Using a hard drive / partition as a source for Slack 13.0
 

I have a 3 Gb partition where I copied the contents of the 3 Slackware isos to folders cd1,2,3. I can't install from the CDs because I get several errors when I md5sum the files (probably a crappy drive...). The partition is /dev/sda5.

So I booted the installer from an USB stick, and when I get to the source part, I select Use HD as source, then I set /dev/sda5 when it asks for the partition where the installation is.

Then it asks where are the packages (/.../slackware/). In my case, I tried /cd1/.

Immediatly, the installer just says that it failed to mount the partition. I get the option to restart (and input the partition and path again) or ignore and continue.

It doesn't give more info than that.
I didn't try to ignore the problem... Trying again just gives the same error.

What could be the mounting problem? The partition is formatted as ext4.
Besides, since there are 3 folders where the packages are divided, will it ask for the other sources during install, like it asks for CDs?

Thanks in advance!

just a shot in the dark but wont it simply mount the iso images?

You mean, mount them before running setup, then run it and select pre-mounted points as sources? I was thinking of doing it...
But why the setup can't mount the partition I selected?

I still couldn't use the Hard Drive option... It still fails to mount.
But I installed by mounting the iso and using the Pre-mounted option... Installed fine :)

What's in /cd1/ ? The setup screen specifically asks for the directory that contains the 'a', 'ap', ... , 'xap', 'y' directories. Is that what you have in /cd1/ ?

Also, if you also have a /cd2 and /cd2 your installation will fail because there is no way to tell the installer that it has to continue with these after it has processed the packages in /cd1.
If you install from a harddisk partition, you have to make sure that all of the slackware package sets (a,ap,d,...,y) are located in one and the same directory.

Eric

Once upon a time I asked Pat to consider better support for installing from an ISO image on a local hard drive. I haven't looked into that in a long time to learn whether that support now exists. I do know that if you have the CD/DVD files installed to a local hard drive directory that you can select that location in the setup options. You have to know the partition location and full file path but the latter option is available.

I added ISO installation support while working on the installer to make it fit for Slackware64. Since we nowadays build the installer for all ARCH'es from the same source, 32-bit Slackware can now also be installed from an ISO on your local disk.

If you enter a path name to the "slackware" tree and a DVD ISO is found there instead of the 'a', 'ap' etc... directories, the ISO will be loop-mounted and used as the package source.
This is undocumented and largely untested, feel free to use this as an installation option and send me feedback on how well it worked for you.

Eric

The Twilight Zone theme song plays in the background....

Thanks for the info Eric. :)

Of course, my first feedback would be that if the option is undocumented that some instructions in the install script would be nice. :) I'll add the test to my to do list to provide additional feedback.

Eric,

I confirmed that installing from an ISO image works. Great!

To anybody reading this thread, the option to use an ISO image is found in the SOURCE Select source media section of the installer.

When in that section, select option number 6, Install from a pre-mounted directory.

The tricky part is as the installer describes: the directory must be pre-mounted. :) Before proceeding into the next setup section, toggle to an alternate console (Left Alt F2) and press Enter. Next create a mount point and then mount the partition containing the ISO image. Then return to the installer (Left Alt F1).

Or pre-mount the partition before running the setup script.

Next proceed with option 6. Manually type the path location of the ISO image. For example, /mnt/hdb. As Eric described, the installer automatically will find the ISO image and ask whether to use that image.

When would people use this option?

One reason would be to start the setup with a CD or DVD and then install all the packages from an ISO image. Much faster than a CD/DVD. This option also could help people with flaky CD/DVD drives.

A second reason is that once upon a time I devised a method for running setup directly from my hard drive. I did this because I was in my early days of testing various distros and multi-booted my system. I had many partitions on the hard drive to install and test distros. In those days I did not have a nice dual core system or fast CD drive. Installations were slow. Installing from an ISO image was much faster.

Back at that time, I still could install Slackware from an ISO image, but I had to create the mount point and then manually mount the ISO image with the loop device. The installer script now mounts the ISO image automatically but the partition must still be pre-mounted.

As you mentioned Eric, some documentation (or guidance directly in the ncurses installer text) is needed. :) But the option does indeed work!

Not per sé.

If you select "Install from a hard drive partition" instead, you can tell the installer what partition to mount so that you do not have to do this yourself.
Using an ISO file as the package source works with NFS installs, too (i.e. over the network).

But as I said, undocumented, and largely untested, so it will be unsupported for the time being (it was added as an easter egg and I hinted about it in my blog but no one took up the challenge at the time). Perhaps I will add it as a remark to CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT.

Eric

A procedure to install Slackware 13.0 from a local file system's directories-and-files structure built from the CD iso files is documented here.

I downloaded the isos from a mirror and copied the exact contents to those 3 folders. I noticed that I had to use the path to the folder with the a,kde,y... folders when I tried to just put in the path to the root of the DVD iso. Still, it seems to me that it fails to mount the folder even before checking if the packages are there.

So, in the end, I used this feature you implemented!