slackpkg upgrade-all on an i486 leads to an unbootable system

RuebeSoft · 05-27-2021, 04:59 AM

After a workaround the basis system could be successfully installed on qemu with cpu type 486 and also the inital boot from disk works with this workaround:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ls-4175695638/

But unfortunately after executing:
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install-new
# slackpkg upgrade-all
# slackpkg clean-system
and rebooting it gives this error on the boot process:

"This kernel requires an i586 CPU, but only detected an i486 CPU.
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU."

How can I fix this?
And how can I tell the system installing only i486 kernel/packages to prevent this issue on next upgrade?

business_kid · 05-27-2021, 05:17 AM

IIRC, at some point slackware upgraded 32bit to i586, and you can no longer tell it to install only 486 packages. the '486 was a product of the 1990s, and the i586 had a superior instruction set, and is a base minimum for 32bit these days.

The solutions would be to stay on your 486 kernel, or compile a kernel similat to your 586 kernel, but configure it for 486 only.

RuebeSoft · 05-27-2021, 02:27 PM

However, your statement is contrary to what is written on the official homepage of Slackware:

Quote:

Slackware Linux doesn't require an extremely powerful system to run (though having one is quite nice

. It will run on systems as far back as the 486. Below is a list of minimum system requirements needed to install and run Slackware.

486 processor
64MB RAM (1GB+ suggested)
About 5GB+ of hard disk space for a full install
CD or DVD drive (if not bootable, then a bootable USB flash stick or PXE server/network card)

I can understand that nearly nobody uses 486s nowadays. Especially not to work properly, since no office program or internet browser runs on it. Still, there are many enthusiasts out there who keep their classic computers, like Tandy TRS-80 or Apple II alive. These people, and I am one of them, wish for a slim Linux to run their emulators e.g. with old 5.25" floppies.
I hoped to have found a simple solution with Slackware.

Petri Kaukasoina · 05-27-2021, 02:52 PM

You could try Slackware 14.1. It will run on a 486.

igadoter · 05-27-2021, 03:19 PM

This is just smp versus non-smp kernel. In old times were both.

Gordie · 05-27-2021, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RuebeSoft

However, your statement is contrary to what is written on the official homepage of Slackware:

I can understand that nearly nobody uses 486s nowadays. Especially not to work properly, since no office program or internet browser runs on it. Still, there are many enthusiasts out there who keep their classic computers, like Tandy TRS-80 or Apple II alive. These people, and I am one of them, wish for a slim Linux to run their emulators e.g. with old 5.25" floppies.
I hoped to have found a simple solution with Slackware.

The information on the website is wrong in many areas and needs badly to be corrected and updated to bring it up to snuff

RuebeSoft · 05-28-2021, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Petri Kaukasoina

You could try Slackware 14.1. It will run on a 486.

Yes, that was a good hint. With 14.1 the setup runs without problems. This could be an option for i486 computers.

But now I got an error with slackpkg. Seems a dependency is missing:

"awk: error while loading shared libraries: libmpfr.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

# find / -iname "libmfr*"
/usr/lib/libmpfr.so.1.2.2
/urs/lib/libmpfr.so.1

There's no libmpfr.so.4 installed. How can I install it?

RuebeSoft · 05-28-2021, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordie

The information on the website is wrong in many areas and needs badly to be corrected and updated to bring it up to snuff

Yes, it seems to be. And it really should be changed, because that saves a lot of wasted time.

Petri Kaukasoina · 05-28-2021, 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RuebeSoft

There's no libmpfr.so.4 installed. How can I install it?

It's in l/mpfr-3.1.2-i486-1.txz

(You can find it by looking at MANIFEST.bz2)

business_kid · 05-28-2021, 05:45 AM

You need to know something about libraries. The same library comes in 3 forms

Code:

bash-5.1$ ls -lh /usr/lib64/libmpfr*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Feb 15 13:24 /usr/lib64/libmpfr.so -> libmpfr.so.6.1.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Feb 15 13:24 /usr/lib64/libmpfr.so.6 -> libmpfr.so.6.1.0
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.7M Jan 20 20:06 /usr/lib64/libmpfr.so.6.1.0

You can the 2 symlinks from my own box. If you read the version number as libmpfr.so.x.y.z

An increment in Z means a bug fix.
An increment in Y means a feature addition.
An increment in X means a compatability break.

Now your program wants libmpfr.so.4, but you've been pointed at libmpfr.so.3. So it might work if you run a line like

Code:

[sudo] ln -sf /usr/lib/libmpfr.so.3 /usr/lib/libmpfr.so.4

but probably you will need libmpfr.so.4.

RuebeSoft · 05-30-2021, 04:36 AM

The symlink did it. Now I can use slackpkg.

business_kid · 05-30-2021, 04:45 AM