Installing Slackware

Contents

1 How to install Slackware on Bitfolk VPS

1.1 Setup Partitions

1.2 Create Boot EXT3 Filesystem

1.3 Create LVM Volumes & EXT3 File System

1.4 Mount

1.5 Install Slackware

1.6 CHROOT

1.7 Compile Kernel

1.8 Grub

1.9 INITRD

1.10 FSTAB

1.11 Network Settings

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