How do *you* install Slackware

[Joseph Rosevear]

OK, this is a survey. Pick all that apply:

1. I download the CD iso images, burn them to CDs, boot the first CD,
and install.

2. Same as above, but download a single DVD iso image and burn to a
DVD.

3. I download the CD iso images and use them directly, booting the
first image using Grub.

4. Same as above, but download a single DVD iso image.

5. I clone an existing installation using rsync, then modify it as
needed using patches and scripts.

6. I never install, I upgrade.

7. Some other way.

[David Robley]

7 - where 7 involves a bootable external device.

[John Forkosh]

> 7. where 7 involves a bootable external device.
> David Robley

7. (a) copy the entire slackware directory, i.e.,
rsync -av --delete \
rsync://mirrors.kernel.org/slackware/slackware64-current/ \
slackware64-mylocalcopy/
(b) use usb-and-pxe-installers/usbimg2disk.sh to create
a bootable install stick

For what purpose(s) are you taking a "survey"?
--
John Forkosh ( mailto: j...@f.com where j=john and f=forkosh )

[Lew Pitcher]

These days, when I install a new Slackware system to bare metal, I
#2 Download the DVD iso image and burn it to a DVD (or other suitable
media). I also keep the iso as a file on one of my systems, to be NFS
shared and loop-mounted, so that I can either netboot from that iso,
or can mount and extract components (like single packages) from it.

For my existing Slackware systems, I /upgrade/ from the downloaded
iso. First, I drop into single-user, then I mount the iso (or DVD)
and start upgrading packages as per Slackware's instructions in
UPGRADE.TXT. (FWIW, before I upgradepkg, I run a set of scripts that
tell me which existing packages are absent from the upgrade, which
are present but unchanged, or present with upgrade path, and which
are new to the upgrade. I plan my upgrade, including finding replacements
for the dropped packages, from this list.)


HTH
--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills We Trust"

[Rich]

Depends:

Bare metal:

Download DVD .iso.

Then either burn to DVD or load to USB stick , boot from DVD/USB stick
(which one depends upon what boot method the BIOS of bare metal machine
supports), install.

Or:

Download DVD .iso, attach disk to additional drive port of existing
running system, connect raw disk device to VirtualBox, link DVD .iso to
VirtualBox, boot DVD in Virtual box, with /dev/sda of the virtual
machine being the "linked" extra disk, install/configure inside VB.
Then move pre-installed disk into end destination machine.

[Jim Diamond]

On 2023-03-14 at 11:28 ADT, Lew Pitcher <lew.p...@digitalfreehold.ca> wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Mar 2023 08:54:18 +0000, Joseph Rosevear wrote:
>
>> OK, this is a survey. Pick all that apply:

<snip>

> For my existing Slackware systems, I /upgrade/ from the downloaded
> iso.

<snip>

A while back there was some discussion about whether /etc/mtab is (or
should be) a file or a link to /proc/mounts (or /proc/self/mounts).

So... please chime in... What is /etc/mtab on your systems, upgraded and
fresh installs?

Jim

[Silvenshadow]

#7 - Monolithic DVD iso -> Usb drive -> Happiness

zmc

[Dan C]

Choice #2, but sometimes to a USB stick rather than a DVD.



--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
"Bother!" said Pooh, as the woodpecker approached his hot-air balloon.
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
Thanks, Obama: http://brandybuck.site40.net/pics/politica/thanks.jpg

[Rich]

Brand new fresh Slack-15 install (this past weekend).

/etc/mtab is a symlink to /proc/mounts

[Joseph Rosevear]

On Tue, 14 Mar 2023 17:34:39 GMT, Dan C wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Mar 2023 08:54:18 -0000 (UTC), Joseph Rosevear wrote:
>
>> OK, this is a survey. Pick all that apply:
>>
>> 1. I download the CD iso images, burn them to CDs, boot the first
>> CD,
>> and install.
>>
>> 2. Same as above, but download a single DVD iso image and burn to a
>> DVD.
>>
>> 3. I download the CD iso images and use them directly, booting the
>> first image using Grub.
>>
>> 4. Same as above, but download a single DVD iso image.
>>
>> 5. I clone an existing installation using rsync, then modify it as
>> needed using patches and scripts.
>>
>> 6. I never install, I upgrade.
>>
>> 7. Some other way.
>
> Choice #2, but sometimes to a USB stick rather than a DVD.

This sounds similar to what I do. Do you use Grub like this (below) to
boot the stick?:

isofile='/Slackware/slackware-14.2-iso/slackware-14.2-install-
d1.iso'
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/kernels/hugesmp.s/bzImage
initrd (loop)/isolinux/initrd.img

Or some other way? It was a big surprise when I learned how to do it
this way. I wonder if many people know this technique and also if this
can be done with other boot loaders?

[Joseph Rosevear]

There is no formality to this--sorry if it sounded otherwise. I'm just
curious, and I thought it would be a good conversation starter.

I used to use method 1. Now I use 3 and 5. I wondered if I was alone in
my methodology or if I had company. It sounds like I have company, but
there is more variation than I expected.

I was reading the Slackware FAQ last night. One of the questions in it
is about installing via FTP. The answer given doesn't tell the whole
story. No you can't install via FTP, but you can download iso files via
ftp, then boot and install without burning a disk. Therefore, it seems to
me that the responses to this survey could be useful information to new
and seasoned users.

[Mike Spencer]

Jim Diamond <JimDi...@ns.sympatico.ca> writes:

> A while back there was some discussion about whether /etc/mtab is (or
> should be) a file or a link to /proc/mounts (or /proc/self/mounts).

> So... please chime in... What is /etc/mtab on your systems, upgraded and
> fresh installs?

I think I was the OP on that. Slackware 15 installed from bootable
DVD created from d/l iso. Came up with mtab as link to /proc/mounts.

I often mount laptop or 2nd desktop on main box's fs, for backup or
other purposes. Annoyance that root has to umount them.

Another poster remarked on having scripts to pre-identify how an
upgrade would/might break his setup. I've tried to avoid those
worries with always a new install, then reconstructing (with much
bother as my pleas for help here reflect) the numerous idiosyncrasies
of my setup.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[Jimmy Johnson]

On 03/14/2023 03:39 PM, Joseph Rosevear wrote:
> Therefore, it seems to
> me that the responses to this survey could be useful information to new
> and seasoned users.

Okay:

!. Get a USB flash drive that can hold the Slackware.iso
Using Gparted make a DOS partition table on the USB flash drive, format
it fat32 and make boot flag.

2. Open file manager where the down loaded slackware.iso is and Ctrl+F4
to open console where the .iso is, now # md5sum slackware.iso to check
the md5sum

3. Put USB flash drive into computer and # fdisk -l to get name of the
"unmounted" USB flash drive

4. dd bs=4M if=slackware.iso of=/dev/sdb
In the above use the real name of the .iso and the real name of the
flash drive, don't mess up the spacing and hit the enter key

5. Make sure your BIOS is set to boot the USB drive, boot flash drive
and install Slackware. As long as the USB flash drive is not corrupted
you can reuse it.
--
Jimmy Johnson

Slackware64 Current - AMD A8-7600 at sda7
Registered Linux User #380263

[Henrik Carlqvist]

On Tue, 14 Mar 2023 08:54:18 +0000, Joseph Rosevear wrote:

> OK, this is a survey. Pick all that apply:

> 7. Some other way.

I download the DVD iso and also the sources directory. Then spend some
weeks on modifying the scripts in /usr/lib/setup in the installation
initrd and adding custom packages including packages with scripts
overwriting the scripts in /var/log/setup to give me a quick installation
with only initial few questions. This custom installaiton boils down to
two .iso-files, one for a bootable cdrom intended for a NFS install and
one for a bootable bluray intended for standalone install.

I try to make any added software or any customization of configuration
files to custom Slackware packages which are deployed on all
installations.

regards Henrik

[bad sector]

On 3/14/23 04:54, Joseph Rosevear wrote:
> OK, this is a survey. Pick all that apply:
>
> 1. I download the CD iso images, burn them to CDs, boot the first CD,
> and install.
>
> 2. Same as above, but download a single DVD iso image and burn to a
> DVD.

This one ^

> 3. I download the CD iso images and use them directly, booting the
> first image using Grub.
>
> 4. Same as above, but download a single DVD iso image.
>
> 5. I clone an existing installation using rsync, then modify it as
> needed using patches and scripts.
>
> 6. I never install, I upgrade.
>
> 7. Some other way.

What I would like to see is a strictly user-oriented
install (off the net which is something I would let
Slackware do). I know this is well within the reach of
experts but I ain't no expert so...

Before anything at all got gets installed I would see
package selection start with me selecting let's say Firefox.
The installer would then list-in all the depends, the
first package thus selected naturally requiring a gigabyte
right off the bat. Then I would select others like maybe
Sylpheed, Kdenlive, etc. The idea would be that NOTHING
would get installed that wasn't *directly or indirectly*
commanded, no kwallet-anything to be blunt by way of one
example. I find that many distros pad the offerings by
just including stuff I would NEVER take off the shelf so
to speak.

I remember having tried this once with Suse I think, I
deleted every package from the offered list and then
started rebuilding from nothing but if my memory serves
right it just became a royal mess :-)

[Henrik Carlqvist]

On Wed, 15 Mar 2023 08:16:21 -0400, bad sector wrote:
> The idea would be that NOTHING would get installed that wasn't
> *directly or indirectly*

There are other Linux distributions which have different kinds of package
management solutions which includes dependency resolution. Slackware
package management does not have dependency resoltion. If you think you
know what you are doing you can manually select packages during
installation but the recomended way to install is to do a full install.

Then there are third party repositories for Slackware like
slackbuilds.org which together with different tools offer dependency
resolution for their third party packages. However, all those dependency
resolutions only apply to the third party packages, they all assume that
you have made a full install of Slackware.

For good and bad Slackware does not have dependency resolution. What
would be the best way to upgrade or remove package X on which package Y
depends? Even with the dependency resolution from third party package
providers like slackbuilds.org it can quickly become a mess. Suppose that
you install package Y which depends upon package X. Two years later you
install package Z which also depends upon package X, but requires a newer
version of package X. To get package Z you will need to compile and
install a newer version of package X, but this will break package Y. If
you are lucky you might be able to recompile and reinstall package Y, if
you are unlucky your package Y is not compatible with the newer version
of package X.

With the original Slackware packages we know that they will allways match
each other. If a package is provided as a upgraded security patch any
other package which needs to be recompiled will also be provided from
Slackware.

regards Henrik

[Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood]

Groovy hepcat Joseph Rosevear was jivin' in alt.os.linux.slackware on
Tue, 14 Mar 2023 07:54 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.

> OK, this is a survey. Pick all that apply:
>

> 7. Some other way.

I mainly use Debian these days. But Slackware 3.4 was my first Linux
distro experience back in the late '90s. I bought that disk set (one
Slackware CD and three software archive mirror CDs) at a computer shop.
And I like to play around with some old hardware, for which that old
Slackware is almost ideal. I also have a slightly newer Slackware
version (10 I think) that also runs on this old hardware (though not
quite as speedily), which was from a magazine cover disk. What I can't
do with Slack 3.4 I do with Slack 10... or Deb 2, which I also have
installed on the same hardware,... or deb 3, which is also installed
there.

--


----- Dig the NEW and IMPROVED news sig!! -----


-------------- Shaggy was here! ---------------
Ain't I'm a dawg!!

[K. Venken]

7. I use basically two methods:

1)
download iso and dd it to usb, then boot and install from usb

2)
put iso extracted on dedicated NFS + PXE server together with my own
installation scripts/settings/tagfiles

Additionally I have a script to "kind of automatically" install software
from SBo.

[Martin Schöön]

Den 2023-03-16 skrev Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.C...@deadspam.com>:
> On Wed, 15 Mar 2023 08:16:21 -0400, bad sector wrote:
>> The idea would be that NOTHING would get installed that wasn't
>> *directly or indirectly*
>
> There are other Linux distributions which have different kinds of package
> management solutions which includes dependency resolution. Slackware
> package management does not have dependency resoltion. If you think you
> know what you are doing you can manually select packages during
> installation but the recomended way to install is to do a full install.
>

< large snip >

>
> other package which needs to be recompiled will also be provided from
> Slackware.
>
> regards Henrik

Isn't Salix supposed to have dependency resolution? Any thoughts on
that?

/Martin (used to Debian, curious about Slackware)

[bad sector]

On 3/16/23 02:45, Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Mar 2023 08:16:21 -0400, bad sector wrote:
>> The idea would be that NOTHING would get installed that wasn't
>> *directly or indirectly*
>
> There are other Linux distributions which have different kinds of package
> management solutions which includes dependency resolution. Slackware
> package management does not have dependency resoltion.

I of course intended the addendum to apply to those that do

[Jim Diamond]

I was really hoping the guy who talked about his many systems (some clean
installs, some upgrades) would chime in. But so far, no luck.

[Henrik Carlqvist]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:14:03 -0300, Jim Diamond wrote:
> I was really hoping the guy who talked about his many systems (some
> clean installs, some upgrades) would chime in. But so far, no luck.

I have many systems, but I don't think I am that guy as all my systems
are clean installs (with patches and some extra packages applied).

On my 14.2 systems and earlier /etc/mtab is a file.
On my 15.0 system /etc/mtab is a symbolic link.

I have not had the need to umount nfs as a normal user as I make /etc/
rc.d/rc.autofs executable on my systems and instead access nfs exports
by /net/<the_other_host_name>.

I think the above is the default behavior with the automounter running,
but I have made some customizations to /etc/auto.master so I can't say
for sure. In my /etc/auto.master there is a line:

/net /etc/auto.net

I am rather sure that /etc/auto.net has not been modified by me, but this
is what it looks like:

-8<-------------------------
#
# Sample auto.master file
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# For details of the format look at autofs(5).
#
#/misc /etc/auto.misc
#
# NOTE: mounts done from a hosts map will be mounted with the
# "nosuid" and "nodev" options unless the "suid" and "dev"
# options are explicitly given.
#
#/net -hosts
# -hosts does no longer work with autofs 5.0.8
/net /etc/auto.net
#
# Include /etc/auto.master.d/*.autofs
#
+dir:/etc/auto.master.d
#
# Include central master map if it can be found using
# nsswitch sources.
#
# Note that if there are entries for /net or /misc (as
# above) in the included master map any keys that are the
# same will not be seen as the first read key seen takes
# precedence.
#
+auto.master.slack150
bash-5.1$ ls /etc/auto.master.d/
bash-5.1$ md5sum /etc/auto.net
9113a0a4baccab3bf5cc9a476476d9c6 /etc/auto.net
bash-5.1$ cat /etc/auto.net
#!/bin/bash

# This file must be executable to work! chmod 755!

# Look at what a host is exporting to determine what we can mount.
# This is very simple, but it appears to work surprisingly well

key="$1"

# add "nosymlink" here if you want to suppress symlinking local
filesystems
# add "nonstrict" to make it OK for some filesystems to not mount
opts="-fstype=nfs,hard,nodev,nosuid"

for P in /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin
do
for M in showmount kshowmount
do
if [ -x $P/$M ]
then
SMNT=$P/$M
break 2
fi
done
done

[ -x $SMNT ] || exit 1

# Newer distributions get this right
SHOWMOUNT="$SMNT --no-headers -e $key"

$SHOWMOUNT | LC_ALL=C cut -d' ' -f1 | LC_ALL=C sort -u | \
awk -v key="$key" -v opts="$opts" -- '
BEGIN { ORS=""; first=1 }
{ if (first) { print opts; first=0 }; print " \\\n\t" $1,
key ":" $1 }
END { if (!first) print "\n"; else exit 1 }
' | sed 's/#/\\#/g'

-8<-------------------------

Whenever someone or something tries to cd to /net/the_other_hostname the
automounter calls the above executable script which uses showmount to see
what that host exports by NFS and the automounter mounts those
directories. When the directories are no longer in use the aoutmounter
will umount them after some time.

regards Henrik

[Lew Pitcher]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:14:03 -0300, Jim Diamond wrote:

That might be me?

As I said before, bare metal installs I usually perform directly from
bootable media (DVD or usb hard drive). Upgrades, I perform from from
DVD or hard drive, with the assistance of a number of home-grown scripts.

As I do not perform a Slackware "full install" on any of my systems. I
install only what I use, save for libraries, of which I install all that
are supplied. That means that a "full upgrade" is out of the question.

So, I used my IT background (retired programmer/systems programmer/analyst/architect)
to craft some scripts that would assist in the upgrade. One script figures
out the differences between the current installation and the "installation
after upgrade", pointing out installed packages that have been dropped,
installed packages that have not changed, installed packages that have
an upgrade, and new packages that don't have an installed equivalent,

From there, I can identify what I want to do with each of the packages,
and a second script builds a set of "installation scripts" that will
perform the installation in an orderly manner.

This set of scripts also manages a list of patches and local packages
that the upgrade process might need to affect.

For the most part, the scripts are a success, in that I can do an
ordered upgrade with no problems. For instance, I upgraded from 13.0
to 14.0 (skipping 13.1 and 13.37) successfully, using these scripts.

[Lew Pitcher]

On Sat, 18 Mar 2023 16:06:30 +0000, Lew Pitcher wrote:

> On Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:14:03 -0300, Jim Diamond wrote:
>
>> On 2023-03-15 at 01:19 ADT, Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>>>
>>> Jim Diamond <JimDi...@ns.sympatico.ca> writes:
>>>
>>>> A while back there was some discussion about whether /etc/mtab is (or
>>>> should be) a file or a link to /proc/mounts (or /proc/self/mounts).
>>>
>>>> So... please chime in... What is /etc/mtab on your systems, upgraded and
>>>> fresh installs?
>>>
>>> I think I was the OP on that. Slackware 15 installed from bootable
>>> DVD created from d/l iso. Came up with mtab as link to /proc/mounts.
>>>
>>> I often mount laptop or 2nd desktop on main box's fs, for backup or
>>> other purposes. Annoyance that root has to umount them.
>>>
>>> Another poster remarked on having scripts to pre-identify how an
>>> upgrade would/might break his setup. I've tried to avoid those
>>> worries with always a new install, then reconstructing (with much
>>> bother as my pleas for help here reflect) the numerous idiosyncrasies
>>> of my setup.
>>
>> I was really hoping the guy who talked about his many systems (some clean
>> installs, some upgrades) would chime in. But so far, no luck.
>
> That might be me?

[snip]

For what it's worth, I currently run three Slackware systems, all at 64bit
Slackware 14.2. One runs my internet-facing services, while a second runs
my PBX and a third provides my desktop processing needs. I've used my upgrade
scripts on two of the three (the PBX started life as 64bit Slackware 14.2)
since the days of 32bit Slackware 11.

I'd rather not discuss the internals of those home-grown upgrade scripts here,
but I welcome email inquiries.

[Jim Diamond]

On 2023-03-18 at 13:06 ADT, Lew Pitcher <lew.p...@digitalfreehold.ca> wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:14:03 -0300, Jim Diamond wrote:

>> On 2023-03-15 at 01:19 ADT, Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

>>> Jim Diamond <JimDi...@ns.sympatico.ca> writes:

>>>> A while back there was some discussion about whether /etc/mtab is (or
>>>> should be) a file or a link to /proc/mounts (or /proc/self/mounts).

>>>> So... please chime in... What is /etc/mtab on your systems, upgraded and
>>>> fresh installs?

>>> I think I was the OP on that. Slackware 15 installed from bootable
>>> DVD created from d/l iso. Came up with mtab as link to /proc/mounts.

>>> I often mount laptop or 2nd desktop on main box's fs, for backup or
>>> other purposes. Annoyance that root has to umount them.

>>> Another poster remarked on having scripts to pre-identify how an
>>> upgrade would/might break his setup. I've tried to avoid those
>>> worries with always a new install, then reconstructing (with much
>>> bother as my pleas for help here reflect) the numerous idiosyncrasies
>>> of my setup.

>> I was really hoping the guy who talked about his many systems (some clean
>> installs, some upgrades) would chime in. But so far, no luck.

> That might be me?

Indeed it is.

> As I said before, bare metal installs I usually perform directly from
> bootable media (DVD or usb hard drive). Upgrades, I perform from from
> DVD or hard drive, with the assistance of a number of home-grown scripts.

<much snippage>

What you didn't address was the question I asked. Let me restate, with a
bit more detail...

Since you seem to have multiple systems, some upgraded and some fresh
installs, is it the case that /etc/mtab is always a symlink on the fresh
install systems and always a file on systems upgraded from 14.2 ?

(Perhaps answering this is too much effort for the perceived value, but if
it isn't, I'm curious, and perhaps others are as well.)

Jim

[Rich]

Jim Diamond <JimDi...@jdvb.ca> wrote:
> What you didn't address was the question I asked. Let me restate, with a
> bit more detail...
>
> Since you seem to have multiple systems, some upgraded and some fresh
> installs, is it the case that /etc/mtab is always a symlink on the fresh
> install systems and always a file on systems upgraded from 14.2 ?
>
> (Perhaps answering this is too much effort for the perceived value, but if
> it isn't, I'm curious, and perhaps others are as well.)

You can answer this question yourself.

Go to your friendly slackware mirror, and within the 15.0 file tree,
browse to the source/installe/sources/initrd directory.

Download the skeleton_initrd.tar.gz file.

Decompress the tar.gz file somewhere, and within the unpacked contents,
navigate to the usr/lib/setup directory.

View the 'setup' file in usr/lib/setup.

search for 'mtab' in the 'setup' file.

You will find this within the setup code:

# On a new system, make /etc/mtab a symlink to /proc/mounts:
if [ ! -r $T_PX/etc/mtab ]; then
mkdir -p $T_PX/etc
( cd $T_PX/etc ; ln -sf /proc/mounts mtab )
fi

What that says is if there is no "/etc/mtab' file on the disk being
installed onto, then create mtab as a sysmlink to /proc/mounts.

So, for a fresh install, /etc/mtab will always be a symlink to
/proc/mounts.

For an upgrade, with an existing /etc/mtab, the existing /etc/mtab will
be untouched.

For an upgrade, without an existing /etc/mtab (unlikely, but someone
could rm it before beginning the install) a symlink from /etc/mtab to
/proc/mounts will also be created.

[Lew Pitcher]

As I don't (yet) have any systems running Slackware 15.0, I can't answer
that question. However, all my 14.2 systems, both fresh install and upgrade
have an /etc/mtab file, and not a symlink.

Hope that helps

[Jim Diamond]

It does help, in the sense that I now know you don't have a large sample of
15.0 systems sitting there waiting to reveal their secrets.

Cheers.
Jim

[Jim Diamond]

How curious... I did a fresh install, and yet my mtab is a file. I wonder
what I might have done to cause this to happen. Perhaps a stray neutrino
hit some gate in my CPU or some bit in a register just at the wrong moment.

Anyway, thanks for the detailed pointer to the code which creates the
link.

Jim

[Jimmy Johnson]

On 03/22/2023 01:47 PM, Jim Diamond wrote:

> How curious... I did a fresh install, and yet my mtab is a file.

Yes, in 14.2, 15.0 and Current mtab is a file and not a folder. I have
all 3 installed and I checked.
--
Jimmy Johnson
Slackware Current - AMD A8-7600 at sda7
Registered Linux User #380263

[Henrik Carlqvist]

On Wed, 22 Mar 2023 18:20:11 -0700, Jimmy Johnson wrote:

> On 03/22/2023 01:47 PM, Jim Diamond wrote:
>
>> How curious... I did a fresh install, and yet my mtab is a file.
>
> Yes, in 14.2, 15.0 and Current mtab is a file and not a folder. I have
> all 3 installed and I checked.

For me, on all Slackware 15 fresh installs, /etc/mtab is a symbolic link:

-8<--------------------------
bash-5.1$ ls -al /etc/mtab
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jul 17 2022 /etc/mtab -> /proc/mounts
bash-5.1$ cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 15.0
-8<--------------------------

On 14.2 and older it is a file:

-8<--------------------------
bash-4.3$ ls -al /etc/mtab
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 735 Mar 19 11:31 /etc/mtab
bash-4.3$ cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 14.2
-8<--------------------------

On Slackware 15.0, /etc/mtab will become a file if the symbolic link is
removed. From /etc/rc.d/rc.S:

-8<--------------------------
# If /etc/mtab is a symlink (probably to /proc/mounts) then we don't want
to mess with it.
if [ ! -L /etc/mtab -o ! -r /etc/mtab ]; then
# /etc/mtab is a file (or doesn't exist), so we'll handle it the old
way:
# Any /etc/mtab that exists here is old, so we start with a new one:
/bin/rm -f /etc/mtab{,~,.tmp} && /bin/touch /etc/mtab
-8<--------------------------

regards Henrik

[Jim Diamond]

On 2023-03-22 at 22:20 ADT, Jimmy Johnson <Ji...@disposable.invalid> wrote:
> On 03/22/2023 01:47 PM, Jim Diamond wrote:
>
>> How curious... I did a fresh install, and yet my mtab is a file.
>
> Yes, in 14.2, 15.0 and Current mtab is a file and not a folder. I have
> all 3 installed and I checked.

As Henrik (and maybe others) have pointed out, the "fresh install" code
should make it a link.

But when you say "not a folder" (and I assume you mean "not a directory"),
that isn't the issue. It might be a symlink to /proc/mounts.

Were your 15.0 and current systems upgraded from 14.2 or fresh installs?

Jim

[Jimmy Johnson]

On 03/25/2023 11:37 AM, Jim Diamond wrote:
> On 2023-03-22 at 22:20 ADT, Jimmy Johnson <Ji...@disposable.invalid> wrote:
>> On 03/22/2023 01:47 PM, Jim Diamond wrote:

>>> How curious... I did a fresh install, and yet my mtab is a file.
>>
>> Yes, in 14.2, 15.0 and Current mtab is a file and not a folder. I have
>> all 3 installed and I checked.

> As Henrik (and maybe others) have pointed out, the "fresh install" code
> should make it a link.

> But when you say "not a folder" (and I assume you mean "not a directory"),
> that isn't the issue. It might be a symlink to /proc/mounts.

So you've decided to become the teacher and not the student, how rude of
you. I don't normally go around correction such trivial things but in
your case I will make the exception. When I open my file manager and go
to my /home/"folder" and right click I get the option to make a new
"folder". No where is the word "directory" mentioned. And in your file
manager you have two things folders and files, that makes a symbolic
link a file. Now please don't go around correcting people for trivial
things it is rude. By the way "Were" is not the word you wanted to use,
maybe "where" or "was" is what you wanted to say. Now I'm done being the
one who is rude. :)

> Were your 15.0 and current systems upgraded from 14.2 or fresh installs?

You install the current stable(today that would be 15.0) and go to
/etc/slackpkg/mirrors and switch to current, done. And like I said, I
run old stable, current stable and current. And yes, upgrading current
will give you the next stable, I have done both, upgrade install and
fresh install, If you want stable a fresh install is the best way to go.
And yes 14.2 was upgraded to 15.0, but like I said doing a fresh install
is the best way to go.
--
Jimmy Johnson

Slackware64 15.0 - i7-2820QM - EXT4 at sda9
Registered Linux User #380263

[Rich]

Jimmy Johnson <Ji...@disposable.invalid> wrote:
> On 03/25/2023 11:37 AM, Jim Diamond wrote:
>> On 2023-03-22 at 22:20 ADT, Jimmy Johnson <Ji...@disposable.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 03/22/2023 01:47 PM, Jim Diamond wrote:
>
>>>> How curious... I did a fresh install, and yet my mtab is a file.
>>>
>>> Yes, in 14.2, 15.0 and Current mtab is a file and not a folder. I have
>>> all 3 installed and I checked.
>
>> As Henrik (and maybe others) have pointed out, the "fresh install" code
>> should make it a link.
>
>> But when you say "not a folder" (and I assume you mean "not a directory"),
>> that isn't the issue. It might be a symlink to /proc/mounts.
>
> So you've decided to become the teacher and not the student, how rude of
> you. I don't normally go around correction such trivial things but in
> your case I will make the exception. When I open my file manager and go
> to my /home/"folder" and right click I get the option to make a new
> "folder". No where is the word "directory" mentioned.

"Directory" is the actual underlying filesystem name for the structure,
and in the command line tools, "directory" is pretty much exclusively
used as the name. That's why the "permissions" character that shows in
a long listing from ls (ls -l) is a "d" for directories, and why the
"mkdir" (MaKeDIRectory), "rmdir" (ReMoveDIRectory), cd (Change
Directory), and pwd (Print Working Directory) commands are named the
way they are.

The name "folder" is all but exclusively used by graphical user
interfaces as the name for what the OS, and the underlying tools, call
a directory. This difference likely came about from Apple copying
Xerox and creating a "desktop metaphor" that included "files" stored in
"folders" to mimic the then paper world of "folders" holding sheets of
paper. Microsoft then copying Apple to create windows also copied the
"folder" naming, and so we have what we have.

And one can often deduce someone's level of skill with the underlying,
non-graphical, command line by what term they normally use when
referring to "directories". If they use "folder" then it is highly
likely they are primarially a GUI user with little to no command line
experience. If they use "directory" then they likely have lots of
experience using the command line tools. This of course is an
imperfect predictor.

[Jimmy Johnson]

On 03/25/2023 09:21 PM, Rich wrote:

> "Directory" is the actual underlying filesystem name for the structure,
> and in the command line tools, "directory" is pretty much exclusively
> used as the name. That's why the "permissions" character that shows in
> a long listing from ls (ls -l) is a "d" for directories, and why the
> "mkdir" (MaKeDIRectory), "rmdir" (ReMoveDIRectory), cd (Change
> Directory), and pwd (Print Working Directory) commands are named the
> way they are.

You have not proven my use of files and folders was incorrect. Nothing I
said was wrong and I don't need your lesson to run Slackware as a matter
of fact most of what I do with Slackware I do from a chroot and I've
been using cli for a long long time.
--
Jimmy Johnson

Alien-19-Linux - AMD A8-7600 at sda11
Registered Linux User #380263