MB</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Disk Space</td>
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<td>1GB</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Media Drive</td>
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<td>4x CD-ROM</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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</div>
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<p>If you have the bootable CD, you will probably not need a floppy drive. Of course, it
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stands to reason that if you don't possess a CD-ROM drive, you will need a floppy drive
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to do a network install. A network card is required for an NFS install. See the section
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called NFS for more information.</p>
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<p>The disk space requirement is somewhat tricky. The 1GB recommendation is usually safe
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for a minimal install, but if you do a full install, you will need around two gigabytes
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of available hard disk space plus additional space for personal files.. Most users don't
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do a full install. In fact, many run Slackware on as little as 100MB of hard disk
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space.</p>
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<p>Slackware can be installed to systems with less RAM, smaller hard drives, and weaker
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CPUs, but doing so will require a little elbow grease. If you're up for a little work,
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take a look at the <tt class="FILENAME">LOWMEM.TXT</tt> file in the distribution tree for
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a few helpful hints.</p>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INSTALLATION-SOFTWARE-SERIES"
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name="INSTALLATION-SOFTWARE-SERIES">3.2.1 The Software Series</a></h2>
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<p>For reasons of simplicity, Slackware has historically been divided into software
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series. Once called “disk sets” because they were designed for floppy-based
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installation, the software series are now used primarily to categorize the packages
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included in Slackware. Today, floppy installation is no longer possible.</p>
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<p>The following is a brief description of each software series.</p>
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<div class="TABLE"><a id="AEN746" name="AEN746"></a>
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<p><b>Table 3-3. Software Series</b></p>
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<table border="0" frame="void" class="CALSTABLE">
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<col width="1*" />
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<col width="4*" />
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th>Series</th>
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<th>Contents</th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>A</td>
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<td>The base system. Contains enough software to get up and running and have a text
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editor and basic communication program.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>AP</td>
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<td>Various applications that do not require the X Window System.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>D</td>
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<td>Program development tools. Compilers, debuggers, interpreters, and man pages are all
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here.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>E</td>
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<td>GNU Emacs.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>F</td>
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<td>FAQs, HOWTOs, and other miscellaneous documentation.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>GNOME</td>
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<td>The GNOME desktop environment.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>K</td>
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<td>The source code for the Linux kernel.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>KDE</td>
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<td>The K Desktop Environment. An X environment which shares a lot of look-and-feel
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features with MacOS and Windows. The Qt library, which KDE requires, is also in this
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series.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>KDEI</td>
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<td>Internationalization packages for the KDE desktop.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>L</td>
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<td>Libraries. Dynamically linked libraries required by many other programs.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>N</td>
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<td>Networking programs. Daemons, mail programs, telnet, news readers, and so on.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>T</td>
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<td>teTeX document formatting system.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>TCL</td>
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<td>The Tool Command Language. Tk, TclX, and TkDesk.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>X</td>
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<td>The base X Window System.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>XAP</td>
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<td>X Applications that are not part of a major desktop environment (for example,
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Ghostscript and Netscape).</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Y</td>
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<td>BSD Console games</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INSTALLATION-METHODS" name="INSTALLATION-METHODS">3.2.2
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Installation Methods</a></h2>
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<div class="SECT3">
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<h3 class="SECT3"><a id="INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-FLOPPY"
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name="INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-FLOPPY">3.2.2.1 Floppy</a></h3>
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<p>While it was once possible to install all of Slackware Linux from floppy disks, the
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increasing size of software packages (indeed, of some individual programs) has forced the
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abandonment of the floppy install. As late as Slackware version 7.1 a partial install was
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possible using floppy disks. The A and N series could be nearly entirely installed,
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providing a base system from which to install the rest of the distribution. If you are
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considering a floppy install (typically on older hardware), it is typically recommended
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to find another way, or use an older release. Slackware 4.0 is still very popular for
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this reason, as is 7.0.</p>
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<p>Please note that floppy disks are still required for a CD-ROM install if you do not
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have a bootable CD, as well as for an NFS install.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT3">
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<h3 class="SECT3"><a id="INSTALLATION-INSTALLLATION-METHODS-CDROM"
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name="INSTALLATION-INSTALLLATION-METHODS-CDROM">3.2.2.2 CD-ROM</a></h3>
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<p>If you have the bootable CD, available in the official disc set published by Slackware
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Linux, Inc. (see the section called Getting Slackware), a CD-based installation will be a
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bit simpler for you. If not, you will need to boot from floppies. Also, if you have
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special hardware that makes usage of the kernel on the bootable CD problematic, you may
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need to use specialized floppies.</p>
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<p>As of Slackware version 8.1, a new method is used for creating the bootable CDs, which
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does not work as well with certain flaky BIOS chips (it is worth noting that most all
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Linux CDs suffer from this these days). If that is the case, we recommend booting from a
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floppy disk.</p>
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<p><a
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href="installation-requirements.html#INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-BOOTDISK">Section
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3.2.3</a> and <a
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href="installation-requirements.html#INSTALLATION-SUPPLEMENTAL-DISK">Section 3.2.5</a>
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provide information on choosing and creating floppies from which to boot, should this be
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necessary.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT3">
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<h3 class="SECT3"><a id="AEN823" name="AEN823">3.2.2.3 NFS</a></h3>
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<p>NFS (the Network File System) is a way of making filesystems available to remote
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machines. An NFS install allows you to install Slackware from another computer on your
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network. The machine from which you are installing needs to be configured to export the
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Slackware distribution tree to the machine to which you're installing. This, of course,
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involves some knowledge of NFS, which is covered in <a
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href="network-configuration-nfs.html">Section 5.6</a>.</p>
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<p>It is possible to perform an NFS install via such methods as PLIP (over a parallel
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port), SLIP, and PPP (though not over a modem connection). However, we recommend the use
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of a network card if available. After all, installing an operating system through your
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printer port is going to be a very, very slow process.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-BOOTDISK"
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name="INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-BOOTDISK">3.2.3 Boot Disk</a></h2>
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<p>The boot disk is the floppy you actually boot from to begin the installation. It
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contains a compressed kernel image which is used to control the hardware during
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installation. Therefore, it is very much required (unless you're booting from CD, as is
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discussed in the section called CD-ROM). The boot disks are located in the <tt
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class="FILENAME">bootdisks/</tt> directory in the distribution tree.</p>
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<p>There are more Slackware boot disks than you can shake a stick at (which is to say
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about 16). A complete list of boot disks, with a description of each, is available in the
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Slackware distribution tree in the file <tt class="FILENAME">bootdisks/README.TXT</tt>.
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However, most people are able to use the <tt class="FILENAME">bare.i</tt> (for IDE
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devices) or <tt class="FILENAME">scsi.s</tt> (for SCSI devices) boot disk image.</p>
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<p>See <a href="installation-requirements.html#INSTALLATION-MAKING-THE-DISKS">Section
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3.2.6</a> for instructions on making a disk from an image.</p>
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<p>After booting, you will be prompted to insert the root disk. We recommend that you
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just humor the boot disk and play along.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-ROOTDISK"
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name="INSTALLATION-INSTALLATION-METHODS-ROOTDISK">3.2.4 Root Disk</a></h2>
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<p>The root disks contain the setup program and a filesystem which is used during
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installation. They are also required. The root disk images are located in the directory
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rootdisks in the distribution tree. You'll have to make two root disks from the <tt
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class="FILENAME">install.1</tt> and <tt class="FILENAME">install.2</tt> images. Here you
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can also find the <tt class="FILENAME">network.dsk</tt>, <tt
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class="FILENAME">pcmcia.dsk</tt>, <tt class="FILENAME">rescue.dsk</tt>, and <tt
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class="FILENAME">sbootmgr.dsk</tt> disks.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INSTALLATION-SUPPLEMENTAL-DISK"
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name="INSTALLATION-SUPPLEMENTAL-DISK">3.2.5 Supplemental Disk</a></h2>
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<p>A supplemental disk is needed if you are performing an NFS install or installing to a
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system with PCMCIA devices. Supplemental disks are in the rootdsks directory in the
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distribution tree, with the filenames <tt class="FILENAME">network.dsk</tt> and <tt
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class="FILENAME">pcmcia.dsk</tt>. Recently other supplemental disks such as <tt
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class="FILENAME">rescue.dsk</tt> and <tt class="FILENAME">sbootmgr.dsk</tt> have been
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added. The rescue disk is a small floppy root image that runs in a 4MB RAM drive. It
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includes some basic networking utilities and the vi editor for quick fixes on busted
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machines. The <tt class="FILENAME">sbootmgr.dsk</tt> disk is used to boot other devices.
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Boot off this disk if your bootable CD-ROM drive doesn't want to boot the Slackware CDs.
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It will prompt you for different things to boot and may offer a convenient way to work
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around a buggy BIOS.</p>
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<p>The root disk will instruct you on the use of supplemental disks when it is
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loaded.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INSTALLATION-MAKING-THE-DISKS"
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name="INSTALLATION-MAKING-THE-DISKS">3.2.6 Making the Disks</a></h2>
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<p>Once you've selected a boot disk image, you need to put it on a floppy. The process is
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slightly different depending on which operating system you're using to make the disks. If
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you're running Linux (or pretty much any Unix-like OS) you'll need to use the <tt
|
||
|
|
class="COMMAND">dd</tt>(1) command. Assuming <tt class="FILENAME">bare.i</tt> is your
|
||
|
|
disk image file and your floppy drive is <tt class="FILENAME">/dev/fd0</tt>, the command
|
||
|
|
to make a <tt class="FILENAME">bare.i</tt> floppy is:</p>
|
||
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||
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<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
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|
|
<tr>
|
||
|
|
<td>
|
||
|
|
<pre class="SCREEN">
|
||
|
|
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">dd if=bare.i of=/dev/fd0</kbd>
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
</td>
|
||
|
|
</tr>
|
||
|
|
</table>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>If you're running a Microsoft OS, you'll need to use the <tt
|
||
|
|
class="FILENAME">RAWRITE.EXE</tt> program, which is included in the distribution tree in
|
||
|
|
the same directories as the floppy images. Again assuming that <tt
|
||
|
|
class="FILENAME">bare.i</tt> is your disk image file and your floppy drive is <tt
|
||
|
|
class="FILENAME">A:</tt>, open a DOS prompt and type the following:</p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
|
||
|
|
<tr>
|
||
|
|
<td>
|
||
|
|
<pre class="SCREEN">
|
||
|
|
C:\ <kbd class="USERINPUT">rawrite a: bare.i</kbd>
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
</td>
|
||
|
|
</tr>
|
||
|
|
</table>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<div class="NAVFOOTER">
|
||
|
|
<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
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<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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||
|
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cellspacing="0">
|
||
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<tr>
|
||
|
|
<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="installation.html"
|
||
|
|
accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
|
||
|
|
<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html"
|
||
|
|
accesskey="H">Home</a></td>
|
||
|
|
<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href="installation-partitioning.html"
|
||
|
|
accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
|
||
|
|
</tr>
|
||
|
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|
||
|
|
<tr>
|
||
|
|
<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Installation</td>
|
||
|
|
<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="installation.html"
|
||
|
|
accesskey="U">Up</a></td>
|
||
|
|
<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">Partitioning</td>
|
||
|
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</tr>
|
||
|
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</table>
|
||
|
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</div>
|
||
|
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</body>
|
||
|
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</html>
|
||
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