Need Some help with Slackware

[AcidTone]

I am currently trying to get slackware up and running on my main computer, dual booting with XP. So far what I have done is partitioned my HD so that I have my windows drive (ntfs) and the rest of my hd is unpartitioned. However when i go to install slackware it will not let me run fdisk i get an error about writing to the disk and deleting my current partitions. How would i go about installing them both on my hd? Would I have to install Slackware first then install xp on the second partition?

Any help would be great.

 

[MTB2Live Live4Comps]

ok, so if i understand you correctly, what you've got now is something like this

example: 100GB drive
primary partition 1: 50GB Type: NTFS
primary partition 2: 50GB Type: Undeclared

i'm not familiar with slackware's built in installer, but you should be able to close the installer down to a regular command prompt (or hit alt+F2 or alt+F3) to switch to a console.
fdisk /dev/hda (if it's a sata drive, it may be sda - check dmesg if you get any errors trying to figure out the hard drive's name)
you'll want to manually add a swap partition, and at least a / root partition (i like to add /home as well)
when using fdisk, be sure to not change the already installed windows partition
q to quit no save, w to write and quit

then, mkswap /dev/hda2 (assuming hda2 is swap, whatever you just made it)
swapon /dev/hda2

then, mkfs.reiserfs /dev/hda3 or mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda3 or whatever filesystem you want
you should then be able to rerun the slackware installer and not have it choke

 

[AcidTone]

That example is exactly what I have (except for the size ). I have tried to use fdisk and it gives me an error when i try to read the drive (cant remember off the top of my head been a long day but ill post when i get home) Something about not being able to read the partion table. I also tried cfdisk with the same results. Its not making sense to me because it is a freshly partioned drive. I will be sure to post the exact errors when i get home.

Slackware may not be the best Distro for me, Im kind of a newbie to it but slackware sounded the most appealing to me so i went with it

 

[AcidTone]

Ok here is the message that I get when i type in fdisk /dev/hda


You will not be able to write the partition table.
Device contains neither a valid dos partition table, nor sun, or osf disklabel
building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous content wont be recoverable.

Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

 

[jillande]

addressing the "device contains neither ..." error, to create an empty dos partition table, you can use "o" at the fdisk prompt. then add partitions and write the partition table.

do you already have windows installed on that nfts partition? if not, just go right on ahead with this. you may wish to install windows on fat32 so you can share data between linux and windows. if it's already installed and you have data to preserve, you may want to do backups first for just in case you don't get things taken care of right. personally, i'm brave and would just go for it. but you might value the contents of that windows partition.

 

[AcidTone]

The NTFS partition does contain my "fresh" install of windows. I will have to make a ghost image of it then try this. I wont be going with fat 32 because I like the security that NTFS offers, and I will not be sharing data between windows and linux (i think ). I plan on trying to get this up and running this weekend, pending having to come into work or not (damn fiber run went dark on me and has to be replaced).