So, I have a newly-acquired laptop that I'd like to install Slackware on
(on the theory that that's no more effort than figuring out how to do an
exorcism to get rid of the hideous "desktop environment" preferred by the
distribution that was installed when I got it so I can revert to a nice
simple XDM+twm, plus it has the bonus that I end up with something I know
how to muck about with if I decide something else needs to be changed),
but there's the minor problem that it doesn't have a CD drive.

(The short version: I decide to try to install from a USB disk,
but there's no boot disk that supports it in the distribution, and I'm
having trouble making my own, so I need some suggestions for how to make
it work.)

So it looks like I can figure out how to make NFS work on my workstation
(which probably isn't worth the effort for something that I'd rather not
have running once I'm done the install anyways), or I can figure out a
way to do a non-networked, non-CD install.

Conveniently enough, I have a USB hard drive enclosure with a 40MB disk
in it, plenty of space to copy the install CD over, then I can make
my boot disk set on the laptop, then just boot, mount the USB disk,
and install from there.

Except that there don't seem to be any USB-enabled boot disks on my 9.1
install CDs, and poking around on the distribution FTP site doesn't turn
up any in the newer versions either. Backing up to an older version
(8.1 if I remember correctly) gets me a boot disk that supports USB
input devices, but still doesn't have the mass storage device support
that I need.

No problem, says, I, there's a nice kernels/ directory that I've copied
from the CD along with everything else, so I'll see what I can get
from there. No USB-enabled kernel, but some scripts that can build one
from a config that I choose, so let's try that.

For the first attempt, I copy over the kernel config file for scsi.s,
hand-edit it to enable USB and USB mass storage devices, then run the
scripts to build the kernel and make the disk.
That one doesn't work; the kernel on the boot disk boots, but as soon as
it starts to load the root disk, it panics. Apparently the USB driver is
having trouble allocating a device number entry. (180; I _think_ it said
minor, I can re-try this way to get the exact message if it's important.)

So I try actually going through make menuconfig to configure the kernel,
to make sure I'm not missing some entry that's non-obvious when I'm
looking directly at the config file. Once again starting with the scsi.s
config, I use the kernel's config editor to enable USB and disable the
SCSI hardware drivers, and then build the kernel.
After the build completes, it tells me that this kernel is too big for
a standalone boot from a floppy. Uhh... OK? It looks to me like it's
actually smaller than the bzImage from the scsi.s directory, but maybe
this is what was causing the problem when I tried it the automated way?

So I re-run make menuconfig, and cut out everything I don't need. (Why
does the "basic" install bootdisk have sound drivers anyways? I can't
help thinking more people will want to install from a USB disk than will
want to listen to music during the install and don't have somewhere else
to play it.) This one builds fine, and no warning about being too big,
so I feed it to makedisk, copy that disk image over to the USB disk,
shuffle cables and boot up the laptop, write it to a disk and reboot.

Now LILO comes up, gives me the message about what I might want to do,
waits for me to hit enter, and then tells me that the boot failed, and I
should change disks and try again. So apparently this one, even though
it's not too big for a boot from a floppy, doesn't boot at all.


I think this means I'm stuck. Any suggestions for what I might be doing
wrong, or what else to try?



dave

--
Dave Vandervies dj3vande@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
A good friend of mine is a code geek, and I swear he _thinks_ in vi.
His Quake keymap? vi. His Diablo II keymap? vi.
--Gary S. Callison in the scary devil monastery

In alt.os.linux.slackware, Dave Vandervies dared to utter,
> So, I have a newly-acquired laptop that
> doesn't have a CD drive.
>
> (The short version: I decide to try to install from a USB disk,
> but there's no boot disk that supports it in the distribution, and I'm
> having trouble making my own, so I need some suggestions for how to make
> it work.)

IIRC, bare.i does some checking for USB devices, but it may not check
for a USB CD-ROM. I'm not sure what kernel-level support you need for
that.

> So it looks like I can figure out how to make NFS work on my workstation
> (which probably isn't worth the effort for something that I'd rather not
> have running once I'm done the install anyways), or I can figure out a
> way to do a non-networked, non-CD install.

NFS is probably the easiest way to do this actually.

On your workstation: edit /etc/exports. It should look something like
this:

/PATH/to/slackware 192.168.1.0/24(sync,ro)

Now follow these easy steps:

chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.portmap
/etc/rc.d/rc.portmap start
chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd
/etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd start

On your laptop, just load te network disk so you have LAN connectivity.
You can try Slackware's included NFS setup steps, but I find it easier
to just go to a root prompt and do the following:

mkdir /nfs
mount -t nfs $IP_OF_NFS_SERVER:/PATH/to/slackware /nfs

Now just use the "install from a pre-mounted directory" option.
Afterwards, do the following on the server:

/etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd stop
/etc/rc.d/rc.portmap stop
chmod -x /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd
chmod -x /etc/rc.d/rc.portmap

I don't have experience with many USB peripherals, so I can't help you
there. Sorry. :-(

--
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5

In article <jPGdnb95ZOKlQpreRVn-jg@trueband.net>,
+Alan Hicks+ <alan@lizella.netWORK> wrote:
>In alt.os.linux.slackware, Dave Vandervies dared to utter,
>> So, I have a newly-acquired laptop that
>> doesn't have a CD drive.
>>
>> (The short version: I decide to try to install from a USB disk,
>> but there's no boot disk that supports it in the distribution, and I'm
>> having trouble making my own, so I need some suggestions for how to make
>> it work.)
>
>IIRC, bare.i does some checking for USB devices, but it may not check
>for a USB CD-ROM.

I'll have to check that. Though I fear that it's only USB input devices
and not storage.

> I'm not sure what kernel-level support you need for
>that.

The USB storage driver makes devices visible as SCSI disks, so the kernel
needs to be able to speak USB to the device (core USB + USB storage)
and to speak SCSI to the USB storage driver (core SCSI + SCSI disk/CD).



>> So it looks like I can figure out how to make NFS work on my workstation
>> (which probably isn't worth the effort for something that I'd rather not
>> have running once I'm done the install anyways), or I can figure out a
>> way to do a non-networked, non-CD install.
>
>NFS is probably the easiest way to do this actually.

Perhaps I'll have to try that, then. Though it means finding another two
good floppies for the network and pcmcia disks, which could be a problem
(the stack of 10-ish I started with only had three good ones).

I also have hazy memories from the Distant Past when I last tried to get
NFS working of running into trouble with an nfsd that wanted to talk to
the kernel's NFS acceleration support, which the kernel didn't have,
so if I don't have a user-space nfsd available it will involve rather
more mucking about with the workstation than I care to get into.


>On your workstation: edit /etc/exports. It should look something like
>this:
>
> /PATH/to/slackware 192.168.1.0/24(sync,ro)
>
>Now follow these easy steps:

Looks easy enough if things Just Work the way they're supposed to.



>I don't have experience with many USB peripherals, so I can't help you
>there. Sorry. :-(

All I've ever used is storage devices, and with a kernel that's configured
with support for them they Just Work. The problem is booting off a
floppy with a kernel that's configured with support for them.


dave

--
Dave Vandervies dj3vande@csclub.uwaterloo.ca

I wonder how it work on me, since I used to take Ritalin as a _downer_.
--Jeff Shultz in the scary devil monastery