> Nope. The kernel comes from the stick but other stuff comes from that given root partition on the HDD.

Ok, I learned something.

I have been setting 'root=/dev/sda3' thinking the kernel would come from there, but as you say, much context does, but not the kernel itself. So the kernel panic is something to do with the somehow incomplete installation structure.

But the kernel panic is secondary to the inability to get the bios to recognize all my attempts to get a bootloader in there.

Would you say I certainly have UEFI support given the evidence, and should proceed presuming as much? And if so, is there some chance that I must NOT use GPT disks and stick with the previous tech?

Either way, thanks again. I will attempt to collate all the tips in here and formalize a new strategy, starting the install from the beginning.

According to the op the system booted in legacy mode:
and there is no secureboot csm/legacy options in the bios:

Boot from the usb stick, press enter key several times until you get a prompt root@slackware. Give command 'ls /sys/firmware'. Is there efi or not? If efi exists, it's UEFI. If not, you're not using UEFI but legacy.

I have used GPT partitions with legacy BIOS setting without problems. And if the disk is large (> 2000G), you don't get the whole capacity unless you use GPT.

Just a week ago my windows acer laptop went into infinite boot loop. Installed slackware64-15.0. There were two possibilities: UEFI without ability to remove secureboot, and Legacy BIOS. So I selected Legacy. The installation went without problems. Used only one partition (GPT) and installed lilo to the MBR as always.

LuckyCyborg,

> For your pleasure, there you have some information:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

I do appreciate that while I obviously insult your intelligence and waste your time that you still put in some effort.

> The GPT partition tables exists since long time, long before the chatGPT was invented.

I had come to that conclusion myself early enough in the process, don't you worry.

> If anything, you can blame the chatGPT's authors for their unimaginative way of naming their software.

I suspect actually that the two camps are both ideologically aligned, esoterically speaking, and anything but unimaginative, and both are making (coincidentally) similar kabbalistic plays referring to ancient eGyPT (which is a rare name built on the consonant root). Since 'G' is a voiced 'K', which is 'C' we have a Coptic operation. Engineers and 'consumers' alike, CaPTors. The same sort of literary extended metaphor as such things as executable ELF files, which evoke an Albigensian crusade and genocide...

'Transformer' @ 'Trance-former'

I love the UNIX design, but it makes eunuchs of it's users, as an apparent irony.

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> colorpurple21859: Did you try the parted disk_set command?

> parted /dev/sda disk_set pmbr_boot on

I have not tried that yet. I presume this enables or ensures the possibility of MBR based boot loader installation or mode (LILO or whatever) in case it had been switched off?

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Petri,

> Boot from the usb stick, press enter key several times until you get [...]

Thanks. I am taking notes.

Your system may not be able to detect the drive without the pmbr_boot set, do this and have lilo installed to the mbr

colourpurple,

> Your system may not be able to detect the drive without the pmbr_boot set, do this and have lilo installed to the mbr

Obviously important to note thanks.

Are such systems that fail to detect the drive in such a case (be it due to hardware or software) considered deficient, or is it simply a crossplay of different tech from different times and purposes being incompatible (a matter of temporal expectations?)

It is a crossplay of different techs. On some old fashion mbr legacy systems the bios needs a boot flag set on a primary partition in order to boot. A gpt drive has a protective mbr at the beginning of the drive to make the drive compatible with old fashion mbr booting. Setting the pmbr_boot flag sets a boot flag in the in the protective mbr similar to legacy mbr bios systems.

colorpurple21859, thanks.

So I've made some progress.

Cleaning everything off and starting again, I boot with usb installer and get to log in as root.

Based on advice from Petri and colourpurple, I see that querying the /sys/firmware folder reveals no efi detected. So legacy it is, apparently.

Then I ran the parted command (for the first time in my experience), which succeeded but mentioned 'you may have to update fstab'. My fstab at that point is empty except for three stubs, no actual drives or partitions listed. I do not add any.

Then I used cgdisk to create a single drive-filling partition, created as a standard linux type, and proceed to install using slackware setup menus. No special small boot partition or any EFI nonsense this time. No swap drive either. I treat it as old-school, LILO to MBR. As it did orignally, the slackware install menu, at the point of choosing MBR, goes to a screen 'installing the boot loader', but it just sits. No activity or option to continue. Pressing no key works, enter just drops the screen one line. Eventually I press <Space> and it suddenly jumps to asking about gmp console mouse support (which I dont usually use). Not sure if a menu was skipped and accepted by default because of pressing 'space'. It seems to me the install actually fails. Regardless, finish off the install and reboot.

'No system disk', blah.

BUT... this time, first time ever (either due to 'parted' option, or the simplicity of a single partition) this time I can get the newly installed linux to boot to kde desktop using the usb disk to bypass the lack of BIOS-->OS connection due to apparently failed bootloader install.

All other attempts have lead to kernel panics early in the boot process. This time I've got network, sound and even tried installing nvideo drivers, but it looks like I might need the legacy-340 slackbuild instead because the card is old (if it is supported at all). But neuvau driver works fine for my purposes for this machine to act as a data store (big SSDs), and to aid in working with multiple external drives separate from my main workstation.

So the issue remains of why LILO cannot complete it's Legacy-style installation, necessitating I bootstrap with the USB disk, and why it issues no errors, and if perhaps I don't press <space> that it would sit forever.

I wonder if there is a relevant log file I might examine?

And just for edification, if you are willing:

> protective mbr

'Protective' is an interesting choice of terminology. What is it meant to imply is being protected?

Ok, you seem to have legacy boot and installing LILO to the MBR would be the right choice, but...

In my experince LILO and legacy boot does not allways work so fine with NVME. Could it be that you have an NVME stick instead of a spinning drive or SATA SSD? If so, you might have to enable UEFI boot anyway.

regards Henrik

What is the output of

Hi henca.

Might switching to grub (which I'm not familiar with) to solve this problem most directly then?

Someone in this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/slackware/c...re_15_on_nvme/

... says:

> I could not get elilo to work with my nvme. Another redditor last week had the same issue. We both solved our issues with grub following these directions. Don't install elilo and don't reboot after the install is complete-

> https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sl..._first_install

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re. colourpurple...

> What is the output of parted -l

Do you mean from my newly-running desktop, or before I install anything/

new running desktop
to install grub somthing like this:
grub-install /dev/nvme0n1
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

But the disk is /dev/sda. Wouldn't it be something like /dev/nvme0n1 then?

1 members found this post helpful.

If the drive is listed as /dev/sda then the drive is a SSD, not an nvme. NVME's plug into a different connector. You can see pics of them if you use duckduckgo.

Another question, did you ever have GTP partitions on the drive?

If yes, this may be the issue stopping the install of lilo. Fdisk will not remove all the GPT partition tables, it leaves the one at the end of the disk. There are ways of clearing them, however, that will cause you to do another install. Do a search on converting GPT to MBR, you will find several threads that could be used to guide you through that problem.

Why? I installed lilo to a GPT disk 10 days ago.