Installing Slackware 8.0

Installing Slackware 8.0

[Ann]

Hi Folks,

Well, after finally proving that my modem does actually work in LInux - and
I can't thank Gregory Nowak enough for all his help - I'm about to install
Slackware 8.0. All I'm waiting for is the CD(s).

I have listened to Joe Norton's wonderful tutorial on installing Slackware
7.1, and was just wondering what the differences were between the two
versions? Aside from the fact that Speakup is included with the 8.0
distribution of Slackware, what other major or minor differences can I
expect when installing 8.0, compared to the installation of 7.1? For
example, do I still need to use the boot and root disks to boot  in to Linux
or will it boot from the CDRom (my computer can boot from a CDRom, BTW)?

Thanks for any help, folks.
~Ann

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Gregory Nowak]

Hi Ann,

You will still need the boot and root disks to install 8.0 You cannot boot from the cd, since the kernel that you boot off of the cd doesn't have speakup in it unfortunately.
Greg


On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 09:22:26AM -0400, Ann wrote:
> Hi Folks,
> 
> Well, after finally proving that my modem does actually work in LInux - and
> I can't thank Gregory Nowak enough for all his help - I'm about to install
> Slackware 8.0. All I'm waiting for is the CD(s).
> 
> I have listened to Joe Norton's wonderful tutorial on installing Slackware
> 7.1, and was just wondering what the differences were between the two
> versions? Aside from the fact that Speakup is included with the 8.0
> distribution of Slackware, what other major or minor differences can I
> expect when installing 8.0, compared to the installation of 7.1? For
> example, do I still need to use the boot and root disks to boot  in to Linux
> or will it boot from the CDRom (my computer can boot from a CDRom, BTW)?
> 
> Thanks for any help, folks.
> ~Ann
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Adam Myrow]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Gregory Nowak wrote:

> Hi Ann,
>
> You will still need the boot and root disks to install 8.0 You cannot
> boot from the cd, since the kernel that you boot off of the cd doesn't
> have speakup in it unfortunately.

It's too bad you just ordered Slackware 8.0 because 8.1 is in beta test.
I've emailed Pat Volkerding, the maintainer of Slackware, and he says that
8.1 should be able to use a Speakup kernel from the CD.  Also, he's
including the JFW keymap as an optional keymap.  The bad news is that as
of now, due to file size increases, the root disk won't fit on a single
floppy anymore.  For those who can't boot from CD, they now need 6 disks
including the boot disk because of this!  Luckily, I can also boot from
CD.

BTW, I think the way it's going to work is that you'll boot the CD and
type something like "speakup.i speakup_synth=bns."  Don't quote me on
that, but that's how you pick a kernel off the CD is by typing its name
along with any parameters it needs.  To answer the original question,
Slackware 8.0 installs in exactly the same manner as 7.1.

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Toby Fisher]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Adam Myrow wrote:

> On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Gregory Nowak wrote:
>
> > Hi Ann,
> >
> > You will still need the boot and root disks to install 8.0 You cannot
> > boot from the cd, since the kernel that you boot off of the cd doesn't
> > have speakup in it unfortunately.
>
> It's too bad you just ordered Slackware 8.0 because 8.1 is in beta test.
> I've emailed Pat Volkerding, the maintainer of Slackware, and he says that
> 8.1 should be able to use a Speakup kernel from the CD.  Also, he's
> including the JFW keymap as an optional keymap.  The bad news is that as
> of now, due to file size increases, the root disk won't fit on a single
> floppy anymore.  For those who can't boot from CD, they now need 6 disks
> including the boot disk because of this!  Luckily, I can also boot from
> CD.

Sheesh!  6 disks?  Why?  What's wrong with the current root disks?  Why
can't they leave them in place for backwards compatibility and those who
want/need to use them?

Btw, Adam, do you know if there's going to be any sort of upgrade utility
like apd on the new slakware?  In my opinion, that's where it falls down
at the moment.

Cheers.

-- 
Toby Fisher	Email: toby@g0ucu.freeserve.co.uk
Tel.: +44(0)1480 417272	Mobile: +44(0)7974 363239
ICQ: #61744808
   Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Adam Myrow]

On Fri, 7 Jun 2002, Toby Fisher wrote:

> Sheesh!  6 disks?  Why?  What's wrong with the current root disks?  Why
> can't they leave them in place for backwards compatibility and those who
> want/need to use them?

Here is how I understand the situation.  The way root disks normally work
is that you boot a compressed ramdisk.  That is, a root disk is nothing
more than a gzipped filesystem written directly to a disk.  The other
option is to boot multiple uncompressed disks as a ramdisk.  For whatever
reason, attempting to make the latest root disks caused the compressed
size to exceed 1.44MB.  Since the only choices are one compressed disk or
several uncompressed ones, the result is 5 root disks plus the main boot
disk.

As to why they just don't use the old one, they've reworked the pkgtool
and I think, the version has to match on the disk and the CD or something.
I do know that it uses longer file names that indicate the version of the
package you are installing and what platform it is compiled for.  However,
I agree that they could surely get the root disk smaller by cutting out
some garbage and using older versions of utilities.  For example, why does
an installer disk need telnet?  Maybe you should ask Pat yourself about
this.  I personally think that there will be enough outcry that he'll have
to do something before the final release since there have been a few flair
ups on Usenet over  this issue.

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Toby Fisher]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Adam Myrow wrote:

<snip>

> As to why they just don't use the old one, they've reworked the
pkgtool
> and I think, the version has to match on the disk and the CD or something.
> I do know that it uses longer file names that indicate the version of the
> package you are installing and what platform it is compiled for.  However,
> I agree that they could surely get the root disk smaller by cutting out
> some garbage and using older versions of utilities.  For example, why does
> an installer disk need telnet?  Maybe you should ask Pat yourself about
> this.  I personally think that there will be enough outcry that he'll have
> to do something before the final release since there have been a few flair
> ups on Usenet over  this issue.

Which newsgroups have you been reading?  I'm interested because I want to
put these points forward before it's too late.

Cheers.

-- 
Toby Fisher	Email: toby@g0ucu.freeserve.co.uk
Tel.: +44(0)1480 417272	Mobile: +44(0)7974 363239
ICQ: #61744808
   Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Adam Myrow]

I read alt.os.linux.slackware.  I don't know if Pat reads it or not, but I
know a lot of Slackware users are there and a lot of trolls, but what do
you expect from Usenet?

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[AthlonRob]

On Friday 07 June 2002 02:42 pm, Adam Myrow wrote:

> I read alt.os.linux.slackware.  I don't know if Pat reads it or not

Pat doesn't read AOLS.

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Adam Myrow]

Usenet and AOL have nothing to do with each other, though you wouldn't
know it by some of the people on it.

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[Toby Fisher]

On Fri, 7 Jun 2002, Adam Myrow wrote:

> Usenet and AOL have nothing to do with each other, though you wouldn't
> know it by some of the people on it.

<AOL> I Agree. </AOL>
*grin*

Cheers.

-- 
Toby Fisher	Email: toby@g0ucu.freeserve.co.uk
Tel.: +44(0)1480 417272	Mobile: +44(0)7974 363239
ICQ: #61744808
   Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Installing Slackware 8.0

[AthlonRob]

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear.

Pat doesn't read alt.os.linux.slackware, which is often abreviated AOLS.

If anybody needs to contact him, they'll have to email him... he's usually
really good about adding/changing things that make sense!  :-)

Rob


----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Myrow" <myrow@eskimo.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 2:51 PM
Subject: Re: Installing Slackware 8.0


> Usenet and AOL have nothing to do with each other, though you wouldn't
> know it by some of the people on it.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>