What features/changes would you like to see in future Slackware?

Didier Spaier · 02-16-2015, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

I'd like efibootmgr to be runnable from the installation DVD.

You mean, be able to use it even if Slackware is not yet installed? What use case do you have in mind?

Anyway that shouldn't be an issue as the binary is not heavy and all dependencies are already shipped in the installer. I could add that to the Slint installers with its manual page if someone is interested (in the small ones as well).

j_v · 02-16-2015, 12:30 PM

Having efibootmgr on installation cd/dvd would facilitate repairs to efi boot menu when unable to boot to installed root partition. Of course, so long as you can boot the disk in efi mode, then you should be able to boot the root partition from there, install efibootmgr from there, and do repair. So long as the efivars kernel module is available once booted to root. If installed kernel and boot kernel don't match, then loading modules is a bit more work; I guess they should be available by mounting the installation media. Geepers, I could argue this circle into an oval.

ReaperX7 · 02-16-2015, 04:31 PM

util-linux-2.26 should be due out soon.

https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/uti...l-linux/v2.26/

From the github documentation, it seems they are waiting on some last minute i80n data to be submitted before they release 2.26 out as final.

dugan · 02-17-2015, 01:07 PM

Get this in, Pat. We need this.

http://libslack.org/

(no, not really).

bassmadrigal · 02-17-2015, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

From the github documentation, it seems they are waiting on some last minute i80n data to be submitted before they release 2.26 out as final.

Quick random note, it is i18n, because there is 18 letters in between the i and n in the word internationalization. Sometimes you will see l10n, which is the same concept but for localization.

brianL · 02-17-2015, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

Get this in, Pat. We need this.

http://libslack.org/

(no, not really).

Here it is:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14...ries/libslack/

ReaperX7 · 02-17-2015, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

Quick random note, it is i18n, because there is 18 letters in between the i and n in the word internationalization. Sometimes you will see l10n, which is the same concept but for localization.

Thank man!

jtsn · 02-19-2015, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

Get this in, Pat. We need this.

http://libslack.org/

Nice development. Completely wrong license choice for a library. So much wasted effort...

ReaperX7 · 02-19-2015, 10:43 AM

I personally prefer ISC or MIT licenses.

jtsn · 02-19-2015, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

I personally prefer ISC or MIT licenses.

This is is not about preferences. A GPL library restricts your licensing options for your own code, if you import it. So it's no-go terroritory, wasted. For this specific reason LGPL was created.

bartgymnast · 02-19-2015, 01:50 PM

and today they released util-linux 2.26 (19 februari)

https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/uti...6-ReleaseNotes

jostber · 05-26-2015, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j_v

Having efibootmgr on installation cd/dvd would facilitate repairs to efi boot menu when unable to boot to installed root partition. Of course, so long as you can boot the disk in efi mode, then you should be able to boot the root partition from there, install efibootmgr from there, and do repair. So long as the efivars kernel module is available once booted to root. If installed kernel and boot kernel don't match, then loading modules is a bit more work; I guess they should be available by mounting the installation media. Geepers, I could argue this circle into an oval.

Another program that would very useful to have included on the usbboot.img would be to have the static version of testdisk with photorec. Having this available would make most repairs, saving partitions and copying data from shaky disks possible. strace and gdb could be useful to have there too.

j_v · 05-26-2015, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jostber

Another program that would very useful to have included on the usbboot.img would be to have the static version of testdisk with photorec. Having this available would make most repairs, saving partitions and copying data from shaky disks possible. strace and gdb could be useful to have there too.

I like it. I should try to find time to modify an image to have just such additions. I'm a bit swamped, but I should create a todo list so I can add this to it.

jostber · 05-28-2015, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j_v

I like it. I should try to find time to modify an image to have just such additions. I'm a bit swamped, but I should create a todo list so I can add this to it.

Would be great to have this updated image. It would promote this to the best rescue disk.

Alien Bob · 05-28-2015, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jostber

Would be great to have this updated image. It would promote this to the best rescue disk.

You do not even have to modify the Slackware installer, only the bootable ISO. Isolinux has a little known feature that it can use multiple initramfs image files and combine them on the fly when booting the kernel.
I once created a modified Slackware mini ISO for a friend who needed an installer that additionally needed to contain ethtool and tcpdump. Instead of modifying the initrd.img file (which contains the Slackware installer), I created a second initramfs file.
I extracted the binaries and libraries from the Slackware packages for ethtool and tcpdump into a temporary directory (dumping binaries in ./sbin and libraries in ./lib64) like this:

Code:

/path/to/initrd64_14.1_addon/
+-- etc
|   +-- libnl
|       +-- classid
|       +-- pktloc
+-- lib64
|   +-- libnl-3.so -> libnl-3.so.200.16.1
|   +-- libnl-3.so.200 -> libnl-3.so.200.16.1
|   +-- libnl-3.so.200.16.1
|   +-- libnl-genl-3.so -> libnl-genl-3.so.200.16.1
|   +-- libnl-genl-3.so.200 -> libnl-genl-3.so.200.16.1
|   +-- libnl-genl-3.so.200.16.1
|   +-- libnl.a
|   +-- libnl.so -> libnl.so.1
|   +-- libnl.so.1 -> libnl.so.1.1.4
|   +-- libnl.so.1.1.4
|   +-- libpcap.a
|   +-- libpcap.so -> libpcap.so.1
|   +-- libpcap.so.1 -> libpcap.so.1.4.0
|   +-- libpcap.so.1.4.0
+-- sbin
    +-- ethtool
    +-- mii-tool
    +-- tcpdump -> tcpdump.4.4.0
    +-- tcpdump.4.4.0

I then packed that directory tree into a new initramfs file using my initramfs generator script, like this:

Code:

# cd /usr/local/bin
# wget http://www.slackware.com/~alien/tools/extract_initramfs.sh
# ln -s extract_initramfs.sh create_initramfs.sh
# create_initramfs.sh /tmp/addons.img /path/to/initrd64_14.1_addon/

Then I modified my standard mini ISO image as follows:

Loop-mount the ISO image and modify the isolinux configuration to take the addons.img into account:

Code:

#mkdir -p /mnt/iso
# mount -o loop slackware_x86_64-14.1-mini-install.iso /mnt/iso/
# mkdir ~/workdir
# cp -a /mnt/iso/* ~/workdir/
# cp -a tmp/addons.img ~/workdir/isolinux
# sed -i 's/initrd.img/&,addons.img/' ~/workdir/isolinux/isolinux.cfg

Which lets isolinux do its magic of combining two separate initramfs images into one filesystem for the kernel to boot with, thus making the addons part of the installer transparently.

Finally a new ISO needs to be created from that workdir, something like this:

Code:

# cd ~/workdir
# mkisofs -o ~/slackware-mini-install.iso \
    -R -J -V "Slackware Mini Install" \
    -hide-rr-moved -hide-joliet-trans-tbl \
    -v -d -N -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
    -b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
    -c isolinux/isolinux.boot \
    -sort isolinux/iso.sort \
    -publisher "The Slackware Linux Project - http://www.slackware.com/" \
    -A "Slackware-14.1 for x86_64 Mini Install CD - build $(date +Y%m%d)" \
    .

After which you can collect the modified ISO in your homedirectory.

If you are using PXE boot then you do not even have to create new ISO images of course, just dump the addons.img file in the pxeboot directory and update the configuration file.

Edit: I should write a Wiki page for this.