Booting problems on new installation

I just installed, slack 14.2 onto a lenovo
thinkpad, X130e.

On the setup I used lilo to write the boot
files to the superblock.

This does not work. It boots everytime into
windows 10, which is also installed.

Any thoughts on how I should go about fixing
the boot problem.

The only thing that comes to my mind is to
redo the lilo and and write to the MBR. Not
sure what is going to happen if I do that.
Some possibilities:
(1) maybe fix it so I can boot either system.
(2) Maybe will not boot at all.

If it does not boot, I suppose I can do a
repair and rewrite the MBR. That is sort of
a pain in the butt, but I guess I could do
that with no other inspiration.

Anyone else run into this problem and figure
out how to manage it?

Is it using EFI?

If you're not writing it to the MBR (assuming you're not using UEFI, which is a completely different process), you need to have another bootloader point to where lilo is stored. AFAIK, BIOSes can only boot MBR-based bootloaders, so you'd essentially either need to figure out how to get Window's bootloader to chainload lilo, or make lilo your default bootloader and have it load Windows.

Is it using EFI? I have no clue. I have installed
about umpteen linux systems, and I never have used
the MBR, I always, except about 25 years ago, use
the superblock. Back 25 years, I used floppy disks.
That is no longer a good option, since I have not
seen a floppy drive in decades. There were only
3 options on the lilo setup,
(1) super block
(2) floppy
(3) MBR

This latest computer I have uses windows 10 and it
does things different, like you can't even
run bios setup during boot up, to do things like
change the boot sequence. So you can't choose
to boot from a usb, or a CD or DVD. Now if I
put a disk in the DVD drive, I can get it to
boot from that, I guess by default, that is how
I installed linux, and the installation went
just like always, up until I try to boot the
system after installation, and it always boots
to windows 10, never lets me choose, like it
did on umpteen installations I did over the years
as the first screen to come up at boot up.

I bought a used computer awhile back and it had
ubuntu linux on it. I replaced that one with
slackware, and wrote the boot files to the super
block as always, That computer would not boot
up, because the previous owner had installed
ubuntu boot loader to the MBR.

I had to load a rescue disk and rewrite the MBR
with lilo, then it would boot up.

So I can rewrite MBR in case I redo this install
on my new computer that has windows 10 on it.
But I am not 100% sure that will still work in
todays world, since they have horsed up the
booting so much now.

It sounds to me like what bassmadrigal is saying
is that I have to write to the MBR to make it
work. Is that right?

look at system info in windows and see if it says uefi or legacy for bios.

I suggest you get the Windows 10 iso and burn it before messing with boot in case you have problems. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...d/windows10ISO

This should show if you are using efi. There would be a small partition called EFI system if you are.

fdisk -l

Did the Slackware installer give you the option to install elilo?

Well I went balls out, and reconfigured my
system with the distribution disk, skipped
installing stuff and went to the later sections
to reconfigure, redid the lilo config, and this
time asked for it to write to the MBR. It did,
then I exited all that stuff.

Now when I reboot, it gives me that first page
letting me select windows or linux, which I did
not get before. So maybe it is fixed, I did
manage to boot into linux. I haven't tried
windows yet, might get a nasty surprise there,
right?

I have once again ran into the wifi problem
though on this new install.

I setup to use networkmanager, but the little
icon on the bottom right of my screen does not
let me get onto wifi. We went through all this
about a month ago, when setting up this computer
that I am on. In order to get on wifi, I need
a program, and the one that works on this
computer is wicd network manager, but that
does not show up on my menu of programs on
the new install, so I have no way to try and
start talking to my router.

Can someone tell me how to find that damn
wicd network manager?

Originally Posted by EldonCool Can someone tell me how to find that damn wicd network manager?

wicd and Network Manager are two different programs. Network Manager is included with a full install of Slackware and is the default wireless manager for Slackware. wicd is available under the extra/ directory on your installation media or your favorite mirror.

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal wicd and Network Manager are two different programs. Network Manager is included with a full install of Slackware and is the default wireless manager for Slackware. wicd is available under the extra/ directory on your installation media or your favorite mirror.

I know that, but I have to use the thing called wicd network manager
to get a connection on this very computer I am using now,
even though I am using networkmanager. That is because the
icon on the bottom right of my screen does not
let me make a connection. Anyway this works on this computer
I am presently on even though it is not making sense.

But on my new install, different computer, the one I am
talking about, I cannot select a connection using
that little icon on the bottom left of the screen, but it
does come close. It gives me the list of connections,
and gives the target connect, which I click on and it
responds by connecting, even asks for my password for
the network, which I enter, but it is deactivated a few
seconds later after making the connection.

I somehow have memory of this happening before, on
previous installs, but cannot remember how it was
resolved. So what may be causing the thing to
disconnect, and is there some other program I
can run to make the connection. I somehow have
some memory of different display that let me
choose something like maybe properties, and
then maybe I selected the type network like
wapa2 or whatever.

Originally Posted by EldonCool But on my new install, different computer, the one I am talking about, I cannot select a connection using that little icon on the bottom left of the screen, but it does come close. It gives me the list of connections, and gives the target connect, which I click on and it responds by connecting, even asks for my password for the network, which I enter, but it is deactivated a few seconds later after making the connection.

I've mentioned this in other threads, although, I can't remember if any of them were yours, but many times when this occurs, it is due to Network Manager using dhcpcd, which is the default dhcp client for Slackware. It doesn't always work great with Network Manager. But if you switch it to dhclient, it tends to work for most people.

You can adjust it in the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/00-dhcp-client.conf by commenting out the dhcpcd line and uncommenting the dhclient line and then restarting Network Manager.

I had a similar problems with my wireless about a month ago so if the above suggestions don't help, try running this command to see if you have anything soft blocked:

rfkill list all

If so, you need to blacklist it.

the tip on this file worked.

/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/00-dhcp-client.conf by commenting out the dhcpcd line and uncommenting the dhclient line and then restarting Network Manager.

I stopped networkmanager after the change in the file,
and then restarted it, but things were still screwed up
until I rebooted. Rebooting got everything working again.

In fact after rebooting, before starting X windows up,
I ran program nmtui on the command line, and it let
me connect both wired and wifi to the net before even
getting on X windows.

Got on x and internet is working, not sure which connection
I have wired or wireless. will check that out shortly.