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Hi, got a new computer with Windows 10 and made a dual boot with Slackware.
Had a bit of hassle with UEFI, but all went well and booted into Slack with X a few times (!).
Now the system still boots, but there's a problem with X.
/var/log/Xorg.0.log:
What is going on?
Can I fix this?

Oh, and it's an Asus mobo with Intel chips.
And Windows works OK, so it's not a hardware problem.

# lspci | grep -i vga might tell you which module you should be loading for your video card. Did this problem start after a kernel update?

Thanks for your answer.
lspci | grep -i vga
It was a fresh install, so no kernel-upgrades.
I installed Refind (from SBO), but wasn't happy with it, so I uninstalled it.
Even reinstalled Slackware, but no luck.

It booted into X at least 4 times.

Looks like you have a newer system that isn't properly supported by 14.2. The easiest way around this is to install -current, however, that is a development version of Slackware that may or may not break on you.

If you want to stick with 14.2, the first thing you'd want to do is upgrade the kernel, but I imagine you would also need to upgrade at least the xf86-video-intel driver.

Agree with bassmadrigal. Lack of CONFIG_DRM_I915_ALPHA_SUPPORT appears to be the problem with the 14.2 kernel. I'd also agree with the upgrade to current.

How stable is -current?
I also need this computer for my work.
*shivers*

This is a common question. The bottom line is that -current is not recommended for production machines. That said, a lot of users here say it's OK for a work machine.

I think really it depends on your knowledge of *nix and if you are able to sort out problems when, or if, they arise. One thing I will say is that, from a cursory glance, there are a lot more threads here for issues in -current than stable.

Further reading:

About Slackware -current
How stable is current compared to stable?
Is Slackware current worth it?
How stable is Slackware current?

Basically, bass sums it up nicely:

I believe someone on here provides custom made kernels. You should look into that I think.

Generally very stable, but there have been exceptions. Recently there was an update in -current to the icu4c package that required rebuilding many third party software packages. Alien_Bob released updated Libreoffice packages in a few days and I had a compile fest rebuilding my R installation.

If you depend on your machine, I advise keeping a working installation and have a second installation for testing upgrades.

-current is not really my cup of tea...
I never thought I'd ever say this, but I'm thinking about putting another distro on it until Slackware reaches a new stable version.:cry:

Any suggestions?

Put on -current and enjoy!

Really I would imagine how much time a] adriv has to dedicate to a major issue if it happens and b] it's nice not having to worry about issues on a stable release.

In my own case, I don't run -current since I am very busy and if there is a major issue, I may not have time to sort it out. It could get in the way of time-sensitive work. I wouldn't want to miss a deadline because I had to sort out some library issue.

OP, to answer your points about distros with newer kernels, you could consider Devuan stable [4.9.82], antiX [4.9.126] or maybe Alpine stable [4.14.69]. Not to deter you from using Slackware, of course.

10 Years ago I would've jumped into it probably, but just don't have the time anymore (and energy) to tinker with computers night after night. Been there, done that.

You can find various kernels from David Spencer's (idlemoor) web site and give a newer kernel a shot.

https://dusk.idlemoor.tk/

In most cases there is no "tinerking" required.

Very stable here, no issues.

I would suggest at least try updating the kernel. That will get you a more modern kernel that will properly support your hardware. Then if you still run into issues with your video, try compiling the latest version of xf86-video-intel (hopefully it doesn't require newer versions of other packages).

You could also give Slackware Live a shot. It is a live version of -current that you can run off your USB drive to see how well it works.

We need more information about your card and associated drivers. Please provide the output of:

You'll have to wait a while, compiling a kernel right now (4.19.1). ;)

You'd have saved yourself some time just upgrading to the one now in current. It should work in 14.2 ;)

Took me less than an hour. What a difference with the old days...
Gonna reboot now, fingers crossed.

It boots the old kernel, can't choose???
I worked from this:
https://blog.paranoidpenguin.net/201...ackware-linux/

Is that all? We are missing some lines, I think. Here:This should display four lines for each device and I see only two.

No,that's it.

If you used elilo, you should run eliloconfig, but I'd rather use grub as it make easier to keep one entry for each kernel.

As root, type:
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install /dev/sda

Then your card would not be not supported at all but by a very generic driver, which look weird.

Are you using a kernel and modules as shipped by Slackware?

Then try this as root:
cd /etc/X11
cp xorg.conf-vesa xorg.conf

You will have a very limited display, but at least X should start.

i did:
But when you install Slack, it's by default the huge kernel, right?
So, it should be:
Right?

Copy to where?

The kernel name should match the name used in elilo.conf.

Sorry, it was a typo, read:
cd /etc/X11

If you want to stick with elilo, make sure you copy the kernel you compiled into the /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware directory. Then you would need to add an entry to your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf file to point to the new kernel.

Something like:

Once done, this should allow you to boot into the new kernel. Since you're still running 14.2, it is likely your pci database is far enough out of date to not provide you the names of your devices (this is likely why you're getting "Intel Corporation Device [8026:3e92]" as your output instead of a device name). To update your pci database, run the following command as root.

Nope.

My /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf is this
After doing that, I get the exact the same output from lspci.

It's broken, won't boot.
I fucked up...

If you completed the kernel compile, did you copy the resulting kernel to your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/ directory as the filename vmlinuz? The kernel image filename needs to match what you put in the elilo.conf file. Also, I'm not sure if it was just a mistype, but you have your append as appen. That could cause your system to not boot if it is in the actual elilo.conf and not just a mistype.

Can you provide the output of the following command?


Also, what are the steps you took to compile the 4.19.1 kernel? Where did you get your config for the kernel from? It'd be easiest to grab it from -current's config, and that should work fine to build your kernel with the right options.

Sorry, I can't, because it won't boot (and no USB-bootstick - where is the fun in that?) :)

Tried a live-dvd and that shows that /boot/efi is empty???

So this is what I'm gonna do:
Reinstall (there's nothing lost, was a brand new installation, not even users were added) and make a new kernel.
I followed this:

https://blog.paranoidpenguin.net/201...ackware-linux/
Been using Slack for almost 15 years and made dozens of installations, but I'm a complete noob with this EFI and elilo stuff.
The laptop that I'm working on right now, well I just turned secure boot off.
But this time I decided to go along with the modern times...

That is because after booting up your live-dvd, you need to mount your EFI System Partition (probably /dev/sda1) on /boot/efi or on some other mount point provided by the live-dvd. You don't need to do that with a normal boot-up after installation, because /boot/efi would be automounted from the relevant entry in /etc/fstab.

As someone else has said, I should just install the 4.19.1 kernel packages from slackware-current over your slackware-14.2 kernel, and if that isn't sufficient to get your card working, recompile xf86-video-intel from slackware64-current/source/x/x11/src/driver/xf86-video-intel-20180906_25c9a2fc.tar.xz. Make sure you copy the new /boot/vmlinuz to /efi/boot/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz, or run eliloconfig again, and the new kernel should just work. And make a usb stick from slackware64-current/usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img so you can more easily manipulate your slackware-14.2 installation in rescue mode should the need arise.

Edit: And try kernel-huge initially so that you don't have to make an initrd. First things first.

Well, the hardware is apparently too new: running Mint-live (year old) runs X (but not great) and no sound (like in SW 14.2).
Ubuntu-live (a month old) runs X fine, and I have sound!
So I have good hopes that a new kernel might do the trick.

But first things first: I have the feeling that something (also?) went wrong with elilo because I never get a menu of choise when i boot (have to do that via BIOS). Am I correct that elilo has to be installed into /dev/sda1?
gdisk -l /dev/sda

In Slackware elilo is set to boot directly, without a prompt.

In Slackware elilo is set by default to boot directly, without a prompt.

So I would only need
and install them with installpkg?
That's it?
a/kernel-huge-4.19.1-x86_64-1.txz and
a/kernel-modules-4.19.1-x86_64-1.txz.
The problem for me- is that there is so much information on the internet and a lot of it is old or plainly wrong.
Sigh...

I would also recommend at least kernel-source, in case you need to compile your own modules.

Unfortunately, this will always be the case. We try and keep https://docs.slackware.com up-to-date as people point out inaccuracies, but I imagine most don't go there looking at everything just to try and find old information.

That should do it, save for what I say below. Personally, I would also use upgradepkg rather than installpkg so simultaneously removing the old kernel packages for slackware64-14.2 when installing the new ones for slackware64-current, because I know how to reinstall the old ones under a rescue disk if I wanted to. Using installpkg makes it easier to back out if you have a problem with the slackware64-current kernel, at the cost of possibly causing you to get confused about what kernel is what.

In what I say below I assume that you have slackware64-14.2 working, except for your video card. If that is the case you should have the following already installed in /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware (this is based on slackware64-current but I imagine slackware64-14.2 is the same): an EFI binary 'elilo.efi', a configuration file 'elilo.conf' and a kernel image 'vmlinuz'; and you should also have an entry for 'elilo.efi' registered with the UEFI system boot manager (do 'efibootmgr -v' to check). If this is not the case then run 'eliloconfig' and it should do all this for you again (although to register an entry with the UEFI system boot manager, efivarfs must be mounted write-read - by default I think it is although I do not have slackware64-14.2).

Assuming all that to be true you should only need to copy the kernel image /boot/vmlinuz-huge-4.19.1 installed from kernel-huge-4.19.1-x86_64-1.txz to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz (as an actual file copy, not as a symbolic link, so overwriting the previously existing vmlinuz file in /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/). If the boot stanza in /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf has an initrd line, delete it because kernel-huge does not use an initrd (that would be a stale entry arising from your installation of a slackware64-14.2's kernel-generic). It should then work.

Edit: when you get everything working I would be inclined to update kernel-firmware as well.

Second edit: At one time slackware64-14.2's elilo could not boot kernel images as big as the one produced by /boot/vmlinuz-huge-4.19.1. If that is still the case (and I do not know if it is or it isn't) you will need to upgrade elilo to slackware64-current's version. Having done that, copy the file /boot/elilo-x86_64.efi installed from elilo-3.16-x86_64-8.txz to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.efi.

I have the same problem with Ryzen. All it is that you need 4.18+ kernel. Install Slackware 14.2, log in as root, upgrade to -current. 8th generation Core and second generation (maybe first?) Ryzen both have what they need for GPU code and X to start in the 4.18 kernel.

Also, elilo in -current works flawlessly for me in UEFI install while 14.2 was flaky. Which was not anything to do with elilo itself but buggy firmware. Mileage may vary.

If you're just planning on upgrading right to -current, you can save time and bandwidth by just installing -current directly using Eric's -current ISOs.

http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/sla...4-current-iso/

They will not boot into X until they have the 4.19 kernel. I tried. I have Slackware on the old laptop, have to wait for the new ISO because I want to test Plasma5 on this for the community, and for myself.

I tried different Live images of different distros, all the same result. It was the ones with 4.18+ kernels I could boot into X, and further reading confirmed others had the same result with the latest generations of Intel and AMD.

-current now has the 4.19 kernel, so you should be good to go to use the -current ISO.

What the hell, if I'm going to use the -current kernel & elilo, I might as well jump into it.
It's a new install on a new pc, so there's no software installed or anything.
If KDE5 sucks, I'll go to Xfce, so -current, here I come.
Downloading the ISO right now.