[SOLVED] Progress report on my new drive

hazel · 10-29-2023, 09:42 AM

Mr Mazda suggested that I should open a new thread to cover my new hard drive so here it is. I am thrashing rather and could do with some advice.

I now have two working systems: a command-line only slackware and a graphical LFS with very few applications on it. I have also installed AntiX but without GRUB as I hoped to boot it out of elilo. So far that has not worked with either of the two supplied kernels. I decided to shelve that problem while I work on Slackware.

I hoped to have X up by today but have run into a weird problem. The Xorg log shows X starting and terminating immediately without apparently running into any errors on the way. I am going to try to attach the Xorg.0.log to this post but it's difficult in non-graphical links.

At the moment, to get a graphical browser, I have to work out of live AntiX.

business_kid · 10-29-2023, 11:40 AM

I get X puking exactly like you say occasionally - with no error. I hit up-arrow & return, and it starts every time. I suspect is something less than optimal in /etc/hosts, but I'm not bothered finding out.

jayjwa · 10-29-2023, 01:25 PM

Three things stand out to me that I'd fix first.

Code:

Failed to load /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/libglamoregl.so: libgbm.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib64/dri/swrast_dri.so failed (/usr/lib64/dri/swrast_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)

That's Mesa stuff. Do you have a working Mesa?

Code:

slackpkg file-search libgbm.so.1
Looking for libgbm.so.1 in package list. Please wait... DONE

The list below shows the packages that contains "libgbm\.so\.1" file.

[inst] slackware64 : mesa-23.2.1-x86_64-1

slackpkg claims swrast_dri.so can't be found but looking through the packages by hand it's Mesa as well.

The last thing is, is your font install really that sparse? No TTF fonts? Maybe that's OK but it seems odd to have an install with no TTFs.

Code:

[  7490.348] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/TTF".
[  7490.348]    Entry deleted from font path.
[  7490.348]    (Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/TTF").
[  7490.348] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF" does not exist.
[  7490.348]    Entry deleted from font path.

I'd install TTF and OTF. Run 'mkfontdir .' and 'mkfontscale .' in the directories. Actually, fontconfig (fc-cache) keeps track of fonts now but running mkfontdir/mkfontscale doesn't hurt.

business_kid · 10-29-2023, 02:47 PM

I forgot that log file. I get X closing immediately, but no errors. You have loads, as jayjwa pointed out. These

Code:

[  7490.439] (EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib64/dri/swrast_dri.so failed (/usr/lib64/dri/swrast_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
[  7490.439] (EE) AIGLX error: unable to load driver swrast
[  7490.439] (EE) GLX: could not load software renderer
[  7490.439] (II) GLX: no usable GL providers found for screen 0

are stopping you.

If that's Slackkware, Reinstall the Mesa package, and TTF fonts. The missing drivers should be there. I don't know how Antix splits things.

If this is a new drive, why are you stingy with the space? You can't buy a drive that small, xcan you?

hazel · 10-30-2023, 07:59 AM

We're getting there! Mesa was the culprit as suggested by jayjwa. It now needs libwayland as well as the
X libraries. Loaded that and hey presto, I have X. I am posting this out of graphical links.

Had a panic this morning when I unexpectedly lost internet access due to some ill-advised tinkering with the
/etc/rc.inet conf files. I was planning to do a lot of installs in the early morning when I get cheap
rates, but instead I had to fix this bummer. Well, tomorrow is another day.

I do have some ttf fonts, DejaVue and liberation. I also have the fonts that come with ghostscript.
No otf fonts as far as I know.

business_kid · 10-30-2023, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

No otf fonts as far as I know.

Fine, as long as you don't have Libreoffice. I think only Libreoffice needs them.

hazel · 10-30-2023, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Fine, as long as you don't have Libreoffice. I think only Libreoffice needs them.

I won't have Libreoffice for a long time. It's in alien bob's repository and I don't have slackpkgplus set up yet.

Update: I have firefox running now, which means that I no longer have to read my mail via live AntiX. Yippee! Next come the build tools so that I can get back my buttonbars.

From now on getting Slackware back to where it was will just be plod work. But when I have done, I will have to try and get my installed AntiX to boot via elilo. So far it shows no inclination to do so and I wanted to concentrate on slack.

hazel · 11-03-2023, 01:07 PM

Just to say that I have Slackware more or less complete including libreoffice. There's still some stuff to install, but my Brother printer now works and I think my scanner does too. I'm going to have a real go now at making AntiX bootable. You're supposed to install GRUB to boot AntiX but I'm damned if I'm going to. And it's my machine after all.

The weird thing is the silence. I'm used to hearing the drive buzz a few moments after I do a write, and of course the new ssd doesn't do that. I've also noticed that I can now reboot as easily as I can shutdown. I wasn't able to do that reliably with the old drive for some time. I wonder now if that was the first sign that it was failing.

anticapitalista · 11-04-2023, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

J... You're supposed to install GRUB to boot AntiX but I'm damned if I'm going to. And it's my machine after all.

...

The installer gives you the option NOT to install grub.
By default,the checkbox is set to install grub (it's the screen after setting partitions) - just uncheck it.

hazel · 11-04-2023, 06:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anticapitalista

The installer gives you the option NOT to install grub.

And I've taken it. But so far I've had no success in booting AntiX from elilo using the kernels and initrd images that I found in /boot. I just get panics. So I'm going to try later with my LFS kernel, which has the controller and filesystem drivers built in and therefore doesn't need an initrd at all. But I deliberately put that problem aside while I concentrated on getting Slackware up to speed.

hazel · 11-09-2023, 12:27 AM

OK, I'm winding up this thread. I still have a specific problem with AntiX boots but I have temporarily found a way around it (two ways in fact!) and I'm posting this out of AntiX now. I shall start a new thread in the AntiX/MX forum to see if I can get this distro to boot the way it actually should, because it irritates me that I am effectively having to sail under jury rig.

So, to sum up, I have a fully functioning Slackware with everything I need on it, a bootable and usable AntiX, and a bare-bones LFS for emergencies. Apart from the eerie silence of the disk drive, everything is back to normal.

mrmazda · 11-09-2023, 12:39 AM

Wunderbar!

hazel · 11-15-2023, 12:25 AM

Just to say, for anyone who is still following this, that the AntiX boot problem is solved. It was due to the lack of a working filesystem driver. I just needed to put the names of the kernel modules I wanted (above all the ext4 filesystem module) into /etc/initramfs-tools/modules where the initramfs creation scripts could find them. Apparently the installer would have done that for me as part of the GRUB install if I had chosen to go down that road.

One thing I have noticed about the new drive, apart from the eerie silence. My two largest programs, firefox and libreoffice, used to take an appreciable time to load. I thought that was just because I was using rather modest hardware (I have 4 cpu cores and 4 GB ram). But it turns out to have been loading from the drive that was the bottleneck. Now they start up just as fast as any other program.