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Slackware Experience

Personal notes on using Slackware. Some old notes have been archived.

Do note that Slackware also has a great documentation site.

Getting Slackware

The official way to do this is, of course, to get it from slackware.com.

Personally, I have getslack, a bash script based on (more accurately, a trimmed-down version of) the excellent (he termed it infamous) mirror-slackware-current.sh by Alien Bob. When going down this path, the next step would be to prepare the installation media.

Slackware Installer ISO Image

I no longer need an ISO image (refer to USB installer below). But, I have my slack2iso script (also based on Alien Bob's script) that 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.

Create a FAT32 partition
- use fdisk and make sure it is bootable (bootable flag enabled)
- use mkdosfs (e.g. mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdb1)
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
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.)
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
```

2025/01/01 15:54 · azman

Installing Slackware

Installation notes (i.e. packages, configs).

LastUpdated20250112

Basic Install

Using Slackware installer.

official packages (getslack)
- checkout my getslack config file
- without kde (AND xfce if going DE-less)
- removepkg gnuchess xaos xsnow
- removepkg joe nano vim-gvim slackpkg

setup/config

sample elilo.conf

elilo.conf

prompt
#chooser=simple
timeout=50
default=Slack
image=vmlinuz-huge
        label=SlackHuge
        read-only
        append="root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda4 vga=normal"
image=vmlinuz
        label=Slack
        initrd=initrd.gz
        read-only
        append="root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda4 vga=normal"

make sure vim does not create backups (edit /usr/share/vim/vimrc)
- or, run vimstart (from my1shell repo)
dmesg no longer allowed for user
- append rc.local ← echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/dmesg_restrict
- or, run setup_slack (from my1shell repo)

additional packages (getslackpack)
- checkout my getslackpack config file and repository list
- (alien) openjdk libreoffice libreoffice-dict-en“
additional packages (getslackbuild)
- slackware-xdm-theme
- geany unrar
- nss-mdns avahi libdaemon
- actually, scripts from slackbuilds.org (commonly used)

DE-less config

This is what I do for a lean (not necessarily minimal, but trimmed to my liking) installation.

setup acpi from my personal script
additional packages (getslackbuild)
- dmenu slock st wmname
- rox-filer pmount
custom dwm build
- using my own build script (which has personalized patches)

Updating

To maintain:

run slack-update
- this actually runs 3 scripts (getslack,getslackpack,getslackbuild)
run slackpatch (if required)
run getslackbuild build -x -i (if required)

Sample configuration files for the above scripts are here.

2025/01/12 07:57 · azman

Using Slackware-current

This is actually NOT recommended for beginners. But, sometimes, the need to use the latest software is unavoidable and this COULD be a solution. Plus, this will add a LOT of COOL-points

Note: I have removed a section on DE-less installation since my current Slackware installations ARE, in fact, DE-less.

Note: I have also removed a section on hijacking other Linux system - this, here, turned out to be VERY similar to what needed to be done.

Installing

[LastUpdated20210620]

I need to use GTK3 version that is newer that the one on 14.2, so I tried the development version (slackware64-current). I have done the same once (pre-11), so I am aware that there can be some issues when doing this. I am happy to say that I AM writing this on a slackware64-current (15.0 beta?) installation on my laptop.

So, this is a little note to my future self (or anybody that may be find this useful DISCLAIMER: Use this at your own risk!). I am doing this while still using Devuan and I want to keep that for backup, in case things go wrong. (On a side note, the reason I use Devuan was because of the GTK3 version.) So, I have an extra partition that I have reformatted and prepared to download the stuffs I need.

download official packages (getslack)
- create download path: <mount-path>/home/share/slackware
- create custom getslack config .getslack
- set VERS=current
- exclude kde & xfce
setup EFI boot
- bzImage in kernels/huge.s (rename to vmlinuz)
- initrd.img in isolinux/ (this has the slackware setup)
boot and run installation as usual
- DO NOT format partition (packages are there!)
- pick packages from mounted path
- manually set kernel to boot (i use huge - generic needs initramfs)
boot newly installed slackware
- remove gnuchess and xaos packages
- make sure vim does not create backups (edit usr/share/vim/vimrc)
- allow dmesg for user
  - append etc/rc.d/rc.local ← echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/dmesg_restrict
- just for personal reference, some useful info on using nmcli
```
nmcli r[adio] wifi
nmcli r[adio] wifi on
 
nmcli d[evice] wifi list
nmcli d[evice] wifi connect <ssid> password <pass> ifname <wlan0>
 
nmcli c[onnection] show
nmcli c[onnection] down <ssid>
nmcli c[onnection] up <ssid>
```
- customize etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults (standard default paths)
- create user
get additional packages (getslackpack)
- luckily, alienBob's repo 'supports' current
- create custom getslackpack config .getslackpack
- (alien) openjdk libreoffice libreoffice-dict-en“
get additional packages (getslackbuild)
- run as VERS=14.2 getslackbuild fetch <pkg>
- pkgs: dmenu geany rox-filer slackware-xdm-theme
- pkgs: slock st wmname pmount unrar
- pkgs: nss-mdns avahi libdaemon
- note: rox-filer cannot be compiled, needed patching (this)
- i have gathered all the scripts from slackbuilds.org that i use and keep them here
i want to use dwm
- using my own custom build script (which has personalized patches)
- my dwm xinitrc will run loginctl hibernate when battery<30% (→ what i need on my current laptop)

Updating

To maintain:

note: my libmy1slack library will detect current when etc/slackware-version has '+' suffix. this sign will disappear when -current is near to a stable release.

run slack-update as usual
- when -current going stable, use SLACKVERS=current slack-update
run slack-current instead of slackpatch
- when -current going stable, use -f switch
- to see removed packages, use slackview (i.e. SLACKVERS=current slackview find –alien)
update those installed using getslackbuild if needed

2025/01/01 16:06 · azman

Azman @UniMAP

Table of Contents

Slackware Experience

Getting Slackware

Slackware Installer ISO Image

Slackware USB Installer

Note: GPT Disks and EFI

Installing Slackware

Basic Install

DE-less config

Updating

Using Slackware-current

Installing

Updating