Okay, I give up. How does one install Slackware from an ISO image? I've read the thread here at LQ and the Slackware FAQ. Installing from an ISO simply does not work.

For some reason, when installing from a mounted directory, the setup script fails to create a /mnt/etc directory in which to create the fstab table from the Target partitions. Eventually I solved that problem by toggling to another console and creating the /mnt/etc directory. That got me past the infamous "I can't read the error messages at the bottom of the screen because they go by too fast" problem. Those error messages, by the way, are

/usr/lib/setup: cannot create /mnt/etc/fstab: no such file or directory.

But that is as far as I got. The script goes through all the motions according to Hoyle, but no matter which installation option I choose, nothing gets installed and the setup script proceeds through that point as though everything got installed and asks me if I want to start configuring the system.

I cannot install from CD because of a flaky CD drive. I've been booting from the three floppies, but other than being time consuming I've had no issues with booting that way.

I've had no problems mounting the ISO images. I mounted the images to /iso1 and /iso2, and as instructed in the README, I did not mount inside the RAM disk /mnt directory.

When asked for the mount point I type /iso1. The script proceeds on to the installation type section and this is where things fails. BTW, if I type /iso1/slackware the script fails immediately and returns to the main menu.

Before retrying I deleted /mnt/etc/fstab and the soft link to /var/log/mount.

Why does the setup script think everything is installed? There must be a file being created that the setup script watches for when the installation is complete. What is that file?

So what do I do next? Are there any workarounds?

maybe I can help you.

losetup /dev/loop0 /path/to/iso
(associate /dev/loop0 to iso)
mount /dev/loop0 /path/to/mount/point
(associated loop0 device will act as a normal device)

also, you can put your ISO is a ramdrive by itself if you've got the sufficiant RAM...
This is a short command list in one of my old post in LQ, containing commands I searched around the 'net and manual...
(http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=117844)

preparatory command, first run, don't need to run ever again!
mknod -m 755 /dev/ram b 1 1

then:
chown mimithebrain:disk /dev/ram
mount -t ramfs /dev/ram /mnt/ramdrive
chown mimithebrain /mnt/ramdrive

Thanks for trying to help.

The losetup command does not exist in the setup ram disk, but that's okay because the mount command shows that the iso file is mounted with the loop0 device.

I have no problems reading the ISO image.

Only have 256 MB of RAM, so I don't think the ram disk idea will help.

Today I did some more snooping in the setup scripts and I noticed that the scripts are creating the setup.in file, but for whatever reason are not copying the tagfiles from the ISO source to /mnt/var/log/setup/tmp/tagfiles. Probably because the appropriate variables are not being created and passed to the slackinstall script.

I'd be grateful if any of you script gurus could confirm this. Perhaps I found a bug in the setup scripts with respect to installing from a mounted directory.

i also have same problem
can read the file on the iso image after boot
but failed install

what are the remaining problems? Maybe I missed something here... it's not fixed?

Same as originally stated. Installing from an ISO does not work.

I fear I can't help you further (I don't understand quite well how the distro installs, or how to fix it to make it work correctly). Maybe someone else has a better suggestion.

For these moments where you can't see the error messages, you may want to use "less" or "more" if you want to capture the output of a program that doesn't require input.

Thx all the same
but there is even no logs, no error message.

it proccessed that: menu mode waw selcted, it begin to install
then it show the message that: the install and configueration was finished,

maybe there is a fatal bug in the setup script.

i have an idea:
if install from pre-mounted directry, will not work,
we can test it install from "cd-rom"

just mount the iso image to cdrom
#mount -o loop -t iso9660 /path/to/d1.iso /cdrom
then when choose the media, just chose from "cd"
( i think that install boot from cd, the files are just in "/cdrom/", am i right?)

my notebook is not around, maybe Woodsman you can have a try first.
also i will have a try later.
Good luck to you and i

Genius! That should do it

I thought about trying that, but then I got impatient with restoring my box and I held my breath while I installed the /a packages from the CD. I then finished the installation manually from the ISO image.

I already fully restored my box, but I might try your idea later, testing with one package. Even if that works, that still does not explain why Option 4 fails. Perhaps there is a conceptual problem with most people in how PV intended Option 4 to perform, or perhaps there is a bug in the script. I think the latter because as I mentioned above, I noticed that the script fails to copy the tagfiles from the source to the temp directories. I don't know why. The link in the temp directory (/var/log/mount IIRC) was pointed to the mounted ISO image. Additionally, the setup script had no problem displaying a list of packages, which it can obtain only from the source location. The setup script just doesn't work with Option 4.

Right now I think all the Slack gurus are on vacation this week so when they return hopefully one of them investigates. FWIW, I'm willing to help troubleshoot or test a revised script.

pity.
i have tested my idea, it failed again
chosed "CD", then it will let you chose the device, cant cheat it.
that 's a bug, how to report?

this site might be of interest for reporting bugs : http://www.slackware.org/contact/