I have a pair of Slackware 9.1 CD's, which I got from linuxcd.org.
I've used these to get a successful text-only install of Slack,
which is now running fine, after a fair amount of installation
grief.

But, I need to install on multiple other machines (I'm a RH refugee),
and I've got questions, for which Google doesn't seem to have
answers, or at least not ones I can find!


1. What is the "_RR_MOVE" directory in Slak91d2?

These look like they may be some modules / drivers, including
one for my Intel Gigabit NIC's, which would be very nice. If this
IS what they are, how can I use them?


2. All of the directories / files on the Slak91d1 CD are lowercase,
where expected, but are upper-case on the Slak91d2CD, ie., KDEADMIN.TGZ"
instead of "kdeadmin-3.1.4-i486-1.tgz", as listed in the package list
on the Slackware website. The packages in the FIRST CD (Slak91d1) are
in the expected form, ie., "aaa_base-9.1.0-noarch-1.tgz".


Is this a bad #2 CD? Will the uppercase file names be handled by the
Slack installer?? (Install of KDE / Gnome failed, the 1x I tried it;
I didn't need it, so I quit and went for a cmd-line only install.)



3. If I install from a FAT32 HD partition, can I simply replace
the original packages with their updates found in the 9.1 updates
mirrors, and thus have a fully patched up install on the first run?



4. Assuming that the contents of the _RR_MOVE_ directory ARE modules
or drivers, is there a way to get the 'extra' modules I need, like
the e1000 Intel driver, installed originally?


Thanks for answers . . . or pointers to the right documents!

Ben

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 13:59:31 -0500, John
<they.need.your.spam@ready.verisign.com> wrote:
> 1. What is the "_RR_MOVE" directory in Slak91d2?

It's not on there when I look. What are you using to view the CD
contents? Does that support RockRidge extensions? I suspect it
doesn't, which would also explain why the filenames appear in upper
case.

> 3. If I install from a FAT32 HD partition, can I simply replace
> the original packages with their updates found in the 9.1 updates
> mirrors, and thus have a fully patched up install on the first run?

I'd imagine that you should be able to, since I can't see the version
number referred to in the tag files or maketag script.

> 4. Assuming that the contents of the _RR_MOVE_ directory ARE modules
> or drivers, is there a way to get the 'extra' modules I need, like
> the e1000 Intel driver, installed originally?

There are kernel modules in /extra, but they're for the XFS kernel.
You shouldn't need support for that at the install stage, so you can
re-compile the kernel to add it later if it's not in the kernel-modules
package on the first CD.


--
Simon <simon@no-dns-yet.org.uk> **** GPG: F4A23C69
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
- Douglas Adams

Simon wrote:


>>1. What is the "_RR_MOVE" directory in Slak91d2?

> It's not on there when I look. What are you using to view the CD
> contents? Does that support RockRidge extensions? I suspect it
> doesn't, which would also explain why the filenames appear in upper
> case.

CD's viewed both directly, and via a Virtual_CD image, under Win2K. See
below for CD listings viewed under Windows.

At the moment, I've also got a box booted from that Slackware CD, and
then I viewed the CD (/CDROM), the normal directory and file names
appear, so I gather full Rock Ridge support is not present under Win2k.
Interestingly, the entire _RR_MOVE directory disappears as well, along
with all the apparent modules. However, I checked the "kernel-modules"
package you mentioned, and it ALSO contains the e1000.o module (the one
I particularly wanted), so apparently the problem is simply that Slack /
Hotplug / whatever is not recognizing the NIC. I assume manually
installing and loading the module should fix that.


> I'd imagine that you should be able to, since I can't see the version
> number referred to in the tag files or maketag script.

OK, will try that, since it will give me a cleaner, easier installation
(I hope).

Thanks -- I believe that answers all my important questions for now.
The purpose of the _RR_MOVE directory, hidden when viewed under Linux,
is a curiosity, but not an issue.

Thanks!

Ben



================================================== ====

Here's what's on my CD root (viewed via Win2K):

Volume in drive M is Slak91d2
Volume Serial Number is 151B-567E

Directory of M:\

09/25/2003 09:17a <DIR> EXTRA
09/25/2003 07:00a <DIR> ISOLINUX
09/16/2003 02:34p <DIR> KERNELS
09/25/2003 07:48a <DIR> LIVE
09/25/2003 08:07a 5,305 README.TXT
09/25/2003 09:18a <DIR> SLACKWAR
09/25/2003 09:18a <DIR> TESTING
09/25/2003 09:23a <DIR> _RR_MOVE
1 File(s) 5,305 bytes
7 Dir(s) 0 bytes free

And, in _RR_MOVE (partial - total is 125 dirs, ~8 meg):

Directory of M:\_RR_MOVE

09/25/2003 09:23a <DIR> .
09/25/2003 09:23a <DIR> ..
09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> AACRAID
09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> ACT2000
09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> AGP
09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> AIC7XXX
09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> ARCNET
09/25/2003 04:07a <DIR> ATTRS
..
..
..


And in the E1000 directory:

Directory of M:\_RR_MOVE\E1000

09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> .
09/02/2003 09:03p <DIR> ..
09/02/2003 08:58p 33,905 E1000_O.GZ
1 File(s) 33,905 bytes
2 Dir(s) 0 bytes free

================================================== ====

"John" <they.need.your.spam@ready.verisign.com> wrote:
> I checked the "kernel-modules" package you mentioned, and it ALSO
> contains the e1000.o module (the one I particularly wanted), so
> apparently the problem is simply that Slack / Hotplug / whatever is not
> recognizing the NIC.

I'm 99% sure that I have seen hotplug successfully load the e1000.o
module with Slackware 9.1 on a machine with such a nic. Are you really
sure that you have such a nic? What does /proc/pci say?

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc2(at)uthyres.com Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
synpunkt@svartalistan.com info@emailpromo.biz root@localhost

John <they.need.your.spam@ready.verisign.com> wrote:
> 1. What is the "_RR_MOVE" directory in Slak91d2?

It is one of the "hidden" structures which are needed to map
ISO9660 filenames (all caps) to "whatever your O/S likes".
If you SEE the dir, it means your system is not correctly interpreting
the RockRidge entensions OF that CD.

> These look like they may be some modules / drivers, including
> one for my Intel Gigabit NIC's, which would be very nice. If this
> IS what they are, how can I use them?

They're only filename remappings, not the files themselves.

> 2. All of the directories / files on the Slak91d1 CD are lowercase,

Which means RR extensions _are_ correctly interpreted on this CD

> where expected, but are upper-case on the Slak91d2CD, ie., KDEADMIN.TGZ"

Should actually even be
KDEADMIN.TGZ;1
etc (a normal iso9660 filename is all caps, when made on a PC has an 8+3
length and a BINARY version number (is needed for the mapping to Vax/VMS
filenames). The RockRidge structures should map this name to:

> "kdeadmin-3.1.4-i486-1.tgz"

Which is not a valid iso9660 filename, too many dots (but IS valid in Unix).

> Is this a bad #2 CD? Will the uppercase file names be handled by the
> Slack installer?? (Install of KDE / Gnome failed, the 1x I tried it;
> I didn't need it, so I quit and went for a cmd-line only install.)

It looks like a bad CD, indeed, you may want to try some other RR options
at the mount (but by default it should recognize the RR extensions and
interprete them - NOT showing the structures where it gets them from).
See "man mount" at the iso9660 part for mounting options for that fs.

Normally I only see _RR_ files/dirs when I view the CD under Windows (and
it does NOT contains Joliet extensions, because otherwise Windows wil
be showing the filenames according to THAT extension).

PS: with RockRidge extension files can also have owner/group id's and
attributes, these again are "the way your O/S wants them" (so for Unix
attributes will be the well known -rwxrwxrwx ones, in Vax/VMS
[rwed,rwed,rwed,rwed], etc.).
--
************************************************** ******************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
************************************************** ******************

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 15:20:40 -0500, John
<they.need.your.spam@ready.verisign.com> wrote:
> Simon wrote:
>>>1. What is the "_RR_MOVE" directory in Slak91d2?
>
>> It's not on there when I look. What are you using to view the CD
>> contents? Does that support RockRidge extensions? I suspect it
>> doesn't, which would also explain why the filenames appear in upper
>> case.
>
> CD's viewed both directly,

What do you mean by "directly" here? Do you mean in Windows Explorer
or did you mount the CD under GNU/Linux to view the contents?

> and via a Virtual_CD image, under Win2K. See
> below for CD listings viewed under Windows.

I suspect that doesn't support RockRidge extensions (I know that
WinImage didn't when I was using that).

> At the moment, I've also got a box booted from that Slackware CD, and
> then I viewed the CD (/CDROM), the normal directory and file names
> appear, so I gather full Rock Ridge support is not present under Win2k.

That's correct, to the best of my knowledge.

> Interestingly, the entire _RR_MOVE directory disappears as well, along
> with all the apparent modules.

I think someone's already explained that better than I can.

> However, I checked the "kernel-modules"
> package you mentioned, and it ALSO contains the e1000.o module (the one
> I particularly wanted), so apparently the problem is simply that Slack /
> Hotplug / whatever is not recognizing the NIC. I assume manually
> installing and loading the module should fix that.

I'd have thought that it should do, as long as the e1000 module works
with your card, although the extent of my experience with hotplug
consists of "removepkg hotplug".

> Thanks!

No problem.


--
Simon <simon@no-dns-yet.org.uk> **** GPG: F4A23C69
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
- Douglas Adams

Henrik Carlqvist wrote:

>
> I'm 99% sure that I have seen hotplug successfully load the e1000.o
> module with Slackware 9.1 on a machine with such a nic. Are you really
> sure that you have such a nic?

Pretty sure, given that I was using it, under RH9 . . . ;-)

Ben

Eef Hartman wrote:


> They're only filename remappings, not the files themselves.

Nah. They are actual files.

e1000.o, extracted from kernel-modules is 83kb.
e1000.o, extracted from the hidden _RR_MOVE (.rr_move, in Linux)
directory, is 80kb.

Both files begin with 7Fh 45h 4Ch and end with 52h 58h 00h, though
obviously the file sizes are a little different.

The RR directory is hidden under Linux; what's even stranger
(at least for a novice like me) is that the files are invisible
under Linux (ie, ls -la shows nada in the directory).


> PS: with RockRidge extension files can also have owner/group id's and
> attributes, these again are "the way your O/S wants them" (so for Unix
> attributes will be the well known -rwxrwxrwx ones, in Vax/VMS
> [rwed,rwed,rwed,rwed], etc.).

Obviously, something to do with RockRidge is going on here. What
seems odd to me is that, so far as I can tell, the issue is ONLY
with the #2 CD. The #1 reads identically (at least to a casual
comparison) under Win2k as it does under Linux. So, one way or
another, all the dots in some.package.1.2.3.4.5.tgz works just fine
under Win2k. Incidentally, just to check things out, I created the
Windows directory (Win2k SP4, NTFS) "1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.0.1.2.3"
and put a file in it named "1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.0.1.2.3.txt" without
a hitch. So, at least with my Windows config, all the dots aren't
an issue.

Maybe, it has to do with creating a Knoppix-like boot CD, with
fully configured file permissions, on CD #2, something that's
presumably not necessary on the bootable install CD #1?

.. . . curiouser and curiouser . . .

Ben

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 22:46:31 -0500, John
<they.need.your.spam@ready.verisign.com> wrote:
> So, one way or another, all the dots in some.package.1.2.3.4.5.tgz
> works just fine under Win2k.

Windows can handle dots in filenames, but, for it to read them from a
CD, the CD needs to have been made with Joliet extensions too. Maybe
the 2nd CD wasn't?


--
Simon <simon@no-dns-yet.org.uk> **** GPG: F4A23C69
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
- Douglas Adams

Simon <usenet@no-dns-yet.org.uk> wrote:
> Windows can handle dots in filenames, but, for it to read them from a
> CD, the CD needs to have been made with Joliet extensions too. Maybe
> the 2nd CD wasn't?

That is what I was going to say, but you already did so:
a CD with _both_ RockRidge _and_ Joliet extensions will look OK in
both Windows and Unix (with RRE support, some older Unix'es don't
have that yet), if the CD _only_ has RRE but not Joliet it will look
"funny" in Windows (but the other way 'round will work ok als Linux's
iso9660 support also includes Joliet extensions).

When I reflect some more on it, I think the _RR_MOVE dir is to receive
files which would have the SAME filename in the iso9660 naming as other
files in the same dir. You will see those files in the original dir under
its remapped (through RRE) name (one of those cases is filenames that are
identical, except for the case; as iso9660 filenames are all caps it
cannot make the difference, so one of those files is then MOVED to the
_RR_MOVE tree).
I think the documentation of "mkisofs" has more info about how RockRidge
extensions work, but haven't checked this.
--
************************************************** ******************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
************************************************** ******************