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Old 03-11-2006, 09:00 AM   #1
kevkim55
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Slackware with kernel 2.6, Don't work ?


After the much talked about hype about slackware, I decided to give slackware a try. Not that I'm new to linux, been using linux since 1996. After going thru' the un-exciting ncurses based setup insterface which reminded me of RH6.0, I managed to install linux on an external drive connected thru' usb interface. I choose not to install kernel 2.4, instead compiled a 2.6 kernel and off it went. Rebooted successfully into slackware with kernel 2.6. Right from the beginning I noticed some weird behavious. I wanted to recompile most of the packages for pentium4/i686 arch. I used the source code from CD3 & 4. Using the <pkg-name>.Slackbuild script provided with the source I recompiled the packages after carrying out the necessary changes. After installing few these packages it started raining down on me. Missing lib files or binaries !! Even ls didn't work. Forced to boot from CD and chroot into the installation. My worst nightmare ! Lib files and binaries were gone, probably deleted by the packages installed. That didn't make a bit of sense as to why would a recompile of sed for example would delete the glibc files !!
Pissed of, I reinstalled slackware and this time I tried to recompile X11 and X apps thus, leaving the base packages unmodified. Same f*&*&*&* crap !

I thought, kernel 2.6 was the problem as slackware uses 2.4 yet provides 2.6 as an optional pkg and warns about it. Fell back to kernel 2.4 with a fresh reinstall. As having installed on external drive required an initrd image with usb modules, I created a new initrd with mkinintrd. There it boots off - ouch ! Kernel Panic !!
Why ?? Because, the kernel modules included in the initrd are not in ELF format !!8&*(&(&*

Not in ELF format !? Com'on ! They are not supposed to be ! It's kernel 2.4 for f&^6&^ sake ! The modules under /lib/modules/2.4.31 are of *.o.gz format and yet, when trying to load them during boot time, it asks for ELF format !? Not to mention this was a fresh install with kernel 2.4 thus, no traces of kernel 2.6.

I'm totally pisses off and I think I would stick with SuSE 10.0 Not because SuSE is easy but, because it is totally flexible and lets you do anything you want yet, never complain !

Anyone's got any idea as to why the heck those lib files were deleted by installpkg and why is kernel 2.4 asking for ELF modules ??

I'd appreciate your time and help on this.
 
Old 03-11-2006, 09:12 AM   #2
mdarby
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In all my years as a Slacker I've never heard of this happening. What you're saying is that you successfully installed to an external drive, booted, then compiled 2.6 and suddenly all your main binaries disappeared?
Did you happen to uninstall any packages?
 
Old 03-11-2006, 11:25 AM   #3
raska
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Registered: Aug 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kevkim55
As having installed on external drive required an initrd image with usb modules, I created a new initrd with mkinintrd. There it boots off - ouch ! Kernel Panic !!
compile your own kernel with USB support built-in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kevkim55
I'm totally pisses off and I think I would stick with SuSE 10.0 Not because SuSE is easy but, because it is totally flexible and lets you do anything you want yet, never complain !
you broke the system down, it's not its fault
 
Old 03-11-2006, 12:03 PM   #4
jimX86
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It almost looks like to celebrate your 100th post you decided to troll the Slackware forum.

1) Imagine yourself driving towards a brick wall with a bomb in the front seat. What would be the first thing you would do? (Stop, or at least slow down and give yourself a fighting chance.)
2) There's no good reason to recompile the packages. If you just use it for a day or two, you'll notice that Slackware is already faster than SuSE10.
3) Installpkg didn't delete your lib files... you're asking the wrong question. You're complaining about Slackware, but I'm not sure that what you have on your hard drive can still be called "Slackware".
 
Old 03-11-2006, 12:55 PM   #5
Alien_Hominid
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Was your external drive usb drive?
 
Old 03-12-2006, 02:14 AM   #6
kevkim55
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Hmm ! Itz a mixed reaction eh ?

Quote:
In all my years as a Slacker I've never heard of this happening. What you're saying is that you successfully installed to an external drive, booted, then compiled 2.6 and suddenly all your main binaries disappeared?
Did you happen to uninstall any packages?
Nope ! I INSTALLED packages after compiling them to suit the architecture of my hardware.
More than the binaries, it were the libraries that were hit worst.

Quote:
compile your own kernel with USB support built-in.
In my experience of 5 years with linux on an external drive, I've never had success with usb/firewire support built in kernel. Seeminlgy, the kernel doesn't wait long enough for the device to initialize (this is especially true for ext. HD as it takes time for the ext HD to respond) and before it does tries to mount the real root and bang ! Kernel Panic !!

Quote:
you broke the system down, it's not its fault
&*&*#$^* ???? I don't think I understand that ! Seems like you know what exactly I did wrong or went wrong. May be you can shed some light on this !

Quote:
It almost looks like to celebrate your 100th post you decided to troll the Slackware forum.
;-D

Quote:
1) Imagine yourself driving towards a brick wall with a bomb in the front seat. What would be the first thing you would do? (Stop, or at least slow down and give yourself a fighting chance.)
Ha ha ! Ho ho ho ! Whatz the bomb here ? The compiler ? slackware ? libs ? or myself ?

Quote:
2) There's no good reason to recompile the packages. If you just use it for a day or two, you'll notice that Slackware is already faster than SuSE10.
Why can't I compile pkgs for the architecture that I wanna. Slackware is faster than SuSE or that the difference in performance/speed between i386 and pentium4 bins on a P4 may not be noticeable is a different issue altogether. Technically it should be possible to compile the package to any arch that it supports. I wanted to do this just for the fun of this. :-))

Quote:
3) Installpkg didn't delete your lib files... you're asking the wrong question. You're complaining about Slackware, .....
Oh ! Hold your horses buddy ! before you jump to conclusions about me complaining about slackware. Complaining about slackware ??&^&*^&*^& Never mind !

Quote:
but I'm not sure that what you have on your hard drive can still be called "Slackware".
Excuse me ! If slackware from your point of view is the distro that comes with the precompiled binaries which you'd accept and live with it without recompiling/modifying, then YES, what I've got on my HD cannot be called slackware !

Quote:
Was your external drive usb drive?
Plz. read the first posting.

OK guys ! I expected someone to hint me at what could have gone wrong and thus not to seethe (knuckles) nor curse nor to thwart back at me like this ! I don't know what exactly went wrong ! But, I know, all I did was to install slackware and then try and compile the packages with i686/P4 arch and installing these packages simply resulted in lost bins and libs. ls didn't work, mount didn't work, logout/exit/reboot didn't work either. Holding the power button for few seconds worked just great !! ;^)

Now, I have reinstalled slackware for the 5th time with kernel 2.4 and it seems to be working OK. I have not tried to compile my own pkgs and I have no intentions to do so. I'd use SuSE for that. :-))

I mentioned in my thread starter that, kerne; 2.4 is complaining about module not being in ELF format. Yep, strange as it is, the precompiled kernel that comes with slackware is having ELF support built in as the default binary format yet, the modules that came with the kernel are a.out format ! I'd to compile my own kernel which compiled the modules in ELF format and the initrd problem has been resolved.

I think, the reason why I couldn't do what I wanted to do would remain a mystery unless I do it again and get to the root of it. ;-) I've got no intention of doing that at least for now. I've already spent 3 days into this and I think this thread should be closed now. At least from my end. ;-D

Last edited by kevkim55; 03-12-2006 at 02:19 AM.
 
Old 03-12-2006, 02:31 AM   #7
Alien_Hominid
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I think you didn't compile usb support properly into your kernels so your hardrive blocks/cylinders were not recognized correctly and consequently some of the packages have overwritten others.
 
  


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