Problems with freshly installed Slackware64 14 on a newly bought laptop

Didier Spaier · 04-04-2013, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glupa4e

There is config file for 3.8.4. Should i download and try 3.8.4 using the available huge config file for it?

Yes.

glupa4e · 04-06-2013, 08:20 AM

Hello,
i followed the steps to build a new kernel described in this article.

I downloaded kernel source 3.8.4 and the corresponding config file and everything went on without errors.

Although i made the suggested changes below:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Thanks for the information.

No, use that one (you installed a 64 bit Slackware, right?) instead

Don't worry about that, you'll be installing a huge kernel so all that you need will be built-in. You will just have to rename it as .config and run "make oldconfig" before making the kernel & modules and install everything.

Now in /etc/lilo.conf just replace all occurrences of

Code:

root = /dev/sdb2

with:

Code:

root = "UUID=dae9cd30-4e0c-4194-b45f-f4c55bc24410"

Then in you /etc/fstab, replace

Code:

/dev/sdb2        /                btrfs       noatime,nodiratime,discard         1   1

with

Code:

 UUID=dae9cd30-4e0c-4194-b45f-f4c55bc24410       /                btrfs       noatime,nodiratime,discard         1   1

running

Code:

lilo

still gives this error:

Code:

# lilo
Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Fatal: Trying to map files from unnamed device 0x000e (NFS/RAID mirror down ?)

Any idea what could be wrong now?

Didier Spaier · 04-06-2013, 08:49 AM

According to this thread, you would better avoid using btrfs for / (your root partition) and /boot.

Not the sure about that, but that's my clue atm

And maybe send a PM to Erik_FL who knows a lot more than I do about booting issues.

glupa4e · 04-06-2013, 09:31 AM

When i first installed Slackware64 on this laptop i was able to install LILO. It comes with a 2 minutes timeout by default. I didn't want to wait so long so i changed it to 5 seconds. Then i had to run lilo for the new configurations to take effect. I did it and now i have to wait 5 sec only before Linux starts to load. It has worked at that time. It is not working now. What is the difference?

P.S. I could not find how to send private message to a user - probably i need to pay or to have a number of posts i do not have until now? I was not also able to find the option to send an email to a user. How could i be able to contact Erik_FL then?

glupa4e · 04-06-2013, 09:34 AM

When i first installed Slackware64 on this laptop i was able to install LILO. It comes with a 2 minutes timeout by default. I didn't want to wait so long so i changed it to 5 seconds. Then i had to run lilo for the new configurations to take effect. I did it and now i have to wait 5 sec only before Linux starts to load. It has worked at that time. It is not working now. What is the difference?

I chose btrfs because i read somewhere that it is better to use this file system when you have an SSD disk. Now i do not know how i could re-format it in other file system because Slackware is already installed. Probably i need to start it all over again? Re-install and re-format?

P.S. I could not find how to send private message to a user - probably i need to pay or to have a number of posts i do not have until now? I was not also able to find the option to send an email to a user. How could i be able to contact Erik_FL then?

Didier Spaier · 04-06-2013, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glupa4e

How could i be able to contact Erik_FL then?

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...e.php?do=newpm

glupa4e · 04-07-2013, 01:21 AM

It seems that i still do not have sufficient posts to be able to access this page

Quote:

LinuxQuestions.org Message
glupa4e, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
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ruario · 04-07-2013, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glupa4e

It has worked at that time. It is not working now. What is the difference?

Lilo does not work reliably on a btrfs partitions. You should either have a small ext{2,3,4} /boot partition for lilo's sake or you could use extlinux (a component of Syslinux) which Slackware also provides. The version included in Slackware can boot from btrfs partitions as well (which might not have been obvious given the name).

The Extlinux page and the Syslinux section of the Arch Linux Wiki will give you more information on how to set it up. A basic extlinux.conf for your setup might look something like this:

Code:

UI menu.c32
PROMPT 0
MENU TITLE Boot options
TIMEOUT 50
DEFAULT huge

LABEL huge
      MENU LABEL Slackware64 (huge)
      LINUX /boot/vmlinuz
      APPEND root=/dev/sdb2 ro

LABEL custom
      MENU LABEL Slackware64 (custom)
      LINUX /boot/vmlinuz-custom-3.7.10
      APPEND root=/dev/sdb2 ro

Note: You will find files like mbr.bin, altmbr.bin, gptmbr.bin and menu.c32 in /usr/share/syslinux/ (not /usr/lib/syslinux/ as the Arch Wiki states, Arch and Slack are different on this point). As well as installing the bootloader file as per these instructions, you will also need to copy menu.c32 into /boot/syslinux/ alongside extlinux.conf for the above to work.

If you prefer something really simple (with no need for menu.c32):

Code:

PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 0
DEFAULT custom
LABEL custom
      LINUX /boot/vmlinuz-custom-3.7.10
      APPEND root=/dev/sdb2 ro

ruario · 04-07-2013, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glupa4e

Now i do not know how i could re-format it in other file system because Slackware is already installed. Probably i need to start it all over again? Re-install and re-format?

I don't think so, just switch the boot loader to one that supports booting btrfs directly.

If you are having problems booting, you could use your Slackware 14 install media to boot into your installed environment. The boot prompt you get when you boot from the install media tells you how to do this. Once you have booted you can setup extlinux as your boot manager. No need to reinstall or repartition.

ruario · 04-07-2013, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

According to this thread, you would better avoid using btrfs for / (your root partition) and /boot.

Not the sure about that, but that's my clue atm

According to this thread the possible reason for problems with btrfs and lilo is that:

Quote:

apparently btrfs has not implemented the ioctl FIBMAP which is required to map files to block numbers.

Later the same poster states:

Quote:

maybe there even is a fundamental road block, for instance if the filesystem reserves the right to move the files around.

EDIT: I also found this thread on the linux-btrfs mailing list, which also appears to confirm issues with lilo and btrfs. It states that extlinux is the only bootloader that works with a btrfs root, though I think this is no longer true. Grub2 should also do the job. The thread is a little old so it may have been true at the time. In any case I think extlinux is a better option because it is a simpler bootloader and actually ships with Slackware.

glupa4e · 04-07-2013, 08:49 AM

Here is how my /etc/fstab looks like:

Code:

/dev/sda4        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
#/dev/sdb2        /                btrfs       noatime,nodiratime,discard         1   1
UUID=dae9cd30-4e0c-4194-b45f-f4c55bc24410        /                btrfs       noatime,nodiratime,discard         1   1
/dev/sda1        /home            ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/sda2        /tmp             ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/sda3        /var             ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/sda5        /storage1        ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/sda6        /storage2        ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/sda7        /storage3        ext4        defaults         1   2
/dev/sdb1        /boot            ext2        noauto           0   1
/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,user,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
#/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0

This is the output of blkid:

Code:

blkid
/dev/sdb1: UUID="8d0e4770-0a9f-41bf-87f7-83ca083821c2" TYPE="ext2" 
/dev/sdb2: UUID="dae9cd30-4e0c-4194-b45f-f4c55bc24410" UUID_SUB="5ec8d4be-6670-4a62-976b-ec2ea10fc006" TYPE="btrfs" 
/dev/sda1: UUID="b5e6b8c5-10a5-46e9-8344-e9ea2d90a885" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="c4fb3459-2e53-46ad-ad8a-1d0af3670577" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda3: UUID="63f8ca8b-9ef0-4639-8f1e-c39b8e5be51a" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda4: UUID="5507c428-998b-4d17-9a77-86d73a5e6b87" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="d48e7c65-48a6-44b3-818a-e6ea2f46a784" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="d5a5ff4c-72d5-4591-818d-7148894e6340" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="c267f0d5-b47e-4696-be04-c9c82fa6d659" TYPE="ext4"

So I do have one partition /boot which is /dev/sdb1 and is ext2 file system. The question is that i do not know where lilo is installed, probably on / .

Yesterday i had to restart the laptop. Here is what i saw in BIOS:
1. Hard Drive - when i select it, i am able to start lilo and Slackware;
2. Second Hard Drive - No operating system found;
3. Removable Disk - i am able to start lilo and Slackware.

I will read the instructions that you have provided and probably try it. If i face any trouble, i will again share them here.

glupa4e · 04-07-2013, 12:02 PM

Hello ruario,

how should i install syslinux?

I already saw that there is directory created in Slackware. Here is what resides in it:

Code:

/usr/share/syslinux# ls -rtl
total 1696
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9744 Aug 18  2012 zzjson.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2960 Aug 18  2012 whichsys.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   6180 Aug 18  2012 vpdtest.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 154128 Aug 18  2012 vesamenu.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5388 Aug 18  2012 vesainfo.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1300 Aug 18  2012 ver.com
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  48992 Aug 18  2012 syslinux.com
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  40304 Aug 18  2012 sysdump.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  25936 Aug 18  2012 sdi.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2448 Aug 18  2012 sanboot.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  21256 Aug 18  2012 rosh.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    800 Aug 18  2012 reboot.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  26746 Aug 18  2012 pxelinux.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    998 Aug 18  2012 pxechain.com
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1932 Aug 18  2012 pwd.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    239 Aug 18  2012 poweroff.com
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13276 Aug 18  2012 pmload.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  32356 Aug 18  2012 pcitest.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  55268 Aug 18  2012 menu.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5300 Aug 18  2012 meminfo.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5912 Aug 18  2012 memdump.com
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  25884 Aug 18  2012 memdisk
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    440 Aug 18  2012 mbr_f.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    440 Aug 18  2012 mbr_c.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    440 Aug 18  2012 mbr.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  34140 Aug 18  2012 mboot.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 247244 Aug 18  2012 lua.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9516 Aug 18  2012 ls.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  16872 Aug 18  2012 linux.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5084 Aug 18  2012 kbdmap.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  24576 Aug 18  2012 isolinux.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  24576 Aug 18  2012 isolinux-debug.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    432 Aug 18  2012 isohdppx_f.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    432 Aug 18  2012 isohdppx_c.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    432 Aug 18  2012 isohdppx.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    432 Aug 18  2012 isohdpfx_f.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    432 Aug 18  2012 isohdpfx_c.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    432 Aug 18  2012 isohdpfx.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     55 Aug 18  2012 int18.com
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2444 Aug 18  2012 ifplop.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1312 Aug 18  2012 ifcpu64.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  20064 Aug 18  2012 ifcpu.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   4620 Aug 18  2012 host.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 339764 Aug 18  2012 hdt.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  89370 Aug 18  2012 gpxelinuxk.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  89426 Aug 18  2012 gpxelinux.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2448 Aug 18  2012 gpxecmd.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    440 Aug 18  2012 gptmbr_f.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    440 Aug 18  2012 gptmbr_c.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    440 Aug 18  2012 gptmbr.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  21948 Aug 18  2012 gfxboot.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  28496 Aug 18  2012 ethersel.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  28496 Aug 18  2012 elf.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  36632 Aug 18  2012 dmitest.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5516 Aug 18  2012 disk.c32
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     82 Aug 18  2012 diag/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  15576 Aug 18  2012 cpuidtest.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5644 Aug 18  2012 cpuid.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   4876 Aug 18  2012 config.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    800 Aug 18  2012 cmd.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  20576 Aug 18  2012 chain.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5952 Aug 18  2012 cat.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    439 Aug 18  2012 altmbr_f.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    439 Aug 18  2012 altmbr_c.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    439 Aug 18  2012 altmbr.bin
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     68 Aug 18  2012 dosutil/

Then this article advises that in order to install it i need to run:

Code:

# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

In fact i found on my Slackware that the following options are available:

Code:

/usr/share/syslinux# syslinux --help
Usage: syslinux [options] device
  --offset     -t  Offset of the file system on the device 
  --directory  -d  Directory for installation target
  --install    -i  Install over the current bootsector
  --update     -U  Update a previous installation
  --zip        -z  Force zipdrive geometry (-H 64 -S 32)
  --sectors=#  -S  Force the number of sectors per track
  --heads=#    -H  Force number of heads
  --stupid     -s  Slow, safe and stupid mode
  --raid       -r  Fall back to the next device on boot failure
  --once=...       Execute a command once upon boot
  --clear-once -O  Clear the boot-once command
  --reset-adv      Reset auxilliary data
  --menu-save= -M  Set the label to select as default on the next boot
  --force      -f  Ignore precautions

There is also install and update options available here. Do i need to explicitly download and install it from an external source or the already installed would do? Sorry i got confused already :-(

ruario · 04-07-2013, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glupa4e

So I do have one partition /boot which is /dev/sdb1 and is ext2 file system.

Ohh! I missed that. Then I am not sure what the problem is.

I'm not sure if switching to extlinux is the best idea in that case. FWIW I'll answer your question about setting up extlinux anyway, though if you try it the risk is yours.

The package for Syslinux is already available in a full Slackware install. You just need to install the bootloader into the master boot record and provide a configuration file.

To install it from within Slackware, issue the following as root:

Code:

mkdir -p /boot/extlinux
extlinux --install /boot/extlinux
cp /usr/share/syslinux/menu.c32 /boot/extlinux/.
cat /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sdb

Now mark /dev/sdb1 as bootable via cfdisk, and make sure that /dev/sdb2 is not marked as bootable.

Then make a file called /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf that looks like this:

Code:

UI menu.c32
PROMPT 0
MENU TITLE Boot options
TIMEOUT 50
DEFAULT huge

LABEL huge
      MENU LABEL Slackware64 (huge)
      LINUX /boot/vmlinuz
      APPEND root=UUID=dae9cd30-4e0c-4194-b45f-f4c55bc24410 ro

LABEL custom
      MENU LABEL Slackware64 (custom)
      LINUX /boot/vmlinuz-custom-3.7.10
      APPEND root=UUID=dae9cd30-4e0c-4194-b45f-f4c55bc24410 ro

Now edit your /etc/fstab to use UUID's for all the /dev/sda and /dev/sdb entries. Finally set your BIOS to boot from your second hard drive.