I have looked around for this question but haven't found an answer. I ran the typical Therefore, usually you get something like the following In the past I have run and would be able to get the kernels that are currently available, however nothing comes up except for Firmware & Headers since they are not blacklisted. Looking for Modules, Kernel, etc.

To follow Slackware best practices how do I get the kernels to appear when using slackpkg download kernel* or is there a way to upgrade like in the above example using installpkg? Thank you for the patience. I'm learning x64 -current.

I never do the kernel and modules with slackpkg. Generally, I install those manually, because you always want to have at least one working kernel on your system, and if you use slackpg, it'll overwrite the known good one. (That you're booted off of.) On stable you can get away with it, but current...I wouldn't. Keep the new one and the last known good kernel installed, just to be safe. I have kernel-huge, kernel-generic, and kernel-modules blacklisted.

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Why did you blacklist the kernel packages in the first place? Have a look in your /etc/slackpkg/blacklist and comment the kernel* entries, keep the kernel-source uncommented if you don't need the source files (it's big!).
EDIT: ---
If it's only the kernel you're concerned about, if you remove its entries from /etc/slackpkg/blacklist then the packages will show up in the dialog window slackpkg upgrade-all opens. You can manually deselect them (move on the package and press space) from there on every update. You could also use the slackpkg download kernel* sequence to automagically download and verify them.
If you don't need an initial ramdisk, stick with the huge kernel (safest & easiest) vmlinuz-huge-smp*
As for the kernel headers & firmware packages, you always need to update them (recommended), regardless of the kernel you're currently using.
---

The safest way to install a new kernel is by keeping the old & functional, add a second entry in your boot loader for the new kernel, use installpkg new-kernel-package and installpkg new-kernel-modules-package, update your boot loader and then restart the system. In case the new kernel is not working on your system, you'll still have the alternative - boot loader - to boot the old kernel.
EDIT:---
In the 2 kernels manual update scenario, in your boot loader config file you should point to the appropriate kernel image from the /boot folder and don't use the vmlinuz symlink, just to avoid any mistakes.
Additionally, for further updates, it's easier to use the combination of installpkg and removepkg /var/log/packages/kernel-*(get the exact name)
Remove the oldest kernel&modules first, set your actual kernel&modules as the failsafe entry (boot loader), download and install the latest kernel&modules and set them as default (boot loader).
---

The easiest way (maybe appropriate for a beginner) to upgrade a kernel is to use slackpkg upgrade-all, select the kernel packages and follow what slackpkg instructs you to do - allow it to modify and update the boot loader. Restart your system and enjoy the new kernel. It usually works, no worries.

P.S.
You can manually get the packages from a Slackware mirror and configure the lilo boot loader - use the first half of this post as guidance:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6030818

And from this post you could learn how to verify the packages:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6031071

Slackware mirrors list:
https://mirrors.slackware.com/mirrorlist/

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If you want those package to appear then comment them out in /etc/slackpkg/blacklist.

This is my normal blacklist entries:
kernel-generic
kernel-huge
kernel-modules
kernel-source

When I use 'slackpkg download' to download kernels I edit blacklist to this:
#kernel-generic
kernel-huge
#kernel-modules
#kernel-source

I keep two kernels installed, the last working one and the current one.

I also suggest you to read this thread, maybe it could help.

Since I'm lazy, I've written a simple script to automate all the procedure and it seems to work well in my case, but this is another story.

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@garpu:
Thank you for your help. I have noted not to use slackpkg for -current.

@abga
I see now that the slackpkg download command is not working because I blacklisted the kernel. I was wondering what was preventing it. The whole thing makes sense and how to go about it. Thank you for your detailed information, including on how to remove the old kernels since I was trying it from the /boot directory, lol.

@chrisretusn
I was wondering what was preventing the download prompt to display the kernels, thank you for pointing out the issue.

@Cristiano Urban
The suggested thread is definitely a good one since it goes into more detail on the role of kernel firmware, headers, and source. In addition, I used your script on my previous update and it worked well, thanks for that too.

You can do everything you want manually in Slackware, as long as you know what you're doing and work clean. It's all transparent, no voodoo magic in the background.
You can delete the old kernel files manually from /boot and the associated modules from /var/lib in the case you unpacked them manually from the kernel-*.txz package and didn't use installpkg (or any other package admin tool).
The packages in Slackware are simple archives containing some info about the package and an install script. You can open them, inspect them and extract the contents you need.
Some info you might find useful in the long Slackware run:
https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sl...ding_a_package

If you use the package tools (installpkg / slackpkg / etc) then you get some records about the operation & package in your system. If you then remove something manually, without also removing these records, the next time you use the package tools, they won't work consistently, e.g. they'll consider that the package is still installed on your system.

So, it's either manual (and clean) or with the help of the package tools. I suggest to get used with the package tools and also create packages for your extra compilations. It's easier to maintain your system.

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Thanks @abga for going out of your way to continue to orient me with this great distro that is Slackware. I have been using it for some years but it's only until recent that circumstances have pushed me to go deeper. My goal at the moment is how to compile a package from source. I have been reading the material but hopefully I get it soon.