Install Slackware

[orusxiii]

Hey there!
I'm new to linux too and ive been trying to install slackware on my old IBM 300GL for the last few days, in vain.

When I get to the part where i type 'root' and press enter, it says:
waiting for /bin/sh something.

Anyone knows what's wrong?

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

I'm not sure what might be wrong, but if you have the default 128 MB of RAM that comes with that machine, it might not be enough to run Slackware.

Did the installation routine itself seem to complete properly?

Any errors during the install?

Did you setup the root account during the installation?

...or are you saying the install never even got that far?

Check this online book to make certain you install Slackware properly:

Slackware Linux Essentials

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums!
These are the minimal requirements so it should be able to do it
Although more RAM would increase performance, specially if you intend to run KDE.

When I get to the part where i type 'root' and press enter, it says:
waiting for /bin/sh something.

You mean all the way in the beginning of the install? That ain't right.

Did you check the DVD/CDROM?? It sounds like a bad burn if you ask me. Can you do a md5sum on it? If not, I think a fresh download and burn is in order, at slow speed and perform a check on it afterwards. Most burning tools have this option, probably called 'verify burn' or something.

[oz]

If it's a bad burn to CD as suspected by Freston, check this HowTo for instructions on properly downloading the ISO file, burning the file as an image, and booting the new CD/DVD:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ins...ll-cd-dvd.html

[orusxiii]

i get the waiting for /bin/sh thing before even entering root
+ I dont even get to set up the keyboard, I press F1 and it just scrolls down.

So, I'm going to download Slackware again as u advise. Ive got a 256kbps connection, so could be a while!

Thanks for the advice!

[orusxiii]

Hello again!
I've finally got my hands onto another copy of Slackware 10.2, and im getting the same result:
"waiting for enter to start /bin etc.."

Could this be because I have Windows on one of my partitions?
OR
should I do something manually first?

Let me know

Thanks

[Freston]

No it's got nothing to do with your Windows partition. An install CD runs just like a liveCD, it's not touching your hard drive (at this moment).

"waiting for enter to start /bin etc.."

Just to make sure Did you press 'enter'?

You did get to type 'root', right? Because I'm wondering what is happening. Some questions. Does the machine respond to the keyboard? What happens when you type? Do you see any errors? What are the exact last lines where the system stops?

I would not give up on her yet, there are some tricks. If your keyboard doesn't work, then what type is it? USB? PS/2? Not that keyboards are an issue, but older kernels sometimes need some tweaking to get USB devices to work (that's just a random thought though). But now that I'm at it, do the lights on the keyboard work? (caps lock, scroll lock and such)

[orusxiii]

1st screen, after all the welcome - Slackware 10.2 - etc.. there is a prompt: root: ; So I just press enter to load the default kernel which is 'bare.i'
Then it scrolls down and asks whether I want to change the keyboard map, which I want because the default is US and I have a UK one.
It says, to change keyboard map press 1 and then enter, which I do. However, it just scrolls down again and I do not get to choose any map.

So I'm on to the 3rd stop screen where it welcomes me again to the installation disk etc. There is some info on partitions and then it says that I may now login as root.
prompt is slackware login:
so I type root and press enter

It scrolls down and I get Linux 2.4.31.
If you're updating, you might want to remove old packages etc...
To partition hard drives use 'cfdisk' or 'fdisk'
To activate PCMIA/cardbus...
To activate network drives...
To start main application type setup

(Note therz some sizing prob with my screen it seems coz I cant see characters to the far left and right)
so what i can see is:
ep 20 15:23:4 (none) user.info.init: starting pid 361 console/dev/tty1:'bi
/sh'
ep 20 15:23:4 (none) user.info.init: waiting for enter to start '/din/sh' (pid
362, terminal /dev/tty2)
ep 20 15:23:4 (none) user.info.init: waiting for enter to start '/din/sh' (pid
363, terminal /dev/tty3)
root@slackware:/#

I go for setup (ignoring above) since I have already partitioned one partition as ext2 + swap with partition magic.

root@slackware:/# setup and I press enter

I get
setup: No such file or directory.

At this point I just type reboot and press enter and remove the CD



Hope this will help you help me. lol

[Freston]

First off, something is definitely wrong somewhere. I took advantage of my new bandwidth (which got almost tripled this week. W00t, yeah! ) and downloaded the iso myself.

I have no problems running Slack 10.2 in VirtualBox. It acts as it's supposed to. That's the good news. The bad news is that it doesn't seem to like your system.

Now the errors it gives remind me more of a somehow broken initrd (Initial Ram Disk) than anything else. Take this for example:

ep 20 15:23:4 (none) user.info.init: starting pid 361 console/dev/tty1:'bi
/sh'
ep 20 15:23:4 (none) user.info.init: waiting for enter to start '/din/sh' (pid
362, terminal /dev/tty2)
ep 20 15:23:4 (none) user.info.init: waiting for enter to start '/din/sh' (pid
363, terminal /dev/tty3)

Assuming /din/sh is a typo from your part, still it's not right. There is no reason the installer should have spit out the content of `cat /var/log/messages` to your screen like that. Now I'm wondering about `dmesg`. I wont ask you to post the output of `dmesg` here, as it's ~121 lines Although there are ways to let your machine work for you so you can just copy&paste. But that is for another time.
The question now is, why did the initrd break? If it /is/ the initrd, because that remains the question.





It's your call. Do you want to persue this further? Because I can't guarantee anything more than providing ideas. And there is no telling in advance whether this will be easy or difficult. You can also try your luck with another distro. I mean, you are new to Linux and managed to get your hands on -now two- copies of what is reputed to be among the most difficult distros. Most difficult, but also very reliable, flexible and fast.
Somehow something is wrong, and this may or may not be fixable by manual labor. Do you feel like getting your hands dirty?

Then try this:

dmesg | more

And read the output. Look for errors, faults, bugs, faillures and other things that don't look right. Nobody will expect you to understand anything of it, because you are deeper into the system than is usual. So take your time, and post here what you notice.

At this point I just type reboot and press enter and remove the CD

As I said, it's your call. Just rebooting and removing the CD is a valid option. I could argue you try a more recent version, but as you have limited bandwidth this may not appeal to you.

[orusxiii]

ye thats /bin/sh as in my previous posts.
Thanks for the advice, but the reasons I really wanted to start with Slackware first is exactly because it does not involve a lot of heavy graphic interface - KISS right? I sure want to get my hands dirty, thats why I want to move from Windows asap, but I do have time constraints so...

Right now I'm thinking of getting the old DELL in my Uncle's garage - possibly this week-end - After cleaning Windows out of it, I'll try slack again and let you know.
If that does not work, we'll try it your way.

Thanks again.