Slackware install optimization

Last modified: Thu Oct 2 15:53:45 EDT 2008

(Updated for Slackware 12.0)

This page is about modifying some files in the Slackware distribution in order to install Slackware with fewer keystrokes. There is Slackware documentation available in various places that purports to explain this, but I was confused anyway until I used the source.

Install modes

The relevant install modes are full, newbie, menu, and expert. In full mode, every *.tgz file is installed and tagfiles are redundant. The other three modes follow a two-step process:

Generate a tagfile.
Use the tagfile.

Generate a tagfile

A Slackware package directory contains the following special files.

maketag
maketag.ez
tagfile

They are used in the different modes as follows.

mode maketag maketag.ez tagfile

newbie Unused Unused This tagfile is used as-is

menu Unused This script is used to generate a tagfile Unused

expert This script is used to generate a tagfile Unused Unused

mode	maketag	maketag.ez	tagfile
newbie	Unused	Unused	This tagfile is used as-is
menu	Unused	This script is used to generate a tagfile	Unused
expert	This script is used to generate a tagfile	Unused	Unused

Use the tagfile

The tagfile specifies one of the following four options for each package:

ADD: Install the package.
REC: Prompt whether to install the package, default yes.
OPT: Prompt whether to install the package, default no.
SKP: Do not install the package.

To avoid redundant prompting, the scripts maketag and maketag.ez produce tagfiles containing only ADD and SKP commands.

Deleting packages

The slackinstall script works by iterating over *.tgz files and looking up the tagfile response for each one. Thus there is no harm in having taglines for packages that no longer exist. However, it is an annoyance to get prompted in menu and expert mode for responses that will have no effect. To fix this, the offending menu options must be removed from the maketag.ez and maketag scripts.

Deleting entire package series

To remove an entire package series from consideration, you must edit isolinux/setpkg in a manner analogous to maketag or maketag.ez to remove the offending menu option.

Using the source

The setpkg script is easy to access in the isolinux subdirectory of the Slackware distribution. However, the other scripts are buried in the initramfs. To get to them, you need to unpack the misleadingly named initrd.img file using gzip and cpio:

bash-3.1# mkdir cpiowork
bash-3.1# cd cpiowork
bash-3.1# gzip -dc ../initrd.img | cpio -i -d -H newc --no-absolute-filenames
23919 blocks
bash-3.1# cd usr/lib/setup
bash-3.1# ls
FDhelp  INShd       SeTfdHELP   SeTmedia       installpkg  setup
INSCD   PROMPThelp  SeTfull     SeTnopart      migrate.sh  slackinstall
INSNFS  SeTDOS      SeTkernel   SeTpartitions  nopartHELP  unmigrate.sh
INSdir  SeTPKG      SeTkeymap   SeTpasswd      pkgtool
INSfd   SeTconfig   SeTmaketag  SeTswap        removepkg

The scripts of interest here are setup and slackinstall.

After making any necessary modifications to your working copy, you need to reverse the gzip/cpio steps to rebuild initrd.img:

bash-3.1# cd ../../..
bash-3.1# find . -print | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 > ../initrd.img
23919 blocks

Changing the kernel that runs during the install

Build the kernel that you want. You may not use modules.
Create a new directory under the kernels subdirectory of the Slackware distribution and populate it with System.map.gz, bzImage and config, following the examples already there.
Add your new kernel to isolinux/isolinux.cfg following the examples already there. If desired, make it the default kernel by changing the default line.

Changing the kernel that gets installed

The "a" series has a bunch of packages like this:

kernel-generic-2.6.21.5-i486-2.tgz
kernel-generic-2.6.21.5-i486-2.tgz.asc
kernel-generic-2.6.21.5-i486-2.txt
kernel-generic-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.tgz
kernel-generic-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.tgz.asc
kernel-generic-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.txt
kernel-huge-2.6.21.5-i486-2.tgz
kernel-huge-2.6.21.5-i486-2.tgz.asc
kernel-huge-2.6.21.5-i486-2.txt
kernel-huge-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.tgz
kernel-huge-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.tgz.asc
kernel-huge-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.txt
kernel-modules-2.6.21.5-i486-2.tgz
kernel-modules-2.6.21.5-i486-2.tgz.asc
kernel-modules-2.6.21.5-i486-2.txt
kernel-modules-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.tgz
kernel-modules-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.tgz.asc
kernel-modules-smp-2.6.21.5_smp-i686-2.txt

And there is a copy of the matching kernel sources in the "k" series. You can replace all those with a single package that installs your kernel, modules and kernel source together. You can follow the examples and combine the install/doinst.sh scripts, but you can also simplify it like this:

Create a working directory /tmp/slack.
Put System.map, config, and vmlinuz under /tmp/slack/boot.
INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/tmp/slack make modules_install
Move the kernel sources into /tmp/slack/usr/src/linux-(version) and add a symlink from linux to linux-(version).
Update the build and source links in /tmp/slack/lib/modules/(version) to point to /usr/src/linux-(version).
Create /tmp/slack/etc/rc.d/rc.modules based on examples and make it load whatever modules you need.
Create an empty /tmp/slack/install/doinst.sh and put whatever verbiage you like in /tmp/slack/install/slack-desc (following examples).
Tar it up and drop it into the "a" series along with a .txt file that matches slack-desc.
To prevent the installer from replacing the kernel installed thusly with the one that was used to run the install, replace the SeTkernel script in the initrd image with an empty file. See using the source for instructions on modifying the initrd image.

Note that liloconfig looks for /boot/vmlinuz but not /boot/bzImage.

Other things to mess with

The following terse examples assume that the Slackware directory tree is being built in /tmp/slack.

Patch liloconfig to use compact the first time

# This will of course break the signature.
rm /tmp/slack/slackware/a/lilo-*.asc
mkdir /tmp/lilo
cd /tmp/lilo
tar xzf /tmp/slack/slackware/a/lilo-*.tgz
cp sbin/liloconfig temp
sed s/#compact/compact/ temp > sbin/liloconfig
rm temp
tar czf /tmp/slack/slackware/a/lilo-*.tgz *
cd /tmp/slack
rm -rf /tmp/lilo

Patch configure script to use correct mount options for vfat and ntfs and get rid of the "insert next disc" prompt

cd /tmp/slack/isolinux
mkdir cpiowork
cd cpiowork
gzip -dc ../initrd.img | cpio -i -d -H newc --no-absolute-filenames
cd usr/lib/setup
cp SeTDOS /tmp/temp
sed s/\"vfat\"\ \"defaults\"/\"vfat\"\ \"uid=1000,gid=100,shortname=winnt\"/ /tmp/temp | sed s/\"ntfs\"\ \"ro\"/\"ntfs\"\ \"ro,uid=1000,gid=100,umask=000\"/ > SeTDOS
cp slackinstall /tmp/temp
sed s/\ remount_disc/\ break/ /tmp/temp > slackinstall
rm /tmp/temp
cd /tmp/slack/isolinux/cpiowork
find . -print | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 > ../initrd.img
cd ..
rm -rf cpiowork

Notes from older versions

Prior to Slackware 12, initrd.img was a gzipped ext2 image instead of a gzipped cpio archive. This was the old initrd system as opposed to the new initramfs system.

bash-3.00# gzip -dc slackware-10.2/isolinux/initrd.img > temp.img
bash-3.00# mount -o ro,loop temp.img /mnt
bash-3.00# cd /mnt/usr/lib/setup/
bash-3.00# ls
FDhelp  INShd       SeTfdHELP   SeTmedia       installpkg  setup
INSCD   PROMPThelp  SeTfull     SeTnopart      migrate.sh  slackinstall
INSNFS  SeTDOS      SeTkernel   SeTpartitions  nopartHELP  unmigrate.sh
INSdir  SeTPKG      SeTkeymap   SeTpasswd      pkgtool
INSfd   SeTconfig   SeTmaketag  SeTswap        removepkg

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