Slackware and the grub boot loader.

Petri Kaukasoina · 07-03-2020, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

Please notice the 'cat: /proc/mdstat: No such file or directory' line.

It tells that debian does not have /proc/mdstat. I would not worry about that. Instead I would worry about the modules in the printed mkinitrd command: mkinitrd_command_generator.sh has studied which modules are needed with the running debian kernel, and that's not the same in Slackware.

Petri Kaukasoina · 07-03-2020, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

In /boot/grub/grub.cfg the slackware menu entry has vmlinuz-generic-4.4.14. What would happen if we use the smp?

Interesting. I thought that you used vmlinuz-huge-smp-4.4.14-smp. There was no sense for me asking you to lsmod in the installer (which runs huge) if you try to run generic.

stf92 · 07-03-2020, 11:43 AM

Do you mean I should replace that line in grub.cfg with vmlinuz-huge-smp-4.4.14-smp? The slackware entry was generated by grub-mkconfig.

Petri Kaukasoina · 07-03-2020, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

Do you mean I should replace that line in grub.cfg with vmlinuz-huge-smp-4.4.14-smp? The slackware entry was generated by grub-mkconfig.

I know nothing about grub, but you might want to try it. At least then you need "-k 4.4.14-smp" in mkinitrd. (There are four kernels available: vmlinuz-huge-smp-4.4.14-smp and vmlinuz-generic-smp-4.4.14-smp are i686 and smp. They don't work with some older machines, and for those there are still vmlinuz-generic-4.4.14 and vmlinuz-huge-4.4.14 which work in i586 and they do not support smp.)

(And compared to the huge kernel, the generic kernel will probably need more modules in the mkinitrd command than I suggested, at least one for the root file system.)

stf92 · 07-03-2020, 12:06 PM

Here (https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/340) a guy uses elilo to install slackware on eMMC with UEFI. I don't like grub and have always used lilo. I use legacy mode (BIOS). The link is a bit complex to me because of the UEFI thing. I'd be ready to abandon the entire attempt to make slackware boot with grub and begin trying with elilo. If you use slackware, would you mind telling me which boot loader you use?

Petri Kaukasoina · 07-03-2020, 12:12 PM

I have only used lilo. But I guess lilo does not work with eMMC.

Petri Kaukasoina · 07-03-2020, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

Here (https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/340) a guy uses elilo to install slackware on eMMC with UEFI.

That page looks good.

stf92 · 07-03-2020, 01:29 PM

Alright, I'll try with elilo (don't know if it would be convenient to start a new thread). This question may semm silly, but when I boot the installer, once I am given the prompt and I login as root (14.2 is already in the "hard disk" (eMMC)), how do I run elilo? I looked into /var/log/packages/elilo... and there is no binary with the name elilo. In /sbin there are only two files.

Petri Kaukasoina · 07-03-2020, 01:51 PM

I don't know anything about elilo either, but the web page you linked told how to install it.

stf92 · 07-03-2020, 01:55 PM

There is a 0.5GB VFAT partition on the eMMC. That is the EFI partition. In the link in post #65 it is given as /dev/mmcblk0p1. However, see the /etc/fstab written by the installer:

Code:

bill@darkstar:/mnt/etc$ cat /mnt/etc/fstab 
/dev/mmcblk0p2   /                ext2        defaults         1   1
/dev/sda1        /factory_ntfs    ntfs-3g     fmask=177,dmask=077 1   0
#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0
bill@darkstar:/mnt/etc$

Here /dev/sda1 is the EFI partition and the two visible partitions are mmcblk0p1 and mmcblk0p2. The EFI is in fstab because the installer said it detected an NTFS partition and asked me if I wanted to put it in fstab and I answered yes. So, what do I mount on /boot/efi? /dev/sda1 or /dev/mmcblk0p1?

colorpurple21859 · 07-03-2020, 03:58 PM

boot into debian open a terminal and post the following
lsblk -f

perbh · 07-03-2020, 04:06 PM

There seem to be a lot of misunderstandings here. The OP claims to run legacy mode, but it certainly looks like EFI-boot has been used. So, what is it? Legacy mode or EFI ???

stf92 · 07-03-2020, 04:20 PM

Code:

root@darkstar:~# lsblk -f
NAME         FSTYPE LABEL          UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                                                    
├─sda1       ntfs                  16DEFB8A5C641CC1                                    
└─sda2       ntfs   BACKUP_ALMACEN 2736F05E155D7FD0                                    
mmcblk0                                                                                
├─mmcblk0p1  ext2   DEBIAN_10      3b7be193-a2fd-4b48-8d07-bd2311b0f5ba    9.5G    30% /
└─mmcblk0p2  ext2                  2d63e598-b1b4-4e32-a781-9fe9ceae2c11                
mmcblk0boot0                                                                           
mmcblk0boot1                                                                           
root@darkstar:~#

perbh · 07-03-2020, 04:26 PM

Just to add my own 2c-worth.
I still use legacy mode and (shudder) legacy grub. My first partition (on any disk) is 128 or 256MB (actually, 64MB would be more than enough).
That first partition is legacy-grub only.

Whenever I install a distro, I make them set up their own boot on their root-partition.

Then finally, I use legacy grub to chainload to the root partition of the distro I want to boot.

Of course, legacy grub has not been updated for like eons, but I grabbed one from an old redhat/centos distro that actually had ext4-support built in. Since I always use ext4 for the root partition for any distro - this has worked fine until fairly recently. The debian-based distros obviously has a slightly newer version of mkfs.ext4 than does slackware-14.2, and I now find that legacy grub will not understand the newest ext4. Easy to get around it though, I use slackware to preformat the root-partition of any new install I want - and everything is honky-dory! :-)

Actually, I just checked. Slackware-14.2 has mkfs.ext4 version 1.43.1 while mx-linux has version 1.44.5

stf92 · 07-03-2020, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perbh

There seem to be a lot of misunderstandings here. The OP claims to run legacy mode, but it certainly looks like EFI-boot has been used. So, what is it? Legacy mode or EFI ???

Well, perhaps I am making a mistake. I was guided by this page, under "Slackware install and chrooting into the live system". The crucial question is: are elilo and legacy mode compatible?