[SOLVED] Let me keep you busy while you wait the release of Slackware 14.2
SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
View Poll Results: Which of these installers do you prefer?
I tied all three of your mini iso, and they all booted without problems, both Legacy BIOS and UEFI, here on my Asus laptop (which normally has problem booting UEFI with grub)
One of them, I believe it was the iso with the background picture only has on boot option in UEFI mode. As far as my preference, although I like the look of the background wallpaper,I believe that for an install iso it should be a branded background, as a picture is too personal and may not be appealing to all.
I ended up "voting" for the slint64-current-isolinux-menu+elilo-mini.iso because it has a clean and simple look. I found the vesamenu to bea bit "blocky" and didn't care for the 3D look of the font. I would have voted for the background iso, it the background was more generic.
Thanks kjhambrick for these useful info. I am still puzzled as I don't seem to observe this lag here. Maybe you could check if you see it also using a recent Slackware-current ISO? That would tell us if this is specific to Slint.
Meanwhile, later today I will compare the boot messages using a genuine Slackware installer (just removing the kernel parameter "printk.time=0" that suppress the time stamps in the kernel logs) and using a Slint installer to see what I come up with.
Just a thought: maybe the fact that you use an USB keyboard can come into play?
Thanks kjhambrick for these useful info. I am still puzzled as I don't seem to observe this lag here. Maybe you could check if you see it also using a recent Slackware-current ISO? That would tell us if this is specific to Slint.
Meanwhile, later today I will compare the boot messages using a genuine Slackware installer (just removing the kernel parameter "printk.time=0" that suppress the time stamps in the kernel logs) and using a Slint installer to see what I come up with.
Just a thought: maybe the fact that you use an USB keyboard can come into play?
Didier --
I do believe it is related to the USB keyboard but not why.
I just made an ISO and burned Last Friday's Current to the same thumb drive.
No lag entering '1' at the select keyboard prompt.
The slackware dmesg output is attached. It does include the printk.time=0 kernel parm so the Slackware Current dmesg file does not include time stamps.
more stuff
Maybe the reason is in the slackware vs slint boot parameters:
# sed --posix -e 's/^.\{15\}//' /tmp/slint.dmesg.txt |diff -Naur /tmp/slack.dmesg.txt -
I appended load_ramdisk=1 and prompt_ramdisk=0 and there is no lag now ...
The following dmesg output includes printk.time=0 but it worked fine without it too.
I also tried with nomodeset all by itself ( no change -- still a lag ) and along with the ramdisk parms ( no lag but there was also no lag without it )
prompt_ramdisk=0 in Slackware command line is superfluous as it is the default as stated in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/blockdev/ramdisk. For the records, this just says that as the kernel and the iniramfs are on the same floppy disk (!) there is no need to give the user some time to switch floppy disks before trying to load the ramdisk.
load_ramdisk=1 just says that a ramdisk should be loaded. I believe that this was only needed when using floppy disks as well.
So these kernel parameters are useless now if I understand well, that's why I removed them.
Anyway when you are asked to type "1", the initrd (more exactly the initramfs) has been loaded in RAM long ago, so these parameters can't matter.
Maybe omitting "rw" can hurt? Honestly I don't see why, though. Any clue appreciated there.
Other than that, initrd is simply the name I give to what Slackware calls initrd.img (but they differ of course, see below) and I just call the kernel linux (and it is in /isolinux as I don't ship the /kernels directory in the ISO)
So I think that the difference in behavior is more probably due to something that differs between the genuine Slackware initrd in the one shipped in Slint.
I will investigate tonight, thanks again for reporting.
EDIT: After having read your addendum "still more stuff" I am puzzled as I really do not know how these parameters come into play... Anyway I will compare kernel logs adding them or not to make sure.
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 05-30-2016 at 03:02 PM.
Reason: EDIT added.
I also see that the keyboard is registered near the end "input: CZW USB Keyboard..." followed by "hid-generic..."
(why these two lines are repeated in all cases is a mystery for me).
I assume that your keyboard in some (but not all) cases is just not yet registered at time of typing "1".
I am not sure that the kernel parameters have an influence, it could be just a coincidence.
I am in doubt about that for two reasons:
I fail to see a logical link between their setting and the lag.
I checked that booting the same ISO image twice (a fresh Slackware-current on an USB stick in that case) leads to register the same devices in a different order, as shows the attached unified diff of the respective logs.
So maybe that's just entropy's fault, after all...
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 05-30-2016 at 05:28 PM.
Reason: Wording modified.
My tests show that it takes around one second less for Slint than for Slackware to get to the point where you see the dialog titled "<OPTION TO LOAD SUPPORT FOR NON-US KEYBOARD>".
The new ISO allows you to set an additional delay before displaying this dialog.
To do that in Legacy mode, just boot the installer, choose your language and hit [TAB], then append to the command line:
sleep=n
where n is the number of seconds added before displaying the dialog (hence the name of the ISO).
In UEFI mode, just type sleep=n (this will be written in the green field) instead.
Please try with say, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 seconds and report from which delay your keyboard works regularly (i.e., three times in a row) as soon as you see the dialog, and do not make other changes to the command line.
Thanks in advance.
PS You can see at which point in the boot sequence the dialog is displayed. For that press Alt+F4 after it appears (you won't see it in dmesg).
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 06-02-2016 at 04:40 PM.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.