[SOLVED] mkinitrd couldn't find libmpfr.so.4 (slak64 14.1)

ockeghem · 05-26-2014, 09:04 PM

I am trying to install slak64 14.1 on LVM volumes. Machine has Debian already.
I Skipped LILO.
First problem: mkinitrd_command_generator didn't exist.
Found /mnt/lib/modules/3.10.17 so I chrooted and said:
mkinitrd -c -k 3.10.17 -m ext4 -f ext4 -r /dev/oldtoshiba/slakroot -L
Second (bad) problem: mkinitrd said it created /boot/initrd.gz but
there were error messages from awk "couldn't find libmpfr.so.4"(three times).
This library is multiprecision floating point so I decided to
ignore messages and go with it

Ran Debian update-grub and got 4 (!) menu entries in grub.cfg.
I rebooted and selected this one:

Code:

{menuentry "Slackware Linux (Slackware 14.1) (on /dev/mapper/oldtoshiba-slakroot)" --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
        insmod lvm
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ext2
        set root='(oldtoshiba-slakroot)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 32bd7aba-1588-4d51-a362-f8aabc043b32
        linux /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/dm-6
        initrd /boot/initrd.gz
}

There was another identical one, and two others that didn't
mention initrd. They had a line
linux /boot/vmlinuz-generic-3.10.17 root=/dev/dm-6
Third problem (which was not too surprising): Got kernel panic "can't find shared libraries libn.so.6".
What should I do now?

Didier Spaier · 05-27-2014, 03:13 AM

Hi and welcome to this forum.

I don't know much about grub, but to get a proper initrd you should run the command /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh (you need to type the full path). If need be you can chroot into your Slackware to do that, then don't forget to bind mount dev proc and sys before. You can also use the DVD to boot your installed Slackware (maybe that's what you already did?)

Also, awk (actually gawk to what /bin/awk is symlinked), needs mpfr as a dependency, that is part of the l/ series of Slackware packages. If you didn't install it, do that first. More generally, better make a full Slackware installation. That is recommended for Slackware newcomers as if you miss some Slackware package as a dependency of another one, no tool included in Slackware will tell you, let alone install it for you.

Oh and I don't know where the message "can't find shared libraries libn.so.6" comes from, but in any case libn.so.6 is not shipped in Slackware64-14.1. Do you confirm the spelling?

ockeghem · 05-27-2014, 08:13 PM

Thanks Didier.
I did full install.
After chroot /mnt, I could do /mkinitrd_command_generator.sh .
Installation went fine.
By the way, it was libn.so.6. I booted the bad installation again
just to be sure.
______________
jon