[SOLVED] UnixGuruIdiot elderly LinuxN00b wants to learn by asking painstakingly dumb questions while installing Slackware on OLD$0 Toshiba M115-S1061

!!! · 07-17-2022, 04:05 PM

Yea, sincere thanks for interacting with me, but anything over a pound is pretty much toooo painful for me.

This was originally in general, not slackware, because it's general ramblings not worthy of new posts being visible!!!

I wish the moderator had not moved it!!!

I'm disappointed that *I* did not find one magic link to get started with even getting slackware to run.

Distrowatch.com/mll has always worked wonderful for me, so I think I will stick with learning how to build that, then building a kernel

My Windows XP disk developed bsod, I'm back trying Mini. dhcpcd brings up the network. setup start to install. I had made a 16 GB Linux petition but when I saw the install was 15 GB, I changed it to 32, but set up kept thinking it was still 16. So I rebooted. Http://slackware.uk **is there a California USA one???
then slackware/slackware-current

Trying to set a root password give the error:
chroot: can't execute /usr/bin/passwd: no such file or directory

It says setup complete ... reboot
But that is not true at all: it only wrote about 15 KB to my partition!!!

I guess I could go get the full iso, but I wanted to make this work and learn

A question: does a full install include **every** possible package in sbo?

*** great news! I did a full install. Now I can begin learning slackware and maybe using it to build mll

TBD: I think I need:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...in-4175660039/

Somebody should write a tiny book that is just the difference between slackware and all the other books like the Linux Bible and other SA books like Soyinka

!!! · 07-19-2022, 09:32 PM

Here I will start writing my "Max one minute (for the impatient) how to do slackware" <1 tiny page 'book'!!!

nmtui #to enable WiFi

xwmconfig #do NOT just try startx!!! You will just get annoyed by a blank GUI!!! This is a very confusing tui *initially* with red X's by every window manager!!! I moved the cursor to xfce, which moving of the cursor magically selects your desktop!!! I ran it again later, and it acted reasonably.

These two only need to be done once.
I forgot the swapon /dev/sda2 (better to add to fstab). Hibernate then appeared which I tried, but when I opened the laptop it did a full boot and swapon mentioned that there was hibernate data that it then 'erased'

init 4 # I think the GUI comes up at this point and you are done, as long as you're happy with just the root user and no password selected during the install

This will have to be done each time, but I actually like that, because I want to do my MLL & (re)learn kernel config without the GUI!!!

enorbet · 07-19-2022, 10:59 PM

I'll get back to you after I calm down from cursing Firefox macros I can't seem to shutoff. One *$%#&$!!! keystroke can wipe out a wall of text before Textarea can save it. INFURIATING! WHO need such a destructive macro!!! %$#*&&^!!! !!???!!

enorbet · 07-20-2022, 01:44 AM

OK back. I should first warn you that especially initially lack of patience and Slackware are not a great match. It doesn't take long before Slackware becomes boring since it becomes so slavish to your plans and use case. You can make it so it does exactly what you want, no more, no less... nothing you don't allow or initiate. That's worth years of effort to me but really just takes a few months.

For 20+ years Slackware has been my Main and for over 19 years I, too, have always booted to runlevel 3. Lately I have experimented some with booting to Desktop but I tend to go back to the old ways... at least for deep work. It has been my habit to never use "startx" except for quick troubleshooting. I used KDM before and now I use SDDM and for several reasons. They are each a combination of Display Manager along with Gooey Login/Chooser. They provide a quick low-resouce means of testing the X environment both initially and in the case of hardware or driver upgrades and allow quick switching both User/Root logins and several WM/DEs. KdePlasma is my go to default but I fairly commonly login to Xfce, Fluxbox, and Enlightenment.

It helps me to specifically declare a "restart X" macro in xorg.conf since it works in any WM/DE or in SDDM and is a quick way to force ones way out of X. I just use "Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp" in the keyboard section of "/etc/X11/xorg.conf".

It's important to me to be able to login to WM/DEs as Root both as a slave to my DOS and OS/2 habits and also because of a minor workaround I must use in Slack. I don't know if it's Slackware's fault or my own but launching Dolphin as User does not always bring up a password prompt for Root work from Dolphin. So I very commonly, like numerous times each day it seems, launch with "kdesu dolphin" so I can do deeper work without wasting time on hoping for a prompt. So I routinely after initial installation, login to DEs as Root so I can alter visuals to be unique to Root. That way, when I "kdesu" as User I never lose track of which instance is Root and which is User. It's instantly instinctive.

BTW the Slackware site (with fairly extensive docs) does have some rather dated pages but because Slackware does NOT change just to appear cool, the vast majority of essential fundamentals still apply, in my view a MAJOR attraction and benefit.

Welcome aboard and best wishes for good fortune! You can make it your own.

cwizardone · 07-20-2022, 09:12 AM

Exercise, no matter how little, usually helps. Might be painful at first, but, unless there is an underlying cause (other than lack of use) it will get easier.
My brother and I are in our middle '70s. Several months ago he took a job that requires he walk (as part of doing the job) several miles per shift. He says walking is the fountain of youth. He has lost weight and says he feels better than he has in years.
Each to their own.

!!! · 07-20-2022, 12:07 PM

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6353485
Does anyone know what happened to
Ondoho who disappeared at the beginning of the month? They were one of my favorite LQ'ers (but had a dispute with Jeremy).

I haven't gotten sound to work at all. It only gives me a choice for headphones but there's no sound coming out even the headphone jack. The kernel seems to know a lot about the sound device!!! I'm just beginning my painstaking web research to see if I can figure it out.

One minor grrrrr: the icon for Firefox has a big arrow that looks like a pointer in it. My cursor was not actually pointing to it but I thought it was, so I kept clicking and couldn't figure out why Firefox would no longer run. (Earlier I discovered the hard way that clicking more than once starts multiple copies of Firefox, very NOT good with only one gig ram!!!)

rokytnji · 07-21-2022, 07:20 AM

Back when I had my eeepc netbooks. I ran SaliX Fluxbox edition and Slackel installed on those.

Now. I mainly run antiX. The eeepc's are gone.

Was looking for a page 2. Do not see one. I guess my forum preferences are set up different than yours?

!!! · 07-22-2022, 03:27 PM

How do I get audio to work? (Edit: yes, full install)
What commands do you need the output of?
(I did Google, but there's tons of possibilities)
http://termbin.com/um48 has inxi -Axxx;cat /process/asound/cards; a tiny bit of dmesg; lspci aud; lsmod snd

I think the kernel detects my audio device okay, and pulse audio gives me only a choice of headphones, but nothing comes out the headphone jack!!!

speaker-test makes absolutely *NO* sound at all, and returns: http://termbin.com/29hg

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ems-4175601400 ???

Other minor ?:
How do I tell Lilo to boot the install DVD ISO from the USB? I have to remove my HDD in order to get this old $0 laptop to boot from the USB (**IF** there is an OS on the HDD)

enorbet · 07-22-2022, 05:26 PM

First, if you are on "mini" I have no idea. On any reasonably modern version full install I may be able to help so all of my next comments apply to that, not mini. My apologies if you are still on mini.

Quote:

Originally Posted by !!!

How do I get audio to work? What commands do you need the output of?

The greatest advantage of Pulseaudio is most hardware will "just work OOB". I don't like Pulse and avoid it so I edit it's conf files to prefer ALSA but since I run lots of PCs, I have seen that with some hardware Pulse must be informed by the kernel and often ALSA as to what exactly is available.

However you begin it will likely be valuable to know exactly what your hardware is and how ALSA "sees" it. This can be especially important if you use a dedicated GPU that includes HDMI Audio. Those often create conflicts. This website may be useful reference
-
https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main

That might help you insure you are using the best driver/kernel module along with ...

Code:

lsmod | grep snd

To decide if you need to specify your hardware, the first useful command is "aplay -l". That will list what the kernel "sees" so far and has designated a device for. There are plenty of websites with specifics for audio troubleshooting and the older docs for ALSA on Arch are quiote decent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by !!!

I think the kernel detects my audio device okay, and pulse audio gives me only a choice of headphones, but nothing comes out the headphone jack!!!

Since Pulse depends on ALSA as the actual fundamental sound server, "alsamixer" is still quite valuable for seeing what is default and if any channels are muted or not. It's also visually easier to see if output is set for "Headphones" or "Line" or "Speaker". Any changes you make as root in alsamixer will be incorporated in Pulse, even though Pulse is technically in user space while ALSA is globally controlled by root.

Quote:

Originally Posted by !!!

Other minor ?:
How do I tell Lilo to boot the install DVD ISO from the USB? I have to remove my HDD in order to get this old $0 laptop to boot from the USB (**IF** there is an OS on the HDD)

Perhaps you missed it but I responded earlier that PLOP is a bootloader still available if somewhat waning in popularity exactly because of what it was designed to do. PLOP was designed as a kind of addon to compliment older BIOSes that lacked modern boot device support, especially the plethora of early USB options in BIOS that were actually sort of "workarounds" needed back when floppy boot was important.

The first thing to do is identify IF your BIOS provides a Boot Order Menu shortcut, often F8 or F11, and see what that menu lists as possible options. You may get lucky and see a very different menu when a bootable USB device is in place and when it's not. Generally, CDROM options don't work on USB optical devices. USB options are far more likely to work.

If none of your available USB Boot options work I suggest researching and using PLOP, even if you have to use it from a Floppy.

!!! · 07-22-2022, 06:41 PM

Thank you for taking the time to reply!!!
I am enjoying learning something other than Deb. I have never done anything with audio before, because I usually just like CLI stuff, but I think this very old laptop did play music under anti-x. But at the moment, it's gone back to saying: 'no operating system found' when it tries to boot the USBs that I know are good and work in other PCs and used to work on this poor old old old guy

In #23, I posted http://termbin.com/um48 has inxi -Axxx;cat /process/asound/cards; a tiny bit of dmesg; lspci aud; lsmod snd
I posted aplay -lLv at http://termbin.com/02v9

(sorry about not posting the actual output here, instead of at a termbin URL)

I managed to upload a picture (from eBay ad). Note especially the CD/DVD controls on the left side of the keyboard. Fn-Esc is supposed to turn the sound off and on, but just prints ^[[25~

I tried this, but no help, maybe because I don't know what the device names are!!!: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...7/#post2934285

I always run as root and that's the only user.
Slackware is blazingly fast!!! Love it!!! at run-level 3; Firefox runs okay after # init 4
I'm hoping I'll get unlazy enough to config and build a kernel, and maybe one that doesn't need initrd!!! (half a dozen years ago, I built from tinyconfig, so I should be able to figure it out again!!!)

dmesg: http://termbin.com/6vfic

rokytnji · 07-22-2022, 11:00 PM

Looks in the picture like a older Toshiba Satellite.

If

Code:

speaker-test

returns no noise. Some key switch on laptop may have sound turned off.

Just posting this here instead to help slackware members out
inxi command readout

Code:

Audio:
  Device-1: AMD IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:437b class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.19-smp running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.44 running: no

 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xc0500000 irq 24

00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

[   11.118676] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D3: autoconfig for ALC861-VD: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:hp
[   11.118833] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D3:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[   11.118929] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D3:    hp_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[   11.119019] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D3:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[   11.119099] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D3:    inputs:
[   11.119169] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D3:      Mic=0x18

snd_hda_codec_realtek   131072  1
snd_hda_codec_generic    73728  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
ledtrig_audio          16384  1 snd_hda_codec_generic
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     49152  1
snd_hda_intel          40960  3
snd_intel_dspcfg       24576  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_intel_sdw_acpi     16384  1 snd_intel_dspcfg
snd_hda_codec         126976  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_core           81920  5 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm               102400  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd_timer              32768  1 snd_pcm
snd                    73728  14 snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_pcm
soundcore              16384  1 snd

aplay command readout

Code:

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
lavrate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Libav/FFmpeg Library
samplerate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
speexrate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
oss
    Open Sound System
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
speex
    Plugin using Speex DSP (resample, agc, denoise, echo, dereverb)
upmix
    Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
vdownmix
    Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
sysdefault:CARD=SB
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC861-VD Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
usbstream:CARD=SB
    HDA ATI SB
    USB Stream Output
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC861-VD Analog [ALC861-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

enorbet · 07-22-2022, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by !!!

Should I try this: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...7/#post2934285
???

That is not needed since Pulseaudio came onboard. Designating "Alias" was only sometimes needed with some hardware when Pure Alsa was common.

You will probably find this very useful since it includes some troubleshooting steps and only the specified systemd crap doesn't apply.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Adv...d_Architecture

!!! · 07-29-2022, 11:43 PM

I gave up on sound when mx21.1 (dual boot) failed in exactly the same way (with the same pavc and pulseaudio). I bet it's some alias device or something, but tons of web searching didn't give me an answer, and I don't understand much about audio device drivers anyway.

On to my new question, which maybe I can add to my slackware_howto_in5seconds in #17

What is the slackware equivalent of: apt search .
? (this lists every package in the repositories I 'know about', i e. listed in my apt sources)
Is 'sbo(?)' a ppa(equiv)? Alien Bob's site? I'm totally LOST&clueless here!!! Maybe I need to go find and carefully read a zillion times and play with, whatever is the slackware document that is the equivalent of the chapter on dpkg/rpm in the many books on Linux

What would be the equivalent of a PPA?
https://itsfoss.com/ppa-guide/
I could theoretically search/scan the entire internet for every site that has a ppa: to find every .deb package that anybody and everybody has ever created & published.
So, How do I find sites that have slackware packages? (what are the common sites?)

Please don't get mad, in light of the title of this thread!!!

henca · 07-30-2022, 12:54 PM

I would say that slackbuilds.org is _The_ PPA equiv. The problem is that mixing packages from different sources might give trouble as they might fail to keep track of dependencies installed from other sources.

The exception to the rule of only installing third party packages from slackbuilds.org would be Alien Bob's multilib packages.

regards Henrik

enorbet · 07-30-2022, 02:11 PM

You may already realize this but Slackware does not have analogues to a PPA because dependencies are rightly handled manually and a Slackbuild is just source plus a package builder with a list of dependencies and options for building on a Full Install system. Many think it's a PITA but many others, like me, prefer it this way. Building from source allows the user/admin to include or exclude options not possible with a deb and it is literally fit to your system with NOTHING being installed or removed behind your back. The worst failure possible is not building (in which case the logs tell you exactly why) or it builds but won't run right until you supply the missing dependency. The main system is NEVER at risk. Maintenance is nearly non-existent.

Slackbuilds are great but it's easy to write a build script for any source you like. Once built against your specific library set, it will either work or won't until you supply what it lacks. Nothing will get broken. No cleanups required.

BTW the only issues I run into with sound are conflicts with HDMI audio on video cards. Usually that is easily solved by either setting default for the device you want with /etc/asound.conf (or ~/.asoundrc) or by using Pavucontrol to turn off what you don't want. The KDE System Settings > Audio has a decent interface with configuration and testing.