Fresh 15 install USB to laptop ssd - no initrd

[docmathoc]

Hi all, had a look for a solution but seem to be the only one...

Using USB installer - all appears to work onto a mmc with a fresh gpt and partitions as suggested (300MB EFI, 40GB /, 8GB swap, the rest /home).
On reboot I get the (familiar to some over the years) 'can't mount root at unknown (0,0), followed by Kernel panic.
Usually this means that boot cannot find the initrd / system.map file.
I copied system.map from the install usb, but there is not initrd that I could find to copy over to the hd EFI partition.
Without being able to boot, I can't recreate an initrd, neither does the install USB seem to have that ability.

The append= in elilo.conf has the correct root partition.

Could someone please advise what I have missed during install - is this a known issue?

Other secondary points:
I had thought that the huge kernel (which is in EFI) didn't need initrd?
The LIVE USB boota and runs fine - I'm hoping for success because it makes my old Thinkpad 11 useful again.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE
I found the other post about not finding mmcblk partitions in the live installer & edited sli-location-detection.sh so that sli now sees the block devices I have prepared, but the install gets to 0% and throws an error.

I'll try the further advice to generate an initrd and report back.

UPDATE
Edited sli-location-detection.sh to include mmcblk partitions. They were recognised, and the error was from spaces in the password! I use diceware passwords with spaces, doh! Changed this and install finished, but no boot - no elilo or grub, nothing.
Going to try creating the initrd in a chroot now...

[gapan]

Unfortunately the huge kernel does not include support for mmc devices. Did you find the following post? viewtopic.php?t=8840

[docmathoc]

Thanks, @gapan.
I followed your excellent instructions and all is well.
That's a decent intro to chroot by itself!
Just need to find the acpi for my thinkpad battery and see if the cameras work...

Keep up the good work, Team Salix

[djemos]

Check button for grub is default and is already checked. Cannot check both elilo and grub.
Installer creates an initrd using mmc-core:mmc-block modules for mmc devices since you install in a mmc external disk or usb stick. I suggest to use grub for boot loader.
I suppose your mmc is an exteral disk card.
Look at line 758 and bellow in /usr/sbin/build-slackware-live.sh

installdevice=$ROOTDEVICE
#if [ "$installdevice" != "/dev/sda" ]; then
#if [ -f /live/media/boot/initrd-usb.gz ]; then
echo "Copying initrd"
#kv=`basename /mnt/install/lib/modules/*`
kv=`ls -l /mnt/install/boot/vmlinuz | cut -f2 -d'>' | sed s/^[^0-9]*//`
MODULES="loop:xhci-pci:ohci-pci:ehci-pci:xhci-hcd:uhci-hcd:ehci-hcd:mmc-core:mmc-block:sdhci:sdhci-pci:sdhci-acpi:usb-storage:hid:usbhid:i2c-hid:hid-generic:hid-apple:hid-asus:hid-cherry:hid-logitech:hid-logitech-dj:hid-logitech-hidpp:hid-lenovo:hid-microsoft:hid_multitouch:crc32c-intel:fuse"
#chroot /mnt/install mkinitrd -c -f $SYSINSTALLFS -u -w 10 -o /boot/initrd.gz -r /dev/sdb1 -k $kv -m $MODULES
chroot /mnt/install mkinitrd -c -f $SYSINSTALLFS -u -w 10 -o /boot/initrd.gz -r UUID=$ROOTUUID -k $kv -m $MODULES
chroot /mnt/install rm -rf /boot/initrd-tree/

Initrd is not created if you install in an sda internal disk for example. Installing in an external usb or mmc disk then the installer creates an initrd used for booting.
So something went wrong and initrd did not created.