SWarET to Current Crash issue (never been really Answered)
 

Hello guys. I started to marvel at my genius as I got my slackware 10 running again and let my social life zip away until I used the oh-so-awesome SWarET that made me feel as newbish as I really am. The upgrading went swell of course, and upon reboot my X didn't work. I redid xorgconfig and that fixed the prob (not the "kbd" prob). However, My "Settings Daemon" kept restarting in Gnome and finally gave up. Also, many programs don't work; including the galeon browser which upon loading says something along the lines of "MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME redirection needed." But I reconfigured my network and got "mozilla" to run as a command. I discovered SlackGrade and used that to upgrade again and see if that would cover up any problems---but of course not. So now at LILO I pick Linux and it says:

boot: Linux
Loading LinuxEBDA is big; kernel setup stack overlaps LILO second stage

...and it just freezes.
Ohhhh man! What do I do, what do I do!? Also, is there anyway of going into my Linux directories through XP (which I'm using now)? And Yes, I did make a boot-up floppy. Thanks ahead!
-Galen

P.S. I searched and searched and saw tons of threads saying "Yea...swaret sucks. You have to redo everything. It's not a big deal if you know what you're doing." And that was it. No details as to what was done to fix it,etc. So any help in that direction would probably be "sticky-able."

Regarding swaret: Did you upgrade all of your packages for Slackware 10.0, then edit the swaret.conf to upgrade your packages? Or did you upgrade straight to -current?

By any chance did you install a new kernel?

I don't believe so (new kernel). I installed Slackware 10.0 from ISO and then set version to current in the swaret.conf. It's currently using 2.4.27 or something, and I planned on eventually upgrading to 2.6.9. Any ideas/suggestions? Oh..I just tried using the Linux Bootup disk and I can use that to get into Linux (but X doesn't work...period). I'm guessing the LILO boot up error has to do with LILO (since LILO is in the error report!)..so by using the bootdisk I bypass that. But if I try and run X (after configuring xorgconfig) it loads to a blank black screen and locks up (must reboot by button on computer--not ctrl+alt+del). So the good news is that I can get into console, bad news is that nothing else works! Thanks again.
-Galen

Okay, I can say I've had the same problem as yourself. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I upgraded one of my machines using swaret, but I did not upgrade my Slack 10 packages before I upgraded to -current. Lots of problems popped up... but since this box is used for testing, I just did a clean install.

I don't want to give you bad advice, but here goes: Boot into Slack using your CD. Uninstall the packages in /var/packages/. Modify swaret.conf and set it so you upgrade your Slack 10 packages. Afterwards, set swaret.conf to -current and upgrade. Hopefully this will prevent you from having to do a clean install...

As far as the kernel goes, you *could* download the 2.4.27 kernel packages from www.slackware.com and reinstall them. Or, since you said LILO is the culprit, rerun liloconfig.

Good luck. :) Other folks here may have a better solution, by the way.

As Ninja Cow says that would be a good thing to try -=> you might also want to try to reinstall the packages using swaret --reinstall <package name> or you could try using the rollback
function. To undo the last two upgrades:
swaret --rollback 2
swaret --rollback # <=- number of last updates

It look like you've recompiled the kernel or something but the Slackware 10 ver. ships with kernel 2.4.26. Another thing is i kinda wonder how your kernel is 2.4.27 since there is a commented line in swaret.config restricting swaret to upgrade your kernel or your kde international packages. Regarding retrieving your files through XP tell me which file system you are currently using if it's ext2 good go here -=> http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm and download this nice and old style app. That should work for you. I'm in class right now and don't really make any since in what i'm saying but in 30mins i'll be at home -=> give me some more details in order to put your box up and running again. One more thing for lilo check your /etc/lilo.config and then after making any necessary changes run lilo and make sure that you don't get any error. -=> You could try using a kernel from the slackware web page in order to load you box with it -=> you could copy paste it through windows with the aforementioned app into /boot/
you need System.map vmlinuz-2.4.26 and the kernel .config files


Regards,
Vladimir Abadzhiev

So...while you guys were responding I was messing around w/ Mr. Slackware and I did pkgtool. I just decided to check the packages I had already installed since Ninja Cow said something about a new linux. I remember when I tried SlackGrade it had some Kernel options and I thought "hey, why not." Well, now I think this is WHY NOT. hehe. There are 4 kernel packages installed called Kernel-ide, kernel-headers, kernel-modules, and kernel-source...all of which are 2.4.27. And I have 2.4.26. If I uninstall these badboys am I good to go? And reinstalling isn't really THAT big of a deal. I just reinstalled 10 last night. and every time I do it I feel I'm getting a better grasp for it (install only takes like 30min). However, it would be awesome if there's a way to go to 2.6.9 kernel when I reinstall (i know it has an option of loading a different kernel...but it's in BzImage format...not .tgz (the loading option that is). Any way to do this or do I need to spend the 5+hrs configuring my new kernel?) Thanks soo much guys!

P.S. I do have ext2 so I'm downloading that zip file right now!

And that prog ROCKS! So I can do everything from here (it seems). Responses will be immediate then!
-Galen

Good then :D. You could upgrade your kernel to 2.6.9 but before you do that make sure that you leave a working kernel in your lilo boot options. I would recommend these links for proper installation. BTW swaret is not that bad as long as you pay attention to the config details and usage. However, since you are using Slackware you should learn how to do that manually as well especially now since Pat is taking care of his health and i suppose the updates will be moving in a maybe slower phase.

http://www.insyte.uni.cc/
http://shilo.is-a-geek.com/slack/

Regards,
Vladimir Abadzhiev

Yea I used Shilo's tips last time and my Linux kept locking up at UHCI_EHC or something like that (it was a usb check). So, back to my current problem, DO i delete the 2.4.27 packages or...?
-Galen

Have you tried using the 2.6.9 kernel slackpacks?

Don't delete the 2.4.27 packages, just uninstall/install them. Like vaworx said, you should have a working kernel at boot time.

You can find the 2.6.9 slackpacks here:
http://amdg.no-ip.org/slackware/slac...s/linux-2.6.9/

And a guide on setting up the 2.6.7 slackpacked kernel (replace 2.6.7 with 2.6.9 where applicable.)
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20040628 -Reading this is vital. It's short and sweet, thankfully!

What's a slack pack? I just finished reading that other guy's site (insyte.uni.cc) and it looks promising. This addiction for the comp. is killing me, but oh well. As of right now, I plan on going to bed, aceing some finals later this morning (I have been sleeping for 5 hrs), and then going to the rec center. I printed out the 51-pages of from insyte and I plan on reviewing 'em while I'm relaxing in the sauna! I'm thinking I'll just reinstall, follow that guy word for word (since he used the slack10 ISOS like I am---I don't know what SHILO used!)..and upgrade the kernel manually. But that's just as of right now. Some more info on slack packs would be saweeeet! Thanks so much guys !
-Galen

"Slackpack" is a nickname given to the Slackware tgz files. (Slackware Packages.) They're like RPMs without the dependency hell.

I hear you. My computer is the reason I'm addicted to caffeine.

And cocaine.

;)

Edit: You can find out more about the Slackware package management here.

So I understand tgz stuff (finally...I didn't over the summer! hehe). This is my third time getting back into Linux (and every time's a new adventure). Anyways, more specifically, how does the 2.6.9 kernel package become a 3.4mb tgz file when the tgz on kernel.org's ftp is 34ish mb?! That's what really made me question "Slackpacks." Thank gosh I'm not addicted to drugs though (yes, I consider caffeine a drug). Although, if you've seen "Requiem for a Dream," then this is just as bad as a drug. Anyway, I digress. You 'think I should just go ahead w/ a fresh install and follow the 51-page instructions? (Regardless of your answer I'll make my own anyways, just want your opinion for kicks...hehe). Thanks for all your time buddy!
-Galen

P.S. The other problem I realized in my addiction is that I don't just "want Linux to work." I want to spend the damn 80 extra hours understanding how it works, breaking it, and fixing it. So when I say 1hr/day limit---I'm really just fooling myself. Because in 1hr I can easily break something...and then half-repair something so that if I don't finish, I'll feel guilty for leaving it unfinished (damn dedication!). That's it, it's not addiction...it's dedication (and I'll just keep telling myself that! :D)

Kernel packages are 4 packages :

- kernel-headers
- kernel-ide # depend of your settings
- kernel-modules
- kernel-source

The kernel package on kernel.org is source. There are hundreds of drivers in it. All source. The linux kernel can be compiled for an absolute crap load of different system architectures, from SPARC to ARM. The reason your .tgz is only 3.4 megs is because once it's compiled with all the modules You've compiled for ONE specific architecture and only the modules you need to run your hardware. Instead of the hundreds of different hardware setups.

Once you go to compile your own kernel and see just how many different things you can compile in the kernel, you'll understand why it's so huge.(actually its really not that big)