Preamble
--------
If, like me, you have a Slackware Linode VM but have found their Slackware64 15.0 image too much of a full inatall,
you may want to reinstall it to do a custom install and save some space.

I prefer not to remove huge numbers of packages from a system as it leaves "turds" all over the filesystem -
these are parts of packages that are no longer needed, but not removed with removepkg because they were installed
as a .new or generated after installatioon.

So, I developed this process to allow me to do a clean install of a cut down Slackware 15.0 onto my Linode.

I have included with this HOWTO a set of tagfiles that I used to do the base install of Slackware 15.0 on the
Linode.  There is just enough packages to get a base system up and running - from there you can install a custom
set of packages to your own specification, or use a slackpkg template to deploy everything for you (which is my
approach).


Procedure
---------
Start with a Slackware64 15.0 template from Linode.  Logged in as root via ssh.
This process will only work with a non-RAID/LVM set up.

# wget -O /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img http://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware64-15.0/isolinux/initrd.img
# removepkg kernel-generic # Makes grub's config simpler
Edit /etc/default/grub and add:
  kbd=uk nic=auto:eth0:static:IP:Netmask:Gateway
to the end of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX setting (adjust IP/Netmask/Gateway as appropriate).
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Reboot the VM.
Give it a few seconds to boot and ssh root@IP to get in.  There is no password for root.
IMPORTANT: Immediately set a root password, otherwise it's open to the world.
# export TERM=linux # To force colour dialogs
# echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" >/etc/resolv.conf
# cp /sbin/probe /sbin/probe.orig
# wget -O /sbin/probe http://slackware.uk/~tadgy/linode/probe # A new probe utility is required.
Start the install - see caveats below.
Do not elect to reboot the system at the end of installation - exit to a shell.
# chroot /mnt bin/bash --login -i
Edit /etc/default/grub and add:
  console=ttyS0,19200n8 net.ifnames=0 scsi_mod.scan=sync
to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX setting.
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and uncomment the line:
  PermitRootLogin
and change it to "yes".  You'll need to do this so you can ssh into the new install to configure it.
# exit
# reboot
If the reboot fails (I had trouble getting it to reboot), use the Linode console to restart the VM.


Caveats
-------
* There is no requirement to create partitions on the OS disk - you must install directly to the disk device, not
  a partition (the disk device should show up as an available "partition" in the installer).
* You may need to partition other disks connected to the VM if you wish to use them and have the installer
  handle adding them.  My advice is to handle other partitions after installation.
* The 'probe' utility I wrote will detect and mark as a 'swap' disk any disk devices it finds that have a swap
  signature - there is usually at least one swap disk attached to the VM which is already marked as type 'swap'.
  If you want a different disk as swap, or have more than one swap disk, add them AFTER installation using
  the 'mkswap' and 'swapon' utilities - do not set up swap in the installer.
* You MUST use ext4 for the root partition.
* You must do an http/ftp installation from your favourite mirror.
* Make sure to NOT install or configure lilo/elilo - grub must be used to boot.