How To Get Grub Back With My Fresh Slackware Installation

Alexzee

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After building a brand new desktop I was able to install Linux Mint 19.2 first and than yesterday I installed Slackware current.

Now that Slackware is installed LILO took over and I can't boot into Linux Mint.

How do I fix this?
 


try this , go to terminal
$ su <password>
# lilo -v

//that should update and include mint

also you can try editing /etc/lilo.conf

mine is:

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda3
label = Linux
read-only

//you can add lines including where mint image is
 
I have also in the past boot up pc.

get aliens grub.txz and put on desktop.
//grub 2

remove lilo using pkgtool

then when package of grub installed run:

# grub-install /dev/sda

# grub -mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.efg
//where o is letter o not 0
 
Thanks for the instructions.

Before I proceed I better let you know what's going on first.

If I let the desktop boot up on it's own (once it passes the BIOS screen) it automatically boots to Slackware. Slackware is installed to the 1 TB Seagate drive.

If I want to go to Linux MInt or MX Linux to get the Grub Menu I have to hold down F8.

Mint is installed to the M.2 NVMe drive and MX Linux is installed to the 500 GB WD HDD.

I couldn't find aliens grub.txz on here:

Any ideas where I can find grub.txz?
 
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bash-5.0# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 232.91 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 250GB
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x9ad6e6dd

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 3999743 3997696 1.9G 82 Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p2 * 3999744 488396799 484397056 231G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST31000524NS
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00046882

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1048578047 1048576000 500G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1048580096 1052774399 4194304 2G 82 Linux swap


Disk /dev/sdb: 465.78 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD5000AZLX-0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x3fc0a6bb

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 1 972513279 972513279 463.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 972513280 976707583 4194304 2G 83 Linux

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
 
i think for an old timer like me this may be too modern ! but you said you installed slackware last on sda ?
so i guess if you read /etc/lilo.conf you can see :

# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" "

boot = /dev/sda
bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda1
label = Linux
read-only

.....................................?

you could try adding:
other= /dev/nvme0n1p2
label= Mint
table = /dev/nvme0n1p2

i have a feeling grub2 is going to work better
 
i think for an old timer like me this may be too modern ! but you said you installed slackware last on sda ?
so i guess if you read /etc/lilo.conf you can see :

# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" "

boot = /dev/sda
bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda1
label = Linux
read-only

.....................................?

you could try adding:
other= /dev/nvme0n1p2
label= Mint
table = /dev/nvme0n1p2

i have a feeling grub2 is going to work better
Yes, I installed Slackware to /dev/sda.
After I installed Slackware I installed MX Linux to /dev/sdb.

Do I have to use pkgtool to remove lilo?

I'm not good with pkgtool because I've never used it.
Can I use removepkg instead?
 
Last edited:
Yes, I installed Slackware last to /dev/sda.

Do I have to use pkgtool to remove lilo?

I'm not good with pkgtool because I've never used it.
Can I use removepkg instead?
I would see if you can add the other distro info to lilo first ; i sucessfully once did it with a dual boot with Windows. But you have gone deep end first with your hard drives , so you have SSD then i saw sdb with Linux type 83 , is that home or something ?
 
I would see if you can add the other distro info to lilo first ; i sucessfully once did it with a dual boot with Windows. But you have gone deep end first with your hard drives , so you have SSD then i saw sdb with Linux type 83 , is that home or something ?
It's (sdb) the root partition of MX Linux.

I would add the entry for Mint above "Linux bootable partition config ends" right?
4768
 
Last edited:
go to a terminal , su <root> <password> -> $-> #
type : ls /var/log/packages | grep lilo
//was does it give you ?
Basically to remove any package slackware its just a case of :
# removepkg <packagename>

eg i couldn't get SweetHome3d working with open jdk so bullt Oracle JDk i removed Aliens just half an hr ago using :# removepkg openjdk-8u232_b09-x86_64-1alien
 
have you got a reboot disc or usb stick , if it fails you won't boot .
 
go to a terminal , su <root> <password> -> $-> #
type : ls /var/log/packages | grep lilo
//was does it give you ?
Basically to remove any package slackware its just a case of :
# removepkg <packagename>

eg i couldn't get SweetHome3d working with open jdk so bullt Oracle JDk i removed Aliens just half an hr ago using :# removepkg openjdk-8u232_b09-x86_64-1alien
bash-5.0$ ls /var/log/packages | grep lilo
elilo-3.16-x86_64-10
lilo-24.2-x86_64-8
bash-5.0$
 
I would much rather have Grub than add those entries to /etc/lilo.config.
Are you sure installing Grub will work?
 
yes thats what i have , confusing with both , is it not. here is a rescue you might try if it goes bad.

use install disc at boot type(for you with root slackware sda1 :

hugesmp.s root=/dev/sda1 rdinit =ro
 


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