Slackware64-Current

[bw42]

I have been working on rebuilding Slackware64 Current on my Blackbird.
Its mostly there now, though a few applications are having some issues that need sorted.
I also need to find a place to host the packages.

I'm trying to sort out the boot requirements for creating an install image.
I understand Petitboot does a scan and is supposed to auto detect OSes.

What specifically is it scanning for?
Is there info somewhere on what needs to be setup for it to detect the installed OS?

[ClassicHasClass]

If it's visible to GRUB, it should be visible to Petitboot.

Nice job on the port!

[bw42]

If it's visible to GRUB, it should be visible to Petitboot.

Thank you, I figured it was something like that.

Grub is one of the packages that keeps erroring on build.
I'll have to work on getting that one working.

[ClassicHasClass]

I think if you can crack that nut, you should be there. This delights me personally; Slackware was my first taste of Linux in 1998-ish (on an old 486 we christened "calvin").

[jirka]

Slackware? Thank you very much for your effort!

I used the Slackware in the past (on intel and amd64 systems) and still thinking about return to it. It would be great to have it on my Blackbird...

[MPC7500]

Funny, a month ago I asked Eric Hameleers if there is a possibility to port Slackware to PPC64le.
He said, I should ask Patrick Volkerding.
Sadly, he didn't response. Why not ask the Slackware people for hosting the packages?

Great work, BTW

[bw42]

I got my Blackbird about a month ago and began working on the build.

I posted a couple updates on the Linuxquestions thread where people asked about a Power9 port.

I might try talking to Patrick Volkerding about mirroring them.
Once I get something that can actually install.

Right now I have a script that does a for loop through the directories and installs them in a folder for testing.
I extracted the Debian Grub packages and manually installed them on my Blackbird and it looks like it picks up the Slackware install just from running a grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
So I should be able to get that going enough to make a Slackware installer initrd.

[Logout]

Hello, just registered to say a huge THANK YOU for porting Slackware - my preferred distro on x86 since some 2003/2004. My Blackbird is stuck three weeks on US customs, but just two days ago I was talking to some other czech Slackware users how to start on porting to POWER9 right after it arrives. Now I don't have to, someone else did it 

But I can at least offer space for a mirror. I can spare 50-60GB on http://vivapowerpc.eu/software/ with SSH/SCP upload, if you need. Server is located in OVH datacentres in France and is (of course) powered by Slackware.

[bw42]

I actually just got a VPS that I was working on.

I moved my blog site I made to it, though there's not much on it at the moment.
Was working on getting Mirror Brain configured to upload the packages to.

Once I get it setup the blog site will be at https://www.riscyslack.org and mirror will be https://mirror.riscyslack.org
That's the plan at least.

[jirka]

Once I get it setup the blog site will be at https://www.riscyslack.org and mirror will be https://mirror.riscyslack.org
That's the plan at least.

Can you please consider  a RSS channel for your blog?

[bw42]

There isn't much useful information on my blog site at the moment, but I added an RSS feed.

https://www.riscyslack.org/?feed

It's mostly my ramblings of constantly almost having a useful build.

[Logout]

Thanks for creating the RSS feed - added you to my aggregated feed: http://vivapowerpc.eu/world

[bw42]

Guess that means I should start using normal titles instead of random jokes about Star Trek and such.

[Logout]

Star Trek jokes are fine as long as your blog is green! 

[bw42]

The initial packages and source files have been uploaded to https://mirror.riscyslack.org
I started this from a snapshot of Slackware64-current, its been a little over a month, so its probably a little out of sync with the official version.
I also got tired of fighting with KDE 4 and just dumped it for Alien Bob's KTown 5.19, so a lot of out of sync.

There isn't an installer at the moment, but the packages can be extracted to a folder or drive, and with a couple tweaks, be made into a mostly functional Slackware install.

I put the tarballs with the files from Debian's grub powerpc packages under Other for now.
I just extracted them to root with tar xvf *.txz -C /
They also need libdevmapper.so linked to libdevmapper.so.1.02.1 for the Debian grub-mkconfig to work.

I had to create an /etc/fstab with the mount entries and then run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg  to be able to boot directly into.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, I call it Riscy Slack. One because its for PowerPC64LE which is a RISC architecture, and two because its an unofficial build, so use at your own risk.

I'm still working on reverse engineering the process Patrick uses to do all the package signing and stuff for making it look like a proper mirror usable with Slackpkg.