Evening folks

So decided to remove one of my SSD's from another computer running slackware and put it in my main PC and do a new install of Current.

I will usually clear the table to start with

then Ill create the partitions

The first problem I noticed that after all of the LVM commands I get a small error "Failed to Clear Hint File"

I didnt think it was much of a problem as it continues fine

When I setup and start to configure the partitions I get a list of 6 partitions instead of 3

3 will start with /dev/VG's
3 will start with /dev/mapper/VG's/

So on my first install I selected the /dev/VG's as my default.

Once installed I

and copy the relevant initrd and kernel to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware and edit elilo

So far so good.

But on reboot nothing. No Slackware, just straight to BIOS.

listing my disk on the bios shows just the disk name nothing else, usually I can see at least another partition.

So i go through the install again but this time select the relevant /dev/mapper/VG instead of the /dev/VG's. Continue with the install and reboot etc and all works fine.

So finally to the questions.

What would the Hint File refer too?
Whats the difference and or Why do I need to select /dev/mapper instead of /dev/VG's.

Apologies I cant be more specific or with any important information as the second time round the install went fine. Just curious to see if anyone else has had this issue


The ONLY difference from now and every other time I have installed Slackware is this time round I used Aliens usb ISO, Previously I had used another slackware ISO from erm I think Didier

Are you creating an initrd and does it include LVM?

If there are not other systems on the computer, coping the contents /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/ to /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/ and copy the lilo.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi, or use efibootmgr to register efi loader to the bios uefi-firmware

Morning folks

Yup Initrd was created and included the relevant contents.

No other OS's on the computer only Slackware.

1. The problem here lies that on setup and after selecting the /dev/logicalvolumes and including the F32 on /dev/sda1 no partions are found on reboot

2. yet on setup and selecting the /dev/mapper/logicalvolumes it all works just fine

Using I think Didiers ISO for UEFI support all i used to select was /dev/logicalvolumes, using AlienBobs script to create a new USB i need to select /dev/mapper/logicalvolumes

As I said in my OP its not a problem now as it all works but just wanted to know about the "Hint File" after each LVM command and why this time around it needs to be /dev/mapper/logicalvolume instead.

Cheers for the replies folks

The hints file is a cache that speeds up some lvm operations, usually /run/lvm/hints. Judging by your report, it sounds like the install initrd is having difficulties accessing/creating it, but that's just a guess.

The /dev/vgname/lvname devices are convenience symlinks created by udev. They will point to the same /dev/dm-* file as the /dev/mapper/vgname-lvname symlinks. Presenting both sets to the user during the setup dialog is certainly confusing to the uninitiated and a little de-duplication wouldn't hurt, but they should both point to the same device so it shouldn't matter which you select, but I suppose it's possible that the install scripts/initrd generation could be making some sort of bad decision when the /dev/vgname/* links are used.

disclaimer: I last installed clean back in 2016, so it's been a good while since I've looked into installer environment/initrd scripts and what have you, so this is all conjecture.