Slackware: installing from HDD using CD .iso files

Posted 10-06-2009 at 05:26 AM by catkin

Hello

Here's a procedure to install Slackware 13.0 starting with the CD .iso files on a Linux system using GRUB. It is a modified form of the procedure for installing from a DVD .iso file given here.

It was developed and tested on an ubuntu 8.04 system following a pilot Slackware installation in a VirtualBox virtual machine but nothing in the procedure is specific to that environment.

A file system is populated with the files a) required for GRUB to boot the Slackware installer kernel and b) to do the installation:

Code:

/
|
+-- /boot
|
+-- /files+dirs
|
+-- /Generic
|
+-- /merged_CDs
|
+-- /packages
|
+-- /Slackbuilds
|
+-- /tagfiles

Only the /boot and /merged_CDs are essential, the rest are optional

/boot Boot files including hugesmp.s
/files+dirs Optional. Any files and directories to copy to new system. For example: /etc/profile, /root/.inputrc, /root/.bashrc|
/Generic Optional. Installation files not specific to Slackware. For example: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-185.18.36-pkg1.run, VirtualBox-3.0.6-52128-Linux_x86.run
/merged_CDs CD .iso file contents, merged, as explained below.
/packages Optional. Any required .tgz files not on the CDs, perhaps from earlier builds. For example: xclip-0.12-i486-1_SBo.tgz, openoffice.org-3.1.1_en_US-i586-1_SBo.tgz
/Slackbuilds Optional. Slackbuilds (you already guessed?! ). For example xarchiver-0.5.2.tar.bz2,
./thunar-archive-plugin-0.2.4.tar.bz2
/tagfiles Optional. "tagfile"s to control package selection during installation. See Slackbasics.

Populating the build file system (uses /dev/sda3):

Download usbboot.img from Slackware
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/merged_CDs
mount -o loop <path to first CD .iso> /media/cdrom0
cp -pR /media/cdrom0/* /mnt/merged_CDs
cd /mnt/merged_CDs
for file in CHECKSUMS.md5 CHECKSUMS.md5.asc FILELIST.TXT PACKAGES.TXT; do mv $file $file.D1; done
umount /media/cdrom0
mount -o loop <path to second CD .iso> /media/cdrom0
cp -pR /media/cdrom0/* /mnt/merged_CDs
for file in CHECKSUMS.md5 CHECKSUMS.md5.asc FILELIST.TXT PACKAGES.TXT; do mv $file $file.D2; done
Repeat for further CD .iso files as required.
Modify the next two steps to suit the number of CDs used.
cat FILELIST.TXT.D1 FILELIST.TXT.D2 > FILELIST.TXT
cat PACKAGES.TXT.D1 PACKAGES.TXT.D2 > PACKAGES.TXT
umount /media/cdrom0
mount -o loop <path to usbboot.img> /media
mkdir /mnt/boot
cp -p /media/* /mnt/boot
umount /media
Populate the optional directories as required.
Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst, adding these stanzas. Assumes the existing /boot is on /dev/sda2.
title Install Slackware
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/hugesmp.s load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw SLACK_KERNEL=/boot/hugesmp.s vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title Slackware 13.0
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-huge-smp-2.6.29.6-smp root=/dev/sda6 vga=791 ro

Installation is by booting and choosing "Install Slackware" then installing in the usual way except that in the SOURCE section, choose "Install from a hard drive partition" then /dev/sda3. If you are using the optional "tagfile"s they are at /var/log/mount/tagfiles.

During installation, take special care not to format partitions containing wanted data and do skip the Lilo installation

Slackware: installing from HDD using CD .iso files

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