Slackware 14.2 graphical session manager doesn't get any keystroke

bassmadrigal · 07-31-2018, 04:28 PM

I have no idea why it isn't replacing the boot code. Maybe we should just wipe out the boot code and then rerun lilo to reinstall everything.

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1

Don't mistype this or you might wipe the partition table, which effectively erases your drive. Basically this tells dd to overwrite the first 446 bytes of the drive with 0s. The first 512 bytes of the drive are reserved for the MBR, which covers the boot code (first 446 bytes) and the partition table (next 64 bytes) and the boot code signature (last 2 bytes). If you wipe any part of the partition table, it could corrupt your partition table and could make them seem nonexistent.

bassmadrigal · 07-31-2018, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l0f4r0

Do you have the boot priority selected properly in your BIOS/UEFI firmware?
I'm searched on the internet but I don't succeed in accessing BIOS/UEFI on my Mac...
If somebody has got the proper key sequence to type, I take it!
By the way, are we sure all my problems are not Mac related? I'm skeptical with Mac; sometimes they lock down everything so you cannot do what you want...

I missed (or forgot) you were using a Mac. I'm not sure if that changes things at all (never owned a Mac), so you may want to see if anyone else adds anything before you try my dd code.

l0f4r0 · 07-31-2018, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

I missed (or forgot) you were using a Mac. I'm not sure if that changes things at all (never owned a Mac), so you may want to see if anyone else adds anything before you try my dd code.

Your command is not so harmful if correctly typed and followed by "lilo" anyway, right?

bassmadrigal · 07-31-2018, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l0f4r0

Your command is not so harmful if correctly typed and followed by "lilo" anyway, right?

On standard partitioning schemes, no it isn't harmful. I'm not sure if Mac uses these standards (but I imagine you drive would if you partitioned it using fdisk).

l0f4r0 · 07-31-2018, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

On standard partitioning schemes, no it isn't harmful. I'm not sure if Mac uses these standards (but I imagine you drive would if you partitioned it using fdisk).

I used cfdisk

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

I have no idea why it isn't replacing the boot code. Maybe we should just wipe out the boot code and then rerun lilo to reinstall everything.

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1

Ok, done:

Code:

1+0 records in
1+0 records out
446 bytes copied, 0.0209409 s, 21.3 kB/s

lilo -v relaunched --> see attached.

--> Same result...

bassmadrigal · 07-31-2018, 10:40 PM

So, you cleared the boot sector and it still boots grub? This means that it can't be using that boot sector to boot from. Is there a chance you had UEFI setup initially and it is installed to a GPT partition table? That is different than an MBR partition table and I'm not as familiar with (however, I might be able to research it).

What does your BIOS/UEFI show as the default boot device?

l0f4r0 · 08-01-2018, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

So, you cleared the boot sector and it still boots grub?

No no

I cleared the boot sector and then launched lilo and restart.
Did you want me to restart without launching lilo?
Maybe I could uninstall GRUB and see which program takes the lead?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

What does your BIOS/UEFI show as the default boot device?

Actually, I don't use BIOS because that's a MacBook from 2008 or around so there is EFI installed on it instead.
Unfortunately, Internet articles seem to indicate that Apple deleted access to EFI to its users in order to prevent them from doing mistakes.
So I don't know how to answer your question ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

Is there a chance you had UEFI setup initially and it is installed to a GPT partition table? That is different than an MBR partition table and I'm not as familiar with (however, I might be able to research it).

Possibly, as I'm using EFI (I was told that MBR was rather associated to BIOS whereas GPT was linked to EFI) but I am not 100% sure...
Is there any program I can launch at startup (or on a LiveCD) like gparted to check that point?

bassmadrigal · 08-01-2018, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l0f4r0

No no

I cleared the boot sector and then launched lilo and restart.
Did you want me to restart without launching lilo?
Maybe I could uninstall GRUB and see which program takes the lead?

No, I wanted you to run lilo so it could reinstall lilo to the MBR. Uninstalling grub won't affect grub being displayed on boot since grub on the computer is used to install grub to the boot code. Once the boot code is installed, grub from the computer can be removed without affecting the boot code.

Quote:

Originally Posted by l0f4r0

Actually, I don't use BIOS because that's a MacBook from 2008 or around so there is EFI installed on it instead.
Unfortunately, Internet articles seem to indicate that Apple deleted access to EFI to its users in order to prevent them from doing mistakes.
So I don't know how to answer your question ^^

Possibly, as I'm using EFI (I was told that MBR was rather associated to BIOS whereas GPT was linked to EFI) but I am not 100% sure...
Is there any program I can launch at startup (or on a LiveCD) like gparted to check that point?

Unfortunately, we're getting into unfamiliar territory with me. My guess is that grub has been installed to the GPT boot code rather than the MBR boot code, but I'm not sure how to erase/overwrite it. It might be best to use grub to be update the GPT boot code for the drive since I'm not sure how to use lilo to overwrite it. Unfortunately, I have no experience with grub and I'm not sure the best way to do that.

If you were running a UEFI installation, I'd suggest using elilo, since I'm familiar with that and it's pretty similar in configuration to lilo, but since you don't have an EFI partition on your drive, the system isn't booting UEFI.

One last option you could try is to see if you can enable bootcamp. I was reading online that bootcamp basically forces UEFI firmware to boot in legacy mode, which should hopefully point to the legacy MBR boot code on your GPT partition rather than the GPT boot code, but I have no idea if this will work (or whether you already have bootcamp enabled).

l0f4r0 · 08-02-2018, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

Unfortunately, we're getting into unfamiliar territory with me. My guess is that grub has been installed to the GPT boot code rather than the MBR boot code, but I'm not sure how to erase/overwrite it. It might be best to use grub to be update the GPT boot code for the drive since I'm not sure how to use lilo to overwrite it. Unfortunately, I have no experience with grub and I'm not sure the best way to do that.

Thank you very much bassmadrigal for all your help so far!

Considering the facts that we've moved a bit away of the initial problem regarding the graphical session manager 'freeze' and that you say you're not too familiar with Mac specific issues, I've created a specific thread for that (https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest....php?p=5886889). I hope some other gurus like you will help me

This way this current thread will focus on its initial problematic. So if anybody has ideas/solutions, I am all ears!
Thank you in anticipation.

qunying · 08-03-2018, 12:06 PM

Since grub2 is included in Slackware, I have repeatedly bad luck with it (new kernel could not boot up properly after an upgrade), the generated configure is not what I really like and it is barely editable by hand. So I fall back to lilo for old PC and refind for any EFI supported ones. They work much more better than grub2.