Installing Slackware

How to install Slackware on Bitfolk VPS

This guide will show you how to get Slackware running on a Bitfolk VPS. You will not notice any performance benefits running 64-bit Slackware so I will be installing Slackware-13.37 32-bit with LVM. This guide is based on a VPS with 512MB of RAM and 10GB Disk Space, your settings might vary.

Setup Partitions

SSH into a xen console using:

ssh [USERNAME]@[USERNAME].console.bitfolk.com

type: rescue and then login.

sudo su

apt-get install lvm2

fdisk /dev/xvda

Create Boot Partition:

Command (m for help): n

p primary partition (1-4)

Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1

Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-20971519, default 20971519): +100M

Create LVM Parition:

Command (m for help): n

Partition number (1-4, default 2): 2

OK everything after that to use remain space!

Command (m for help): t

Partition number (1-4): 2

Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e

Your partitions should look something like this:

Command (m for help): p

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/xvda1 1 13 104391 83 Linux

/dev/xvda2 14 1305 10377990 8e Linux LVM

Save and Quit

Command (m for help): w

Create Boot EXT3 Filesystem

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/xvda1

e2fsck -f /dev/xvda1

Create LVM Volumes & EXT3 File System

pvcreate /dev/xvda2

vgcreate slackware /dev/xvda2

lvcreate -L6G -nroot slackware

lvcreate -L2G -nhome slackware

lvcreate -L2G -nvar slackware

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/slackware/root

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/slackware/home

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/slackware/var

e2fsck -f /dev/slackware/root

e2fsck -f /dev/slackware/home

e2fsck -f /dev/slackware/var

Mount

mkdir /mnt/slackware

mount /dev/slackware/root /mnt/slackware

mount /dev/slackware/home /mnt/slackware/home

mount /dev/slackware/var /mnt/slackware/var

mount /dev/xvda1 /mnt/slackware/boot

mount -o bind /proc /mnt/slackware/proc/

mount -o bind /dev /mnt/slackware/dev/

mount -o bind /sys/ /mnt/slackware/sys/

Install Slackware

lftp -e 'mirror /slackware/slackware-13.37/slackware/a /mnt/slackware/tmp/a' slackware.org.uk

lftp -e 'mirror /slackware/slackware-13.37/slackware/ap /mnt/slackware/tmp/ap' slackware.org.uk

lftp -e 'mirror /slackware/slackware-13.37/slackware/d /mnt/slackware/tmp/d' slackware.org.uk

lftp -e 'mirror /slackware/slackware-13.37/slackware/l /mnt/slackware/tmp/l' slackware.org.uk

lftp -e 'mirror /slackware/slackware-13.37/slackware/n /mnt/slackware/tmp/n' slackware.org.uk

lftp -e 'mirror /slackware/slackware-13.37/slackware/x /mnt/slackware/tmp/x' slackware.org.uk

cd /usr/local/sbin

wget 'ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/slackware/slackware-13.37/source/a/pkgtools/scripts/installpkg'

chmod +x installpkg

installpkg --root /mnt/slackware/ /mnt/slackware/tmp/a/*.t?z

installpkg --root /mnt/slackware/ /mnt/slackware/tmp/ap/*.t?z

installpkg --root /mnt/slackware/ /mnt/slackware/tmp/d/*.t?z

installpkg --root /mnt/slackware/ /mnt/slackware/tmp/l/*.t?z

installpkg --root /mnt/slackware/ /mnt/slackware/tmp/n/*.t?z

installpkg --root /mnt/slackware/ /mnt/slackware/tmp/x/*.t?z

CHROOT

cd /mnt/slackware

chroot .

Compile Kernel

cd /usr/src

wget 'ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.37.6.tar.gz'

gunzip *.gz

tar xvf *.tar

make menuconfig

1) If building 32 bit kernel make sure you have CONFIG_X86_PAE enabled (which is set by selecting CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G)

2) non-PAE mode doesn't work in 2.6.25, and has been dropped altogether from 2.6.26 and newer kernel versions. Enable these core options (Processor type and features| Paravirtualized guest support]

3) Xen's bzImage loaded can only handle compressed gzip, not compressed LZMA

Paste this at end of .config

CONFIG_PARAVIRT=y CONFIG_XEN=y CONFIG_PARAVIRT_GUEST=y CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS=y CONFIG_HVC_DRIVER=y CONFIG_HVC_XEN=y CONFIG_XEN_FBDEV_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_XEN_BLKDEV_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_XEN_NETDEV_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_XEN_PCIDEV_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_INPUT_XEN_KBDDEV_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_XEN_FBDEV_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_XEN_XENBUS_FRONTEND=y CONFIG_XEN_SAVE_RESTORE=y CONFIG_XEN_GRANT_DEV_ALLOC=m CONFIG_XEN_TMEM=y CONFIG_CLEANCACHE=y CONFIG_FRONTSWAP=y CONFIG_XEN_SELFBALLOONING=y

make all -j2

make modules_install -j2

cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/

cp .config /boot/config

cp -a System.map /boot/

Grub

cd /boot

mkdir grub

vim grub/menu.lst

default 0

timeout 2

title Slackware 13.37

root (hd0,1)

kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/mapper/slackware-root ro

initrd /boot/initrd.img

INITRD

mkinitrd -k 2.6.37.6 -f ext3 -r /dev/slackware/root -m ehci-hcd:uhci-hcd:jbd2:mbcache:ext3 -L -R -u -o /boot/initrd.img

FSTAB

/etc/fstab

/dev/xvda1 /boot ext3 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=0 0 1

/dev/system/root / ext3 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=0 0 1

/dev/system/home /home ext3 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=0,usrquota 0 1

/dev/system/var /var ext3 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=0 0 1

LABEL=linux-swap none swap barrier=0,sw 0 0

devpts /dev/pts devpts barrier=0,gid=5,mode=620 0 0

proc /proc proc barrier=0,defaults 0 0