You could try grabbing the latest 2.6.21.* kernel instead of the 2.6.22.1 kernel until they release the new bootsplash patch and compile that. Other than that, the only thing I would try is every possible combination of adding initrd.gz to initrd.splash and vice versa (ie try 'cat initrd.gz >> initrd.splash', 'cat initrd.splash >> initrd.gz', 'zcat initrd.gz >> initrd.splash', gunzipping initrd.gz and typing 'cat initrd.splash >> initrd' and gzipping the resulting initrd file, etc.), but it seems to me that you have already tried most or all of the combinations.

Custom kernel compilation is the easy way out and should solve the problem (hopefully).

Hi, T3slider, thanks .. but I've tried all those combinations.

-----------------
STATUS:

I have now found a 2.6.22* bootsplash patch and configured/installed a new 2.6.22.1 kernel.

I built it with reiserfs support built-in to the kernel, thereby nullifying the need for an initrd.gz and enabling me to use my initrd.bootsplash again.

The product; the bootsplash is working fine again (as it used to) ....
and on this new kernel; I again can't access my Slackware partition through /media
(I am right back where I started from) <Sigh> .

The problem therefore must not be kernel version specific, so is it possible that it has something to do with KDEbase or some other portion of KDE??

Assistance with this will be gratefully received as now I don't know where to go from here to solve this problem?

Thanks in advance for any help

Regards

Orbit

Hi all,

I have posted my initrd's to a public file host server HERE in the hope that anyone might be able to join them together into a working file.

I am currently unable to merge (cat, zcat) them together without the kernel panicking on the new initrd.

I may be doing something wrong, so if someone could have a go and get an output file that works, I will really appreciate it.

Thanks very much in advance for any help.

Cheers

Orbit

There is a bootsplash patch for the 2.6.22 kernel here:

http://linuxhelp.150m.com/boot/bootsplash.htm

So orbit, I finally got around to looking into this a little further. I seem to have found some answers that are missing from the page referred to in the previous post also.

Catting the bootslpash image onto the initrd created with initramfs support will not work.
What you need to do is cd into your initrd skeleton directory(part of the mkinitrd package) and run 'splash -s -f /path/to/bootsplash.cfg > bootsplash'. Then recreate your initrd normally with mkinitrd. The splash program is part of the bootsplash set of utils. You should be able to use the package available for slack-11 from linuxpackages for the binaries and example rc scripts.

Hi gnashley,

You just became my personal hero!!

Your suggestion worked like a treat, thank you VERY much!!
This had been bugging me for ages (I had almost given up on getting this working under slack12).

I now have initrd bootsplash AND reiserfs access to Slack.. Awesome

Again, thank you for all your assistance.

Cheers

Orbit

Did you get the progress bar working? I am still mostly running slack-11 and used the modified init scripts included with the package on linuxpackages to save a little work. There was a package for slack-12 but it appears to have been removed from the site because of bad package naming. So, you'd need to modify your own scripts for slack-12 to get it working. You can use the scripts for the slack-11 package as a guide to modify your own. Basically you just need to 'source' the rc.bootsplash file at the top of rc.S, rc.M and rc.6 and then 'pepper' the files with lines like this:
progressbar ??
replacing the question marks with the percentage that the progressbar should show at that point in the scripts.

Hi gnashley,

Yes my bootsplash runs with full startup/shutdown progress bar support.
I did the same as you and tweaked the slack 11 inits.

Cheers

Orbit

keep trying, i've always wanted to add my own splash to the startup process, if you can do it, i'll give it a try

cheers

- perry

http://slackwiki.org/Bootsplash
for your bootsplash needs.
People seem to either not know about the wiki, or forget it's there.

Now ... Help me understand what's going on here.. you want to access your SLACKWARE partition from SLACKWARE in its Hal automounting directory /media ?

Oh no, not this again. See the last page of the HAL stickied thread for that off-topic discussion. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it's pointless. But some people want to access their root partition through media:/ in Konqueror like they can the rest of their partitions. We all know that you can just type / and browse through your entire mounted directory listing, but some people don't want that. For whatever reason. Since it worked in Slackware 11.0 I guess people got used to it and want the same functionality in Slackware 12.0.

Bottom line: compile filesystems as modules and use an initrd (or just use the generic kernel). Then you have your media:/ goodness. And now you can have a bootsplash too.

Hello Orbit,

I am new to this forum, but I have used its resources to solve my problems, so I decided to contribute too. My name is Oliwer and I am from Poland. I use Slackware since 2003 from 9.0 version onwords and I have HP Pavilion dv6331ea laptop with all features fully operational under Linux.

I had the same problems with bootsplash and lack of root at /media like you and I managed to resolve them after several days of persistently sitting at my computer.

Here is how to build a proper initrd under Slackware 12 and have the root accessable from /media.

All the zcat-ing or appending initrd.gz to the end of the initrd.splash in nonesense. You cannot just append one file to the end of other. In fact it is relatively easy to make your initrd with splash.

So, follow the steps and they might work for you as well:

1. Make a new initrd with whatever modules you need. Go to /boot and issue mkinitrd -c -m module list - this will clear the existing tree (-c option) and add the necessary modules like ext3 or any other.

After this point you will have the initrd.gz in /boot as well as the initrd-tree directory.

2. Now lets do the actual bootsplash. You must have at least 1 bootsplash theme installed in /etc/bootsplash/themes/ directory. I assume you have configured the theme correctly, although I will post my cfg file for reference. Now, to create the actual bootsplash you need the 'splash' command from the splash utilities. After you have installed it issue:
/sbin/splash -s -f /etc/bootsplash/themes/yourtheme/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg >> /boot/initrd-tree/bootsplash

Replace 'yourtheme' with the name of your theme. This will create the actual bootsplash file already in the initrd-tree directory. Notice the name is not initrd.spalsh, but bootsplash. It should appear in the root directory of the initrd-tree.

3. Now we can create a proper operational initrd.splash file with modules necessary to mount your root partition (ext3 in my case). To do this go to /boot and issue:
mkinitrd -o initrd.splash

Notice that I skipped the -c parameter which wipes the existing initrd-tree with our bootsplash, so avoid this option. After issuing the above command you will have the initrd.splash prepared by the mkinitrd included in the Slackware. It is not corrupted and boots correctly.

4. Update your /etc/lilo.conf to include initrd=/boot/initrd.splash and run lilo to update the bootloader.

5. Reboot and enjoy your bootsplash!

Now, each time you add a new theme you must delete the /boot/initrd-tree/bootsplash file and re-run the splash command again and mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.splashx to create another initrd without deleting the previous one. This way you can have a few themes and simply change the number of the splash initrd in the lilo.conf re-run lilo and you have a different splash screen. Simple enough.

Now the media issue. When you use the initrd with ext3 or any other module to mount your root fs the media will work OK. If you however compile the module into the kernel to avoid using initrd.gz, like I tied, root partition will not work in the /media. Therefore, if you create the initrd in the proper way as described above with the splash support, your root will be visible and accessable in the /media folder.

Naturally, I could have missed something here, so corrections welcome.

I use the standard Slackware 12.0 with 2.6.21.5 generic kernel.

Good luck!

Oliwer

PS. If you want any other help or how to do the progressbar ask.

Very good! Nice concise but detailed info. Still, there are a couple of points in this discussion to clear up:

This solution applies to the 2.6 kernel series with intramfs. Most of the documentation and implementations of bootsplash were done for kernels in the 2.4 series where you could indeed simply 'cat' the bootsplash image onto an existing uncompressed initrd. Of course the initrd could then be optionally compressed for use. This doesn't work with initrds/kernels using initramfs because catting the file onto the cpio archive corrupts the archive. What you describe is exactly what I said -use the splash utility to create the image as a file *inside* the directory which is to made into the cpio archive. I didn't work out the commands for doing it with mkinitrd because I always make my initrds manually when I need one.
One other point to make about initrds is this -it can be or contain anything you want and can be ignored completely by the kernel by passing 'noinitrd' in the kernel command line. The contents of the file can still be accessed throught the /dev/initrd device (but only once). You can use an initrd anyway you want...

About the /media access and HAL -I think I understand why it works that way. Since we are talking about auto-mounting, HAL/KDE depend on udev signalling events. These events are usually signalled as requests for a kernel *module*. I had the same situation when designing a USB automounter for kernel-2.4(using hotplug) -if you compile all the features statically in the kernel there is no module-loading event and hence it is harder to detect and act on. That seems to be the same sort of thing which HAL is dealing with

Yes, thanks for the clarification.




Indeed. I have Slackware 12 and it runs only 2.6.21 kernel. I should have made it clear.

I did not know this, but the corruption was apparent.

Yes, I have also done it manually initially. Actually, I was adding the resume command to init to be able to use S4 hibernation command with initrd. I saw parallels and I figured I could use mkinitrd instead of uncompressing and compressing the initrd.gz file. It is much easier to regenerate initrd.

Absolutely. That's the beauty of Linux :-)

You are absolutely right. I also figured that it has something to do with actually loading the module. The fact of loading is picked up by HAL and the root partition is added to the /media folder. Otherwise, no event, no detection, and user cannot mount / by clicking on it.

Anyhow, I also managed to add the progress bar to my favorite bootsplash called drops-bs. Now, I have a nicely working progress bar. If anyone needs instructions, I'll be glad to post the cfg file.

Thanks again.

Oliwer

Hey orbit, do you have a link to the 2.6.22.1 bootsplash patch? I've looked all over and found nothing.