Slackware64-15.0 with Kernel 5.15.80 will not boot
 

I have an HP 17-CA3035CL, Ryzen 5 4500U with 12GB Ram where /dev/sda1 is
the EFI boot partition and sdb1 is the root drive. I just upgraded to the
5.15.80 kernel (generic).

Now I can't reboot with out an HP error stating there is no OS.

I can boot with the Slackware64 DVD and have it detect the OS and come up
however when I go to check the elilo.conf file in /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware
I get read errors if using vim and input/output errors if using nano.

I have tried re-running eliloconfig and mkinitrd as well as manually making
the elilo.conf and copying that to both /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware and also
to /sda1/EFI/Slackware.

I am not sure what to do to get this fixed but I would rather not copy all of my files to an external drive and then reload the whole system.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Do you have both your new kernel and its initrd copied to the EFI system partition? And does elilo.conf reference these copies? AFAIK elilo can't read ext4 filesystems.

ccoffee --

Did you do 'the usual' ( mount ... ; chroot ; ) sequence after you booted the Slackware DVD ?

If not, you may have been trying to edit files on your DVD and elilo will not target your 'real' HDDs ...

This is an outline of what I had to do after a recent Win11 update inserted a new partition upstream of my root partition: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ds-4175718439/

( I run GRUB2 but you'll want to do about the same thru the chroot ...

HTH

-- kjh

I have the EFI partition (Fat32) on /dev/sda1 and it is 256Mb.

This is really weird as I can create the file "elilo.conf" and copy it to both the /dev/sda1 (/EFI/Slackware)
and also to /dev/sdb1 (root) under /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware. When I first copy either file to either location I can
open the file with Kate, nano, or vim. If I reboot (using the Slackware64 DVD so I can get to the OS), I can no
longer open those files (vim = read error, nano = input/output error).

I did the usual when I upgraded, modified /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware by adding "image=kernel-generic-5.15.80" to the
elilo.conf and copying the file "vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80" to that directory.

Did same for the /drv/sda1 /EFI/Slackware.

Then I ran the "mkinitrd -c -k 5.15.80 -m ext 4" and then ran eliloconfig

Noramlly this work just fine but today it did not work so well.

I can only use the DVD of Slackware current to boot up and it detects the Linux kernel-generic-5.15.80 and I can run
after that but not the best solution.

Must be:
image=vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80

Also don't run eliloconfig, I think this script is useful only for a new install as it overwrites elilo.conf

marav - yes that should have said "image=vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80"

I follow the normal recommendations for upgrading and it states to run eliloconfig which I do after each upgrade.

Not sure it helps, but the HP system comes up with the following:
"Boot Device not Found
Please Install an operating system on your hard disk.
Hard disk - (3F0) "

I did go to the recommended HP link but that was not really any help as there have been no BIOS changes on this laptop.

kjh - I have not tried the chroot, but I did use the DVD and get into the system. I also followed your link and
read about your Windows 11 experience..

Thanks again for the ideas.

Also, It would be great to have your complete elilo.conf

this is my elilo.conf file
"
chooser=simple
timeout=100
prompt
default=Linux

image=vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80
label=Slackware
read-only
append="root=/dev/sdb1"
initrd=initrd.gz
"

Do you notice any difference in the output of a command like:

...depending on if the command is run after a successful copy or after a reboot which gives io errors?

Also, it might be interesting to study the output of:

once you get those input/output errors.

regards Henrik

Below I mounted the EFI partition /dev/sda1 as /mnt/drv_a1 and tried to use nano and received the Input/Output Error
and after that I unmounted the /mnt/drv_a1 and tried to run nano on the /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf file.
===================
bash-5.1# pwd
/mnt/drv_a1/EFI/Slackware
bash-5.1# nano elilo.conf
bash-5.1# dmesg | tail
sda1: rw=0, want=460292, limit=327680
[ 656.107756] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=444595, limit=327680
[ 656.109321] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=459818, limit=327680
[ 656.109855] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=459826, limit=327680
[ 674.148874] handle_bad_sector: 18 callbacks suppressed
[ 674.148882] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=459818, limit=327680
bash-5.1#
bash-5.1# umount /mnt/drv_a1
bash-5.1# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 32M 1.6M 31M 5% /run
devtmpfs 8.0M 0 8.0M 0% /dev
/dev/sdb1 916G 88G 783G 11% /
tmpfs 5.6G 12M 5.6G 1% /dev/shm
cgroup_root 8.0M 0 8.0M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda3 228G 71G 146G 33% /drv_a3
/dev/sda1 256M 24M 233M 10% /boot/efi
tmpfs 1.2G 16K 1.2G 1% /run/user/0
bash-5.1# cd ..
bash-5.1# cd ..
bash-5.1# pwd
/
bash-5.1# cd boot
bash-5.1# cd efi
bash-5.1# cd EFI
bash-5.1# cd Slackware
bash-5.1# ls -al
total 24511
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 512 Nov 30 12:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 512 Jun 1 2021 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 160 Nov 30 11:46 elilo.conf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 238531 Jun 12 2018 elilo.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9320771 Nov 30 11:46 initrd.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7768960 Nov 27 14:58 vmlinuz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7768960 Nov 27 14:58 vmlinuz-generic-5.15.80
bash-5.1# nano elilo.conf
bash-5.1# dmesg | tail
[ 738.024857] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=459818, limit=327680
[ 738.030749] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=459826, limit=327680
[ 738.031871] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=460292, limit=327680
[ 738.034008] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=444595, limit=327680
[ 814.124089] attempt to access beyond end of device
sda1: rw=0, want=459818, limit=327680
======================
Not sure what this is trying to tell me.
At any rate, I am not sure what you meant by "df /either/location/either_file as right now it does not seem to give
me any data.

maybe look at disk with gdisk /dev/sda, pressing 'p' to display partition table
(although it should be fine as it worked before...)

Wait, are you saying you have 2 different elilo.conf files on two different partitions? That should not be the case. Or at least your computer is going to ignore the one that is not on the EFI partition. Here is part of my partition layout (I removed parts that aren't important):

Notice how efibootmgr reports that it is using the disk with partition uuid 09057... which by examining /dev/disk/by-partuuid is nvme0n1p1. Then by looking at the output of lsblk you can see I have that mounted as /boot/efi. So my elilo.conf file is /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf:

I think you're getting confused because you have a file /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf which is physically on your root (/) partition. This file means nothing to your boot loader. Before copying files to your EFI partition and modifying elilo.conf you should make sure your EFI partition is mounted at /boot/efi. Can you run all the commands I ran above and post the (non-trimmed) output?

Very odd, ccoffee.

What keefaz said is good advice ( gdisk to inspect partitions )

I wonder what you'll see if you run immediately after booting the DVD and logging in:
Do the /dev/sdx devices look like what you expect to see ?

-- kjh

Here's an idea that you can either use full-time or just for testing and then go back (after gaining insight) if you want. Install "rEFInd" (or Grub2 if you are more familiar with it... personally I find Grub2 overly complex for a largely simple process, but it does work) which will find all kernels and elilo.conf files and let you try them. This way you can eliminate any confusing conflicts as well as find out what works and why. My main system has at least 2 dozen bootable kernels and rEFInd made organizing and troubleshooting that mess more than merely manageable.