Installing Slackware ARM on a Raspberry Pi
 

Not sure if this is the right forum, but for all those who may be interested there is a neat guide on how to install and run Slackware ARM on a Raspberry Pi at http://rpi.fatdog.eu

Hope it's helpful. :)

Member Response
 

Hi,

Great site & links for Raspberry Pi.

Thanks!

Nice installation guide :)

Unusual to use slackarm.lan for a instead of the (not universal) convention of localdomain for a non-public domain name.

Unexpected that the "best of the [desktop] options available has to be KDE and fluxbox". Is Xfce not available in Slackware 14 ARM?

I would say Xfce is available for Slackware ARM - http://ftp.armedslack.org/slackwarea...lackware/xfce/ :)

I spoke to one of the admins who agreed that the "best desktop" comment was 'just an opinion' and should be changed, to keep it fair.

KDE isn't what I recommend - it's just too heavy for ARM, in my own experience. I always use WindowMaker on ARM, but I found it difficult to integrate with NetworkManager, so XFCE would probably be the next best choice for me at least.

I think It's really good article and thoroughly detailed, Although I was curios as to how Slackware ARM 14.0 is more 'taxing' than 13.37. Given that both releases really do the same thing, with the same software (just newer versions in 14.0 obviously), I'd be interested how that conclusion was reached.
All packages bar about 3 or 4 in 14.0 were recompiled with the new gcc to bring in optimisations from the Linaro project in order to try and gain any efficiencies possible.

I think it's a great guide too, although needing refinement in a few areas. Which is why feedback such as found in this thread is very welcome and greatly appreciated. It's the first guide of its kind which FatDog.eu have done and there was a Yorkshireman involved so it's bound to have a few creases which need ironing out here and there. :p

More 'taxing' = the RPi ran at a higher temperature during installation and operation under 14.0 than it did under 13.37 when the tests were carried out. Higher temperatures meant the RPi was working harder, etc.

That particular section of the guide has been re-worded to eliminate any confusion or misinterpritation. :)

Thanks for the site, it looks great and answers some questions I had when I put Slackware on my Pi (like freeing up space on /boot).
Do you have any plans to add an alternative section to the rpi-update that would instead use the packages from ponce's updated firmware?
http://ponce.cc/slackware/slackwarea.../raspi-extras/

Hi and thank you too for your interest. It seems the purpose for which this site was designed is being realised and that can only be a good thing.

Manually updating the firmware is something that's been discussed frequently, because it's more in line with the "Slackware way" of doing things. The rpi-update script is a great and simple tool to use but it doesn't tell you (or teach you) anything about what you're doing with your software, which you would gain from downloading and installing those packages individually. So, for this reason alone, there is benefit in providing an alternative guide to installing and updating the firmware.

When this will happen I'm not sure. It is certainly in the pipeline. :)

Thanks for the update, looking forward to your alternative walk-through!

I have installed it (slackware 14.0) on my brand new raspberry pi yesterday, pretty straighforward, especially with http://rpi.fatdog.eu/ tutorial, but i have 2 problems.

• There is no entry in the desktop choice for xfce despite the fact the packages are there. Not really a problem, it can be installed later, but, still i wonder why. (i also think xfce fit well with pi capabilities)
• And when i boot i have an error id s0 respawning too fast.
  The console don't load, i am stuck there.

There seems to be an init problem but i can't figure how to go over it with my current newbie knowledge.
I commented out the line in /etc/inittab, there was no more message, but as expected tty1 didn't spawn either.
I gladly accept any links, clues that can help me figure it out myself, or an explanation if you are kind enough, and if it's a known issue, then sorry for not having searched enough.

:newbie:

EDIT: Well, i guess i must first learn to read, and Penthux is right, automated things don't let you fully understand what you are doing.
Now i understand why i have this error and how correct it.

Merry Christmas worax (and to the rest of you wonderful Slackers)! It's great that "Santa" brought you something that's very usefull, great fun, and contains ZERO calories (unlike most other things around you at this time of year).

I'm sorry to hear of your problem(s) installing Slackware ARM on your Raspberry Pi. Now, this is an interesting problem because I have experienced exactly the same issues - but only with the Chinese manufactured RPi - the U.K. manufactured RPi does not suffer the same errors, in my experience. I have both the Chinese and U.K. manufactured Raspberry Pi model B (rev 2.0), and if I install Slackware ARM 14.0 on each of them, the U.K. manufactured RPi runs as smooth as silk and without any problems what-so-ever, where the Chinese manufactured RPi has quite a few problems installing Slackware ARM 13.37/14.0 - if indeed it will install at all! I forget how many times I've ran through the installation with the Chinese version of the RPi in order to try and understand exactly why this is only happening on this piece of hardware. Sometimes the installation goes ok without any problems until I hit the login prompt after the first reboot, at which time I receive the "id s0 respawning too fast" message. Other times I have found the SD card boot config has become corrupt, or the file system, or a multitude of other errors along the way at any point in between. It just makes no sense to me at all!!! I assumed (always the wrong thing to do, I know :p) that the hardware on all Raspberry Pi models, no matter where they were made, would be identical. Apparently not.

I eventually gave up and resorted to Google and found the answer(s) on Dave's Collective here - http://www.daves-collective.co.uk/raspi/system.shtml. Installing the raspi-hacks package solved everything! (Love you Dave! <3) This does, however, depend on a successful Slackware ARM install, which is something that seems to be a very "hit-n-miss" affair on the Chinese manufactured Raspberry Pi.

As for Xfce, you're right on both counts! During the Slackware ARM 14.0 install there is no option to select Xfce as your desktop in the menu - and Xfce is the best option for me (so it seems) to use as a desktop. Incidentally, just as you did, I installed it manually. Obviously this is something which needs to be addressed because there are no clear instructions on what to do under these circumstances for those who aren't familiar with installing Slackware and/or dealing with Slackware package management. I will make a point of harrassing the FatDog.eu guys about it after Christmas. Thanks for pointing it out. :)

I hope you all have a great Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Thanks for your reply, indeed i have the chinese version.
I was trumped out by the fact that raspi-hacks should have been installed automatically.
At first i though of corrupted data during the transfer from ftp://ftp.armedslack.org/ or the read/write activity during the install. (usb and sdhc card can be tricky trickster :rolleyes:)
I tried to install the package via another computer, mounting just the root partition (sd3 or mmcblk0p3), then installpkg, just to see if it could prevent me to go through another install.
But it failed (i failed is more accurate, because i still think it's possible,i'll give it another try, but correct me if i am wrong), so i guess i have to do it the long way again. :)

This is because Dave hasn't updated the Rasperry Pi stuff for 14.0. The installer he provides is for 13.37 when there was no separate XFCE 'series'.
I'm not sure what happened to Dave, but it'll be reasonably simple to update the installer to use 14.0's installer initrd.

When running the installer, if it has Internet access you can replace the old version of the script with the newer one before you get started with config & installation:


That should be enough to give you the XFCE window manager option.

Ok, i understand.
For xfce, i was doing:
Maybe it's ill luck but after 3 reinstalls installing manually raspi-hacks i still got the same error.
Am i doing something wrong ?
I don't see any difference in /etc/inittab, so i guess raspi-hacks doesn't apply well.
it should be something like that ?
I understand that there is more than just simply editing /etc/inittab for making it works, but it's beyond my current knowledge. (gogo rtfm :D)

I tried several times, always ending the same manner.
I notice raspi-hacks doesn't apply, i have to manualy edit /mnt/etc/inittab. (it was just a line after all, but know i understand why ttyAMA0)
I just changed ttys0 by -L ttyAMA0, but i don't know why this time when it boot, i had an adapted resolution on screen (the other times i had the last lines out at the bottom even with this already tried inittab edition).
So there wasn't the message s0 id respawning too fast, and i saw the login entry.
But my keyboard was not working, and i think i had the same issue before, what i though that was a problem of displaying the console was in fact the keyboard not responding anymore. (because of the login being out of the screen display the other times)
It was responding during all the install.
I don't understand why it's not working anymore when i reboot.
Anyway i almost gave up, and installed the Stanley Garvey 8GB image on another SD card, and it's works ... obviously (and my keyboard too).
But still i wonder why i have this keyboard problem. (it's not a problem of usb power output since it worked during the installation)