Hi everybody,

Is there a way to skip UEFI/ELILO and install classic BIOS/LILO with Slackware 14.2?

My new thinkpad used regular BIOS/LILO with Slackware 14.1, but with Slack 14.2 UEFI is used automatically.

Also, I found a way to use LILO with Slack 14.2 -> I install Slack on my old Thinkpad that has no UEFI support, then I move hard-drive to the new Thinkpad. However, I'm not very happy with this solution

Best,
Aleksandar

In case of an UEFI firmware you may and can still install lilo: skipping it just suggested by the installer, not mandatory.

Actually you can install both lilo and elilo, this doesn't hurt at all.

I have done that with my Thinkpad that has an hybrid (UEFI + Legacy aka BIOS) firmware.

When I boot in UEFI mode elilo is used, in Legacy mode lilo is used.

PS if you set the firmware of your Thinkpad to boot in Legacy mode the installer will only propose lilo

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That's true. I also like the method described by you. You can use this to rescue your system when the main boot loader (elilo, grub, ...) refuses to boot. Just enable the BIOS compatibility mode and lilo (stored in the protective MBR area) should be able boot your computer.

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1 members found this post helpful.

Are you serious ?.
gpt has *nothing* to do with UEFI - even in compatibility mode, gpt should be respected and used as such. gpt is also usable on true BIOS firmware (not UEFI in compatibility mode) and has been for ages.

Ugh - no wonder I never went back to lilo all those years ago.
I had Win10 preview mess with gpt disks like that and broke Linux disk management tools.

Well, then I think my ThinkPad E540 (I wouldn't recommend this model for many reasons!) has bug with booting. If I set 'Legacy only' in BIOS, I can't boot from USB drive. It is displayed in boot options list (after BIOS) but, when I select it and press Enter, screen goes black for one second, and then returns to boot options list.

GPT is part of the UEFI spec, so it is understandable that some might mix up what's needed for their systems.

However, you are correct that you don't need UEFI to use GPT. It works fine on BIOS-based systems. But why did you mention this? Your post is the first usage of GPT in this thread...

I was about to ask the same question...

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Only relevant to gpt.

Really? It has nothing to do with my post.

Sounds awfully strange to me. On a "normal" UEFI computer, you can select Legacy BIOS mode (or "CSM", as we appear to be expected to call it today), and the computer should behave like a regular old BIOS computer. I suppose that's what you did. It's what I have done on my laptop as well.

So, now your Thinkpad suddenly switches back to UEFI mode, when you attempt to install Slackware 14.2? That's certainly not what's supposed to be happening. I certainly cannot explain it, and I wouldn't be happy when it happened to me. (Fortunately, my laptop isn't doing this to me.)

As a sidenote, and now that GPT has crept in to this thread anyway: I was pleasantly surprised that, with Slackware 14.2, I can install LILO to the boot sector of the GPT partition on which I install Slackware. Nice! (Under Slackware 14.1, this was not possible: LILO could only be set up to the Protective MBR of a GPT disk under BIOS.)

Seems to me that it is behaving appropriately. If a UEFI firmware is set to CMS mode, then it can boot both uefi and bios boot loaders. The Slackware installer when burned to a DVD or flashed to a USB removable drive,can be booted in either UEFI or Bios mode. The boot order of the system will determine if the Slackware installer will boot in uefi or bios. Looks to me like the OP system is set to boot removable media in uefi mode before bios mode. There are two choices to get the Slackware installer to run in bios mode. First is to change the boot order in the setup up screen (i believe for a Thinkpad you press F1 a power up). The second way is to bring up the UEFI boot menu (again I believe on a thinkpad you press F12 at power up) and select the boot loader that you want to boot.

Well, maybe it's because of laptop - e540 is very problebmatic model in many ways (ugly USB and susped problems), so it's logical to expect another problem with booting.