The new computer with its Ryzen CPU created some issues for me. To start with… I had not considered the possibility that a Ryzen CPU would not have an embedded GPU and so I did not order a graphics card. Bad idea!
I ended up ripping a GPU from one of my other computers (the only PCI-express card I could find) and plugging that into the new computer. That gave me a working video instead of a monitor that kept falling asleep.
Next came Slackware. When I booted the Slackware 14.2 installer, it did not give me a network connection. The Slackware Live Edition (based on slackware-current) worked properly on the other hand. But the graphics card I plugged into the computer did not work too well with the nouveau driver – whenever I started Chromium, it was inevitable that the computer would lock up after some time. Initially I blamed this on the computer hardware and feared that I bought a dead duck, but once I stopped running Chromium in the graphical desktop of Slackware Live, the system would remain operational. Since it is not going to be used as a desktop system and I will access it only remotely, that buggy nouveau driver is not a big issue and I could still install the binary Nvidia blob if needed.
So, the question became: I want to run a stable Slackware release on my new build server, but how am I going to install it? I was facing two major issues:
- The installer of Slackware 14.2 does not support NVMe boot devices (the new type of SSD hard drives with a M.2 PCI-express interface)
- The Slackware 14.2 installer lacks network capability on this new hardware, so I would have to perform a local install
I could spend a USB stick, putting the Slackware 14.2 DVD ISO on it, but then I still would have to patch the installer and I would not have a network connection after reboot. Considering the fact that slackware-current’s kernel works much better and NVMe support was added to the -current installer recently, I decided on a different approach.
I used a slackware-current based liveslak to setup the computer with Slackware 14.2 and then added a 4.9 kernel using the configfile for this kernel as found in slackware-current.
Steps taken:
- Obtain a recent ISO of the Slackware Live Edition which is based on slackware-current (for instance, the 2.7 GB bleeding edge version or else the 700 MB XFCE based edition)
- Write the ISO to a USB stick and boot liveslak. Now you have a proper graphical environment where you can query Google/DuckDuckGo and download anything you need.
- We can not use the “setup2hd” of liveslak because that will install slackware-current and I want 14.2. So, download the smallest installer we can get: slackware64-current-mini-install.iso which contains just the kernel and the installer (no packages) and is slightly more than 100 MB in size:
# wget http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware/slackware64-current-iso/slackware64-current-mini-install.iso - Download my “extract_initramfs.sh” script which makes it easier to extract the initrd.gz file containing the installer:
# wget http://www.slackware.com/~alien/tools/extract_initramfs.sh - Partition the SSD drive. The M.2 interface results in a character device /dev/nvme0 and a namespace block device /dev/nvme0n1. The first partition on this device will be called /dev/nvme0n1p1. The installer in Slackware 14.2 can not handle this new namespacing format. The one in -current can.
This is a UEFI computer, and I want Slackware to use this. That requires a FAT partition which will be used as the EFI system partition. Slackware will mount this partition at /boot/efi. I created a 100 MB partition of type EF00 (EFI system) and formatted this with:
# mkdosfs -F32 -s 2 -n “EFI” /dev/nvme0n1p1
The remainder of the disk is partitioned with swap (yes even with 64 GB of RAM it is still a good idea to add some swap space), and additional partitions are created for /, /boot, /var, /tmp and /home . - Extract the installer from this mini ISO into a new directory “/root/initrd64-current“:
# mount -o loop slackware64-current-mini-install.iso /mnt/tmp
# sh extract_initramfs.sh /mnt/tmp/isolinux/initrd.img /root/initrd64-current - Get the installer running in the terminal while we are still in a liveslak graphical Desktop Environment:
# mount -o bind /dev /root/initrd64-current/dev
# mount -o bind /proc /root/initrd64-current/proc
# mount -o bind /sys /root/initrd64-current/sys
# chroot /root/initrd64-current - Inside this chroot-ed installer environment, run the ‘setup‘ command and proceed as usual with the installation of Slackware64 14.2 from a network server. The liveslak has already taken care of the network connectivity. I have NFS and HTTP servers at home, providing package trees but I pick NFS because that is much faster. I pointed the installer to a Slackware64-14.2 package source and did a full install (first time ever that I installed the Emacs package, go figure).
- At the end of the installation, do note yet exit! Instead, run “chroot /mnt” to enter the freshly installed system. Configure slackpkg with a suitable mirror, then run:
# slackpkg upgrade-all
This will install all the latest patches including the latest kernel. - Finally, blacklist the kernel-generic and kernel-modules so that slackpkg will never replace our kernel accidentally.
- Create an initrd (the /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh script will help you finding the correct parameters) and copy the generic kernel and this initrd to the EFI partition. This is the elilo.conf file I ended up with:
# cat /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf chooser=simple delay=50 timeout=50 default=slackware142 image=vmlinuz label=huge142 read-only append="root=/dev/nvme0n1p7 vga=normal ro" image=vmlinuz-generic-4.4.75 label=slackware142 initrd=initrd_4.4.75.gz read-only append="root=/dev/nvme0n1p7 vga=normal ro"
- Now that the Slackware 14.2 installation is complete we have to ensure that we add a working kernel to it. I want to use the kernel as found in slackware-current because I know the 4.9.x series is good (liveslak proved that) and because slackware-current contains a kernel config that I can just re-use. Download the kernel source, and the kernel packaging scripts so that we can compile a kernel and its modules manually but still can wrap the results in package format and install those. Warning – when you try this at home, the actual kernel version may have moved beyond the “4.9.44” which I use in the example below. Just substitute the actual version instead:
# CWD=$(pwd)
# lftp -c “open http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackware64-current/source; mirror k”
# cd k/
# tar -C /usr/src -xf linux-4.9.44.tar.xz
# cp config-x86_64/config-generic-4.9.44.x64 /usr/src/linux-4.9.44/.config
Now we can compile that kernel (yes I compile kernels as root):
# cd /usr/src/linux-4.9.44
# make oldconfig
# make -j 15 all
# make install
Now that the kernel is installed as /boot/bzimage and the modules as /lib/modules/4.9.44 we use the Slackware packaging scripts to create two packages:
# cd $CWD/k/packaging-x86_64/kernel-generic
# ./kernel-generic.SlackBuild
# cd $CWD/k/packaging-x86_64/kernel-modules
# ./kernel-modules.SlackBuild
The two packages in /tmp can then be installed using “installpkg”. Do not use “upgradepkg” with your kernels – you will want to keep at least one previous kernel. The kernel-modules package will essentialy overwrite what’s in /lib/modules/4.9.44 but now with a package, we can control it through the package manager if needed. The kernel-generic package will have installed the new kernel as /boot/vmlinuz-generic-4.9.44. Copy that kernel to the EFI partition, and create a new initrd in the same location to match the kernel:
# cp /boot/vmlinuz-generic-4.9.44 /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/
# $(/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -k 4.9.44 -r -a “-o /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/initrd_4.9.44.gz”)
Add a section for the new kernel to elilo.conf. You can just copy the existing section for “label=slackware142” and change the version numbers. Make sure that the “default” keyword has this new label as its value. We want the new kernel to boot by default. - Exit the installed system’s chroot:
# exit - Then exit the installer’s chroot:
# exit - We are almost done. Unfortunately the eliloconfig of Slackware 14.2 did not add a Slackware entry to the computer’s EFI boot menu. So now that we are back in liveslak we need to fix this omission using the eliloconfig of slackware-current which is part of our liveslak:
# eliloconfig /setup2hd /dev/nvme0n1p7
This assumes the installed system is mounted under /setup2hd and the root partition is /dev/nvme0n1p7 . Change the parameters to match your situation. This time you will see that the Slackware entry is being created. - Reboot the system.
- Have fun!
If I have omitted anything or steps are unclear, let me know. Now that I have Slackware on it, I can start thinking of how to add a virtualization solution. Either use my old scripts that wrap qemu and are very convenient and versatile, or go for qemu with libvirt and manage my virtual machines with virt-manager. The possibilities are endless. But first I need to get on with virtualizing my current server’s OS… its LAN services must stay operational but then in a VM on the new hardware.
There was some issue with the Ryzen cpu and Linux. Not sure if you’re one of the ones affected, but: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ryzen-Segv-Response
So the segfaults you have might not be video card related.
The segfaults happen during parallel compilation tasks where the CPU is stressed. I compiled the linux kernel twice in a row – on 15 of its 16 cores, and that took 7.5 minutes both times, without any issue or error.
The issue seems to affect older batches of Ryzen, perhaps I have one that’s new enough.
Just yesterday, Sunday, my time, I drove to the nearest large computer store and bought a Asus Prime B350-Plus motherboard, a Ryzen 5 1400 CPU and 16 gigs of RAM.
Put my “old” Nvidia GT-730 video card in it and attached my existing SSD which had both winXp and Slackware64-current on it.
Booted right up into Slackware. No fuss, no muss. It won’t boot winXp, but I expected that.
In honor of the new hardware, this morning I did a fresh install of Slackware64-current, added your multilib files and several others and it has been off to the races.
I re-partitioned the SSD, putting a 100 meg EFI partition on it, four gigs for a swap file (not sure that is really needed anymore) about a 50 gig boot/system directory and the rest
is /home.
So far, so good.
The actuall “fresh” install took less than twenty minutes. The rest of the time was installing and tweaking this and that.
As I said, so far, so good.
No surprises.
I’m looking for information on editing the elilo.conf file. I would like to see a graphic come up on the screen a la lilo.conf. That can wait.
🙂
For many years, when I installed slackware on a new computer, I had already slackware(64)-current installed and working on some other computer. I installed then on the new computer from a DVD built from the slackware(64)-current tree. I realize that probably in many cases it had been impossible to install from the official slackware DVDs.
But generally newcomers will know only the official distribution. Is not it a problem ?
Hi Helios.
No, I do not think that is a problem. Newcomers to Slackware should work with the stable release and not try to mess with -current. If they own hardware which does not work with Slackware, then there’s the LQ forum for questions and answers. Also, I created liveslak so that you can easily test new hardware for compatibility with Slackware 14.2 and -current. Just boot the Live ISO and see what works (or not).
9 out of 10 cases I just restore on the new computer a backup of the install on the old one.
There are some minor things to be taken care of — /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules, /etc/fstab and /etc/hosts come to mind — but that is all.
14.2 almost works with NVMe. The installer simply doesn’t search for a EFI partition on an NVMe disk. This can be fixed by a minor modification of the script /usr/lib/setup/SeTEFI in initrd.img inside usbboot.img. Details (obvious) are in this post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/requests-for-current-20151216-a-4175561577/page60.html#post5538267
In this way I already installed 14.2 on 3 computers with NVMe SSDs.
Congrats Eric on the new hardware and also Thank you for this detailed writeup. I plan to print it out for my next hardware upgrade of both laptop and desktop. Cheers
The only problem I’ve had with the new Ryzen chip, so far, is
VirtualBox. The most recent version, doesn’t see the USB ports…. Well, I should say VB as host sees them, but the “guest” does not. Doesn’t matter switch way I set the preferences.
Perhaps, Oracle has a new version in the wings.
Well, the problem with VirtualBox and USB ports is not the fault of the CPU or VirtualBox.
Turns out, “….all USB devices connected to the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports are controlled by the xHCI controller.”
And, according to Intel, “…the Intel xHCI USB driver is not supported on Windows XP or Windows Vista,” and Xp is what is running as a VirtualBox guest.
Had I known that I would have shopped for a different motherboard….. OTOH, I wouldn’t be surprised if USB support is the same on all recent motherboards.
Hi Eric,
Congrats on the new server! (I’m so jealous!)
As for virtualization, I hope you go the libvirt route, as it is the most versatile.
I use a mix of my own scripts (that use libvirt) and virt-manager.
Using virt-manager for managing VMs on a remote host (via ssh connection) is so convenient!
You can always mod your scripts to wrap libvirt instead of qemu directly 🙂
Anyway, I’ll stay tuned to your adventures with the new server as they are guaranteed to produce interesting stuff for the Slackware community.
I’m specially looking forward to your jenkins project and how you’ll integrate it with virtualization to build Slackware packages on a “clean” environment.
Best wishes,
Slax-Dude
Hi!
What benefits brings separate partitions for /tmp and /var?
As I understand it, some like to mount / as Read Only, but /tmp and /var hold temporary files, state data, and other data that changes during system up time so they need to be Read/Write.
My prefernce is to only have /home as a separate partition and leave / as rw. Probably a bit less secure but handy for my home systems.
I think if I were to do multiple partitions that I would use btrfs and use logical mounts. That way the file system can allocate the space to a given mount point as needed. This seems to eliminate the concern of whether /tmp or /var were made big enough or too big.
Hi Eric,
What did you end up using for managing your vm’s? virt-manager or qemu scripts?
Slackware live 1.9 I can´t compile VLC, the error say xlocal.h is missing, besaides is not possible to compile live555.
David, I fail to see how your remark is relevant to the article you are posting it in.
Just to prevent you posting this twice, here is my answer: join the online Slackware forum where these slackware-current related compilation issues are discussed every day, and the solutions posted as well.
Bottomline: your question is irrelevant to the article above, and in addition your issue has nothing to do with Slackware Live.
Hi, I am trying to follow your article to install slackware 14.2 onto a new M.2 nvme disk. However, I am getting lost at the beginning. When I extract the mini ISO (slackware64-current-mini-install.iso) into a new directory /root/initrd64-current is that on the current hard disk or on the new nvme disk ? And if I have mounted the newly formatted nvme disk on /mnt/tmp then is the chroot to /root/initrd64-current to do the new installation on the new disk (therefore /mnt/tmp/root/initrd64-current) or on the current hard disk (therefore /root/initrd64-current) ?
Thanks.
David.
David Fenlon, I thought that was pretty clear.
When you start, you do not have an installation on that NVMe disk yet. You do all these steps in the Live environment, i.e. in a RAM based filesystem. There’s a distinct difference before and after you do the chroot.
The /root directory is that of the live environment (before the chroot). And the only thing you mount on /mnt/tmp is the mini ISO – also before the chroot.
Once you have chroot-ed you are inside the directory structure of the installer and the /mnt there is something different than the /mnt of the live OS (i.e. before the chroot).
Examine these steps again. Analyze what they do, and where they do it: in the RAM-based filesystem Live OS, inside the chroot of the extracted installer, or on the fresh NVMe harddisk.
Hello again, Thanks for the quick reply. And yes, I agree, it is very clear. And idiot proof except for an idiot like me who misses out a crucial step. I missed out the step of booting the liveslak usb (quite an important step eh !). I have now got to the part of building the new kernel (4.14.23). The make went O.K. but the make install fails with the message “Fatal: Cannot open: /etc/lilo.conf”. The full output of the make install command is :
root@darkstar:/usr/src/linux-4.14.23# make install
sh ./arch/x86/boot/install.sh 4.14.23 arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
System.map “/boot”
Fatal: Cannot open: /etc/lilo.conf
arch/x86/boot/Makefile:192: recipe for target ‘install’ failed
make[1]: *** [install] Error 1
arch/x86/Makefile:308: recipe for target ‘install’ failed
make: *** [install] Error 2
root@darkstar:/usr/src/linux-4.14.23#
I don’t know what obvious mistake I have made this time because I copied and pasted the commands from your instruction page on the web (obviously changing the kernel version numbers) and I only used -j 6 in the make command.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
David.
I think is important to remark that eliloconfig need params with no trail “/”.
eliloconfig /setup2hd /dev/nvme0n1p7 # works
eliloconfig /my/dir/ /dev/sda1 # doesn’t works
Alienbob writes it rightly, but I spent mins to understand.
Hello Alienbob
I think I am somewhat lost, since I carry out your instructions to the letter, but when I write the setup command I get the following error “bash: setup: command not found”. Could you guide me to know what is happening please
Beforehand thank you very much
Best regards
Hi Alex,
If you followed these instructions to the letter you should have ended up in a ‘chroot’ environment, basically the same environment you’d have when booting a Slackware-current installation medium straight on that PC. The ‘setup’ program is part of the installation environment and it should start when you invoke it as ‘setup’. Your error indicates that you are not typing ‘setup’ in this ‘chroot’ environment.
In addition, this article was written more than 4 years ago, and things have progressed quite a bit.
For instance, the ‘setup2hd’ program of Slackware Live is nowadays able to install any version of Slackware from an online ftp or http(s) mirror. Perhaps you should just boot Slackware Live (after downloading a recent edition of course), and click the “Install Slackware” icon which you’ll find on your desktop after logging in. At some point (after partitioning your harddrive) you will see a dialog box asking you to pick the type of installation (the content of Slackware Live, or else any Slackware from a http/ftp mirror or even a local NFS server).
Thank you very much for your answer, it was a great surprise. I tried installing 14.2 from ftp, but when rebooting, the system could not boot. It gets stuck in the “Loading vmlinuz” message. Maybe what I have to do is rebuild an initrd.vz with the 4.4.14 kernel (14.2 installer), copy the vmlinuz and elilo.efi, create an elilo.conf pointing to the new initrd on the nvme drive? it’s possible?
Thank you
Best regards
Yes you are probably missing the initrd and the generic kernel is booting. The installer of liveslak (setup2hd) expects that Slackware’s setupscripts generate it, but that only happens for Slackware-current (pre-15.0).
If you installed the huge kernel from that Slackware 14.2 mirror you should not need an initrd.