Talk:Installing Slackware

I've converted this article to wiki syntax and tried to add as much detail and example output as possible. As you can see, it doesn't currently boot, but an actual Slackware user will need to have a look at why that is.

Beyond the fact that as it stands this does not work (!), I have some concerns about this article and due to my unfamiliarity with Slackware I was unable to rectify them. They are:

• LVM is too complex.

The vast majority of BitFolk customers do not need or want LVM. It just complicates matters. Since new disks can be added fairly easily, a lot of the benefits of LVM are moot.

It's great that there is now documentation of how to set up LVM from the rescue environment (thanks!), but I don't think it's appropriate for the canonical example of how to install Slackware (or any other distribution).

I would much prefer to see an example written up that did not use LVM, but instead just put everything into a single root filesystem on xvda1. That would match how most people approach things.

• Far too much is installed.

I watched this guide as written install most of X, MySQL, Samba, … It took hours and used 5GiB of disk space. I find it hard to believe that this couldn't be cut down.

• Where's IPv6?

This guide does not discuss or configure IPv6. That's not really acceptable in 2012.

• Kernel configuration is sketchy.

I'm not convinced that the kernel as configured here is as stripped-down or modularised as it could be. It could stand some experimentation as to what can be removed or modularised.

That said, good work, it is appreciated. – Andy 04:18, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

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Also:

• No host name or time zone appears to be configured here.

The instructions as provided result in an install that uses (what I assume is) a default hostname of "darkstar", and says it has no time zone configured.

• USB modules in initrd?

The mkinitrd instructions appear to bundle some USB modules, which I can't imagine are actually needed on a Xen VM. I would have thought that just "ext3" is required there.

– Andy 06:02, 23 August 2012 (UTC)