.:Slackel - Hellenic Linux Distribution::.

This is really strange.
Remove pm-utils package if you not
Remove cbatticon xscreensaver
Reinstall pciutils pcmciautils packages
But i think it is some settings left somewhere and cause this problem.
Can you look at dmesg
sudo dmesg
to see the messages there.

I tried to upgrade slackel kde and even reinstall everything on slackware current but kde is not workable. A blank screen appeared in X and kde not start.
This elogind do this.
I gave up.

Edit: I found how to stop suspend to my system.
Edit /etc/elogind/logind.conf and change it to look like this. then reboot or sudo service restart elogind
Doing this from wm-logout i cannot suspend my system
typing in console
loginctl suspend i get the message
Failed to suspend system via elogind: Sleep verb "suspend" not supported

djemos wrote:This is really strange.
Remove pm-utils package if you not
Remove cbatticon xscreensaver
Reinstall pciutils pcmciautils packages

Can you look at dmesg
sudo dmesg
to see the messages there.

pm-utils was uninstalled already. xscreensaver was uninstalled years ago, since I don't need a screensaver. I removed cbatticon, although I doubt this is the problem (it's just a simple application, not a deamon or anything). I reistalled pciutils and pcmciautils. None of those helped.
The outpiut of dmseg cannot be copied here because it exceeds the maximum number of characters allowed in this forum, but you will find it here.

djemos wrote:But i think it is some settings left somewhere and cause this problem.

This is probably the best guess about the reason of the problem. My Slackel 64-bit system was last re-iinstalled one year ago and does not have this suspend problem. So if old settings left somewhere is the reason, it must be at least one year old. But go figure which settings cause the problem.
In fact, leftover settings is the main reason I reinstall Slackel every few years. But I don't want to do that in this 32-bit laptop. The reason is last time I tried I had serious problems with newer kernels, which somehow conflict with the GPU (only one quarter of the screen is viewable, the rest is blank). So I avoid reinstalling a newer Slackel distibution because of the newer kernels that comes with. Maybe this GPU conflict problem is already fixed, but I don't want to risk it, so I stick with kernel 4.4.38-smp, which I know it works well in this laptop.

djemos wrote:I tried to upgrade slackel kde and even reinstall everything on slackware current but kde is not workable. A blank screen appeared in X and kde not start.
This elogind do this.
I gave up.

I was sure kde version would have more problems. The KDE team didn't make it dependent on systemd (as gnome did), but judging from what I read in Slackware-Current Changelogs, it seems KDE relies heavily on logind, so elogind becomes necessary.

djemos wrote:Edit: I found how to stop suspend to my system.
Edit /etc/elogind/logind.conf and change it to look like this.

Code: Select all

[Sleep]
AllowSuspend=no
AllowHibernation=no
AllowSuspendThenHibernate=no
AllowHybridSleep=no

then reboot or sudo service restart elogind
Doing this from wm-logout i cannot suspend my system
typing in console
loginctl suspend i get the message
Failed to suspend system via elogind: Sleep verb "suspend" not supported

I was aware of those settings, because I was reading about logind.conf two days ago (know your enemy ). I was looking for a more permanent solution. This is a "temporary" workaround - but it works. I can still shutdown and reboot via wm-logout, and that's all I really need. Suspend is basically a welcome luxury I rarely use.
At least in my system, AllowHibernation=no is not necessary, because hilbernate never worked anyway.

Let's just hope they will fix this elogind thing nobody asked for, but we have to deal with now.

Even if suspend work for me i never use it. Since laptop is always doing something.
I have some questions. This laptop with 32bit slackel, can boot from an external usb stick ? Does it have a dvd writer or player ? It is a 32 or 64 bit machine?
And do you have a 16 or 32 GB clean usb stick to use ? or two is best.
If answer is yes then i will return with details.

djemos wrote:Even if suspend work for me i never use it. Since laptop is always doing something.

This machine is almost always on doing something as well. In same cases, I just know I will be away for a few hours and I might want to suspend it. Even then, I can always shut it down and reboot when I am back (it boots fast anyway). So since there is a workaround, I am concerned about this elogind problem more because of perfectionism, and curiosity to find out what's going on and why elogind constantly suspends the system.

djemos wrote:I have some questions. This laptop with 32bit slackel, can boot from an external usb stick ? Does it have a dvd writer or player ? It is a 32 or 64 bit machine?
And do you have a 16 or 32 GB clean usb stick to use ? or two is best.
If answer is yes then i will return with details.

This is actually a "netbook", a mini laptop I bought years ago, because I needed a portable computer and it was cheaper than a normal laptop. I does not have a DVD/CD player, but it can boot from a bootable USB stick (this is how I installed Slackel). It has a dual-core 32-bit CPU. I do have at least two 32 Gb USB sticks I can use for experimentation.

I installed Slackel on this machine 5 years ago, and I avoid re-installing a more recent Slackel, because of the kernel problem I mentioned before: recent kernels not working well with this machine's GPU (not sure if the problem is fixed in the latest kernel, but I doubt it). Instead or re-intalling, I just keep the system up-to-date with the fixed kernel 4.4.38, which I know it works well with the GPU.
I just don't want to lose the ability to use Slackel on this machine, because despite it is old, it is still an essential part of my computer setup. Nowadays I do have a more modern laptop and desktop, both running Slackel 64-bit. Nevertheless this old netbook is also used a lot. Mainly to test the 32-bit version of my own libraries, and making Slackel 32-bit packages (in a native system, not a virtual machine), and using it as a second computer when I am not at home and have no access to my desktop PC. But it is also used for basically everything else: testing if my OpenGL applications run well in older computers with a weaker GPU, discover warnings on compiling in 32-bit systems using the latest gcc/g++/gfortran (I found several of these warnings I wouldn't find otherwise), recording audio, browsing the internet, even playing games. Last but not least, it is used as my Internet radio, including "Rebetico gia ligous", where I discovered songs I wasn't even aware of ("Ariadni" seems down for a long time).

Slackel, can installed as a live usb and using a persistent file to update packages. In usb formatted in vfat filesystem persistent file can be 1998 MB in size.
Of cource cannot do a real upgrade because of size limitation and upgrading large files soon become slow.
If usb formatted in ext4 then a prsistent file cannot used but can use all the usb to upgrade files. In this case also it is a not a real system running.
I was trying to change installer to support a real installation to an external usb stick or ssd disk and can boot from usb or ssd and use a real system
installed in external usb where can update everything even kernel. It is a real installation to an external disk. The problem was that in this case we need an initrd.gz
to boot from usb stick or usb ssd. Finally found waht was the problem and the initrd.gz created at installtion time could not boot the usb. It was simple but i could not imagine it.
Mounted sys proc dev to chroot to usb where the installation done i had to also create a tmp folder. And then initrd.gz created correctly and can boot the usb.

Read bellow carefully.
We have 2 options:

1. to create a msdos partition table on usb where we will install the system and partition to hold the system in ext4 and also a swap partition.
Then procceed to installation.

2. to create a gpt partition table and
one 500MB fat32 partition table for uefi,
a second ext4 partition to hold the linux system
a third ext4 (optionally) partition for home
a fourth partition 1-2MB in fat32 - in practice gparted set it at 33MB
Important: The first fat32 partition after creation pressing the right key of mouse set the flag in boot and we see it marked as boot,esp
The fourth fat 32 partition we set the flag as bios_grub.
In this case we will have two boot options one in uefi and one as simple usb i386. We can choose whatever we like.
In this case grub can be used as efi and i386 legay bios. It is useful for 32bit systems with gpt partition table to boot

So, for your case download slackel-openbox 32bit iso and create a live usb. Then boot with this live usb ( it will be /dev/sdb) and when go on
live environment plug in the second usb (it will mounted as /dev/sdc) and connect to internet. pcmanfm will mount the usb say yes. No problem.
Because the last version of openbox iso do not have the upgraded sli and slackware-live programs open lxterminal and type

Then run sli
press the gparted (partition button) to run gparted. Select the /dev/sdc and umount any partition if any. Then create a msdos or gpt partition table and other partitions as i wrote above.
Close gparted. you see /dev/sdc1 if you have created a msdos partition table or /dev/sdc2 if you have created a gpt partition table and an fat32 uefi in /dev/sdc1
And set locale etc root, user pass and do the installation.
Then shutdown the laptop. Unplug both usb sticks and plug in the second usb with the real installation. Press power on and press fn+F12 in my lenovo laptop and select your usb you will see it and boot.
So can check if newest kernels work with your screen.
then can do To upgrade the kernel do not use install-kernel-upgrade but the install-upgrade-kernel-ext-usb script
like this This will upgrade the kernel and also will create the needed initrd.gz and run update-grub to boot the usb with the new kernel.
This usb can used to any laptop or desktop pc to run slackel. Can have it always with you. And will run fast because it is a real installed system not in internal but in external usb ssd or usb stick.
Only have to press fn+F12 or something else depends of laptop or desktop pc (F2, or F10 etc) to go to bios boot menu to pick up the usb to boot.
I have made two installations to external usb's to make tests and work fine.

djemos wrote:Slackel, can installed as a live usb and using a persistent file to update packages. In usb formatted in vfat filesystem persistent file can be 1998 MB in size.
Of cource cannot do a real upgrade because of size limitation and upgrading large files soon become slow.
If usb formatted in ext4 then a prsistent file cannot used but can use all the usb to upgrade files. In this case also it is a not a real system running.
I was trying to change installer to support a real installation to an external usb stick or ssd disk and can boot from usb or ssd and use a real system installed in external usb where can update everything even kernel. It is a real installation to an external disk. The problem was that in this case we need an initrd.gz
to boot from usb stick or usb ssd. Finally found waht was the problem and the initrd.gz created at installtion time could not boot the usb. It was simple but i could not imagine it.
Mounted sys proc dev to chroot to usb where the installation done i had to also create a tmp folder. And then initrd.gz created correctly and can boot the usb.

I was aware of the USB installation. sli is an excellent tool - not for the inexperienced user, but if you know what you are doing, sli gives you all the tools and options you need in a single simple window. I like it.
In fact, I do have a Slackel USB system more than one year ago. I opted for a persistent file of fixed size, and it worked, but as you said it is slow if used as a real system with updates. Whenever I wanted to shutdown, it took several minutes to save the changes in the persistent file. Because of that, I didn't really use it. But now that persistent file is not used anymore and we are talking about a real system where I can do updates, I am trying it again.

I followed your instructions and went for gpt partition table on a 32 Gb USB. Preparing the USB for installation was never easier. However, basic (not full) installation is very slow. It took 2 hours already and it's at 76%. I expected it to be slow because USB is not hard disk and access time is much slower. But it was very slow from the beginning, and after about 70% done, it's dead slow - it's not frozen but takes more than 15 minutes for installation to get from 75% to 76%. Is that normal? I know USBs tend to be very slow and they get even slower as more space is used, it just seems worrying slow to me. If that is normal and it only happens during installation (not use), I am perfectly ok with that.

I have 2 Sandisk Cruzer usb's 16 and 32GB and another 32gb intenso usb. Some usb's when you write large data GBytes become slow as data increase.They are not ssd disks. I have an external ssd 250GB disk where i have installed windows 10 and slackel32 and 64 bit and is turbo. Installation was fast.
I use this ssd external disk to compile LibreOffice 32 and 64bit for slackel when a new LibreOffice edition is released, because in my 500Gb disk i have many partitions with several os and i do not the free space LibreOffice need. It takes in my 4 GB ram lenovo 8 hours for its version. I have add 4 GB ram so now i have 8 GB and in next compilation of LibreOffice i am curious to see how much time will take.

So for slackel, wait to complete the installation. It takes a lot of time more than 20 minutes. It takes 40 minutes to complete the full installation in my sun cruiser usb.
I suggest to do a full installation and not a basic to have all since it is an external usb. After installation boot and upgrade is very fast as in a real system.

I tried both the UEFI and legacy partitioning. In both cases, it takes more than 2 hours to install on the USB (Kingston DataTraveller 32-Gb). for some reason installation gets stuck at 76% for quite some time, then I get a message saying installation is complete (I don't see any progress above 76% it goes straight to the installation complete message after a lot of delay). After that, the USB either doesn't boot (BIOS acts as if it's not bootable), or it starts booting but then I get these messages: It gives me a prompt to type, but keyboard is not active, and the only way to escape is to press the power button. The same thing happens in 2 different computers. On a third computer it just ignores the USB after a few seconds, and starts booting the hard disk system.

I mounted the second partition of the USB in an installed system and it seems ok. For example, /sbin/init does exist.

while on live environment before run sli did you run
sudo slapt-get -u
sudo slapt-get -i sli slackware-live
and then run sli ?
Also 76% is because you choose basic install. Installation finishes as you see. I made a full installation.
This message appeared before mount tmp also for chroot inside sli.

djemos wrote:while on live environment before run sli did you run
sudo slapt-get -u
sudo slapt-get -i sli slackware-live
and then run sli ?

Yes, I did that. I followed your instructions to the letter, two times, one with gpt partitioning and one with legacy msdos partitioning.