Slackware 14.0 64bit install - 1

Let's start with whining. Getting Slackware installed took me approximately 15 hours - 90% of that went for preparatory reading. At least 70% of reading was useless waste of time.
That's because Slackware docs and wikis are mostly outdated. There isn't one place with properly updated tutorials. I can't be bothered with analysing why it's like that, but it is bloody frustrating to dig through old (and irrelevant) crap.
So, I will be kind and caring in my attempts to make it easier for you, means, even more verbose in my report than usual.

-- I wrote iso to USB, using plain simple Unetbootin (in windows xp, too). And it worked. Means, with ver 14 it's not really neccessary to play around with mini-images or hybridize your iso before dd.
Though - the start menu was a bit funny: memtest, default, huge.s and speakup.s ... last three did the same thing - booted huge kernel. Why the hell is there something called 'speakup' ...?

-- There isn't anything essentially difficult in Slackwares' install process. It's different, alright, but at the same time logical and it has quite a lot of explanatory text.
If your favourite is not fdisk, it's easier to prepare your partition(s) beforehand.
Combination of usb and full iso means that your source is on HDD. Open the list and and pick your usb (mine was /dev/sdd1). Then pick the folder - it's /slackware64.
Setup need to be started with 'setup'.
Select sets you want installed. I left out only Kde and Kdei (and you still get qt-4 installed, a good thing); pick full install in next menu (less dependency problems afterwards).
Configuring: Lilo - as I have Grub2 as my master-bootloader, then I installed Lilo to root (just for creating editable entry for Grub to find). Then I picked usb mouse; for network hostname=takeyourpick, domain=local, ip=dhcp. Then came startup services (You can later change them with pkgtool > setup > services). Then clock; what WM or DE will be default - I chose Xfce (later changeable with xwmconfig); finish with root passwd and boot with ctrl+alt+del.
I booted, did update-grub.
Now, despite generic kernel being also installed, there isn't any initrd created for it - means, booting generic kernel ends in panic. No worry - boot with huge kernel and continue with install.

-- When landing into login prompt, login as a root and then run 'adduser'. It will create your normal user. Creating new user is quite simple, read and respond. Only thing I changed, was to add 'wheel' group to my user (not sure if this gives something additional, but it made me feel good).
Edit | Good that I did. Wheel can be used for sudoing. See here. |

-- Update system: Open /etc/slackpkg/mirrors file with editor (nano is alright for me), and pick only one mirror and uncomment it. Save.
slackpkg update gpg
slackpkg update
slackpkg upgrade-all
# the last one gives you a list of choices, including minor kernel upgrade (dangerous). I bit the bullet and did them all. And it worked.

-- Then I installed slackpkg+. It's an addon script for slackpkg and gives you multi-mirror capability (ordinary slackpkg knows only slackware repos, nothing else).
Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. Whatever I did, I got a reply that I should update before doing it. And update said that there is no packages list available. I removed slackpkg+ through pkgtool and package management worked again. I have no clue...

-- Creating initrd for generic kernel. Run:
/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -l /boot/vmlinuz-generic-3.2.45
This gives you a) a mkinitrd command to run, b) lines to put into /etc/lilo.conf
a) My command was like this (I changed initrd file name to be more specific):
mkinitrd -c -k 3.2.45 -f ext4 -r /dev/sdb4 -m mbcache:jbd2:ext4 -u -o /boot/initrd-generic-3.2.45.gz
b) And my lines for lilo.conf:
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-3.2.45
initrd = /boot/initrd-generic-3.2.45.gz
root = /dev/sdb4
label = Slackware 14.0 Generic 3.2.45
read-only
# And do not forget to update-grub too. By the way, no need to write 'on /dev/sdbx' into label - Grub2 does that automatically.

-- Multilib thing - to add 32bit app running capability. I didn't do it. With slackpkg+ it would have been easy-peasy. Without - a bit hassle. I do it when I need it.

-- NVIDIA, one might take a look here - if binary solution doesn't work.
Again, there are quite a few different ways of doing it. Confusing. So I decided to start with the simplest - Nvidia binary.
Downloaded it from Nvidias' page, made it executable, ran it (from console, no X running!).
chmod +x NVIDIAxxx.run
sh NVIDIAxxx.run
After a while installer finds nouveau driver, blacklists it and wants to reboot. Do it.
Also - if you didn't already, update your Grub2, and boot to generic kernel.
Run Nvidia installer again. It does its thing and asks to write xconfig. Yes, let it.
Video driver should be installed now, and time to visit desktop.
Got a picture? Good, then you can change default runlevel (3) in /etc/initab to id:4:initdefault, and your next boot should go to default desktop.
Well, I did that after I installed gdm as display manager. It's probably also wise to run 'xwmconfig' as a user - for creating your own .xinitrc file (there was said somewhere that gdm kinda needs it... not sure).
... to be continued in part 2, 'Installing apps'.
I like Slackware a lot.