Slackware Linux was designed by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. He is the founder and maintainer of Slackware.
Slackware came from a system called Softlanding Linux systems. At the time it was the dominant GNU distrubution. Slackware Linux started out as a private collection of Volkerding's patches for the SLS Linux and the first Slackware version was 1.0 and release on July 16, 1993.
This is the link to a tutorial that is very good to follow along with to install Slackware. Kudos to Bobby Borisev who is the Editor In Chief at Linuxia.
The instructions in the link above are for one computer with one hard drive.
IF you have other Linux operating systems on your pc that use Grub and more than one drive you may not want to install the LILO bootloader that comes with the Slackware installer.
In my case I had 2 other Linux distro's installed on 2 other drives so I had to do things differently. This is what you will have to do if you don't want LILO.
When you type cfdisk or gdisk and press enter you will be prompted with the partition manager. Now the installer defaults to /dev/sda so if you don't want that disk/device you have to tell cfdisk or gdisk where to create those partitions and where to install Slackware to.
I have 3 hard drives so this is what I had to type at the prompt in order to install Slackware on my WD disk.
At the prompt I typed:
gdisk /dev/sdb
I created a Bios Boot Partition. To create a new partition press the n key.
To do that I had to type in 1M press enter and then select the type of partition "EF02" and press Enter. Type the letter L to see a list of partitions to select the type.
Then the partition manager confirmed that a 1M Bios Boot Partition was created.
Secondly I created a 1 G swap partition. I typed n for new and pressed Enter. Then typed in 1G and pressed Enter. Pressed Enter again to add 8200 and pressed Enter. And lastly typed L to see the list and selected swap. Pressing Enter once more confirmed that a 1G swap partition was created.
Then I created a ext4 Linux partition. To do that I pressed n for new partition than pressed Enter and then L for a list and choose ext4. Then pressed Enter again and typed in 495 G and pressed Enter. Then typed in 8300 and pressed Enter. The partition manager confirmed that the Linux EXT4 File System partition was created.
If you want to use Grub 2, make sure you have a 'BIOS boot partition' (partition type EF02 in gdisk or cgdisk). This can be anywhere on disk though putting it at the start seems sensible. It is recommended that it be at least 1MiB. Skip the bootloader (LILO) section during install.
When you see the message "Installation of Slackware Linux is complete" DO NOT REMOVE" the CD/DVD or LIVE USB. Use the arrow key that's pointing down and highlight the word 'shell' and press Enter.
You will be entered into a shell. Then run these commands one at a time w/o the pound sign.
#chroot /mnt
#grub-install --modules=part_gpt /dev/sdx
#grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Remove the CD/DVD or Live USB after the BIOS screen, before your distro at the top of your Grub Menu boots.
IF you have other Linux operating systems on your pc that already are used and booted by Grub, boot into one of them first and update Grub.
Run sudo update-grub as root. Wait for it to show all of the distro's installed and show Slackware as well.
Upon your first fresh boot into Slackware you'll have the Slackware Login : Root prompt. Simply type in your root password and press Enter.
Follow the instructions in the link to the tutorial I posted above and things will go well for you.
There are extra packages for Slackware that you can download and install here:
Here's an example of one the Slackware alien packages that I like to install. Look at the mouse pointer and you'll see that I have selected: libreoffice-dict-af-7.4.5-x86_64-1alien.txz.
IF you don't want to lose your Sbo packages and your alien packages after an update/upgrade you will need to edit the blacklist file.
Edit (using vim or nano) the /etc/slackpkg/blacklist file:
This way your sbo pkgs and alienbob pkg's won't get hosed during a update or upgrade. And, if you don't want your SlackBuilds mucked with you should uncomment that line. Make sure to remove the pound sign # before the bracket.
#[0-9]+Sbo
#0-9]+alien
I've learned over the years running Slackware along with other distro's installed on the same computer that Slackware will not boot if you have other operating systems in your Grub Menu after you get a new kernel.
***There's a way to chainload entries in LILO but I'm not going over that in this tutorial.***
You can run this command but it will not generate the other operating system that are installed on other drives on your pc. This is because Slackware doesn't have os-prober.
#grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Here's a screenshot of what the terminal in Slackware returns when you run the grub-mkconfig command:
When I perform the updates and get a new kernel I run the above command as root and reboot and boot into my Linux Mint 21 and update grub like this:
sudo update-grub
Upon doing so Slackware and the other distro's show in the list when os-prober is finished looking for other operating systems and generating the readout. After a reboot and using the upward arrow key selecting Slackware boots no problem.
**Package Management**
Here's the link to learn Slackware's Package Management System:
I mainly use installpkg, removepkg, and upgradepkg. I used rpm2targz once or twice and it worked very well.
In this example I'll use gnome-calculator on the Slack Builds Repo page.
As you can see on that page the package for gnome-calculator is there for the download. However in order for you to install the calculator you will have to first install gtksourceview4. Then install libhandy and then install gnome-calculator in that order.
First download gtksourceview4.tar.gz. Than download libhandy.tar.gz. And then download gnome-calculator.tar.gz.
Once that's done you can then proceed to check the integrity of each downloaded tar.gz. To do that click on gnome-calculator info. on the page where you downloaded all three packages. The MD5 signature will be in the description.
I recommend un-tarring / uncompressing one package at a time. It's a good idea to put all of your packages that you download in the same directory.
Once your package is un-tarred / uncompressed, you can then do the next step.
The tar command is:
tar -xvf <nameof pkg>
In that same file you will have to highlight with your mouse and open a new tab in your browser and download all 3 tar.xz's. In this screenshot I've highlighted the link you'll copy w/o the quotes.
Download it to the same directory that you have chosen for your Slackware packages. Now cut and paste that package and put it inside of the first package's directory.
In this screenshot you'll see gnome-calculator 41.1 tar.xz. that's the package that you want to cut and move into the gnome-calculator directory all the way to the right. The blue folder. Now you can open the terminal and run the script as root.
As root and at the root prompt type the entire path to the package.
root@slackware: cd /user/home/Packages/gnome-calculator-41.1.tar.xz and press Enter.
Then type ls to see what's in that directory.
In the list you'll see all of the things including the SlackBuild script to run.
At the root prompt type ./gnome-calculator.SlackBuild* press Enter and the script will take off.
When the script is finished it will confirm and tell you that it has created a Slackware .tgz package that you can install and that it is in the temp directory.
You'll then cd into the temp directory like so:
root@slackware: cd /tmp
Then use the installpkg tool to install it like so:
root@slackware: installpkg gnome-calculator.tgz and press Enter.
The terminal will confirm that the package is installed.
You need to do all of those steps for each package.
To be clear I mean:
1. Download each dependency in the correct order and check the integrity of it.
2. Download the .tar.xz for the package and cut it and paste it into the main directory that contains the SlackBuild script.
3.Then run the script and install the .tgz package that the script puts in the /tmp file with installpkg.
Download, check, cut and paste to the correct directory and install each package one at a time with certainty.
If there are a lot of dependencies write them down in the order in which they have been listed on the SlackBuilds website of the main page to the package you want to install.
***How To Update Slackware***
I update my Slackware installation once each week.
Run these commands one at a time letting the command line finish.
To become root in Slackware type:
su -
That's typing the letter s then the letter u, hit the space bar once and then type the hyphen.
Don't include the # signs when updating.
#slackpkg update
#slackpkg upgrade-all
#slackpkg Install-new
#slackpkg clean-system
BTW, running slackpkg clean-system has never worked for me or returned anything and I'm not sure why that occurs.
If you need help you can e-mail me at writerforlinux@gmail.com <or> join the Slackware Forum on Linux.org <or> the Slackware Forum at Linuxquestions.
The documentation is very good and helpful too!
Enjoy!