[SOLVED] Install Skips to End with Source Mounted Locally (Slack -current)
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Install Skips to End with Source Mounted Locally (Slack -current)
I'm looking for advice on installing Slackware-current (Apr 23rd) when the source media is on a USB flash drive. I'm NOT booting from the flash drive.
When I boot up a Slack 13.37 DVD or CD install disk and plug in the downloaded (osuosl.org via wget) -current files stored on a USB flash drive (ext4 formatted) the setup program skips to the end and reports it's all done. It skips to the end just at the point where it should start copying the files. It doesn't even start the 'a' package copy (unless it flashed by with an error too fast to read).
I'm just taking all the defaults except the source media. After selecting the default "full" prompting mode, it reports it's installing all software without prompting then immediately skips the installation and the configuration process and reports "Setup Complete".
I suspect I'm giving an invalid source selection path or perhaps I've corrupted the file structure in some way but I don't believe links are used and permission-wise everything looks readable.
When I plug in the USB flash drive and mount it (ext4, ro) at /HD, select SOURCE option 6 (mounted directory) and give it a path of /HD/slackware it doesn't work and skips to the end as described above. I can see the file structure at /HD/slackware on a second terminal.
I've also tried source option 2. When I plug in the USB flash drive (/dev/sdb1), don't mount it, select SOURCE option 2 (drive partition) it gives a mount error no how I answer the path prompt. I'm confused with the instructions on source option 2. In the second prompt how can one give a full path ("Now we need to know the full path ..."), starting at root, on an umounted partition. Is there a fixed mount point used by the setup program I should enter? Is the title "Installing from Hard Disk" to mean no USB connected drives?
Are there file attributes in the slackware file hierarchy I should consider such as ownership or execute permissions. I created the USB drive files with "cp -Rp"
I've installed Slack via CD/DVD (many times over the years) and via network install recently but I've never tried it with the source stored locally on a non-optical drive before so I'm likely just doing it wrong. Two weeks ago I believe I got this to work (13.37 setup & -current files) using a DVD I burned of the current files so I'm guessing there isn't a compatibility issue with the 13.37 setup program and -current files.
What HELP or README file did I miss?
Thanks.
Last edited by TracyTiger; 04-27-2012 at 11:18 AM.
Reason: Added Light Bulb Icon to Indicate Solved
If it skips directly, it doesn't find the right folder stucture.
You need to type the full path to the directory which contains the "a" "ad" "d" etc folders in it.
So (depends on what you dowloaded and how you stored it) it could be /HD/slackware/Slackware64 or sth like this.
Normally in the dvd/ftp structure you will find two levels with a folder called "slackware"
One with extra, sources, slackware etc in it and the second will contain the series (a,ad ...)
The one you want is the second one normally
If it skips directly, it doesn't find the right folder stucture.
You need to type the full path to the directory which contains the "a" "ad" "d" etc folders in it.
Thanks heinblod. That fixed it. I needed to go one level deeper in the path to where the 'a' package was stored. Adding an additional "slackware" directory to my path solved the problem.
--------
I figured out how to use Option # 2 ("Install from a hard drive partition") under "SOURCE MEDIA SELECTION". dmesg showed errors attempting to mount filesystem types FAT, ext2, ext3. Apparently ext4 is not supported for this function.
When I wrote the -current file structure to an ext2 formatted flash drive the setup option worked as expected.
Last edited by TracyTiger; 04-27-2012 at 12:16 PM.
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