Apparent freeze during installation of system.

[mimosa]

These are the instructions I meant, following laprjns:
https://docs.salixos.org/wiki/Boot_into ... llation_CD
The boot loader prompt is the one you want for those. # would be the tty after you boot.

By the way, did you use Salix Live to install to the hard disk, or the installation-only image?

[laprjns]

Wow, lot of misunderstanding in this thread and your thread over in thr Devuan forum. First the only Salix problem that I seen in this thread was the initial issue you had with lilo freezing during the installation of Salix. Not sure what happen there and would like to have gotten to the bottom of that, but we moved on. So the decision was made to mange booting through Devuan using lilo.

Seems to be a reasonable approach, however the use of UUID was introduced. The reason for this was that you changed the motherboard and the assigned kernel names ( I assume /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, and /dev/sdc) ordering changed for your three hard drives. Changing the motherboard or physical changing the cabling of the drives to the motherboard can result in reordering of the assigned kernel names, however these assigned kernel names will rarely change from boot to boot if you don’t physical change tor move the hardware. So what I am saying is that if you are not going to be physically changing your hardware configuration you most likely do not need to use UUID in liloconfig. Try going back to using the /dev/sdX name on the root=; at least in the Salix stanza. If it boots then you are done if not then onto the initrd.

[laprjns]

4) There appear to be two related tools mentioned in the documentation. One is mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh, which apparently only generates a sane lilo.conf section, while mkinitrd creates an actual initrd. This would suggest that I need to run both. Correct?

mkinitrd makes the initrd. mkinitrd_command_generator script creates a mkinitrd commamd with all the needed options and modules for your system. So you would first run the script;

Code: Select all

rich[~]$ sudo /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh 
Password: 
#
# mkinitrd_command_generator.sh revision 1.45
#
# This script will now make a recommendation about the command to use
# in case you require an initrd image to boot a kernel that does not
# have support for your storage or root filesystem built in
# (such as the Slackware 'generic' kernels').
# A suitable 'mkinitrd' command will be:

mkinitrd -c -k 4.4.118 -f xfs -r /dev/sda9 -m xhci-pci:ohci-pci:ehci-pci:xhci-hcd:uhci-hcd:ehci-hcd:hid:usbhid:i2c-hid:hid_generic:hid-cherry:hid-logitech:hid-logitech-dj:hid-logitech-hidpp:hid-lenovo:hid-microsoft:hid_multitouch:xfs -u -o /boot/initrd.gz

The generate the new initrd using the suggested command from the script:

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$ sudo mkinitrd -c -k 4.4.118 -f xfs -r /dev/sda9 -m xhci-pci:ohci-pci:ehci-pci:xhci-hcd:uhci-hcd:ehci-hcd:hid:usbhid:i2c-hid:hid_generic:hid-cherry:hid-logitech:hid-logitech-dj:hid-logitech-hidpp:hid-lenovo:hid-microsoft:hid_multitouch:xfs -u -o /boot/initrd.gz

If you use the -l option then the script will also generate a suggested lilo.config stanza:

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rich[~]$ sudo sh /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -l /boot/vmlinuz
Password: 
# Linux bootable partition config begins
# initrd created with 'mkinitrd -c -k 4.4.118 -f xfs -r /dev/sda9 -m xhci-pci:ohci-pci:ehci-pci:xhci-hcd:uhci-hcd:ehci-hcd:hid:usbhid:i2c-hid:hid_generic:hid-cherry:hid-logitech:hid-logitech-dj:hid-logitech-hidpp:hid-lenovo:hid-microsoft:hid_multitouch:xfs -u -o /boot/initrd.gz'
image = /boot/vmlinuz-huge-4.4.118
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  root = /dev/sda9
  label = 4.4.118
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Of course this assumes that you are running Salix with the kernel-huge kernel running. After the the initrd has been generated and before lilo is run, you should install the the generic kernel

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$ sudo slapt-get -i kernel-generic

Then update lilo.config with the corresponding stanza and run lilo.

[globetrotterdk]

These are the instructions I meant, following laprjns:
https://docs.salixos.org/wiki/Boot_into ... llation_CD
The boot loader prompt is the one you want for those. # would be the tty after you boot.

By the way, did you use Salix Live to install to the hard disk, or the installation-only image?

The installation-only image

[globetrotterdk]

Changing the motherboard or physical changing the cabling of the drives to the motherboard can result in reordering of the assigned kernel names, however these assigned kernel names will rarely change from boot to boot if you don’t physical change tor move the hardware. So what I am saying is that if you are not going to be physically changing your hardware configuration you most likely do not need to use UUID in liloconfig. Try going back to using the /dev/sdX name on the root=; at least in the Salix stanza. If it boots then you are done if not then onto the initrd.

If I boot from Devuan, the target disk is /dev/sdd if I boot from a USB pen drive installer, the target disk changes to /dev/sdc. I am not physically changing any cables or anything. I assume that when I am able to boot into Salix, the drive that my Devuan install resides on will also have changed. I had this problem with the target disk changing "names" when I first installed Devuan as well, hence the recommendation to use UUID designations.

[globetrotterdk]

mkinitrd makes the initrd. mkinitrd_command_generator script creates a mkinitrd commamd with all the needed options and modules for your system.
(...)
The generate the new initrd using the suggested command from the script:
(...)
If you use the -l option then the script will also generate a suggested lilo.config stanza:
(...)
Of course this assumes that you are running Salix with the kernel-huge kernel running. After the the initrd has been generated and before lilo is run, you should install the the generic kernel
(...)
Then update lilo.config with the corresponding stanza and run lilo.

Many thanks for the information. The penny has dropped and it sounds like I will have to download a copy of the Salix64 Live image to get the "boot:" that I am looking for...

[mimosa]

The installation-only image should be fine. Have you actually tried following those instructions? The aim is simply to boot your installed Salix from the USB. Then you will have a full graphical system within which to sort out the bootloader and / or initrd.

laprjns, are you sure he needs to install the generic kernel? My understanding is an initrd will work with huge if created for it, just would not normally be needed.

[globetrotterdk]

Hmm. Interesting. I downloaded and burned the salixlive64-xfce-14.2.1.iso to a USB pen drive. I am experiencing the same problem here as with the Salix64 install .iso - no possibility to get to a "boot:" prompt. It is only possible to get a ">" boot loader prompt. I tried again to pass the arguments to the ">" prompt, but the boot loader doesn't understand. No matter what I do, I end up in a Salixlive session. Sigh, it looks like I will have to try to find an old Salix .iso and try to burn that... Not sure exactly when these changes were made, probably after Salix 13.37.

[globetrotterdk]

The installation-only image should be fine. Have you actually tried following those instructions?

To the letter.

[mimosa]

The bootloader prompt is the one you want, and is what is meant by a "boot" prompt. I am going to download the image and try it myself. This should really be very straightforward.