[SOLVED] Slackware not booting

z80 · 12-25-2022, 11:07 AM

I'm unable to get Slackware 15 (current) running on a new laptop.
The laptop in question is UEFI only.

Things I've tried so far:
- LUKS+LVM
- LUKS encrypted root
- unencryped root (nu LUKS, no LVM)

The result is always the same: elilo loads the kernel and initrd and then hangs forever.
No error message during installation, no error message during boot.

I tried Ubuntu and Manjaro - no problems.

Ideas?

camorri · 12-25-2022, 12:36 PM

Quote:

The result is always the same: elilo loads the kernel and initrd and then hangs forever.

This sounds like elilo can not find your root partition. That said, what is the current state of your install with respect to luks and lvm.

Could you post the output of lsblk -f and the contents of elilo.conf.

Is this a multi-boot system? Are you using a boot manager?

Jan K. · 12-25-2022, 07:17 PM

Edie may have a tip or two? https://blog.edie.io/2019/06/16/slac...lvm-over-luks/

z80 · 12-27-2022, 09:06 AM

really nothing fancy ..

lsblk -f

Code:

sda                                             8:16   0 465,8G  0 disk  
├─sda1                                          8:17   0     1G  0 part  
├─sda2                                          8:18   0     5G  0 part  
└─sda3                                          8:19   0 459,8G  0 part  
  └─cryptvg                                   254:1    0 459,7G  0 crypt 
    ├─cryptvg-root                            254:2    0    64G  0 lvm   
    └─cryptvg-home                            254:3    0   384G  0 lvm

sda1 is the EFI partition, sda2 is the unencrypted /boot

elilo.conf

Code:

chooser=simple
delay=1
timeout=1
#
image=vmlinuz
        label=vmlinuz
        initrd=initrd.gz
        read-only
        append="root=/dev/mapper/cryptvg-root vga=normal ro"

and yes there is an appropriate initrd.gz in place and yes, kernel and initrd.gz were copied to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware

I've likely installed Slackware a hundred times over the years and this isn't the first UEFI install either.

colorpurple21859 · 12-27-2022, 09:23 AM

Maybe a video issue that elilo can't handle, give grub a try and have
one of the following lines added to the menuentry
insmod all_video
insmod eif_uga
insmod efi_gop

ldarby · 03-26-2023, 12:48 PM

This issue is probably the same as the issue in this thread:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...re-4175671086/ (specifically, this message: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6420414)

TLDR: check the framebuffer address with lspci -vv

Quote:

lspci -vv | grep -A 10 VGA.*controller

If that shows e.g.

Quote:

Region 0: Memory at XYZ (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]

then this system can't be booted with elilo. (it actually can boot, just has no display). If it shows 32 bit, then the problem where it "hangs" after elilo loads the kernel and initrd has a different root cause from that thread.

If this new laptop has a CDROM drive and you booted the installer off that, the CDROM installer uses grub to boot, not elilo, this is why the installer works in this case.

JinxsDad · 04-05-2023, 08:10 AM

I'm having a similar issue. I loaded v15 from dvd and grub just puts me in a grub recovery or repair (one of those), so I'm having to use a usb boot stick. I was going to keep M$ CrashOs around for bit, but an accident with a partitioning app ended that, so Slackware has the entire 1 TB SSD. I only mention that so your know I'm not dual booting. I'm using a Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming (gamedev for me) laptop with the dreaded (didn't know at the time) Nvidia gtx gpu. Its default is UEFI, but I have had to keep it set to legacy/legacy first for booting at all.

So I'm interested in any solutions that would work on my laptop.

Thanks

PS: I'll be posting in separate posts about a few other issues (dual mirrored monitors, lack of sound, and setting the display timer to 0, aka don't blank the screen, just so anyone here familiar with those know). Again, thanks!