Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Post install, and without grub, the system starts but the initial low resolution screen (the one with the penguins) is blank. After a few seconds - when the resolution changes (which I assume is kms starting) - and the text console becomes visible.

I boot into sddm (run level 4 in inittab), and sddm starts normally. Once logged in at sddm, then X (or Wayland, if you make that choice) starts and you are into your graphic environment.

With grub, everything is visible right from the start, and you get the "penguin" screen.

The problem that Eric and Patrick will face is that the installer needs to be generic - ie: work on any system. I've no doubt it is possible to put the amd module in the initrd, but would that also work for NVidia, Intel or any other graphics card. Very unlikely, I would have thought, and putting every possible combination in becomes messy!

Once you have managed to install the system, it is quite simple to rebuild the initrd to your requirements. The problem I was facing was that the installer either wouldn't run at all, or was running "invisibly" - in either event, not very helpful!

Even grub on the installer is not truly universal because, as I understand it, you need to choose between UEFI or non-UEFI when creating the boot media. I may be wrong here, as I haven't tried a non-UEFI install media on a UEFI machine, but I think it would create a non-UEFI installation. It may be possible to work around this (if I'm right), but that's a bit above my pay grade!:)

Another advantage of using grub on the install media is that it makes a truly excellent recovery disk! If the problem is simply mbr corruption (ie: windows had over-written it, as it is prone to do!), then booting from a grub install disk, created as I describe, will find all the installed systems and allow you to boot straight into any of them! Then its just a matter of re-installing whichever boot system you choose. Simples! ;)

I believe elilo is no longer supported by the original maintainer, but that doesn't mean that someone else cannot take it over - or create a fork! If you manage to patch it, submit it to Patrick! I'm sure he would be interested. However, that doesn't help with the install media, which uses syslinux rather than elilo, as I understand it.

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Pete

Thanks Pete!

This solved my installer boot problem on a Dell XPS13 (9343) from 2015.

In my case nothing even started to boot: I just got asked to "press F1 to retry booting" etc.

With your suggestions the installer booted and ran fine. Only when actually installing the packages did the screen flicker occasionally.

Have to say I found AlienBob's reaction a bit ... odd.

Glad it worked for you, Colin.

I was bit puzzled by AlienBob's reaction too, but I put it down to me perhaps not explaining as clearly as I might have done (too close to the problem!) and English not being his first language - though he does seem pretty fluent.

Either way, the grub fix works, and at the end of the day that is what matters!

Cheers,

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Pete

After my last comment above I emailed Pat asking if there's any possibility of him including a patch for elilo, but he didn't respond, so I'm not going to gamble spending my time on creating this patch in the hope he starts responding once the patch is created.

Yes, I pointed him to this thread shortly after I started it, but it failed to produce a response. I didn't pursue it, heeding the warning "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

;)

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Pete

Aha! I was just in the BIOS and spotted this option:

Advanced > PCI > Above 4G Decoding
which has help text:

I disabled that, which changed the PCI address to a 32 bit one:

and now elilo (and the USB installer) works.

(Edit: fixed typo & formatting)

Good spot! However, I've just had a look at my BIOS, and it doesn't offer that setting. In fact, it doesn't offer much at all! It is an Insyde BIOS, and they seem to offer the absolute minimum they an get away with! My first 64-bit computer also had an Insyde BIOS, which was also a pain to deal with...

Your info might help others though, so well done! It also confirms one of my original conjectures!

Cheers,

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Pete

Same issues after installation
 

Hi.

I created a bootable usb using dd and it worked.

The installation went perfectly but when I try to boot it is stuck on loading initrd.gz

This is Slackware 15.0.

It works on slackware current but I want to use the stable version.

So any tips for what can be wrong?

first make a deep format to your usb stick

its better to use this tool command should be like this
if you prefer dd then leave it without write speed

Have you tried switching it to grub as the bootloader? What did you select as the bootloader during installation?

It may be the same issue that stopped the installer running as outlined at the start of this thread, but without more information its difficult to say. My preferred method of creating boot media is to use AlienBob's excellent usbimg2disk.sh. It comes with instructions included (open it with a text reader) but does require access to a local copy of the slackware "tree". I have a small NAS (RaspberryPi + OpenMediaVault) where I keep an clone of the Slackware tree, which makes it very easy to make install media.

You should be able to find usbimg2disk.sh in the usb-andpxe-installers folder of Slackware15. If you have the slackware iso file, you should be able to loop mount this and use it as the source for usbimg2disk, but I haven't tried that!

Otherwise, re-install, but try selecting grub as the boot loader!

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Pete