path: root/chapter_02.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "/usr/share/xml/docbook/xml-dtd-4.5/docbookx.dtd">

<chapter id="ch_install">
<title>Installation</title>

<para>
Slackware's installation is a bit more simplistic than that of most
other Linux distributions and is very reminiscent of installing one of the
varieties of BSD operating systems.  If you're familiar with those, you
should feel right at home.  If you've never installed Slackware or have
only used distributions that make use of graphical installers, you may
feel a bit overwhelmed at first.  Don't panic! The installation is very easy
once you understand it, and it works on just about any x86 or x86_64
platform.
</para>

<para>
The latest versions of Slackware Linux are distributed on DVD or CD
media, but Slackware can be installed in a variety of other ways. We're
only going to focus on the most common method - booting from a DVD - in
this book. If you don't have a CD or DVD drive, you might wish to take
a look at the various README files inside the
<filename>usb-and-pxe-installers</filename> directory at your favorite
Slackware mirror. This directory includes the necessary files and
instructions for booting the Slackware installer from a USB flash drive
or from a network card that support PXE. The files there are the best
source of information available for such boot methods.
</para>

<section id="install_boot">
<title>Booting the Installer</title>

<para>
Booting the installer is simply a process of inserting the Slackware
install disk into your CD or DVD drive and rebooting. You may have to
enter your computer's BIOS and alter the boot order to place the
optical drive at a higher boot priority than your hard drives. Some
computers allow you to change the boot order on the fly by pressing a
specific function key during system boot-up. Since every computer is
different, we can't offer instructions on how to do this, but the
method is simple on nearly all machines.
</para>

<para>
Once your computer boots from the CD you'll be taken to a screen that
allows you to enter any special kernel parameters. This is here
primarily to allow you to use the installer as a sort of rescue disk.
Some systems may need special kernel parameters in order to boot, but
these are very rare exceptions to the norm. Most users can simply press
enter to let the kernel boot.
</para>

<screen>
Welcome to Slackware version 14.0 (Linux kernel 3.2.27)!

If you need to pass extra parameters to the kernel, enter them at the prompt
below after the name of the kernel to boot (huge.s etc).

In a pinch, you can boot your system from here with a command like:

boot: huge.s root=/dev/sda1 rdinit= ro 

In the example above, /dev/sda1 is the / Linux partition.

To test your memory with memtest86+, enter memtest on the boot line below.

This prompt is just for entering extra parameters.  If you don't need to enter
any parameters, hit ENTER to boot the default kernel "huge.s" or press [F2] 
for a listing of more kernel choices.

</screen>

<para>
After pressing <keycap>ENTER</keycap>
you should see a lot of text go flying across your screen. Don't be
alarmed, this is all perfectly normal. The text you see is generated by
the kernel during boot-up as it discovers your hardware and prepares to
load the operating system (in this case, the installer). You can later
read these messages with the <application>dmesg</application>(1)
command if you're interested. Often these messages are very important
for troubleshooting any hardware problems you may have. Once the kernel
has completed its hardware discovery, the messages should stop and
you'll be given an option to load support for non-us keyboards.
</para>

<screen>
&lt;OPTION TO LOAD SUPPORT FOR NON-US KEYBOARD&gt;

If you are not using a US keyboard, you may need to load a different
keyboard map.  To select a different keyboard map, please enter 1
now.  To continue using the US map, just hit enter.

Enter 1 to select a keyboard map: _
</screen>

<para>
Entering <keycap>1</keycap> and pressing <keycap>ENTER</keycap> will
give you a list of keyboard mappings. Simply select the mapping that
matches your keyboard type and continue on.
</para>

<screen>
Welcome to the Slackware Linux installation disk! (version 14.0)

######  IMPORTANT!  READ THE INFORMATION BELOW CAREFULLY.  ######

- You will need one or more partitions of type 'Linux' prepared.  It is also
  recommended that you create a swap partition (type 'Linux swap') prior
  to installation.  For more information, run 'setup' and read the help file.

- If you're having problems that you think might be related to low memory, you
  can try activating a swap partition before you run setup.  After making a
  swap partition (type 82) with cfdisk or fdisk, activate it like this:
    mkswap /dev/&lt;partition&gt; ; swapon /dev/&lt;partition&gt;

- Once you have prepared the disk partitions for Linux, type 'setup' to begin
  the installation process.

- If you do not have a color monitor, type:  TERM=vt100
  before you start 'setup'.

You may now login as 'root'.

slackware login: <userinput>root</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
Unlike other Linux distributions which boot you directly into a
dedicated installer program, Slackware's installer places you in a 
limited Linux distribution loaded into your system's RAM.  This 
limited distribution is then used to run all the installation programs
manually, or can be used in emergencies to fix a broken system that
fails to boot. Now that you're logged in as root (there is no password
within the installer) it's time to start setting up your disks. At this
point, you may setup software RAID or LVM support if you wish or even
an encrypted root partition, but
those topics are outside of the scope of this book. I encourage you to
refer to the excellent <filename>README_RAID.TXT</filename>,
<filename>README_LVM.TXT</filename>, and
<filename>README_CRYPT.TXT</filename> files on your CD if you desire to
setup your system with these advanced tools. Most users won't have any
need to do so and should proceed directly to partitioning.
</para>

</section>

<section id="install_part">
<title>Partitioning</title>

<para>
Unlike many other Linux distributions, Slackware does not make use of a
dedicated graphical disk partitioning tool in its installer. Rather,
Slackware makes use of the traditional Linux partitioning tools, the
very same tools that you will have available once you've installed
Slackware. Traditionally, partitioning is performed with either
<application>fdisk</application>(8) or
<application>cfdisk</application>(8), both of which are console tools.
<application>cfdisk</application> is preferred by many people because
it is curses menu-based, but either works well. Additionally, Slackware
includes <application>sfdisk</application>(8) and
<application>gdisk</application>(8). These are more powerful command-line
partitioning tools. <application>gdisk</application> is required to
alter GUID partition tables found on some of today's larger hard
drives. In this book, we're going to focus on using
<application>fdisk</application>, but the other tools are similar. You
can find additional instructions for using these other tools online or
in their man pages.
</para>

<para>
In order to partition your hard drive, you'll first need to know how to
identify it.  In Linux, all hardware is identified by a special file
called a device file.  These are (typically) located in the
<filename>/dev</filename> directory. Nearly all hard drives today,
are identified as SCSI hard drives by 
the kernel, and as such, they'll be assigned a device node such as 
<filename>/dev/sda</filename>. (Once upon a time each hard drive type
had its own unique identifier such as /dev/hda for the first IDE drive.
Over the years the kernel's SCSI subsystem morphed into a generic drive
access system and came to be used for all hard disks and optical drives
no matter how they are connected to your computer. If you think this is
confusing, imagine what it would be like if you had a system with a
SCSI hard drive, a SATA CD-ROM, and a USB memory stick, all with
unique subsystem indentifiers. The current system is not only cleaner,
but performs better as well.)
</para>

<para>
If you don't know which device node is
assigned to your hard drive, <application>fdisk</application> can help you
find out.
</para>

<screen><prompt>root@slackware:/# </prompt><userinput>fdisk -l</userinput>

Disk /dev/sda: 72.7 GB, 72725037056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8841 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
</screen>

<para>
Here, you can see that my system has a hard drive located at
<filename>/dev/sda</filename> that is 72.7 GB in size.  You can also
see some additional information about this hard drive.
The <arg>-l</arg> argument to
<application>fdisk</application> tells it to display the hard drives
and all the partitions it finds on those drives, but it won't make any
changes to the disks.  In order to actually partition our drives, we'll
have to tell <application>fdisk</application> the drive on which to operate.
</para>

<screen><prompt>root@slackware:/# </prompt><userinput>fdisk /dev/sda</userinput>

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 8841.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help):
</screen>

<para>
Now we've told fdisk what disk we wish to partition, and it has dropped
us into command mode after printing an annoying warning message.  The
1024 cylinder limit has not been a problem for quite some time, and
Slackware's boot loader will have no trouble booting disks larger than
this.  Typing <arg>m</arg> and pressing ENTER will print out a helpful
message telling you what to do with <application>fdisk</application>.
</para>

<screen>Command (m for help): <userinput>m</userinput>
Command action
   a   toggle a bootable flag
   b   edit bsd disklabel
   c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
   d   delete a partition
   l   list known partition types
   m   print this menu
   n   add a new partition
   o   create a new empty DOS partition table
   p   print the partition table
   q   quit without saving changes
   s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
   t   change a partition's system id
   u   change display/entry units
   v   verify the partition table
   w   write table to disk and exit
   x   extra functionality (experts only)
</screen>

<para>
Now that we know what commands will do what, it's time to begin partitioning
our drive.  At a minimum, you will need a single <filename>/</filename> 
partition, and you should also create a swap partition.
You might also want to make a separate <filename>/home</filename>
partition for storing user files (this will make it easier to upgrade
later or to install a different Linux operating system by keeping all of
your users' files on a separate partition).  Therefore, let's go ahead and
make three partitions.  The command to create a new partition is
<arg>n</arg> (which you noticed when you read the help).
</para>

<screen>Command: (m for help): <userinput>n</userinput>
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
<userinput>p</userinput>
Partition number (1-4): <userinput>1</userinput>
First cylinder (1-8841, default 1): <userinput>1</userinput>
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-8841, default 8841): <userinput>+8G</userinput>

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
<userinput>p</userinput>
Partition number (1-4): <userinput>2</userinput>
First cylinder (975-8841, default 975): <userinput>975</userinput>
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (975-8841, default 8841): <userinput>+1G</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
Here we have created two partitions.  The first is 8GB in size, and the
second is only 1GB.  We can view our existing partitions with the
<arg>p</arg> command.
</para>

<screen> Command (m for help): <userinput>p</userinput>

Disk /dev/sda: 72.7 GB, 72725037056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8841 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot       Start      End          Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1                1      974         7823623+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2              975     1097          987997+  83  Linux

</screen>

<para>
Both of these partitions are of type "83" which is the standard Linux
filesystem.  We will need to change <filename>/dev/sda2</filename> to
type "82" in order to make this a swap partition.  We will do this with
the <arg>t</arg> argument to <application>fdisk</application>.
</para>

<screen>Command (m for help): <userinput>t</userinput>
Partition number (1-4): <userinput>2</userinput>
Hex code (type L to list codes): <userinput>82</userinput>

Command (me for help): <userinput>p</userinput>

Disk /dev/sda: 72.7 GB, 72725037056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8841 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot       Start      End          Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1                1      974         7823623+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2              975     1097          987997+  82  Linux swap

</screen>

<para>
The swap partition is a special partition that is used for
virtual memory by the Linux kernel.  If for some reason you run out of
RAM, the kernel will move the contents of some of the RAM to swap in
order to prevent a crash.  The size of your swap partition is up to
you.  A great many people have participated in a great many flamewars 
on the size of swap partitions, but a good rule of thumb is to make your 
swap partition about twice the size of your system's RAM.  Since my machine 
has only 512MB of RAM, I decided to make my swap partition 1GB.  You may 
wish to experiment with your swap partition's size and see what works best 
for you, but generally there is no harm in having "too much" swap.
If you plan to
use hibernation (suspend to disk), you will need to have at least as much
swap space as you have physical memory (RAM), so keep that in mind.
</para>

<para>
At this point we can stop, write these changes to the disk, and
continue on, but I'm going to go ahead and make a third partition which
will be mounted at <filename>/home</filename>.
</para>

<screen>Command: (me for help): <userinput>n</userinput>
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
<userinput>p</userinput>
Partition number (1-4): <userinput>3</userinput>
First cylinder (1098-8841, default 1098): <userinput>1098</userinput>
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1098-8841, default 8841): <userinput>8841</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
Now it's time to finish up and write these changes to disk.
</para>

<screen>Command: (me for help): <userinput>w</userinput>
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
<prompt>root@slackware:/# </prompt>
</screen>

<para>
At this point, we are done partitioning our disks and are ready to
begin the <application>setup</application> program.  However, if you
have created any extended partitions, you may wish to reboot once to
ensure that they are properly read by the kernel.
</para>

</section>

<section id="install_setup">
<title>The <application>setup</application> Program</title>

<para>
Now that you've created your partitions it's time to run the
<application>setup</application> program to install Slackware.
<application>setup</application> will handle formatting partitions,
installing packages, and running basic configuration scripts
step-by-step. In order to do so, just type
<application>setup</application> at your shell prompt.
</para>

<imageobject>
  <imagedata fileref="png/setup-program.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>

  <section id="install_setup_help">
  <title>Help</title>

  <para>
  If you've never installed Slackware before, you can get a very basic
  over-view of the Slackware installer by reading the Help menu.
  Most of the information here is on navigating through the installer
  which should be fairly intuitive, but if you've never used a
  curses-based program before you may find this useful.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-help.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  </section> <!-- closing HELP -->

  <section id="install_setup_keymap">
  <title>Keymap</title>

  <para>
  Before we go any further, Slackware gives you the opportunity to 
  select a different mapping for your keyboard. If you're using a
  standard US keyboard you can safely skip this step, but if you're
  using an international keyboard you will want to select the correct
  mapping now. This ensures that the keys you press on your keyboard
  will do exactly what you expect them to do.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-keymap.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  </section>

  <section id="install_setup_addswap">
  <title>Addswap</title>

  <para>
  If you created a swap partition, this step will allow you to enable
  it before running any memory-intensive activities like installing
  packages. swap space is essentially virtual memory. It's a hard drive
  partition (or a file, though Slackware's installer does not support
  swap files) where regions of active system memory get copied when
  your computer is out of useable RAM. This lets the computer "swap"
  programs in and out of active RAM, allowing you to use more memory
  than your computer actually has. This step will also add your swap
  partition to <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> so it will be available
  to your OS.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-swap.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>
  </section>

  <section id="install_setup_target">
  <title>Target</title>

  <para>
  Our next step is selecting our root partition and any other
  partitions we'd like Slackware to utilize. You'll be given a choice 
  of filesystems to use and whether or not to format the partition. If
  you're installing to a new partition you must format it. If you have
  a partition with data on it you'd like to save, don't. For example,
  many users have a seperate <filename>/home</filename> partition used
  for user data and elect not to format it on install. This lets them
  install newer versions of Slackware without having to backup and
  restore this data.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-target.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  </section>

  <section id="install_setup_source">
  <title>Source</title>

  <para>
  Here you'll tell the installer where to find the Slackware packages.
  The most common method is to use the Slackware install DVD or CDs, 
  but various other options are available. If you have your
  packages installed to a partition that you setup in the previous
  step, you can install from that partition or a pre-mounted directory.
  (You may need to mount that partition with
  <application>mount</application>(8) first. See chapter 11 for more
  details.) Additionally, Slackware offers a variety of networked
  options such as NFS shares, FTP, HTTP, and Samba. If you select a
  network installation, Slackware will prompt you for TCP/IP
  information first. We're only going to discuss installation from the
  DVD, but other methods are similar and straightforward.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-source.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>
  </section>

  <section id="install_setup_select">
  <title>Select</title>

  <para>
  One unique feature of Slackware is its manner of dividing packages
  into disksets. At the beginning of time, network access to FTP 
  servers was available only through incredibly slow 300 baud modems,
  so Slackware was split into disk sets that would fit onto floppy
  disks so users could download and install only those packages they
  were interested in. Today that practice continues and the installer
  allows you to chose which sets to install. This allows you to
  easily skip packages you may not want, such as X and KDE on headless
  servers or Emacs on everything. Please note that the "A" series is
  always required.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-select.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>
  </section>

  <section id="install_setup_install">
  <title>Install</title>

  <para>
  Finally we get to the meat of the installer. At this stage, Slackware
  will ask you what method to use to chose packages. If this is your
  first time installing Slackware, the "full" method is highly
  recommended. Even if this isn't your first time, you'll probably want
  to use it anyway. 
  </para>

  <para>
  The "menu" and "expert" options allow you to choose
  individual packages to install and are of use to skilled users
  familiar with the OS. These methods allow such users to quickly prune
  packages from the installer to build a very minimal system. If you
  don't know what you're doing (sometimes even if you do) you're likely
  to leave out crucial pieces of software and end up with a broken
  system.
  </para>

  <para>
  The "newbie" method can be very helpful to a new user, but
  takes a very long time to install. This method will install all the
  required packages, then prompt you individually for every other
  package. The big advantage here is that is pauses and gives you a 
  brief overview of the package contents. For a new user, this
  introduction into what is included with Slackware can be informative.
  For most other users it is a long and tedious process.
  </para>

  <para>
  The "custom" and "tagpath" options should only be used by people with
  the greatest skill and expertise with Slackware. These methods allow
  the user to install packages from custom tagfiles. Tagfiles are
  only rarely used. We won't discuss them in this book.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-install.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  </section>

  <section id="install_setup_config">
  <title>Configure</title>

  <para>
  Once all the packages are installed you're nearly finished. At this
  stage, Slackware will prompt you with a variety of configuration
  tasks for your new operating system. Many of these are optional, but
  most users will need to set something up here. Depending on the 
  packages you've installed, you may be offered different configuration
  options than the ones shown here, but we've included all the really
  important ones.
  </para>

  <para>
  The first thing you'll likely be prompted to do is setup a boot disk.
  In the past this was typically a 1.44MB floppy disk, but today's
  Linux kernel is far too large to fit on a single floppy, so
  Slackware offers to create a bootable USB flash memory stick. Of
  course, your computer must support booting from USB in order to use
  a USB boot stick (most modern computers do). If you do not intend to
  use LILO or another traditional boot loader, you should consider
  making a USB boot stick. Please note that doing so will erase the 
  contents of whatever memory stick you're using, so be careful.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/usb-boot-stick.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  <para>
  Nearly everyone will need to setup the LInux LOader, LILO. LILO is
  in charge of booting the Linux kernel and connecting to an initrd or
  the root filesystem. Without it (or some other boot loader), your new
  Slackware operating system will not boot. Slackware offers a few
  options here. The "simple" method attempts to automatically configure
  LILO for your computer, and works well with very simple systems. If 
  Slackware is the only operating system on your computer, it should
  configure and install LILO for you without any hassels. If you don't
  trust the simpler method to work, or if you want to take an in-depth
  look at how to configure LILO, the "expert" method is really not all
  that complicated. This method will take you through each step and
  offer to setup dual-boot for Windows and other Linux operating
  systems. It also allows you to append kernel command parameters (most
  users will not need to specify any though).
  </para>

  <para>
  LILO is a very important part of your Slackware system, so an entire
  section of the next chapter is devoted to it. If you're having
  difficulty configuring LILO at this stage, you may want to skip ahead
  and read Chapter 3 first, then return here.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-lilo.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  <para>
  This simple step allows you to configure and activate a console mouse
  for use outside of the graphical desktops. By activating a console
  mouse, you'll be able to easily copy and paste from within the
  Slackware terminal. Most users will need to choose one of the first
  three options, but many are offered, and yes those ancient two-button
  serial mice do work.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-mouse.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  <para>
    The next stage in configuring your install is the network
    configuration. If you don't wish to configure your network at this
    stage, you may decline, but otherwise you'll be prompted to
    provide a hostname for your computer. Do not enter a domain name,
    only the hostname.
  </para>

  <para>
    The following screen will prompt you for a domainname, such as
    example.org. The combination of the hostname and the domainname
    can be used to navigate between computers in your network if you
    use an internal DNS service or maintain your
    <filename>&#47;etc&#47;hosts</filename> file.
  </para>

  <para>
    You have three options when setting your IP address; you may
    assign it a static IP, use DHCP, or configure a
    loopback connection. The simplest option, and probably the most
    common for laptops or computers on a basic network, is to let a
    DHCP server assign IP addresses dynamically. Unless you are
    installing Slackware for use as a network server, you probably
    do not need to setup a static IP address.
  </para>

  <para>
    Rarely DHCP servers requires you specify a DHCP
    hostname before you're permitted to connect. You can enter this on
    the Set DHCP Hostname screen. This is almost always be the same
    hostname you entered earlier.
  </para>

  <para>
    To use a static IP address, you must provide:
  </para>

  <variablelist>
    <title>Static IP Address</title>

    <varlistentry>
      <term>IP Address</term>
      <listitem>
	<para>
	  The address of your computer, such as 192.168.1.1 (for
	  IPv4). Also, you should verify that no DHCP server on your
	  network is set to assign that same address out as a part of
	  its DHCP pool, or you may encounter address conflicts.
	</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term>Netmask</term>
      <listitem>
	<para>
	  The subnet mask for your network; often 255.255.255.0 for
	  small networks.
	</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term>Gateway Address</term>
      <listitem>
	<para>
	  The address of the gateway server providing internet access
	  to your network. On small networks, this will probably be
	  provided by your ISP while on larger networks you may use an
	  internal server which handles the traffic. In other words,
	  this may be an internal address like 192.168.1.1 or it might
	  be an address provided by your ISP, such as 75.146.49.79
	</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term>Nameserver</term>
      <listitem>
	<para>
	  Most likely, you'll want to utilize DNS; in this initial
	  setup, provide your primary domain name server. Edit
	  <filename>&#47;etc&#47;resolv.conf</filename> to add
	  secondary and tertiary servers later.
	</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>

  <para>
    The final screen during static IP address configuration is a
    confirmation screen, where you're permitted to accept your
    choices, edit them, or even restart the IP address configuration
    in case you decide to use DHCP instead.
  </para>

  <para>
    Your network configuration is now complete. The next screen
    prompts you to configure the startup services that you wish to run
    automatically upon boot. Read the descriptions that appear both to
    the right of the service name as well as at the bottom of the
    screen in order to decide whether that service should be turned on
    by default. These can always be modified later with
    <application>pkgtool</application> &#62; <guimenu>Setup</guimenu>
    &#62; <guimenuitem>Services</guimenuitem>.
  </para>

  <para>
    As the startup services window warns, you should only turn on the
    startup services that you actually intend to use. This not only
    decreases boot time but makes for a more secure system.
  </para>

  <para>
  Every computer needs to keep track of the current time, and with so
  many timezones how does Slackware know which one to use? Well, you
  have to tell it which one to use, and that's why this step is here.
  If your computer's hardware clock is set to UTC (Coordinated
  Universal Time), you'll need to select that; most hardware clocks are
  not set to UTC from the factory (though you could set it that way on
  your own; Slackware doesn't care). Then simply select your timezone
  from the list provided and off you go.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-timezone.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  <para>
  If you installed the X disk set, you'll be prompted to select a
  default window manager or desktop environment. What you select
  here will apply to every user on your computer, unless that user
  decides to run <application>xwmconfig</application>(1) and choose
  a different one. Don't be alarmed if the options you see below do
  not match the ones Slackware offers you. 
  <application>xwmconfig</application> only offers choices that you
  installed. So for example, if you elected to skip the "KDE" disk set,
  KDE will not be offered.
  </para>

  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="png/setup-xwmconfig.png" format="PNG"/>
  </imageobject>

  <para>
  The last configuration step is setting a root password. The root
  user is the "super user" on Slackware and all other UNIX-like
  operating systems. Think of root as the Administrator user. root
  knows all, sees all, and can do all, so setting a strong root
  password is just common sense.
  </para>

  <para>
  With this last step complete, you can now exit the Slackware
  installer and reboot with a good old <keycap>CTRL</keycap> +
  <keycap>ALT</keycap> + <keycap>DELETE</keycap>. Remove the 
  Slackware installation disk, and if you performed all the steps
  correctly, your computer will boot into your new Slackware
  linux system. If something went wrong, you probably skipped the
  LILO configuration step or made an error there somehow. Thankfully,
  the next chapter should help you sort that out.
  </para>

  <para>
    When you have rebooted into your new Slackware installation, the
    very first step you should take is to create a user. By
    default, the only user that exists after the install is the root
    user, and it's dangerous to use your computer as root, given that
    there are no restrictions as to what that user can do.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    The quickest and easiest way to create a normal user for yourself
    is to log in as root with the root password that you created at
    the end of the intallation process, and then issue the
    <application>adduser</application>. This will interactively assist
    you in creating a user; see <xref linkend="users_managing"/> for more
    information.
  </para>

  </section>

</section>

</chapter>