Are you using a UUID found with blkid for the root partition with mkinitrd? rEFInd is nice and picks up whatever is on the EFI partition. https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...?search=refind

and change efibootmgr to refind.

I disagree that this thread is Slackware-specific. I alluded to people using other distributions, posting to other forums, that had similar problems as mine. That’s why I posted to a general Linux forum. It’s not to say the Slackware people aren’t helpful. They almost always come through for me when I post a problem. Since I’m not a moderator, there is little I can do, but just give my $.02.

Anyway, in reply to post before moderator, I thought I was already root, since I used “su” before using vi or nano or anything else.

This is good advice if you use grub to boot your computer. For those of us that use lilo the Super Grub Disk will not work

looks like a read only partition.
Again, probably would be better to use uuids or labels instead of partition numbers.

@RadicalDreamer no. I have not modified mkinitrd at all. Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe I can try that. Editing mkinitrd on a system that’s screwed up can’t screw it up any more.

Can you boot to root with:
https://mirrors.xmission.com/slackwa...xe-installers/ ?!

It seems to me that the Windows "upgrade" may have created a new partition which changed all the partition numbers. Use Slackware Live or a live disc like Hirens Boot Disc to run any program like fdisk, cfdisk, or GParted to view the new numbering scheme. Edit your bootloader config to reflect the changes and chroot into Slackware to run grub update or /sbin/lilo depending on which bootloader you use. There are Windows apps that will boot Linux from the windows bootloader but only if /etc/fstab (and initrd if you use one) points to the correct appropriate partitions.

Naturally the best solution is to just never use windows ever again

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I agree with enorbet, although I don't blame it on Windows. In fact I believe that it is an issue with Slackware itself not using persistent naming of block devices. During the Windows upgrade, Windows added a new partition somewhere between your existing Window partition and the partition that Slackware was installed on, resulting in a re-ordering of the partitions as the kernel discovers them. There could have been some unused space between your Windows and Slackware partitions that Windows used for the new partition or more likely, Windows shrunk its own partition and created the new partition in the newly freed up space. Now when you try to boot Slackware both the grub and fstab are expecting the Slackware root partition to be on /dev/sda5, as it was during the Slackwar install, but now its on /dev/sda6 as the kernel see it now. As a result it trying to boot what it thinks is the Slackware root files system on /dev/sda5 but in actuality it small partition that is formatted in a MS proprietary file system.

To fix this, all you really need to do is to boot into a Live installation, mount the Slackware root file system (now designated as /dev/sda6) and navigate to and edit the fstab file replacing all the /dev/sda5 to /dev/sd6. I don't use grub so I'm not sure how to fix it. For elilo, you would just need to edit the elilo.conf file in the Slackware directory on the ESP.

Slackware and it derivatives (i.e Salix) are the only Linux distribution that I know of that still uses non-persistent device naming in both the boot loader (lilo, elilo) and fstab. If you had say Mint or Fedora installed along with Window and Slackware and the same thing happen during a Windows upgrade the only distro that would failed to boot would be Slackware.

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enorbet: "Naturally the best solution is to just never use windows ever again "

You've nailed it on the head. The thing is, I'm not as trained in linux (or computer administration) as I should be to manage all the configurations and packages on linux that I use on Windows without having to come up some extra package to work. That's on me, I understand that. I want to get there. But my occupation is not related to administering computers and there is only so much time in my day for learning about the finer points of mkinitrd or how to just plain know which is the correct directory to put my additional packages into. I'm s l o w l y learning these things. Everyday on my slackware partition is a new adventure. Makes it hard to run a spatial analysis when I can't get GEOS to install, for example. Given Microsoft's intention to make people subscribe just to log into their account, I want to leave Windows. It's just gonna take time.

Everyone has been helpful. I appreciate all the "Slackers" on this forum. I think RadicalDreamer's and laprns's recent comments will be useful. But I'm not going to get to that tonight. My day is over. Tomorrow hopefully.

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After each kernel update I: and
XXXX-XX-XXXX is the code for the root partiton which is listed as / when you type under Mounted On. You can find it by typing in for example , and sda3 is whatever your root is.

Then I use eliloconfig to update the EFI partition with the latest kernel with ELILO and the rEFInd boot manager will pick it up. rEFInd will pick up whatever OS are on EFI partitions. Then I type to find the boot number for rEFInd, it will be listed as something like Boot0002, so I put in and reboot. Also remember to press F2 I think in BIOS if there is an issue like Windows changes the boot order and rEFInd should be listed.

You can see a fully tricked out mkinitrd with .

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Oh ya, and my fstab looks like this

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While it is conceivable to lay blame at Slackware's feet for not using persistent naming of block devices...

1) It is actually the fault of Win10 creating a new partition without first asking the "owner" if that operation is OK. It's just one more clue that MS assumes they own your PC and you are merely a cash cow lessor. I do still have a very rarely booted install of Win7 which allows me to turn off updates entirely so things like this can't happen. That option has subsequently vanished in later releases. I don't buy into the facade that MS has morphed into the "new, kinder, gentler" MS. I think they still fully buy into The Highlander story and believe "there can be only One"

2) Patrick has stated and lived by his principle of not assuming users needs and desires. He doesn't assume we are idiots who need everything done for us. If we feel the need to deal with naming conventions we are free and empowered to do so. I'm glad he doesn't do UUID for example by default as such numbers have no immediate meaning to humans. For a time I used LABEL but that got to be a bit cumbersome since this boxen, my Main, has 3 drives totally 8TB divided into over 20 partitions. I just label them with fdisk or gparted with a name that has meaning for me and disallow ANY OpSys from changing anything so fundamental without my knowledge and permission.

The least maintenance and most stable PC is one where NOTHING happens the owner didn't initiate, where any problem was caused by that owner in the preceding operation making that operation obviously where the error was generated... no need to look any further than that. That, gentlemen, IMHO is the ultimate time saver... owning your PC(s).

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For the most part I agree with everything, and really, this is just me being pedantic, but sometimes a stable PC isn't the result where nothing by the owner was initiated. When serious flaws are discovered and published, you could be affected without needing to do anything (like the worm that propagated through Samba on Windows systems without any effort by the owner).

That being said, it shouldn't give the OS the automatic authority to push patches whenever they feel it is necessary. I get why Microsoft did it, but if they're going to make updates automatic out of the box (since most people probably shouldn't be trusted with keeping their box updated), they should give people the ability to override it without needing to go to an Enterprise or Education Edition (luckily, I got an Education Edition license from my school for my one and only Windows laptop at home and could disable automatic updates). I am glad that Pat doesn't assume on how we're going to use Slackware. He provides a great default state and we are free to tweak as needed for our usage.

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I've read numerous threads at different forums where 'some' windows 10 upgrades rewrite the partition table and neglect to include non-windows partitions. Might try using Testdisk to find the old partition table and compare to the current. Some possible solutions at the link below, might be worth taking a look.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/6550...ir-doesnt-help

I agree supergrub2 will boot most anything that is single, double or etc.


The old Super Grub original will boot it and rewrite it where it boots from now on. It is hard to find SuperGrub but it will do it for you.