New Slackware 14.2 install not booting.
 

Hello, I am returning to Slackware after not using it for a very long time. I would like to install Slackware on an older intel Atom mini-pc.

In my first attempt I downloaded the "slackware-14.2-install-d1.iso" and wrote it to a USB flash stick. It booted and I proceeded to install on a new and clean SATA hard drive. I partitioned with fdisk and set the root ("/") partition to "active" (bootable). The "Setup" program installed the packages and configured the new system. I removed the USB stick and attempted to reboot into a newly installed Slackware. It would not boot. I tried this several times, but computer will not boot the newly installed Slackware Linux. The computer/bios just beeps and does not load anything from the HDD.

I decide to move the hard drive to a different computer. I download the "slackware-14.2-install-dvd.iso" and burn it to a DVD-R. I boot with this freshly burnt DVD-R and attempt to install on the new SATA hard drive. I run setup, fdisk, etc. After going through the setup and install, computer will not boot from the newly installed Slackware. The BIOS simply does not load anything from the hard drive, despite the HDD being the first boot priority.

I research this and think the problem is that the "setup" program does not install LILO or GRUB on the hard drive. Shouldn't it? The setup program installs all software packages and does go through the configuration, but no boot loader.

This web page shows the setup program should run a LILO boot loader configuration:

https://docs.slackware.com/slackbook:install

My Slackware disc and installer never runs or installs LILO. Why not?

I also get errors during install/configuration:
"sh: /sbin/netconfig: No such file or directory"

I flipped to a second virtual terminal and the "/sbin/netconfig" file is not there.

I also searched the install disc for LILO or GRUB, like: "find / |grep -i lilo", but can't find any trace of these boot loaders on the install disc.

I checked the MD5 sum of the downloaded images. They match.

I am thinking this version of Slackware is defective. If I can't get it resolved soon, I will just go with FreeBSD. Sorry, I want Slackware to work. It just seems defective.

Am I doing something wrong? Thank you for any help.

Most probably the ISO image was not properly transferred (burned) to the DVD. How did you did that exactly?

Also, you can write the dvd installer to a USB drive like you did with the CD version. I would definitely try another mirror and grab the dvd ISO. Once you've done that, verify the md5 of the download. Then I would write the ISO to a USB drive using any confirmation or verification the program may offer to ensure it was copied correctly and then try the installer again.

What are the specs and how old is this different computer

Hi, Thanks for the replies everyone.

My first attempt was with CD image "slackware-14.2-install-d1.iso". I downloaded and checked the MD5 (0213c633904ddc484576ca171b3b0690) of this file. I then wrote it to a USB flash stick on Windows with rufus-2.17.exe. The USB flash drive is almost brand new. I tried to install Slackware on to a Dell FX160, with Atom 230 and 4GB ram, 1TB SATA HDD. The 1TB HDD is new. I think Slackware would work nicely for some low-end tasks on this mini computer. I had the problems I describe in my first post. Would not boot a new install.

I tried the same USB stick image on a second computer, a SuperMicro X7SBL, Xeon x3360, 8GB ram, and the same 1 TB hard drive. The result was the same, would not boot after install.

I downloaded DVD image "slackware-14.2-install-dvd.iso". I checked the MD5 sum (84c10fb0cf77b41cbfa862ae3f4ce906). I burned this image to a DVD-R, at 8x speed, with CDBurnerXP on windows. The disc passed the burn verification check. I also verified the disc on a FreeBSD computer with "dd if=/dev/cd0 | md5".

I tried installing with this Slackware DVD disc on the SuperMicro computer. Same problem. New install will not boot.

Is there something I am doing wrong? The computer hardware is old, but there is no reason I can see that it would not work.

2 different Slackware images, 2 different computers, 2 different install media, same problem. Although I am using the same 1 TB hard drive as a target to install. That hard drive is new and error checked.

I would check that the firmware be set to the Legacy aka BIOS mode, not UEFI, as the 32-bit version of Slackware-14.2 can't be used in UEFI mode.

For that you'd need the 64-bit version.

Just for kicks, I booted the Slackware 14.2 DVD on the SuperMicro computer and verified the disc again. "dd if=/dev/sr0 | md5sum". The MD5 matches. I wouldn't expect an install media error. The last time I had media errors was back in the day when Slackware was installed from a tall stack of 3.5" floppies.

The computers I am installing on are older. 2009-ish, I think. I don't even think they have UEFI mode.

I'd suggest you take a look at the tutorial below. Are you using the option to "Try to Install Lilo Automatically" or the expert option? You mention using windows to create the usb but not whether you have windows on this same machine? You should see at least the three options shown in the tutorial at the link below, Automatic install, expert option or not install. If you don't see these options then I would expect there is something wrong with the iso download or burn. Also if you use the expert you should see an option to install either to MBR or the system partition.

https://www.unixmen.com/install-slac...4-1-step-step/

Is it one of those Western Digital disks with built-in hardware encryption?

This is the part that I never see. I could not choose either automatic or expert. I never get an option to install LILO.

No. The target hard drive for install is a Toshiba P300 1TB HDWD110. As far as I am aware this is just a regular desktop hard drive.

I have installed Slackware versions so many times that it is almost automatic muscle memory for me so I can't actually recall if the Lilo Install part comes up on it's own or if I just select it from the menu. So, Water Drinker, is what you're saying is that the Install Menu exists but does not have an "Install Lilo" entry?

Whether that is the case or not is only my curiosity since I'm sure you noticed during installation disc boot the very first stop which is at a boot command line where we are instructed it can be used to pass parameters to the boot process or recover an existing install by simply following the example on your screen. You only need know the hdd/partition location and you can use the installers Huge Kernel and get to Runlevel 3 where you can run "liloconfig" or just "vim /etc/lilo.conf" and make your own. Then run "/sbin/lilo" and all should boot fine assuming no important errors are reported when running "/sbin/lilo".

Oh and "Welcome Back!" :)

After installing a bunch of times, I finally figured it out. I was partitioning my disk with inadequate space for the root partition. I only allocated 200MB for root. It seems that Slackware needs much more than that. The installer happily extracted all the package sets even though the root partition filled up. No errors about disk space were ever generated during install. There were no file extraction errors. Some of the files that did not extract were /mnt/sbin/lilo. This is why the installer never ran lilo configuration. No errors were ever generated about missing /mnt/sbin/lilo. Lilo config was silently skipped. Maybe Slackware installer could use better error reporting or more verbose messages? The installer must not verify available disk space.

I checked the Slackware docs, and couldn't find any disk space requirements for individual partitions. But there are total disk space requirements. After re-partitioning with a much bigger root partition, Slackware installed and ran the Lilo configuration. It finished installing and booted right away. Looks like my knowledge about Linux partitioning and installing is very dated. After booting the new install I see root partition is using 500 MB.

Thanks everyone for reading and helping. I will mark thread as solved.

It is difficult to provide partitioning requirements since everyone partitions their drives differently. Me? I have root on its on partition and /home on another. All my other drives are mounted under a /share/ folder that I create. I know others who will create partitions for /usr/ /var/ /usr/local/ /lib/ etc, so it's difficult to cover all possible partition schemes. Rather, it's easier to just say how much space overall is required.

However, it is troublesome that the installer didn't throw any error messages when the space filled up. Maybe you could email Pat and give him a heads up (in case he doesn't see this message).

Out of curiosity, how were your partitions laid out?