[SOLVED] Booting Slackware installer from HDD

FeyFre · 04-05-2013, 10:25 AM

Hi

I have plan to do unusual(for me) Slackware installation, since my current installation suddenly(my fault) became broken.
I do not have any suitable boot device(DVDROM, very stupid MB vendors removed all PATA controllers), so question is next:
Can I copy kernels and initrd image from installation disk to HDD partition and make them bootable by LiLo? Is there any caveats? How should Lilo section look like?

Code:

boot=/dev/sda
lba32
vga=791
compact
prompt
timeout=50
root=/dev/sda4
other=/dev/sda1
  label=Windows
image=/inst/hugesmp
  Label=InstSlack
  initrd=/inst/initrd.img
#  root=/dev/sda4 ; here resides my old ext partition I still can boot into and it contains kernel and ramdisk images mentioned above. 
  read-only   ; Do I need it?

PS. I shall install -current, despite of recently appeared problems of gcc.

wadsworth · 04-11-2013, 07:38 PM

I've used the instructions provided here:
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:sla...stall_from_hdd

Makes things very convenient. (my personal thanks to the author)

FeyFre · 04-12-2013, 04:15 AM

Actually I have used provided in 1st message my lilo.conf as is(i.e. w/o additional kernel parameters), and it booted normally.
But actually installation refused to work. After selecting packages categories set and type of installation(full,terse, etc) it silently skipped whole installing phase and stepped into configuration phase. So I used good old method "installpkg --terse --root /mnt /src/slackware/*/*.t?z" and did all farther configurations manually(crafted /etc/fstab, /etc/lilo.conf, /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf etc)

ruario · 04-17-2013, 02:26 PM

Strange coincidence, I also installed Slackware without calling setup, whilst testing something out recently.

Whilst it is true that you have to manually create an /etc/fstab and perhaps /etc/rc.d/rc.keymap (if you need a non US layout), you don't have to setup all of the main configuration files manually. As an alternative you can simply call pkgtool and select 'Setup' after chrooting into you new environment, since it has the ability to run many of the key scripts that are also included in the installer. This saves having to manually set up files like /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf.

IIRC, the steps are:

Mount your intended / under /mnt along with any other partitions
installpkg --terse --root /mnt [path to your required Slackware packages]
Use mount to bind /dev /proc /sys to their /mnt equivalents
chroot to /mnt
Make an /etc/fstab
Create /etc/rc.d/rc.keymap if needed
run passwd
Run pkgtool and select 'Setup' and then run the sections you require
Exit chroot and shutdown

You should then be able to boot using the disk you had previously mounted under /mnt

FeyFre · 04-17-2013, 06:07 PM

Yeah, I know, I use pkgtool run setup scripts again sometimes. But because I have backup of /etc all I do not need to run it usually. I run only xwmconfig directly if I need.
My usual actions probably the same;
0. boot installer
1. mount destination into /mnt
2. mount source into /src (i use local copy of -current on spare partition)
3. installpkg --terse --root /mnt /src/slackware/*/*.t?z
3.5 drink tea/coffee 5-10 minutes
4. rebind /dev /proc /sys into /mnt/{dev,proc,sys}
5. chroot /mnt
6. forget to make /etc/fstab

7. make /etc/rc.d/{rc.font,rc.keymap}
8. make /etc/lilo.conf and run lilo
9. forget to make passwd

10. run xwmconfig
11. unchroot, reboot
12. boot into slackware
13. get boot errors, reboot back to installer(or slax if installer unavailable anymore,which is usual), chroot and actually do /etc/fstab and passwd