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LinuxQuestions.org (/questions/)
-   Slackware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/)
-   -   Let me keep you busy while you wait the release of Slackware 14.2 (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/let-me-keep-you-busy-while-you-wait-the-release-of-slackware-14-2-a-4175580517/)

Didier Spaier 05-23-2016 05:04 PM
Let me keep you busy while you wait the release of Slackware 14.2
 
As you know, most distribution ISOs rely on grub for UEFI booting.

As some people seem to have issues with grub, I have cooked an ISO installer for upcoming Slint-14.2 (mini ISO, without the packages) that rely on elilo instead for UEFI booting, and provide a boot menu with an help screen that you can see pressing [F1].

So, please hold off looking at the ChangeLog every 5 minutes and test!

The ISO (hybrid, of course) is here: http://slint.fr/testing/, see README.TXT for instructions.

EDIT. I have added a poll about new ISOs, please see post #15.

Gerard Lally 05-23-2016 05:34 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Didier Spaier (Post 5549864)
As you know, most distribution ISOs rely on grub for UEFI booting.

As some people seem to have issues with grub, I have cooked an ISO installer for upcoming Slint-14.2 (mini ISO, without the packages) that rely on elilo instead for UEFI booting, and provide a boot menu with an help screen that you can see pressing [F1].

So, please hold off looking at the ChangeLog every 5 minutes and test!

The ISO (hybrid, of course) is here: http://slint.fr/testing/, see README.TXT for instructions.
VMWare Player 64-bit Linux guest - 8GB RAM, 4 CPU

No problems to report. No initrd delay at all. Went as far as partitioning the disk and setting up swap, then baled out.

Didier Spaier 05-23-2016 05:47 PM
Thanks gezley.

I am also eager of tests on bare metal, especially on machines reluctant to boot with grub, if possible.

Also: the ISO is 64-bit but I will provide a 32-bit upon request as I know that some low-end laptops and tablets have 32-bit CPUs.

laprjns 05-23-2016 07:04 PM
My Asus laptop is very reluctant to uefi boot any Slackware/Salix/Slackel iso that uses grub. They boot about once every ten attempts. I tried your elilo boot iso several times on the laptop and it booted every time, and elilo comes up very quickly. I like it.

Nille_kungen 05-24-2016 05:34 PM
What's the issues with grub?
Is it user related or some bug?

Didier Spaier 05-24-2016 05:43 PM
You can see reports of people having difficulties to boot with grub.

Also, elilo is way simpler (although it has of course less features, and can only boot in UEFI mode). Additionally it allows to provide nice text menus, as Syslinux, which is more difficult with grub. Anyway, please give a go to the ISO and tell me what you think.

l0rddarkf0rce 05-24-2016 11:41 PM
Didier

Just tested on VirtualBox 4GB RAM and 20GB HD and everything went OK. Went as far as starting setup and bailed after that.

l0rddarkf0rce 05-24-2016 11:47 PM
I also tried by enabling EFI on the VB machine that I created and the boot got as far as 'Loading file initrd.img...' then it just sat there for over 5 minutes and nothing happened, so I stopped it.

gapan 05-25-2016 06:48 AM
No problems with an Intel NUC in UEFI mode here. No delays during loading at all. Nice elilo menu too.

Didier Spaier 05-25-2016 06:06 PM
Not there yet? More home work then...
 
Another mini-ISO is ready for testing here:
http://slint.fr/testing/

What's new?
  • It's lighter (109M), mostly because there are neither /EFI (not needed because all its content is shipped in /isolinux/efiboot.img) nor /kernels directories.
  • It boots faster on a VirtualBox (honestly, I don't really know why).
  • In Legacy (aka BIOS) mode it got a menu whose layout is similar, (although not identical and with different colors : it needs tuning) to that of elilo.
  • Pressing [F1] in both modes displays a help screen. Both help screens have exactly the same color scheme and layout.
Feedback is still appreciated, on bootability (does this word exist?), ease of use and aesthetic, in UEFI and Legacy modes.

gapan 05-26-2016 05:43 AM
No problems with that one either. Tried with both Legacy and UEFI modes, booting from USB.

kjhambrick 05-26-2016 06:31 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Didier Spaier (Post 5550915)
Another mini-ISO is ready for testing here:
http://slint.fr/testing/

What's new?
  • It's lighter (109M), mostly because there are neither /EFI (not needed because all its content is shipped in /isolinux/efiboot.img) nor /kernels directories.
  • It boots faster on a VirtualBox (honestly, I don't really know why).
  • In Legacy (aka BIOS) mode it got a menu whose layout is similar, (although not identical and with different colors : it needs tuning) to that of elilo.
  • Pressing [F1] in both modes displays a help screen. Both help screens have exactly the same color scheme and layout.
Feedback is still appreciated, on bootability (does this word exist?), ease of use and aesthetic, in UEFI and Legacy modes.
Didier --

Very nice !

Booted BIOS Mode and UEFI Win7 Mode on a Zotac ZBOX ID92:

Code:
# dmesg |grep 'DMI'
DMI: ZOTAC ZBOX-ID92/ZBOX-IQ01/ZBOX-ID92/ZBOX-IQ01, BIOS B220P007 05/21/2014
Both Modes booted about as quickly as CentOS does from the main Drive.

I like your menus :)

I did notice a slight lag with Keyboard IO at the 'set keyboard' prompt.

I ended up typing the numeral 1 twice before it echoed back to the screen.

Other than that, it looks like a keeper !

-- kjh

p.s. did you do all those translations ? :)

Didier Spaier 05-26-2016 06:54 AM
@kjhambrick: thanks for your detailed and encouraging answer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kjhambrick (Post 5551120)
I did notice a slight lag with Keyboard IO at the 'set keyboard' prompt.

I ended up typing the numeral 1 twice before it echoed back to the screen.
I didn't notice that yet. I will see if I can reproduce this behavior.
Quote:
p.s. did you do all those translations ? :)
Of course no, just 1 out of 14 (French). Most (maybe not all) translators and reviewers (thanks to them) are listed here: http://slint.fr/en/translators.html

kjhambrick 05-26-2016 07:27 AM
Didier --

Just now tried the same USB Stick in an Intel® NUC Kit NUC5PPYH

Both BIOS and UEFI mode worked fine.

I saw the same lag on the 'select keyboard' prompt in both Boot Modes.

But other than that, everything 'just worked'.

-- kjh

Code:
# dmesg |grep DMI
DMI: /NUC5PPYB, BIOS PYBSWCEL.86A.0054.2016.0503.1546 05/03/2016

# count-proc
4 x Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU N3700 @ 1.60GHz

# cat /home/local/bin/count-proc

# ----------------------------------- cut  here -------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

PrgNam="`basename $0`"
DirNam="`dirname  $0`"

if [ "$DirNam" = "." ]
then
  DirNam="`pwd`"
elif [ "$DirNam" = ".." ]
then
  DirNam="`pwd`"
  DirNam="`dirname $DirNam`"
elif [ "$DirNam" = "" ]
then
  DirNam="`whichone $PrgNam`"
  DirNam="`dirname $DirNam`"
fi

TabStop=0

Usage ()
{
  ErrNum=$1
  shift

  [ $# -gt 0 ] && echo -e "\n$*" >&2

  echo -e "\nusage:  $PrgNam [ -foo ] " >&2
  cat  <<Usage_EOF >&2

        boo
        hoo
        hoo ... kjh has not bothered to write a help file ...
 
Usage_EOF
 
  exit $ErrNum

}
while  getopts ht: junk 2>/dev/null
do
  case $junk in
      t)    TabStop="$OPTARG"
            ;;
      h)    Usage 0
            ;;
      *)    Usage 1
            ;;
  esac
done

shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`

[ ! -f /proc/cpuinfo ] && echo '' && exit 1

gawk '
BEGIN {

  TabStop = "'"$TabStop"'"  +0

  Ind = ( TabStop > 0 ) ? sprintf( "%" TabStop "s", "" ) : ""

  FS = ":" ;

  LookFor = "^ *model name" ;
}
{

  if ( ! match( $0, LookFor ))
  {
      next ;
  }
  CPU = $2 ;

  gsub( /  */, " ", CPU )

  if ( ! ( CPU in CPUAry ))
  {
      CPUAry[ CPU ] = 0 ;
  }
  CPUAry[ CPU ] ++ ;
}
END{

  for ( CPU in CPUAry )
  {
      printf( "%s%d x%s\n", Ind, CPUAry[ CPU ], CPU ) ;
  }
}' /proc/cpuinfo
# ----------------------------------- cut there -------------------------------
Quote:
Quote:
p.s. did you do all those translations ?
Of course no, just 1 out of 14 (French). Most (maybe not all) translators and reviewers (thanks to them) are listed here: http://slint.fr/en/translators.html
Just kidding :)

Didier Spaier 05-29-2016 05:36 PM
New mini ISOS. Which installer do you prefer?
 
Still experimenting, now more on the BIOS or Legacy side.

I have uploaded three mini ISOs here:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2/iso/

They include the same elilo equipment for UEFI booting and all use isolinux for BIOS or Legacy booting, but with different configurations:
  • slint64-current-isolinux-menu+elilo-mini.iso includes a text menu.
  • slint64-current-isolinux-vesamenu+elilo-mini.iso includes a graphical menu with an uniform background.
  • slint64-current-isolinux-vesamenu-background-image+elilo-mini.iso includes a graphical menu with a landscape as background.
I am mostly interested to know which of these you prefer in BIOS mode. You can display also the help screen pressing [F1], they are very similar (and also similar to the one displayed in UEFI mode using elilo: that's no wonder, the developer of elilo Stephane Eranian having borrowed the file format introduced in syslinux by H. Peter Anvin aka hpa).

I add a poll to this thread. That's not that I take the polls in website too seriously, but maybe this will attract some more testers ;)

Oh and you can try these installer safely (using an USB key or a CD or just in a virtual machine): they won't do anything to your hard disk by themselves. Anyway they don't include any packages so they are not usable for an actual installation.

PS The source is available:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/sli...ux-menu+elilo/ (text menu)
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/sli...aphical+elilo/ (graphical menus)


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