Azman @UniMAP

Slackware Installer ISO Image

I no longer need an ISO image (refer to USB installer below). But, I have slack2iso script (also based on Alien Bob's script) can help in creating one using the tree downloaded by getslack.

Slackware USB Installer

Alien Bob has provided a script to make/setup/configure a USB-based Slackware installation media. I wanted to do something simpler using the existing files in the Slackware tree that I mirrored using getslack (mentioned above). So, here is how I got that working.

1. Create a FAT32 partition
   • use fdisk and make sure it is bootable (bootable flag enabled)
   • use mkdosfs (e.g. mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdb1)
2. Use syslinux to provide bootloader
   • create a /linux/boot/syslinux folder on the USB
   • type

     syslinux -d /linux/boot/syslinux /dev/sdb1

     Note: On newer syslinux, use -i to indicate new installation

   • a file ldlinux.sys should appear in /linux/boot/syslinux
3. Copy boot facilities from Slackware tree to the media
   • copy a kernel from slackware tree to /linux/boot (I used huge.s)
   • copy initrd.img and message.txt to /linux/boot
   • copy isolinux.cfg to /linux/boot/syslinux as syslinux.cfg
   • edit syslinux.cfg accordingly (initrd, kernel params, etc.)
4. Copy slackware<64> in the Slackware tree (I used a shorter folder name like slack on the USB)

And… we're done! Now we have a simple Slackware USB Installer and install it on every computer we can get our hands on!

Note: GPT Disks and EFI

Things moving to (U)EFI and GPT… slowly leaving legacy BIOS and MBR.

Instead of MBR, we use GPT partitioning scheme:

• supports bigger disk
• supports EFI booting (easier to maintain actually :p)

Partition codes are 2-bytes instead (only 1-byte on MBR's partition table). Among the common ones:

• EF00 (EFI System Partition): this is what EFI boot look for
  • format FAT32

    mkdosfs -F 32 -n MY1EFI /dev/sdxx

• 0700 (MS Basic Data): Windows Partition
  • format NTFS

    mkntfs -f -L MY1WIN /dev/sdxx

• 8300 (Linux filesystem): Linux Partition
  • format EXT4

    mkfs.ext4 -L MY1LIN /dev/sdxx

Once boot using EFI, efibootmgr tool can be used (available on Slackware 14.2)

• to create an entry labelled Slackware with loader file named \efi\slackware\elilo.efi located on first partition of first disk (/dev/sda1)

  efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L "Slackware" -l "\efi\slackware\elilo.efi"

• to delete an entry xxxx (bootnum)

  efibootmgr -b xxxx -B

• to re-order boot sequence

  efibootmgr -o xxxx,yyyy,zzzz