[SOLVED] Slackware64-15.0 with Kernel 5.15.80 will not boot

Thank you keefaz & drumz..

I do not mind using my Gparted disk and reformating /dev/sda1 (EF00 Partition) as long as that does not force me to
have to reformat or reload the /dev/sdb1 which is my root drive. That has a lot of data I really can't lose right
now as that has my virtual machine (Windows and CAD programs)...

At any rate, the efibootmgr reports Windows, however this machine has had no version of Windows since I purchased it
about two years ago and I thought removed all vestiages of Windows when I ran Gparted and reformated the drives and
loaded Slackware.

I can reformat the EF00 partition and I don't care if about old Windows 10 files that are/were there.

I have made a USB Stick with a folder and I created a new elilo.conf file, copied the elilo-x86_64.efi there and
renamed that elilo.efi, copied the initrd.gz there and also the vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80. Only file I believe I am
missing is the "vmlinuz" and not sure where to get that from. When I try to copy that from the /dev/sdb1/boot I
get error about sim link.

Any and all ideas are appreciated.

I also wanted to post this, and I get this when I try to copy those files under /dev/sdb1/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware

bash-5.1# pwd
/
bash-5.1# cd boot/efi/EFI/Slackware
bash-5.1# ls -al
total 24511
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 512 Dec 1 15:04 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 512 Jun 1 2021 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 160 Nov 30 11:46 elilo.conf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 238531 Jun 12 2018 elilo.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9320771 Nov 30 11:46 initrd.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7768960 Nov 27 14:58 vmlinuz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7768960 Nov 27 14:58 vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80
bash-5.1# cp *.* /run/media/root/USB321FD
cp: error reading 'elilo.conf': Input/output error
cp: error reading 'elilo.efi': Input/output error
cp: error reading 'initrd.gz': Input/output error
cp: error reading 'vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80': Input/output error

That is why I tried to create this (except for the vmlinuz file) on a usb stick

Originally Posted by ccoffee I also wanted to post this, and I get this when I try to copy those files under /dev/sdb1/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware bash-5.1# pwd / bash-5.1# cd boot/efi/EFI/Slackware bash-5.1# ls -al total 24511 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 512 Dec 1 15:04 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 512 Jun 1 2021 .. -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 160 Nov 30 11:46 elilo.conf -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 238531 Jun 12 2018 elilo.efi -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9320771 Nov 30 11:46 initrd.gz -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7768960 Nov 27 14:58 vmlinuz -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7768960 Nov 27 14:58 vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80 bash-5.1# cp *.* /run/media/root/USB321FD cp: error reading 'elilo.conf': Input/output error cp: error reading 'elilo.efi': Input/output error cp: error reading 'initrd.gz': Input/output error cp: error reading 'vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80': Input/output error That is why I tried to create this (except for the vmlinuz file) on a usb stick

According to the output of mount and lsblk /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware is on /dev/sda1, because /dev/sda1 is mounted on /boot/efi. It's your /dev/sda1 partition that is corrupt.

But anyway, don't worry about the contents of /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware - everything there will be recreated when running eliloconfig. This is how the Slackware installer works, by the way. After installing all the packages it asks if you want to run eliloconfig to configure the boot loader. eliloconfig takes care of copying the required files to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware and then registering the files with the UEFI boot manager on your computer.

vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80 is part of the kernel-generic-5.15.80-x86_64-1 package:

$ cat /var/lib/pkgtools/packages/kernel-generic-5.15.80-x86_64-1 
PACKAGE NAME:     kernel-generic-5.15.80-x86_64-1
COMPRESSED PACKAGE SIZE:     8.1M
UNCOMPRESSED PACKAGE SIZE:     13M
PACKAGE LOCATION: kernel-generic-5.15.80-x86_64-1.txz
PACKAGE DESCRIPTION:
kernel-generic: kernel-generic (a general purpose SMP Linux kernel)
kernel-generic:
kernel-generic: This is a Linux kernel with built-in support for most disk
kernel-generic: controllers. To use filesystems, or to load support for a SCSI or
kernel-generic: other controller, then you'll need to load one or more kernel
kernel-generic: modules using an initial ramdisk, or initrd. For more information
kernel-generic: about creating an initrd, see the README.initrd file in the /boot
kernel-generic: directory.
kernel-generic:
kernel-generic: SMP is "Symmetric multiprocessing", or multiple CPU/core support.
kernel-generic:
FILE LIST:
./
boot/
boot/System.map-generic-5.15.80
boot/config-generic-5.15.80.x64
boot/vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80
install/
install/doinst.sh
install/slack-desc

That package also creates the symlinks /boot/vmlinuz-generic and /boot/vmlinuz (as long as it is installed AFTER kernel-huge-5.15.80-x86_64-1 - both packages kernel-generic and kernel-huge create the symlink /boot/vmlinuz and clobber the preexisting one.).

If you created an initrd and it exists as /boot/initrd.gz then eliloconfig will take care of that, too. See this comment from /usr/sbin/eliloconfig:

# This script installs the elilo boot loader, the kernel, and optionally
# an initrd into the EFI System Partition.  A boot menu entry can also be
# installed using efibootmgr.  The kernel used will be whatever the symlink
# /boot/vmlinuz points to, and if /boot/initrd.gz exists, that will be 
# installed as the initrd.
#
# The EFI System Partition is expected to be mounted on /boot/efi before
# running this script.

So, since you've confirmed that you don't care about the Windows EFI files, you can just follow the advice that's already been given:

Destroy and recreate /dev/sda1 as an EFI partition. Then mount it as /boot/efi. Then run eliloconfig. Then you should be good to go.

If you want to remove the Windows entry from the UEFI boot loader:

First rerun efibootmgr to make sure Windows is entry number 1:

bash-5.1# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 10 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0000,0001,9999
Boot0000* Slackware
HD(1,GPT,14f5c5da-30c9-e640-9431-86e6a606c4ed,0x800,0x50000)/File(\EFI\Slackware
\elilo.efi)
Boot0001* Windows Boot Manager
HD(1,GPT,af1c99a6-a363-4762-95fe-ec55c77137ab,0x800,0x82000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft
\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5
.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot0002* Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive (UEFI)
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x8,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x1)/Sata(1,65535,0)/CDROM(1,0x2ed,0xb40)..BO
Boot9999* USB Drive (UEFI) PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/USB(16,0)..BO

Then, as root do:

efibootmgr -B 1

Here I used "1" because "Windows Boot Manager" was "Boot0001".

Originally Posted by drumz Destroy and recreate /dev/sda1 as an EFI partition. Then mount it as /boot/efi. Then run eliloconfig. Then you should be good to go.

I think just formating /dev/sda1 is fine, there is nothing wrong on partition table if I refer to the posted fdisk output

mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1

and voila...
No need to use gparted for this. I wonder how the filesystem was somewhat resized beyond the partition limit

Originally Posted by keefaz I think just formating /dev/sda1 is fine, there is nothing wrong on partition table if I refer to the posted fdisk output mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1 and voila... No need to use gparted for this. I wonder how the filesystem was somewhat resized beyond the partition limit

Much simpler! Thanks for the correction.

Many, many thanks drumz & keefaz - That took care of the problem and I just rebooted without the DVD.

only problem was on my system I had to use "efibootmgr -b 1 -B" to get rid of the Windows boot0001 but it is now gone.

That is the first time I have ever had the /boot/efi corrupted just from updating the kernel but another lesson learned.

Not sure how this gets marked as SOLVED but it needs to be, your advise fixed the problem.

V/R
Chuck