Slackware on the second HD beside other Linux (uefi)
 

I have a Ubuntu notebook which I can not change to much,
but I found a m2 (think thats the name) slot so I placed such a mini ssd into it.

I thought, over Christmas, when I have a lite time, I will install Slackware onto that 2nd HD so that this hardware makes more fun.

Q: The Ubuntu is a uefi installation,
what do I have to care about when I install Slackware,
how does this work with uefi, a second Linux on a second disk? any, maybe even Slackware specific, tutorial for this situation available?

I don't know the answer, but I may be able to ask some questions for you to answer that could help others in solving your problem.

• Long story short, you're looking for instructions on how to dual boot Ubuntu and Slackware using UEFI, right?
• Do you intend to use a particular boot loader? I know Slackware should set up elilo by default, but grub is obviously available. I suspect Ubuntu uses grub, but I'm too lazy to find out.
• I imagine you're likely needing to use one distro to manage your chosen bootloader, is it wrong to assume that it will be your Ubuntu install?

It is also possible that this post might give you some more pointers, depending on what boot manager you want to use.

Hi,

I have a similar hard-drive setup in my laptop, although not double booting. You could consider, depending how large your m2 is and if the M2 is the only SSD, to start either distribution from this m2 drive to speed booting up and use the other for home/data (also search the forum for problems with uefi-booting from different drives); it might also simplify booting as you could combine all uefi-stuff on this disk on a largish EFI partition. While trying below stuff out you could keep the ubuntu-drive intact until all is ready. The tricky bit comes in when registering the new bootloader with the 'bios'. Ubuntu might work with secure-boot having particular keys registered. You might have to turn that off in order to get Slackware to boot or to change/add bootloader. Please do some research before starting (a good intro on all stuff comes from the maker of refind, http://www.rodsbooks.com).

Steps you would go through:

Format m2 to GPT (required for uefi)

Make on the m2 a largish EFI partition (needs to have the correct vFat format) spacious enough for both kernel-sets.
Inside that EFI partition you need a Slackware folder (with Slackware kernels and initrd; elilo.config) and one for Ubuntu (with the same stuff; you could probably copy the contents of your current EFI/Ubuntu); and if you would go that way, a folder for refind containing drivers and in each other linux-folder with kernels you want to use for booting, a refind.conf but maybe you want to stick to what Ubuntu uses (grub?). This EFI partition could be mounted in /etc/fstab under /boot/efi (in SLackware) and similarly for where ubuntu puts that partition in its tree.

Then you need at least two other partitions on m2; one for SLackware-install: /, etc; and one for the Ubuntu-install, each with their own identification-name to be passed as boot-parameter to find the proper root (depending what distribution you want to start).

If you have /home on a separate partition you could mount it by each distribution.

Good luck, you probably need a bit more than little time, to get it working.

Rob

situation is that Ubunut is installed on the first HD, which it occupies totally.
I am allowed to add a boot entry, but that's is what I am allowed to change.

the second HD is total free for Slackware.
I have some Slackware installations on UEFI systems and I know hot this works if Slackware is the only installed system,
I even can imagine how it works on the same HD,
But I have no idea about the situation with the second disk.
I think I read somewhere that every UEFI disks needs the uefi boot sektor? But I have forgotten where, so I am looking for docs,
and I need to pay attention that
A) Slackware does not overwrite the existing boot loader,
B) Slackware goes/installs everything correct on the second drive
C) that at the end there is a boot menu entry, and especially I would like one that works like grub did and remembers the last booted system

Hi,

First, you need to know how your drives are called (e.g. sda, sdb, sdc ...).

Ubuntu already has GRUB installed and you can use that as your bootloader. You simply have to make sure you choose the right device and install Slackware on the second HD. Slackware will not overwrite anything. If during install, Slackware detects your EFI partition and asks to install ELILO there, you can say yes to that.

After you finish installing the Slackware, there are a few things you can do to boot it:

(1) If the ELILO EFI binary was properly registered in the UEFI firmware settings, you can use that directly to boot Slackware. Maybe you have to press F12 at boot in order to get the option between GRUB and ELILO.

(2) If above does not work, you can add an entry for your Slackware in the GRUB menu. You can either do that manually or if you run
inside Ubuntu, it might set up everything for you.

(3) rEFInd. That's a useful piece of software which will let you multi-boot easily. Check out: SlackDocs: UEFI dual or more boot using rEFInd
You simply have to get the volume ID's right. You can find these by using
If you have any problem, just report back.

All the best.

the Slackware setup does not even see the second disc.
I can mount it from the command line, but for the setup it is invisible.
no option to use this as a target partition.
only to overwrite the existing partition, not good
Very disappointing


ps:
Adding the existing swap partitioning, the setup changed the UUID of the disk partition.
had to adopt /etc/crypttab in ubuntu since there was the old entry and that caused bad boot experiential
also not good


edit: Update
recreated the GPT of disk2, than it worked.
now I can boot via the uefi boot menu, this is a bit slow and does not remember the last selected one.
now Slackware is the new default. need to see if this can work better.

That the Slackware setup changes the UUID of existing swap partitions seems to be a fact, and I would say this is a bug in the setup. This should not be the case since it effects existing installations negative. (dramatically slow boot or partition not found....)

I am willing to help investigate this issue. Please start the installer but do not run setup. Instead type:and provide the output telling what's what among the listed partitions and if there are any missing (not listed). You can redirect the output to a file, for instance in an USB stick that you would have mount as /floppy, to spare you copying the results by hand.

ups, we wrote at the same time, please see my edited info. Thanks!

By the way, George Vlahavas aka gapan wrote guefi, a gtk+3 front-end to efibootmgr, that comes handy to edit the UEFI boot menu (I mean the firmware's boot menu, not the config file(s) in the ESP). You may like to give it a try, works well here. A Slackware package is here (no additional deps beyond a full Slackware installation, just needs python and of course gtk+3 and efibootmgr).

nice

Like watching How TO's
Install Slackware 14 in UEFI Mode (Dual Boot Windows 8)

it is windows / slack but dual boot is dual boot

no, since it is on the same drive.
anyway, I do already dual boot, it is just that the uefi boot manager is a bit slow.
it would be better to have boot entries in a grub or elilo boot menu, and the last booted one default selected. this is what I have to figure out, it should be possible.
currently both HDs have a EFI partition, and they are reachable via the uefi boot menu.
and thanks ot guefi there is a comfortable way to arrange the entries, (and delete old unused windows/restore options)

I have a Slackware, Debian Windows 10 triple boot and, as I recall. I only had to install Slackware using the UEFI instructions, which were fairly easy to follow, without installing a bootloader then run update-grub as root on the Debian install to have Slackware appear in GRUB along with the other two.

you stated you want to put it on a separate drive, and wondering if Slack installs efi as well.

that was just to show yes it can and how to install slack as efi.

now it looks like you're stating something completely different.

you already have everything on one drive, but it is slow booting, and you want to rearranged the boot sequence.

to rearrange the boot sequence in grub2, you have to understand whichever Linux has the control over the grub will be the default first on the list to boot.

if you use lilo efi you can arrange it to however you want it in the config file, at least with the lilo W/O efi. so I suppose it would be the same with efi the only difference would be the efi entries.

as far as getting it to boot the last one booted before if that is what you are taking about. nice idea but I don't know if that is available to do.

@BW-userx: I think that you are not speaking about the same boot process.

a4z uses the firmware's boot menu (in CMOS on the mother board, not on a hard disk) to select a boot entry that records a path to an EFI image in an ESP (EFI System Partition) on a hard disk, acting as a boot loader that in turn loads a kernel plus possibly an intrd.

If he used elilo or grub instead, at startup the firmware would directly load an EFI image (provided by elilo or grub) that in turn could display a menu built from a config file in the same ESP or directly load a kernel plus possibly an initrd.

To complicate things, it is possible that the boot entry chosen in the firmware's menu leads to see another boot menu, displayed running the elilo or grub EFI image ;)

Slint and Slackware allow to record both an EFI entry in an elilo config file in an ESP in a hard disk (could be in an USB stick as well) and a boot entry in the firmware.