This installation will be using Slackware 11 for the linux distribution, Slackware 10.X will also work with these instructions. There are several easier linux distributions and there are others that are more popular, but Slackware is a nice non-commercial distro that has been around for a long time and proven itself to be a very uncluttered and stable platform for development.

1. Go to http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ , download the latest bootcd and burn it to a CD. This will be needed to partition the hard drive prior to installation of Slackware linux. The latest version as of this writing is 4.0 (If you have problems with your hardware booting some of the utilities with 4.0 I suggest trying 1.7, that version has older utilities, but still gets the job done and works on every machine I've tried it on).

2. Insert the ultimatebootcd you just burned into your CDROM drive and boot to it. You will select "filesystem utilities" and then "XFDISK"

3. Select any old partitions and delete them and then create 2 new partitions:

- 70000 MB, select yes to validate, change partition type to "Linux Native"

- 3332 MB, select yes to validate, change partition type to "Linux Swap"

- press F3 to exit and let it do it's thing, this will take an hour or so.

4. Go to http://www.slackware.com/getslack/ to download Slackware linux.

The most recent release as of this writing is 11.0. This release fits on 2 CDs. Download both installation disks from any close server listed on the download page and burn them both to CDs.

5. Insert Disk 1 of the Slackware installation CD and boot your computer.

If you have a simple computer with just an IDE drive just hit enter at the boot: prompt. If you have other hard drive adapters(SCSI/RAID/SATA/etc..) you will need to look at the Slackware installation help page to determine what boot image you will need to use to install Slackware correctly.

6. Login as root and type "setup" at the prompt to go to the setup menu.

7. Go to ADDSWAP and hit Enter

8. Select the swap partition you just created and hit Yes, The swap partition will then be formatted

9. Select the root partiton you just created as Linux Native and hit Select, then select "ext3" for the file system, then select 4096 for the inodes and the root partition will then be formatted

10. Select "Install Slackware from a CD" and hit OK

11. Select "auto" installation and hit OK

12. Select every package except for "KDEI" and hit OK

13. Select "full" installation and hit OK

14. Insert the next Slackware installation disk (disk 2) when it prompts you, and hit OK to continue

15. Now you will select the boot kernel that you will use from now on. If you have a simple system with IDE drives you can probably just select "skip" and go to the next step. If not then you should probably select "cdrom" and select the kernel from the list that you selected to boot into the installation.

16. You can make a bootdisk if you like, but you don't have to.

17. For Modem you can select "no modem" and hit OK to continue

18. Enable hotplug, hit Yes to continue

19. Install lilo "simple" and hit OK to continue

20. lilo frame buffer console 640x480 is safe choice if you're not sure

21. Optional Lilo append, leave blank and hit OK to continue

22. Lilo destination, I usually choose MBR but root works most of the time

23. Mouse, select the mouse type that you have hooked up, or select ps/2

24. Load GPM at boot time, Hit Yes to continue

25. select Yes to configure your network

26. Hostname, we are typing "phone"

27. network, we are typing our local domain name

28. IP address, we are selecting Static IP, here's what we enter for network, you should enter a network setup that will work with your local LAN:

- IP address: 10.10.10.15

- subnet: 255.255.0.0

- gateway: 10.10.10.1

- name server: 10.10.10.1

29. Accept your network settings

30.Startup services to run, change nothing and select OK to continue

31.select NO for custom screen fonts

32.Hardware clock to UTC, select NO

33.Select your time zone and hit OK

34.I usually select gnome as the window manager, even though you won't be using it on this machine

35.Select Yes to enter a root password. type something that you will remember.

36.Setup of Slackware Linux is complete, hit OK and EXIT then press

CTRL-ALT-DELETE to reboot your computer