====== My notes about installing Slackware -current ======

Some things I wanted out as a quick reference; more will be added here soon I guess:

===== Selecting the 'generic' kernel during install =====

When presented with the kernel selection (either the huge or the generic kernel) you will see the warning about choosing the generic kernel. \\ You need to create an initrd before exiting the install and rebooting or else your new Slackware installation will panic on boot because the generic kernel lacks drivers for ext3 and reiser (and other) filesystems.
This is what you do when deciding to use the generic kernel (you should wait with this until after you reached the end of the Slackware installation but before rebooting): 
  * Open a second terminal by pressing <key>Alt-F2</key> and pressing <key>Enter</key>
  * Chroot into your new installation: <code>
chroot /mnt
mount -t proc proc /proc</code>
  * Create an intitial RAM disk (initrd) that contains the filesystem drivers that the generic kernel needs to be able to mount your root filesystem - in this example there is an ''ext3'' filesystem on the root partition: <code>
cd /boot
mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.18.8-smp -m jbd:ext3 -r ext3
</code> You may want to read the README.initrd present in the ''/boot'' directory if you did not select ''ext3'' for your root filesystem.
  * Make LILO aware of this initrd file by adding the following line to ''/etc/lilo.conf'': <code>
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz</code> The section for the kernel will now look somewhat like this (the disk device name ''/dev/hda1'' and the label ''linux'' in my example may be different for you): <code>
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda1
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  label = linux
  read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
</code> Then run the ''lilo'' command: <code>lilo</code> All of this while being "//chrooted//".
  * now you can exit the ''chroot'' by typing //exit// and return to the Slackware installer by pressing <key>Alt-F1</key> \\ Finish off the installation and reboot - your computer should boot straight into your new Slackware ;-)