My mistake is that I equated current to be the equivalent of Debian's testing and stable to Jessie, so thanks for the clarification.

I suspect that I'll be refering to that site.

Frankbell Thanks for the reference to

It was the information/file I was looking for about changing mirrors.

And though, at least for the moment I'll probably not use it, the blacklist information will eventually prove useful.

To all the others who responded to my questions, thanks for taking the time. It is appreciated.

Before I came here to write this, Slackware is constantly looping (I'm using my devuan on sdb to write this) from the Slackware splash screen through the innitial checks (too quick to record) to about 4.something then reboot the computer.

Clues to stop this loop, would be appreciated. The BIOS is set to boot both Legacy and UEFI.

That would be correct. Slackware-current would be considered like Debian's Sid (testing) and Slackware-14.2 (stable) would be the equivalent of Jessie.

You really should update after installing 14.2. It's really simple. Just pay attention to which mirror you are using, not only use one that is close to you but also make sure that you uncomment one from the correct set. The first set is for 14.2 or stable, and the second set is for current.

Once you have selected a mirror then execute the commands (as su):
It will take a little time to update 14.2 because there are quite a few updates since it was released.

You are probably going to want to select either Legacy OR UEFI in your BIOS if it's possible. Myself, I use legacy because you don't have to deal with the additional partition that needs to be created for UEFI. However it is probably better to learn and use UEFI since legacy is well, legacy.

Also if you choose legacy you probably need to use a USB2 port. At least that is what I have to do.

And you might need to use the boot menu for your PC to tell it that you want to boot into legacy mode because mine automatically boots UEFI, or "secure", when left to it's own devices.

In answer to your questions about editing the file, I personally use nano to edit it.

Then I uncomment [remove the '#'] one local mirror.

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After you update your installation of Slackware 14.2 or -current make sure that you run the lilo command. You've installed a new kernel. The lilo command will allow your computer to boot-up properly when you restart your computer.

# lilo

P.S. Added later. The # symbol indicates that you're executing the command as the root user.

Good point, but slackpkg actually lets you know to run lilo after upgrading the kernel, it would also be a good idea to just overwrite old configs after the first upgrade, which slackpkg also informs you of.

Very true. I thought I would state the obvious and show how to run LILO. 😊

Thanks. Once the machine stops playing annoy the operator, I'll use those codes.


The options provided by the motherboard is either Legacy + UEFI or UEFI. The motherboard does not give me the option of selecting Legacy on it's own..


Booting into Legacy is an argument/question for another day.

Are you planning a single boot scenario? That's only using Slackware on that system?
If positive, was your system preloaded with some Redmond 8/10 originally? Have you checked if active / tried to disable the secure boot?
Have a look at this post:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ve-4175624446/

Yea, that's why I said 'if possible'. Many PC manufacturers are trying to move away from "legacy" (which doesn't make a lot of sense to me). You will more than likely need to use the boot menu to boot the installer in legacy mode along with using a USB2 port.

In the end it would probably be better to just learn the UEFI way and set your BIOS to UEFI.

I'm dual booting with Devuan on sdb, and Puppy on sdc

The msi board is over about a year old, so I have no idea whether I turned secure boot off. I suspect I have.

When I tell the machine to boot UEFI, it fails to see any hard drive and drops into the BIOS.

However when it is told to boot Legacy +UEFI it finds all the hard drive.

Now I know I am close, because when I select Slackware to boot it reaches this screen.

Only there is no choice.

Hitting enter has the computer scroll through to 7.something before it reboots,

While hitting tab goes to LIlo, where I'm instructed to hit tab to see the choices.

Again there are no choices.

What file do I need to edit to obtain a choice?

/boot/grub is empty.

Sorry for being a pain.

OK, I don't know about Devuan but Puppy doesn't seem to be able to use secure boot, the same goes for Slackware, no secure boot. My point was to suggest to check in the BIOS if you have secure boot activated (somewhere - in some menu, sometimes well hidden) because I remember I wasn't able to choose "Legacy Boot" only on a new Asus Laptop quite recently and had to disable the secure boot first.

Now, if Devuan or other OS is using the secure boot functionality, by disabling it you might break that boot procedure and have to reinstall it. Therefore, I won't actually suggest to do it, unless you understand the consequences and are prepared to reinstall the OS that you might break by doing this.

Your system is quite new and maybe you should consider Slackware -current (new kernel & drivers).

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OK here's what you do. Insert the original Install media and at the very first stop (like split seconds in) you will see a text file explaining that you can just Hit "Enter" if you are just installing and don't need any special boot parameters BUT it also explains how you can boot almost any installed linux system like this:

and this will boot you up so you can fix lilo which actually means "edit /etc/lilo.conf" which thankfully has great explanations inside the file itself. You can add many systems there, usually like for your Puppy as example would simple be

There are other ways of course. One could boot Liveslak, edit lilo.conf and whatever else (maybe /etc/X11/xcorg.conf to suit your monitor if you don't use xorgsetup)?), chroot into your installed system and as in each case after editing lilo.conf, running /sbin/lilo.

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Though I've used Linux for several years, this is the first time I've had the option, that I can remember, of needing to add any special boot parameters. So naturallly didn't know what to add...... I was just hitting enter.

Knowing the file to edit, makes life easy. Thanks.

Actually I've found that using Devuan I can edit the /etc/lilo.conf using abiword. Only it is not simply /etc/lilo.conf It is /media/mine/aplhanumeric/etc/lilo.config



Of course with Linux there are, usually, other ways of fixing a problem. One simply needs to know what they are.

And now, or at least when time permits, I'm expecting to join the clan of happy Slacko users.

Thanks to everyone who everyone who took the time and trouble to respond to my questions.