[SOLVED] Slackware UEFI LVM Install

Morning folks

So just built a new pc, first time moving from a mechanical HDD and bought an NVMe Samsung 960.

Although I have used LVM previously its the first time using UEFI along with an NVME SSD. The steps below are what I used to install a standard 14.2x64

1. cgdisk, Create 2 partitions, 1,EFI 200M, 2, rest LVm
2. PVcreate /dev/nvme1np1, VGCreate vggroup /dev/nvme1np1
3. Created 3 lv's swap, root, home.

Ran setup as usual.
Finished install
Exit setup but chroot into /mnt

Ran the following command as suggested by the mkinitrd command

mkinitrd -c -k 4.4.14 -f ext4 -r /dev/slackware-vg/root-lv -m nvme:usb-storage:xhci-hcd:xhci-pci:ohci-pci:ehci-pci:uhci-hcd:ehci-hcd:hid:usbhid:i2c-hid:hid_generic:hid-cherry:hid-logitech:hid-logitech-dj:hid-logitech-hidpp:hid-lenovo:hid-microsoft:hid_multitouch:jbd2:mbcache:ext4 -L -u -o /boot/initrd.gz

Exit from chroot
ran eliloconfig

Restarted computer

During the start it had failed about 1/4 of the way through with the error
"Mounting /device/initramfs on mnt no such file or directory. no /sbin/init found in rootdev.

To fix this I
1. vgscan --mknodes
2. vgchange -ay

mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/nvmep01 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/vggroupname/lvname /mnt
exit

It has now successfully booted up and I am in KDE as we speak certainly not a proper fix, Ideally I would like to get the error fixed, but

is eliloconfig equivalent to lilo -v?
If i do an update including kernel will it just be a matter of running the mkinitrd script again and eliloconfig?

Three suggestions:
1) You can create an easier to analyze mkinitrd command by putting most of your options into /etc/mkinitrd.conf; this file will be used with the option '-F', like in

mkinitrd -c -k 4.4.14 -F

2) Is your lvm setup reflected in /etc/fstab?
3) Did you copy the initrd.gz with the kernel to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/ (i.e. on the EFI partition)?

It looks as if the LVM stuff is not seen/loaded during booting...

PS you might want to update your kernel (and the rest in the /patches of 14.2 from an up-to-date slackware mirror)

Evening Brobr

2. Current fstab

/dev/slackware-vg/swap-lv swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/slackware-vg/root-lv /                ext4        defaults         1   1
/dev/slackware-vg/home-lv /home            ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/nvme0n1p1   /boot/efi        vfat        defaults         1   0
#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0

Current /boot/efi

ls -l /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/
total 19636
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     195 Sep  7 20:19 elilo.conf*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     165 Sep  7 20:19 elilo.conf~*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  239720 Apr  1  2016 elilo.efi*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7855315 Sep  7 20:16 initrd.gz*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7630144 Jun 24  2016 vmlinuz*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4377248 Sep  7 20:17 vmlinuz-generic-4.4.14*

Current /efi/elilo.conf

at /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf
chooser=simple
delay=1
timeout=1
#
image=vmlinuz-generic-4.4.14
        label=vmlinuz-generic-4.4.14
        initrd=initrd.gz
        read-only
        append="root=/dev/initramfs vga=normal ro"

In regard to the updates.... Had to format the NAS so didnt have a local copy of patches, live out in the country so it might take a while now

Ok so I just realised what the problem was

after using mkinitrd and copying the initrd and vmlinuz to /boot/efi* I run eliloconfig and the "append defaults to /dev/initramfs where it should be append="root=/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/initrd.gz" now working fine. Will mark the thread as solved

Good you got it sorted; one other suggestion:

Originally Posted by pr0xibus after using mkinitrd and copying the initrd and vmlinuz to /boot/efi* I run eliloconfig

If you do the copying of kernel and initrd, I think eliloconfig is not needed once uefi is working (when updating the kernel I only do the copying; never run eliloconfig). Then the append you use is not needed.

Evening

yes your right, just copying the initrd and vmlinuz to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware is enough. I was just under the assumption that like lilo a command had to be run to update i.e. lilo -v but with elilo its just copy and update elilo.conf

Originally Posted by pr0xibus Evening yes your right, just copying the initrd and vmlinuz to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware is enough. I was just under the assumption that like lilo a command had to be run to update i.e. lilo -v but with elilo its just copy and update elilo.conf

Overwriting the elilo.config file without asking is one of the shortcoming of eliloconfig. i believe that there is a plan to address this in Slackware 15

Originally Posted by laprjns Overwriting the elilo.config file without asking is one of the shortcoming of eliloconfig. i believe that there is a plan to address this in Slackware 15

I hope so, its my only real pet peeve.