Thanks Ben (and everyone) for the helpful explanations.
I finally got it to boot the way I think it ought to - turns out I also
had a bad initrd.gz due to leaving out the "-f ext4" option to mkinitrd
(the man page says: "If this [-f] isn't given, mount will usually
figure it out" ... turns out "usually" wasn't good enough...)
Still a lot to be learned but at least but now it's booting reliably. I
actually like it better than the old way.
r/
Judah
On 11/10/23 12:45, Ben Stern wrote:
Yup, elilo.efi can read FAT partitions, so:
UEFI loads elilo.efi, elilo.efi loads elilo.conf and then loads files as
specified, and there's no /sbin/elilo to run!
(You can run elilocfg if you're doing weird multiboot stuff and adding more
operating systems, but I've never figured out how to make that work
properly. I let the installer run it during installation and leave it alone
thereafter.)
To answer your question, ELILO, of course, because Slackware. Well, at work
I have to use GRUB for booting from UEFI because not Slackware, and it is
much less pleasant.
But ELILO sure seems to work fine for me whenever I use it.
Ben
On Fri, Nov 10, 2023 at 07:34:42AM -0500, J. Milgram wrote:
Hi Ben!
Thanks for this. All the adding of stanzas to elilo.conf for additional
kernels is very LILO-esque, all makes sense.
The part I couldn't fathom was: after setting up elilo.conf and moving
kernels and initrds to the right locations, shouldn't there be some command
one runs analogous to /sbin/lilo that maps the files and writes a bit of
boot loader code somewhere that lets BIOS (or EFI) find them on the disk? I
don't find a bin/elilo or sbin/elilo anywhere on the system.
<light going on> ... is it that UEFI firmware has FAT filesystem
functionality built in, enough for it simply to look at the EFI partition,
find the files needed and go from there? That must be why there's no
/sbin/elilo or similar that needs to be run ... ? I guess the loader
functionality is in the .efi executable in the EFI partition?
If so, that is indeed very cool. Will let you know how it goes.
BTW I'm reading that ELILO is a bit passe'. The Sourceforge page says
"status abandoned" and latest version is 2016. Is there some problem with
it? What are people using nowadays?
thanks again
Judah
On 11/9/23 19:18, Ben Stern wrote:
Hi Judah!
TLDR: overwrite your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz and
/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/initrd.gz and you're done (assuming the filenames
are correct for your /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf).
Longer explanation:
UEFI is weird for those of us who know and love LILO.
If you're not saving your old kernels and initrds because you like to live
dangerously, it's just a matter of overwriting the default kernel and initrd
as above.
If you are saving them, it's not that different, you just have to edit
/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf to make sure the new kernel (plus initrd)
and the failsafe kernel (plus initrd) are mentioned properly.
Here's an example from a system of mine:
-----------
chooser=simple
delay=50
timeout=50
#
image=vmlinuz-generic
label=Generic
initrd=initrd.gz
read-only
append="root=/dev/mapper/luksnvme0n1p3 vga=normal ro"
image=vmlinuz-huge
label=Huge
read-only
initrd=initrd.gz
append="root=/dev/mapper/luksnvme0n1p3 vga=normal ro"
image=vmlinuz-failsafe
label=Failsafe
read-only
initrd=initrd-failsafe.gz
append="root=/dev/mapper/luksnvme0n1p3 vga=normal ro"
-----------
The first entry is based on the distro. When I upgrade my kernel, I rebuild
my initrd, and copy the distro kernel and the new initrd over the old
/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/vmlinuz-generic and /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/initrd.gz
It just works, zip zop zoop.
The second entry is a failsafe using the huge kernel because it's got
everything in it. I overwrite vmlinuz-huge with the new vmlinuz-huge and
use the same initrd (because I have full disk encryption and need an initrd,
otherwise that wouldn't be there either).
The third one is my failsafe kernel and initrd, based on a distro (generic)
kernel that worked at one point so I know it works. I keep that around for
good luck.
Ben
On Thu, Nov 09, 2023 at 08:54:35AM -0500, J. Milgram wrote:
Greetings All!
Have a beginner question.
I've been using LILO since Day 1 and all was well. Have been running
old-style BIOS machines ever since.
Now I've acquired my first UEFI machine [1] and am trying to wrap my head
around it. The Slackware install procedure took care of everything
seamlessly and it boots OK. (Once I figured out that I needed a small EFI
partition.)
But now slackpkg has upgraded the kernel and I know (from my LILO days) that
I have to do something to update the loader. Can anyone point me to a good
tutorial on how this all works?
Apparently I copy the new kernel to /boot/efi/EFI/Slackware, maybe make a
new initrd.gz and copy that there too, and then have to run something ... ?
The machine is still running the install kernel and I plan to leave it
running until I figure this out (and I have a USB rescue stick too.)
Are elilo and grub two mutually exclusive things, or might one need to
reconfigure/reinstall both for the new kernel?
Back in my day, etc etc. :)
thanks!
r/
Judah
[1] - Evolve Maestro III, $80 from MicroCenter... curiosity got the better
of me. A nice machine so far.
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