Install latest Slackware after a MX Linux installation

BudiKusasi · 01-21-2021, 05:35 PM

How do we install latest Slackware as 2nd after a debian (MX Linux) installation, with crystal clear explanatory steps ?
as can't find one suggest this way of installing on slackware sites (just: install Slackware), and its Iso is ready to boot out of usb.
Please help me out getting in right path, thanks

captain_sensible · 01-22-2021, 02:09 PM

the basics would be perhaps boot from a usb stick and use gParted to make room for slackware, assuming you already have a SWAP partition and an efi partition if your PC is uefi.

Put slackware install dvd iso onto usb stick; (you need to put iso onto usb in appropriate way rufus, dd command or other) boot from usb stick and install slackware to spare partition.

https://slackware.nl/slackware/slackware64-current-iso

Follow instructions

this guy is not bad to watch :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWKEPBsIgVs

quickbreakfast · 01-22-2021, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudiKusasi

How do we install latest Slackware as 2nd

There are two versions of Slackware which could be called the latest. 1/ the rolling and 2/ the stable. Which of these iso's have you md5sum checked?

Quote:

after a debian (MX Linux) installation, with crystal clear explanatory steps ?

So you want to dual boot?

Explaining how to divide your drive is entirely your choice and without knowledge of how many drives you have and their size, explaning how to prepare the drive(s) is virtually impossible.

However the first step would be to make an external copy of your data, cause reformating the drive will wipeout your data. Then I suggest you google "preparing the drive for dual booting linux" till you find an explanation which you understand.

Once the drive is formatted, which can be done as part of the Slackware instalation, you only need to follow the prompts ensuring, of course, that Slackware goes onto the right partition.

Finally you'll need to ensure your MX distro is listed in your /etc/lilo.conf

igadoter · 01-22-2021, 02:35 PM

You need to skip lilo installation. It will override grub bootloader installed by MX.

BudiKusasi · 01-22-2021, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igadoter

You need to skip lilo installation. It will override grub bootloader installed by MX.

Please why don't you just keep on going on

igadoter · 01-23-2021, 01:30 AM

It is always a choice. Having grub as boot loader from MX or lilo from Slackware. But Slackware is second to be installed. So the first thing is to assure it boots after installation. So safe solution is leave at moment grub, boot MX, rerun grub so it will find Slackware installation. After grub update - boot into Slackware. If successful - then configure lilo for both MX and Slackware.

rokytnji · 01-23-2021, 04:55 AM

Can't lilo be installed to root folder, not mbr, during a Slackware install, and use grub2 in MX with

Code:

sudo update-grub

To chain load it? Just curious is why I ask. I figure grub2 should throw you at lilo and then lilo takes over Slackware boot from there. From the lilo entries in your root/boot folder inside of Slackware.

Code:

harry@biker:~
$ cd /
harry@biker:/
$ ls
bin   dev  home  lib32  libx32      media  opt   root  sbin  tmp  var
boot  etc  lib   lib64  lost+found  mnt    proc  run   sys   usr

bassmadrigal · 01-26-2021, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Can't lilo be installed to root folder, not mbr, during a Slackware install, and use grub2 in MX with

Code:

sudo update-grub

To chain load it? Just curious is why I ask. I figure grub2 should throw you at lilo and then lilo takes over Slackware boot from there. From the lilo entries in your root/boot folder inside of Slackware.

Code:

harry@biker:~
$ cd /
harry@biker:/
$ ls
bin   dev  home  lib32  libx32      media  opt   root  sbin  tmp  var
boot  etc  lib   lib64  lost+found  mnt    proc  run   sys   usr

Yes, chainloading is possible, but then you have to go through multiple bootloaders to get the system started up. Most people will chainload for Windows, but will set up multiple distros under the same bootloader (but certainly not all people... you could chainload multiple bootloaders if needed/desired).

BudiKusasi · 01-27-2021, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Can't lilo be installed to root folder, not mbr, during a Slackware install, and use grub2 in MX with

Code:

sudo update-grub

To chain load it?

Happen to know how to install elilo, ie. its binary and configuration, by shell command-line run from slackware usb stick?
I strongly have hunch this is the correct way, anyway in my case elilo is not installed yet as I skipped it on the installation step

bassmadrigal · 01-27-2021, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudiKusasi

Happen to know how to install elilo, ie. its binary and configuration, by shell command-line run from slackware usb stick?
I strongly have hunch this is the correct way, anyway in my case elilo is not installed yet as I skipped it on the installation step

You can do it using eliloconfig after running mkbindmounts and chrooting into your system.

Code:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt            # Replace sda1 with your root partition
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi   # Replace sda2 with your UEFI partition
mkbindmounts
chroot /mnt
eliloconfig

If you want to do it even more manually, you'd need to copy the elilo.efi to a folder in your UEFI partition (Pat uses EFI/Slackware), create an elilo.conf file, copy your kernel (and possibly initrd) to the same folder, then run the efibootmgr command to notify the motherboard's firmware of the location:

Code:

mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware
cp /boot/elilo-x86_64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.efi
cp /boot/{vmlinuz,initrd.gz} /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/
cat << EOF > /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf
chooser=simple
delay=1
timeout=1
#
image=vmlinuz
        label=vmlinuz
        initrd=initrd.gz
        read-only
        append="vga=normal ro"
EOF
efibootmgr -q -c -d /dev/nvme0n1 -p 1 -l "\\EFI\\Slackware\\elilo.efi" -L "Slackware"

efibootmgr is pretty straightforward to run manually:
-q is quiet
-c is create a new boot entry for the motherboard
-d is the device (/dev/sda, /dev/nvme0n1, etc)
-p is the UEFI partition number on the device (as displayed by the system -- /dev/nvmen0p1 is mine)
-l is the loader location (needs double backslashes instead of single forward slashes and the location is based on the root of the EFI drive)
-L is the label that will show in the BIOS/Firmware's boot selector

BudiKusasi · 01-27-2021, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

You can do it using eliloconfig after running mkbindmounts and chrooting into your system.

Code:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt            # Replace sda1 with your root partition
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi   # Replace sda2 with your UEFI partition
mkbindmounts
chroot /mnt
eliloconfig

did you drop the OP request idea or did it with no this on mind ?
it's based on afraid to ruin the 1st linux install
that's reason of skipping elilo install.
Slackware, thankfully, smartly add itself to menu but failed if it gets picked, please look into grub.cfg,
failed either as referring kernel alone or with united initrd in 1 file (huge.s), with errors sort of:

Quote:

< end trace 6ef90b...... >
< kernel panic .... >

for each case respectively, or if really sure elilo can still get installed correctly to solve this multi boot please do as it's asked: show in crystal clear explanatory steps. Please help to the correct path

bassmadrigal · 01-27-2021, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudiKusasi

did you drop the OP request idea or did it with no this on mind ?

My answer was based on the question you asked (that I quoted in my post). It is the commands you'd run to install elilo from the Slackware USB stick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudiKusasi

Slackware, thankfully, smartly add itself to menu but failed if it gets picked, please look into grub.cfg,
failed either as referring kernel alone or with united initrd in 1 file (huge.s), with errors sort of:

Unfortunately, I can't help with grub. I don't use grub and am not familiar with how to configure it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudiKusasi

for each case respectively, or if really sure elilo can still get installed correctly to solve this multi boot please do as it's asked: show in crystal clear explanatory steps. Please help to the correct path

You can register as many EFI stubs as you want. This will add a Slackware entry to the boot options within the motherboard's boot menu (this is unrelated to bootloaders like elilo and grub as it is the menu that can point to those).

You wouldn't need to make any changes to the commands I typed below besides replacing the sda1 and sda2 partitions to their proper matches. If you have a single UEFI partition that's already being used by your other distro, this will simply add a new folder to that partition and store elilo and the Slackware kernels in it.

pghvlaans · 01-28-2021, 01:35 AM

The generic kernel won't boot without an initrd, so those options won't work the first time. Try using the final "advanced option" for Slackware, which should boot up the huge kernel. If that doesn't work, check the UUID for Slackware carefully; I've known os-prober to mix those up before.

Either way, once the huge kernel has booted properly, running the following script as root will create an initrd image (should be /boot/initrd.gz, but check when it's done):

Code:

$(/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -r)

The -r will trim the output to the needed command only, and it is not optional if you want it to run right away.

Finally, go ahead and add the following line to the end of all Slackware vmlinuz-generic entries in grub.cfg:

Code:

initrd /boot/initrd.gz

It should now be possible to boot into the generic kernel from GRUB.

EDIT: There should be symlinks to the most recently installed kernels in /boot, called vmlinuz, vmlinuz-generic and vmlinuz-huge. It might be convenient to have grub.cfg point to those instead of individual kernel instances. That way, it won't be necessary to edit the file every time there's a kernel installation.

BudiKusasi · 01-28-2021, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pghvlaans

running the following script as root will create an initrd image (should be /boot/initrd.gz, but check when it's done):

Code:

$(/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -r)

do from running OS by mounting part. of installed Slack.:

Code:

usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh
usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh: 224: usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

it's ver.14.2 , 2016

pghvlaans · 01-28-2021, 08:58 PM

Missing dollar sign? You could also just run the script by itself and then copy-paste the output.