Several problems with Slackware 10.1

Well, I tried out Slackware 10.1 this weekend and here are the troubles I'm having:

1. SATA harddrive. I figured this one out on my own but I thought I'd offer a word of advice to those who are frustrated. Slackware does not auto-detect SATA drives at boot. If you plan on installing it on a SATA drive, you must type sata.i in the boot prompt.

2. Sound. I have a standard C-Media 8738 PCI sound card that I've never had *not* work before. Slackware simply doesn't think it exists. I ran alsaconf and it told me there were no PCI or PnP cards present. I tried modprobe cmipci and the module didn't exist. Is there a way to fix this short of compiling my own module?

3. Dual-Booting with SuSE. Perhaps this is just a peculiarity of SuSE and lack of GRUB knowledge, but when I configured my bootloader to boot to the Slackware partition, it decided to still use my SuSE 2.6.x kernel rather than the Slackware kernel on the slackware partition. I'll post my grub.lst next time I'm near it.

Usually at this point I chalk it up as "SuSE wins again" and just move on, but I *want* to like Slackware 10.1. I liked Slackware 9.1. This one I want to work at. At least Slackware works better than FC3.
:?

actually something like #2 happened to me. My soundcard work fine in Slackware 10.0, but when I upgrade to 10.1 slackware can't find it. It is a soundblaster however.

I will be proactive about grub. this is from mine grub (created by debian)

Code:

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title                Slackware (on /dev/hda6)
root                (hd0,5)
kernel                /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro hdc=ide-scsi
savedefault
boot

---

Techie,
Sorry to hear about the tough time with the installation. I find that slackware is a little tough for the average user to install. (Not meaning you).
I think that it is hard to install so once you work all the bugs out it is lean and mean and a fighting stable machine. Here is the deal when I installed mine half the garb didn't work but once I figured it all out (about 2 extra hours digging through linuxforums.org and others) I got it to work. I have found this to be the fastest OS I have used. (this might not be an issue with your faster machine) but on my p3 1gig I can open open office 1.1 with no delay.
I know you are testing it cause you are a techie, and you may not find it to fit your needs, but it really is awesome for the right user. I say take a few hours and see if you can overcome the issues and take the time to see what I mean.
I know it is a little behind though as far as 64 and kernels, but still very usable.
Mike

techieMoe, sorry to hear of your trouble. I initially installed Slack 10 and now have upgraded to 10.1. I really like SuSE 9.1, but with Slackware, I think I've finally found my distro. I had no problems with my sound card, a Soundblaster Live!, but it did take a while to get the hang of things coming from SuSE. I'm presently booting between Mepis, Slackware and Beatrix so I might be able to help with that /grub/menu.lst. Do you have /boot on a seperate partition in either SuSE or Slackware?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adrenaline

I find that slackware is a little tough for the average user to install. (Not meaning you).
I think that it is hard to install so once you work all the bugs out it is lean and mean and a fighting stable machine.

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The thing that confuses me is that all my present hardware worked fine in 9.1. I had no trouble installing/configuring Slack 9.1 (though I had mounds with Slack 8.2) What's changed in this release and how do I fix it? I am just testing this release and have no real intention of keeping it for very long (SuSE does everything I want it to do and then some), but I am curious how to get this install working.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vergil83

My soundcard work fine in Slackware 10.0, but when I upgrade to 10.1 slackware can't find it. It is a soundblaster however.

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That's exactly what's confusing me. I've *never* had this problem on any other distro; even the ill-fated Fedora Core 3 would pick it up. It might not work, but at least it knew there was a card plugged in. :?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dapper Dan

...I might be able to help with that /grub/menu.lst. Do you have /boot on a seperate partition in either SuSE or Slackware?

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No, just the /boot directory in either root partition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by techieMoe

[No, just the /boot directory in either root partition.

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It should be just a matter of editing your grub/menu.lst. Try adding something along the lines of:

Code:

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title Slackware at hda10, kernel 2.4.29     
kernel (hd0,9)/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.29 root=/dev/hda10 ro
initrd (hd0,9)/boot/diag1.img
savedefault

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If your Slackware root partition is on say, hda5, it would be...

Code:

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title Slackware at hda5, kernel 2.4.29     
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.29 root=/dev/hda5 ro
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/diag1.img
savedefault

---

Check the Slackare boot directory to see what vmlinuz and initrd your new entry needs to point to. I hope this helps...

Thanks, DapperDan. I'll give that a shot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by techieMoe

The thing that confuses me is that all my present hardware worked fine in 9.1. I had no trouble installing/configuring Slack 9.1 (though I had mounds with Slack 8.2) What's changed in this release and how do I fix it? I am just testing this release and have no real intention of keeping it for very long (SuSE does everything I want it to do and then some), but I am curious how to get this install working.

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Unlike other big distros, Slackware never made use of a fancy installer to start with.
So what did change...
Mostly its packages (new alsa, X.org, gnome, kde, ...)
The Slackware installer only does the basic stuff, not everything.
So basicly, it also depends on the default config tools from the packages it comes with.
Also, as for your SATA drive(a new one?) you might have had less problems using its 2.6 kernel(located on the 2nd CD under testing).




What I needed to do:

Recompiling my kernel.

Installing the nvidia driver.

Editing xorg.conf:
*nvidia
*changing the default key map in x.org
*making my scroll weel to work
*changing the fonts
*changing the h/v syncs to get a better resolution

WM/DE
I use a lot of them...
So far I installed Enligtenment(the new one from source), Fuxbox and KDE from the CD and also Dropline GNOME(it will tell you 10.1 is not supported but still works).

Add a user
"adduser" did most.
I still had to change some permissions (like the onces for your CD/DVD drive. I also added "sudo".

All this worked without a single problem.
Slackware is really a rock.

PS: So far I really like this release :)
PS PS: Here are some tips and tricks:
http://members.cox.net/laitcg/new/intro.html

Good job Jens
I couldn't have said it better myself.
I haven't upgraded yet because I don't see the need yet. 10 is still working awesome and is still very fast. One thing I learned is that you are exactly right Slackware is a rock. It is the most stable distro I have used yet. But has the been the most difficult to get right.

Techie, It is definitely not as easy as SuSE but it is cheaper and really stable. It is a lot of work but once you have it, it is Solid. I have been relying on it for work since July last year without any problems. It is on my laptop for work. It integrates with Microsoft just fine. I don't even have Windows installed on it.
Anyways I know you are just playing with it, but keep playing with it till you get it solid I think your frustrations will go away.
Remember this is fun.

cheers,
Mike

Thanks for the link, jens, but I still don't see anything relating to my undetected sound card. That is my biggest annoyance at this point.

EDIT: I did some googling and someone mentioned installing alsa-modules. I have no internet connection on my test box and really no way to get files to it unless it's on the original CD. Can I install packages off of the Slackware CDs?

*Bear with me here; I've gotten used to just running YaST for everything. :wink: