Hi all -

I'm trying to 'rehabilitate' a laptop I purchased from the ZaReason folks a couple of years ago. Initially I was seized by some sort of madness and tried Debian 8 on it -- but I bounced my hard head off systemd. Ow! So I decided to return (I always do) to Slackware.

But ... I can't get the 64bit side of the Slackware 14.1 DVD to boot correctly. 32bit works swell. But when I use the 64bit side I get a 'Welcome to GRUB' prompt that hangs for a bit (where, please, is it FINDING GRUB?) ... whatever boot options I am ultimately presented with all end with kernel panic.

I've done enough Googling to have found that this is a sign that Secure Boot needed to be disabled and Legacy Boot enabled ... however, when I F2 into the BIOS/Setup screens, there is no Secure Boot to be disabled. Legacy Boot is enabled already.

Is there another place I should look? I'm sort of baffled.

I tried installing 32bit Slackware, installing good old LILO to the MBR, then flipping the DVD to install 64bit Slackware over this, but ... "Welcome to GRUB." Where the heck is this coming from?

/Glenn

This really sounds more like its a 32 bit box and not 64. Secure boot may also be listed as uefi in the bios, but if legacy is already on then its unlikely this is an issue. Additionally, if it was secure boot, the 32 bit build shouldn't work either because the keys would be missing for both

""Welcome to GRUB." Where the heck is this coming from?"
from GRUB, probably

are you sure you are booting the right drive ?
that lilo was installed correctly to MBR from the 64bit installer ?

Most probably your machine's firmware, as my laptop, is hybrid (has ability to boot either in UEFI or BIOS aka legacy mode) and set to boot either in BIOS or UEFI mode, but but with priority to UEFI. Slackware 64 uses GRUB to boot if on an UEFI firmware, ISOLINUX if on BIOS. So, just check the boot settings in the firmware's menu.

This has nothing to do with secure boot, that is an optional feature of UEFI. To know more the current specification is available (but not all firmware fully comply to it).

PS And as already stated by kmhuntly, a Slackware installer can't boot at all when secure boot is enabled, thus it is is certainly not enabled.

deleted

Erase everything, i.e. all partitions with something like gnuparted and start over.

That won't solve the OP's problem as it's a firmware issue, not a hard disk issue.

I thought he succesfully installed Debian 8 on it but somehow annoyed with systemd.Since Slack 32 worked, maybe the partition table is screwed.

I have had problems similar to OP's and got rid of them clearing all partitions and switching to good ol' MBR.

I think that your problem was not actually similar: probably you had GRUB installed on the hard disk (in which case yes, wiping the whole hard disk would wipe it), but the GRUB menu shown in OP's case comes from Slackware's installer on the DVD instead.

To elaborate a bit this is what happens when you boot a Slackware installer version 14.1:

• If the firmware is set to boot only in EFI mode, or in either EFI or Legacy but with priority for EFI, at startup it first looks for an EFI image in /EFI/BOOT in a removable media. In OP's case using the 64-bit side of the DVD there is an EFI image in this directory: bootx64.efi. The firmware loads it, and that EFI image displays the GRUB menu according to grub.cfg
• Else the firmware don't look for an EFI image, but uses the isolinux loader isolinux.bin in this other directory that reads the file isolinux.cfg and displays message.txt.

On the 64-bit side of the DVD there is an /EFI/BOOT directory, so the GRUB menu is shown. But on the 32-bit side there is none, so the firmware can't find an EFI image thus falls back to Legacy mode and the ISOLINUX menu is shown instead.

@chexmix: see README_UEFI.TXT.

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Didier, thanks a ton for telling me where in heck GRUB was coming from!

It was a bad brain-itch. I suppose I didn't think it'd be on the Slack DVD since I've always yoked Slackware and LILO in my head. I need to do some updating of the crap in my head.

... that said, if it's GRUB from the install DVD, shouldn't it work correctly?

Because it sure doesn't work for me. I'll try again, but I've tried a few times and it always ends with a kernel panic.