[SOLVED] slackpkg update, now no keyboard or touch pad

After using my wife's old laptop for Slackware 14.2 for a few weeks, I found the battery life was abysmal <1.5 hours. So I decided to dual boot my current laptop, a Lenovo Thinkpad E565. I have 2 SSD's 1 for Windows 10, 1 for Slackware_64 14.2, so far so good.
I did a fresh install from an ISO burned to a DVD. Everything looked to be working well so I decided to update the install. I un-commented one of the mirrors, one I've used many times in the past.

HTTP://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slackware/slackware64-14.2/

Then I ran the following...

slackpkg update gpg

slackpkg update

slackpkg upgrade-all

I saw no issues, no errors. When I rebooted, the touch pad and keyboard no longer worked. Thinking I had picked a -current mirror, I reinstalled and did the updates again, this time making sure I picked a 14.2 mirror...same result. I reinstalled again, this time no updates and everything is working.

So, my question is, what packages should I not update?

did you miss an initrd creation after updating the kernels?

Originally Posted by willysr did you miss an initrd creation after updating the kernels?

This is possibly/probably the issue, although I've never had to do this in the past. This is the first UEFI system I've installed Slackware on, so I'm sure things have changed from all the MBR installs I've done.

Originally Posted by ceh383 Then I ran the following... slackpkg update gpg slackpkg update slackpkg upgrade-all

Recommended in the documentation is

# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install-new
# slackpkg upgrade-all
# slackpkg clean-system

Depending on what iso you started with, install-new might be important so that you get not only upgrades but also vital stuff that's been added.

On a UEFI installation you need to make sure you copy the new kernel to your EFI partition. Slackpkg will not do this for you!
If you forgot, it means you are booting from the old kernel, but it can't find its modules since they were deleted when you upgraded.
This usually manifests as a system booting, but no network, keyboard, or mouse detected.

There are a few simple steps to fix this if that is your problem:

1. Boot from the installation media or some sort of live Linux distro.
2. Mount your root partition and EFI partition.
3. Copy from your root partition boot/vmlinuz to EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz on your EFI partition.
4. Reboot to your Slackware install.

That should be all you need to do if that was your problem. Next time run cp /boot/vmlinuz /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz before you reboot.
However, it is a good idea to keep a backup kernel and modules installed and added to your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf.
Also as another note with upgrading Slackware 14.2, elilo was rebuilt to support larger kernels, but slackpkg won't copy it to your EFI partition when upgraded either. The new elilo is nice to have if you ever decide to build your own kernels.

Originally Posted by kgha Recommended in the documentation is # slackpkg update # slackpkg install-new # slackpkg upgrade-all # slackpkg clean-system Depending on what iso you started with, install-new might be important so that you get not only upgrades but also vital stuff that's been added.

Since this is a new clean install and there is nothing to lose, I tried the updates again. This time I added the "slackpkg install-new" command, same result, no keyboard or touch pad response.
From the slackware documentation...

The “clean-system” is technically only needed after you upgrade from one Slackware release to the next (say, from 14.1 to 14.2) and it is meant to remove any Slackware package which is not (or no longer) part of the core distribution.

So I did not use this.

It looks like the drivers are loaded as modules, so the initrd is necessary.
Is it this way because this is a EFI system?
I don't recall ever having this type issue with an MBR system, not even 2 weeks ago on a 10 year old laptop...Same install ISO and update commands.

Originally Posted by akimmet On a UEFI installation you need to make sure you copy the new kernel to your EFI partition. Slackpkg will not do this for you! If you forgot, it means you are booting from the old kernel, but it can't find its modules since they were deleted when you upgraded. This usually manifests as a system booting, but no network, keyboard, or mouse detected.

You posted this as I was typing a reply...
I did not know this was required on an UEFI system, all my prior installs were MBR, so I did not forget...I just didn't know in the first place.
This makes perfect sense, thank you

Originally Posted by ceh383 You posted this as I was typing a reply... I did not know this was required on an UEFI system, all my prior installs were MBR, so I did not forget...I just didn't know in the first place. This makes perfect sense, thank you

You can also just run eliloconfig and it will copy the kernel over for you.

Originally Posted by akimmet On a UEFI installation you need to make sure you copy the new kernel to your EFI partition. Slackpkg will not do this for you! If you forgot, it means you are booting from the old kernel, but it can't find its modules since they were deleted when you upgraded. This usually manifests as a system booting, but no network, keyboard, or mouse detected. There are a few simple steps to fix this if that is your problem: 1. Boot from the installation media or some sort of live Linux distro. 2. Mount your root partition and EFI partition. 3. Copy from your root partition boot/vmlinuz to EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz on your EFI partition. 4. Reboot to your Slackware install. That should be all you need to do if that was your problem. Next time run cp /boot/vmlinuz /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz before you reboot. However, it is a good idea to keep a backup kernel and modules installed and added to your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf. Also as another note with upgrading Slackware 14.2, elilo was rebuilt to support larger kernels, but slackpkg won't copy it to your EFI partition when upgraded either. The new elilo is nice to have if you ever decide to build your own kernels.

This was indeed the issue, thank you for the good information

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal You can also just run eliloconfig and it will copy the kernel over for you.

This made it easy to copy the kernel, thank you for the suggestion.

Originally Posted by akimmet On a UEFI installation you need to make sure you copy the new kernel to your EFI partition. Slackpkg will not do this for you! If you forgot, it means you are booting from the old kernel, but it can't find its modules since they were deleted when you upgraded. This usually manifests as a system booting, but no network, keyboard, or mouse detected. There are a few simple steps to fix this if that is your problem: 1. Boot from the installation media or some sort of live Linux distro. 2. Mount your root partition and EFI partition. 3. Copy from your root partition boot/vmlinuz to EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz on your EFI partition. 4. Reboot to your Slackware install. That should be all you need to do if that was your problem. Next time run cp /boot/vmlinuz /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz before you reboot. However, it is a good idea to keep a backup kernel and modules installed and added to your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf. Also as another note with upgrading Slackware 14.2, elilo was rebuilt to support larger kernels, but slackpkg won't copy it to your EFI partition when upgraded either. The new elilo is nice to have if you ever decide to build your own kernels.

This solution worked for me too in a HP EliteBook 840.
Another machine running GNU/Linux Slackware
Thank you very much.