f disk problems

Hey everyone,
This is one of the first times I am using Linux through a command prompt and I was told to run a very old version, slackware 1.1.2. I'm trying to install it in virtualbox and it lets me log in as root but then says, "You will need one or more partitions of type 'Linux native' prepared." It says, "most users can use the linux 'fdisk' utility to create adn tage the types of all these partitions." It wants me to run fdisk to create a swap partition. I type

fdisk

and this comes back

Unable to read /dev/hda

any suggestions how I can run fdisk to make a linux native partition?

Hello,

First you need to identify which drive it is that you are going to partition.

Code:

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fdisk -l

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List the partition tables for the specified devices.
Next that you know which drive you are going to partition type
fdisk /dev/<specified devices>

I type in

fdisk -l

I then type in

fdisk /dev/hda

again it comes back saying its not able to read /dev/hda.

I'm wondering if "hda" is not right. If this is the case, how do I know what the correct destination is to type in?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anditworked

This is one of the first times I am using Linux through a command prompt and I was told to run a very old version, slackware 1.1.2. I'm trying to install it in virtualbox and it lets me log in as root but then says, "You will need one or more partitions of type 'Linux native' prepared." It says, "most users can use the linux 'fdisk' utility to create adn tage the types of all these partitions." It wants me to run fdisk to create a swap partition. I type

fdisk

and this comes back

Unable to read /dev/hda

any suggestions how I can run fdisk to make a linux native partition?

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Welcome to the forums!

The kernel in most modern distributions see hard drives as sda rather than hda, so you could try that. However, the version of Slackware that you are trying to install (1.1.2) is over 16 years old now, so I think you will likely run into all kinds of issues along the way unless the hardware that you are using is also 15 or 16 years old.

I tried using sda rather than hda but still no luck. Is there a version of slackware that is basic but not TOO old that would work on modern computer hardware within VirtualBox?

Could you post the output of fdisk -l command as suggested by ursusca?

Code:

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fdisk -l

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* Its small L in fdisk -l.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anditworked

I tried using sda rather than hda but still no luck. Is there a version of slackware that is basic but not TOO old that would work on modern computer hardware within VirtualBox?

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Slackware 10.1 is supported by VirtualBox.

Also you may try another small Linux distros:
* Damn Small Linux
* Puppy Linux
* Feather Linux
* DeLi
* Vector Linux
* Zenwalk
* Antix
* PClos TinyME
* Debian
* Slackware