Reply #25: Putting slackware on this machine

[struggle4progress]

No cd/dvd drive so you've gotta go usb route

first installed syslinux in an ubuntu guest running in virtualbox
downloaded 4+gb file slackware-13.37-install-dvd.iso
then hybridized
(run in terminal: isohybrid slackware-13.37-install-dvd.iso)
put file on unmounted usb flash drive /dev/sdX
(run in terminal: dd if=slackware-13.37-install-dvd.iso of=/dev/sdX
this took a LONG time)

downloaded 25 MB usbboot.img file
put file on another usb flash drive /dev/sdY
(run in terminal: dd if=usbboot.img of=/dev/sdY bs=512)

boot AOD257 from usbboot.img flash drive
(hit F12 and select flash drive from boot media)
log in as root
mkdir flashmnt
insert slackware flash drive
(check which drive is which dev by running: fdisk -l | less)

partition hdd
run: fdisk /dev/sdZ

run: setup

now i'm confused about what exactly i did to inform setup where my slackware sources were on the flash drive
setup isn't incredibly informative here and i tried various things until something finally worked
you may need to mount the flash drive containing the slackware directory BEFORE you run set-up and you may need to tell setup to look for NTFS files or something
it's a pain: maybe i'll figure it out later
anyway one of my random permutations finally worked
did the full install

used LILO for bootloader
looks like choosing PS/2 mouse works for the trackpad
looks like the VESA drivers work

reboot without the flashdrives now
can log in as root
there's more work to do to get a usable system of course
i've chosen xfce as desktop but start hardly any services at boot