Apparent freeze during installation of system.

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mimosa
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by mimosa »

I still think that the best option for you as suggested several times above is to install the bootloader from Devuan, not using UUID for the Salix entry but (probably) /dev/sdd1. Even if this doesn't prove a stable solution, it should get you booting into your installation, and you can experiment with the initrd.

One important strategy for not getting out of one's depth is to try and keep things as simple as possible.

You are right that those instructions don't work as expected. We may get round to fixing it for the next release, but in any case, most people have EFI systems now and that is a whole different kettle of fish. So it may just cease to be a feature.

When help of this kind is offered on a distro's forum, the person making suggestions may well try it out at their end. However your scenario cannot really be replicated. This means working in the dark, whence the virtue of keeping things simple.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by globetrotterdk »

mimosa wrote:I still think that the best option for you as suggested several times above is to install the bootloader from Devuan, not using UUID for the Salix entry but (probably) /dev/sdd1. Even if this doesn't prove a stable solution, it should get you booting into your installation, and you can experiment with the initrd.
OK, I will try it if I ever get that far :) I still need the initrd.
mimosa wrote:One important strategy for not getting out of one's depth is to try and keep things as simple as possible.
Always try. Regarding the topic of this post, I had two goals - the obvious multiboot Lilo boot goal, but also I am interested in learning more about doing things the Salix/Slackware way. Otherwise, I would have moved on to a different distro by this point. At any rate, I am definitely learning new things :)
mimosa wrote:You are right that those instructions don't work as expected. We may get round to fixing it for the next release, but in any case, most people have EFI systems now and that is a whole different kettle of fish.
Thanks for the confirmation. That is by the way, why insist on running everything in legacy mode.
mimosa wrote:When help of this kind is offered on a distro's forum, the person making suggestions may well try it out at their end. However your scenario cannot really be replicated. This means working in the dark, whence the virtue of keeping things simple.
Understood.

The following is regarding the latest developments in my attempt to boot into my Salix system. As you write, keep things simple, so I tried the following without a script as I was unsure of some of the "mount" variables. I have once before used "mount -t", but the script calls for "mount -o". I have looked it up in the mount manpage, but don't really understand the difference in use of file system types and options. Anyway, I ran a basic chroot as I couldn't imagine the mkinitrd_command_generator.sh being dependent on any other partitions, but things didn't work out as I had hoped:

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# udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdd1
# chroot /media/username/8624b400-0a3d-4e9d-92a2-56779e96260e
root[/]# cd /usr/share/mkinitrd
root[mkinitrd]# mkinitrd_command_generator.sh
bash: mkinitrd_command_generator.sh: command not found
root[mkinitrd]# ls -l
total 560
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 511661 Jun 20  2016 initrd-tree.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  29903 Dec 18  2009 keymaps.tar.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  28373 Jun 20  2016 mkinitrd_command_generator.sh
root[mkinitrd]# mkinitrd_command_generator.sh
bash: mkinitrd_command_generator.sh: command not found
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mimosa
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by mimosa »

You don't need the initrd if you follow my suggestion (actually, originally djemos's suggestion, then laprjns) - assuming it works, which I think it will, at least as a temporary fix. That is its advantage. You only need the initrd to boot Salix using UUID.

Yes, it's fun to learn, but important to hang on to the guiding thread of actually solving problems.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by globetrotterdk »

I had BTW, been thinking about splitting my two goals into two separate issues to make things easier, so I tried installing Salix on a laptop with Win10. Until now, it has had Devuan installed with Lilo as the boot loader. I ran

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# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=446 count=1
to erase the /mbr. I then proceeded to boot a Salix64 14.2 .iso from a USB pen drive. The installation went fine, until doing a "simple" install of Lilo. I got the following error:

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lilo part_nowrite lseek::Invalid argument
As this issue also has to do with getting Lilo installed and configured, I thought that I would post it here. After this install failed, I was able to install Devuan again with Grub as the boot loader, without even bothering to erase the /mbr first. Is there some sort of weakness in installing Lilo, as I have experienced so many freezes and failures in connection with installing Lilo on different computers? If so, I have noticed that the Devuan forum has been suggesting extlinux as an alternative to Lilo. It may be a possiblility for Salix as well:
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=555
Last edited by globetrotterdk on 9. Mar 2018, 09:50, edited 1 time in total.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by globetrotterdk »

mimosa wrote:You don't need the initrd if you follow my suggestion (actually, originally djemos's suggestion, then laprjns) - assuming it works, which I think it will, at least as a temporary fix. That is its advantage. You only need the initrd to boot Salix using UUID.
This requires getting a chroot to work as booting from the install .iso doesn't work, correct?
mimosa wrote:Yes, it's fun to learn, but important to hang on to the guiding thread of actually solving problems.
Agreed. The alternative wastes time.
Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. - Groucho Marx
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mimosa
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by mimosa »

No, you are getting the different approaches mixed up. All you need to do is boot into Devuan, edit lilo.conf so it points to (presumably) /dev/sdd1 for Salix, rather than the UUID, run

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sudo lilo -v
(making sure the path given in the image line is mounted on the path stated there)

and you should be able to boot into Salix. Even if you only manage that once, it is still less complicated than messing with chroot.

You can leave the other entries as they are, and continue to use the UUID to identify Devuan.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by globetrotterdk »

mimosa wrote:No, you are getting the different approaches mixed up. All you need to do is boot into Devuan, edit lilo.conf so it points to (presumably) /dev/sdd1 for Salix, rather than the UUID, run

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sudo lilo -v
(making sure the path given in the image line is mounted on the path stated there)

and you should be able to boot into Salix.
OK, root is set as follows for the Salix entry:

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root=/dev/sdd1
I tried both of djemos' suggestions for "image=" here is the result when I ran:

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# lilo -v
Fatal: open /dev/sdd1/boot/vmlinuz: Not a directory
Fatal: open /boot/vmlinuz: No such file or directory
I made sure that the hard disk is mounted and that I am no longer in chroot.
----
Could it have something to do with the disk being mounted this way?

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# udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdd1
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mimosa
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by mimosa »

Post the contents of /etc/mtab, and your lilo.conf as it stands.

Edit Yes. Reboot. Mount it normally. Then try. If no joy, please post as requested.
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globetrotterdk
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by globetrotterdk »

mimosa wrote:Post the contents of /etc/mtab, and your lilo.conf as it stands.

Edit Yes. Reboot. Mount it normally. Then try. If no joy, please post as requested.
Unfortunately no joy:

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$ sudo mkdir /media/salix
$ sudo mount /dev/sdd1 /media/salix

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz
Fatal: open /boot/vmlinuz: No such file or directory

$ cd /media/salix/boot
/media/salix/boot$ ls -l
total 11804
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     137 Mar  6 11:25 boot_message.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     426 Aug  4  2016 coffee.dat
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      18 Mar  6 11:24 config -> config-huge-4.4.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  159775 Aug 22  2016 config-huge-4.4.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     432 Aug  4  2016 inside.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     424 Aug  4  2016 onlyblue.dat
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      37 Mar  6 11:23 README.initrd -> /usr/doc/mkinitrd-1.4.8/README.initrd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  307318 Aug  4  2016 salix.bmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      22 Mar  6 11:24 System.map -> System.map-huge-4.4.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3959898 Aug 22  2016 System.map-huge-4.4.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     423 Aug  4  2016 tuxlogo.dat
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      19 Mar  6 11:24 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-huge-4.4.19
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      19 Mar  6 11:24 vmlinuz-huge -> vmlinuz-huge-4.4.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7629056 Aug 22  2016 vmlinuz-huge-4.4.19
Contents of /etc/mtab:

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rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
udev /dev devtmpfs rw,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=2044460,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 0 0
tmpfs /run tmpfs rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=1642792k,mode=755 0 0
/dev/sda1 / ext4 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered 0 0
tmpfs /run/lock tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k 0 0
pstore /sys/fs/pstore pstore rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /run/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=9144700k 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/sda6 /home ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
rpc_pipefs /run/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /media/salix ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
Contents of /etc/lilo.conf:

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# Automatically added by lilo postinst script
large-memory

# /etc/lilo.conf - See: `lilo(8)' and `lilo.conf(5)',
# ---------------       `install-mbr(8)', `/usr/share/doc/lilo/',
#                       and `/usr/share/doc/mbr/'.

# +---------------------------------------------------------------+
# |                        !! Reminder !!                         |
# |                                                               |
# | Don't forget to run `lilo' after you make changes to this     |
# | conffile, `/boot/bootmess.txt' (if you have created it), or   |
# | install a new kernel.  The computer will most likely fail to  |
# | boot if a kernel-image post-install script or you don't       |
# | remember to run `lilo'.                                       |
# |                                                               |
# +---------------------------------------------------------------+

# Specifies the boot device.  This is where Lilo installs its boot
# block.  It can be either a partition, or the raw device, in which
# case it installs in the MBR, and will overwrite the current MBR.
#
#boot=/dev/sda
boot = /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST2000DM001-1CH164_S1E21XPJ

# Specifies the device that should be mounted as root. (`/')
#
#root=/dev/sda1
root = "UUID=2e1478a0-3356-4ce7-9efe-f72cb7e85a2b"

# This option may be needed for some software RAID installs.
#
# raid-extra-boot=mbr-only

# Enable map compaction:
# Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
# read request. This drastically reduces load time and keeps the
# map smaller.  Using `compact' is especially recommended when
# booting from a floppy disk.  It is disabled here by default
# because it doesn't always work.
#
# compact

# Installs the specified file as the new boot sector
# You have the choice between: text, bmp, and menu
# Look in lilo.conf(5) manpage for details
#
#install=menu

# Specifies the location of the map file
#
map=/boot/map

# You can set a password here, and uncomment the `restricted' lines
# in the image definitions below to make it so that a password must
# be typed to boot anything but a default configuration.  If a
# command line is given, other than one specified by an `append'
# statement in `lilo.conf', the password will be required, but a
# standard default boot will not require one.
#
# This will, for instance, prevent anyone with access to the
# console from booting with something like `Linux init=/bin/sh',
# and thus becoming `root' without proper authorization.
#
# Note that if you really need this type of security, you will
# likely also want to use `install-mbr' to reconfigure the MBR
# program, as well as set up your BIOS to disallow booting from
# removable disk or CD-ROM, then put a password on getting into the
# BIOS configuration as well.  Please RTFM `install-mbr(8)'.
#
# password=tatercounter2000

# Specifies the number of deciseconds (0.1 seconds) LILO should
# wait before booting the first image.
#
delay=20

# You can put a customized boot message up if you like.  If you use
# `prompt', and this computer may need to reboot unattended, you
# must specify a `timeout', or it will sit there forever waiting
# for a keypress.  `single-key' goes with the `alias' lines in the
# `image' configurations below.  eg: You can press `1' to boot
# `Linux', `2' to boot `LinuxOLD', if you uncomment the `alias'.
#
# message=/boot/bootmess.txt
#	prompt
#	delay=100
#	timeout=100

# Specifies the VGA text mode at boot time. (normal, extended, ask, <mode>)
#
# vga=ask
# vga=9
#


# Kernel command line options that apply to all installed images go
# here.  See: The `boot-prompt-HOWTO' and `kernel-parameters.txt' in
# the Linux kernel `Documentation' directory.
#
# append=""
 
# If you used a serial console to install Debian, this option should be
# enabled by default.
# serial=

#
# Boot up Linux by default.
#
default=Devuan

# Devuan bootable partition config begins
	image=/vmlinuz
	label=Devuan
	read-only
#	restricted
#	alias=1

	initrd=/initrd.img

image=/vmlinuz.old
	label=LinuxOLD
	read-only
	optional
#	restricted
#	alias=2

	initrd=/initrd.img.old
# End Devuan configuration
# Salix OS bootable partition config begins
# /dev/sdd1
# boot=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0_WD-WCAW30125528
# root=/dev/disk/by-uuid:8624b400-0a3d-4e9d-92a2-56779e96260e
# image=/media/username/8624b400-0a3d-4e9d-92a2-56779e96260e/boot/vmlinuz
	root=/dev/sdd1
	image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label=Salix
	read-only
#	restricted
#	alias=3
# End Salix OS configuration

# If you have another OS on this machine to boot, you can uncomment the
# following lines, changing the device name on the `other' line to
# where your other OS' partition is.
#
# other=/dev/hda4
#	label=HURD
#	restricted
#	alias=3
other=/dev/sdc1
	label=Windows
#	restricted
#	alias=2
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laprjns
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Re: Apparent freeze during installation of system.

Post by laprjns »

Time difference puts me behind this discussion by about 8 hrs, so I’m a little late on this.
Booting into an installed Salix partition using the installer media will not work. I tied both this and chroot and ran into problems. Main problem is that the installation disk uses the 4.4.14 kernel, but installs the 4.4.19 kernel.
So it best to use drop the UUID in lilo and use the kernel name, sdd1. Once you are able to boot into Salix, then you can go through the process of generating an initrd and switching lilo over to UUIDif you want.

Using the information that you posted regarding the outputs of lsblk and blkid, and assuming that you are running in Devuan, here's what I suggest,

Mount the salix root file system, /dev/sdd1.

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# udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdd1
On your system, it looks like this results in the following mount point

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/media/username/8624b400-0a3d-4e9d-92a2-56779e96260e
Edit the Salix stanza in lilo.conf file as follows

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root=/dev/sdd1
   image=/media/username/8624b400-0a3d-4e9d-92a2-56779e96260e/boot/vmlinuz
   label=Salix
   read-only
Then run lilo -v
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