Hi gang,

I downloaded slackware64 current (from AlienBob's site, the fixed one made 4/24) to a flash drive so that I could install Slackware to a new computer I just built. Specs are as follows:

MSI MEG X570 Unify MOBO (that does legacy + UEFI together or pure UEFI in the BIOS)
x2 NVME 500GB SSD's
1 WD Black 2TB HDD
16GB RAM

Here's where things start to go fine. I plug the flash drive into a USB slot and fire up the computer. It finds the flash drive and I get the 'boot:' prompt, then I get to the enter 'root' to get in the flash drive to start partitioning and setup.

I have my partitioning set this way using GPT on everything but the swap:

/dev/nvme0n1 - p1 set as 256MB EFI, p2 as 64GB swap (activated in 'setup'), and 402GB as / (linux file system)

/dev/nvme1n1 - p1 set as /home (465GB)

/dev/sda - p1 set as /storage (1.8TB)

When I get to 'setup', I'm able to install all the software (I use FULL), activate the swap partition, designate all the other partitions, and get through the network setup.

I think here is about where things go bad...when it offeres to make and install lilo. I tried both ways of 'automatic' and then 'expert', yet when I reboot without the Slackware flash drive in the USB slot, the system sees no boot items and drops me to the BIOS.

I then read the Slackware EFI text and it said if I skip installing lilo it would prompt me to install elilo...but I don't ever get that prompt and it just tells me I'm done and asks do I want to reboot now.

I've read one or two other posts here in this thread, but I can't seem to figure out if I'm supposed to boot to startx and copy things to somewhere and just where am I to copy those things since I can't see the EFI partition on the first nvme drive that I set up for booting from.

Somehow things are not at all the same as what I've read from other people doing or have done and I simply can't figure out how or *when* I'm supposed to add/remove/copy/whatever to that EFI partition so that my MOBO will see it and boot to my Slackware on the SSD instead of me having to use the flashdrive all the time. Do I somehow manage this in a file manager such as Krusader or what?

I hope someone understands what I'm trying to say here and just what I'm trying to say is the problem and who will hopefully be able to offer some help to this simpleton.

Don't use default installer - use AlienBob Liveslak to install -current. This is one of main purpose for Liveslak - to provide safe install environment. Use xfce edition - then update with slackpkg after installation. But at some points Liveslak has slightly different configuration than Slackware.

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I would rather not advise to use the XFCE Live edition to install Slackware except if you are really sure what you are doing.
The XFCE ISO is severely stripped in order to keep the ISO size below 700 MB You will NOT get the full package content onto your computer. If anything, use the LEAN ISO to install a lean but fully functional Slackware - but to be honest, just download and use the full Slackware ISO.

I do agree with igadoter that the modified Slackware installer that comes with the Live ISOs (setup2hd) may be better for some people that are not so experienced with Slackware.

If the installer offers to use lilo and does not mention elilo at all, your computer is not booting in UEFI mode - this only occurs on regular BIOS boot.
Which means, if you skipped lilo configuration and installation, your installed Slackware will not boot.
Check your computer's firmware configuration and make sure that it uses UEFI and not BIOS to boot the hardware.

1 members found this post helpful.

For some reason your booting in legacy mode. Disable legacy option in firmware/bios. Are you using 32bit or 64bit iso? For uefi mode use 64bit iso.

What happens when you leave the usb inplace?

So install lilo and accept the default suggestion.

For reasons I can not explain, my sysytem required a boot flag.

So when the system boots use gparted to assign a boot flag against the root partition.

Edit to add

The above quote seems to be missing the p3 preceeding the 402GB as / ........ Is that a typo? Or has the partition not been created?

Oh, sorry, yes, the 402GB partition is p3 as / .

So I'm not supposed to be able to see the small 256MB EFI partition (p1)? I'll see what happens when I try gparted to do that. Thanks.

It's what I installed with, the full Slackware ISO (3.7GB). I'll check into a couple more things you guys have been suggesting. I've actually spent half the day today just installing software and messing with getting everything back to how I like it - look and feel, etc - like I had it all these years with 14.2, heh.

MSI board? Hmm, maybe you need to rename your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware to /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT, too? Your symptoms sounded very familiar, lol.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6194846

Okay folks, I just now re-tried to do this...

Downloaded the very newest Slackware current full ISO (3.1GB)(4/27) and put it on the old flashdrive that had the 4/24 current.

This time though, I simply went into the BIOS as the machine booted but *BEFORE* it got to the flashdrive, and set it to use UEFI only, not the setting it has of legacy & UEFI together.

Rebooted the system, and voila! GRUB starts up, I re-partition everything, it asks me about the EFI boot partition and does what it needs to to that for me (sets it to vfat, if I remember right).

I drop into 'Setup', do a full install in 'terse' mode, and I'm offered *elilo* (but also offered lilo if I feel like trying that instead)!

I do what's needed with elilo, blah, blah. Drops me to reboot, and...IT WORKED! The nvme drive(s) are what I'm in now and what boots up. It was really, really easy and *fast*, I just needed the nudge in the right direction. It was actually almost a little faster to get done than with old lilo, I think.

Now to find out why my brand spanking new 1TB ansd 2TB WD Black HDD's are suddenly unreadable even to fdisk! lol

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I was simply making it more difficult than it needed to be. Confusion is my middle name, and I live up to it well, heh.