Once GZIP has done its thing, the COLOR.GZ file will be replaced in the C:\SLACK directory by the uncompressed version, named COLOR. To write this to a diskette, insert a formatted 3.5-inch floppy disk in your A: drive and use the RAWRITE command to dump the image to disk:

     C:\SLACK> RAWRITE COLOR A:

If your 3.5-inch drive is on B:, use this command instead:

     C:\SLACK> RAWRITE COLOR B:

Now you’re ready to boot the install disk. Assuming you’ve selected and created a bootdisk already (if not, see the previous section explaining this), put the bootdisk in your A: drive and reboot. When the disk starts, you’ll see a welcome message and a screenful of information, as well as a

     boot:

prompt at the bottom of the screen. You’ll need to enter some information at this prompt to tell the kernel where to mount your rootdisk. If you have a 3.5-inch floppy drive on B:, great—you’ll want to use that for the rootdisk. If not, you’ll have to manages with the rootdisk in your boot drive. With the rootdisk in the boot drive you won’t be able to install from floppy disks or make a bootdisk at the end of the installation process, because the disk will be “mounted” in the boot drive and cannot be removed (no matter what the screen tells you) until the machine is rebooted. Here’s the command to enter at the boot: prompt to use an uncompressed rootdisk in your A: drive:

     boot: mount root=/dev/fd0 ramdisk=0

If you have the rootdisk in your B: drive, insert the rootdisk in B:, and enter this command instead:

     boot: mount root=/dev/fd1 ramdisk=0

The kernel will now boot. If you’re using drive A: for your rootdisk, you’ll be prompted to exchange the disks and hit Enter. Once you’ve done this, the rootdisk will start loading, eventually giving you a login prompt. From here, you can install Linux. A word of caution: If you’re using this method to install with the rootdisk in drive A:, you cannot remove the rootdisk from your drive until the machine has been shut down. As a result, you’ll be unable to install your bootdisk kernel or make a system bootdisk when configuring your system, and you will need to have a different method of initially starting your machine. A simple way to boot your machine is to use the installation bootdisk with a slightly different command at the boot: prompt. If, for example, you installed Linux on /dev/hda2, you can start Linux with this command on the bootdisk’s boot: prompt:

     boot: mount root=/dev/hda2 ramdisk=0 ro

This will boot Linux on /dev/hda2, with no ramdisk, read-only. If you use UMSDOS, you’ll want to boot your system in read-write mode, like this:

     boot: mount root=/dev/hda2 ramdisk=0 rw

Once your machine is up and running, you can switch to a different kernel if you like, using one of the choices in the \KERNELS directory on the CD-ROM, or compile your own from the kernel source in /usr/src/linux. This will provide optimal performance, because it won’t contain any unnecessary drivers.

Booting Linux from DOS Using Loadlin

Loadlin is a handy utility for Linux users that also run MS-DOS or Windows 95. Using Loadlin, you can start Linux from a DOS prompt or set up an icon in Windows 95 that allows you to switch to Linux. Loadlin is also probably the safest way to launch Linux from your hard drive, because it doesn’t require messing with the partition table at all—you just boot DOS normally and then use the LOADLIN.EXE command to start Linux when you need it.

To use Loadlin, you’ll need to install it on your DOS drive. To do this, you’ll need to use an unzip program, such as UNZIP.EXE or PKUNZIP.EXE; most DOS users will already have copies of these. Assuming your Slackware CD is on drive E: and you want to put Loadlin on drive C:, unzip the file like this:

     C:\> PKUNZIP -d E:\KERNELS\LODLIN16.ZIP

The -d flag tells the command to preserve the directory structure found in the zip archive. This will create a C:\LOADLIN directory on your machine containing a number of files.

The next step is to pick an appropriate kernel from a subdirectory under \KERNELS on the CD-ROM. The \BOOTDSKS.144 \WHICH.ONE document might be helpful in making your selection. The actual kernel file will be named ZIMAGE or BZIMAGE; this is what you’ll want to copy into your C:\LOADLIN directory.

For this example, we’ll use the kernel in the E:\KERNELS\BARE.I directory:

     C:\> CD LOADLIN

     C:\LOADLIN> COPY E:\KERNELS\BARE.I\ZIMAGE .

Now we have everything we need to start a Linux system. To do that, you need to know the following things:

•  The device name of the Linux partition you intend to boot (such as /dev/hda2)

•  The path and filename of the Linux kernel you plan to use (such as C:\LOADLIN\ZIMAGE)

•  Whether the partition should be mounted read-only (as in the case of a native Linux partition, so it can do safe filesystem checking at boot time) or read-write (needed by UMSDOS, which does not check filesystems at boot)

This information is fed to the LOADLIN.EXE program, which in turn loads Linux into memory and boots it. Here’s an example:

     C:\LOADLIN> LOADLIN C:\LOADLIN\ZIMAGE ROOT=/dev/hda2 RO

This loads the Linux kernel and boots the /dev/hda2 partition in read-only (RO) mode. If you’re using UMSDOS, you’d replace the RO with RW to use read-write mode instead.

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NOTE:  Some DOS drivers interfere with Loadlin, in particular the emm386 driver for expanded memory. If this happens, you’ll have to remove the driver from your CONFIG.SYS file and try again. Also, Loadlin will not run directly under Windows 95, although you can still set up an icon for it that first switches your computer into DOS mode. (In other words, the process is to start a DOS session under Windows 95 and then launch Loadlin. We’ll explain further in the next section.)

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If all goes well, your machine should switch to Linux. If you’d like to automate the process further, edit the LINUX.BAT file in your C:\LOADLIN directory. Then copy LINUX.BAT into your C:\DOS directory, and you’ll be able to switch to Linux from DOS by simply typing LINUX at a prompt.