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Installing Slackware64 15.0 in Thinkpad E14 Gen 4

This is my procedure to install Slackware64 15.0 on the Lenovo Thinkpad E14 Gen 4.

I guess I am someone who would say “once you go Slack, you never go back.” So far, there were times that I left Slackware for short periods of time, but eventually return for a longer amount of time. My latest computer is a Lenovo Thinkpad E14 Gen 4 with an Intel i5-1235U processor. Since I like Slackware, I looked into making the GNU/Linux distribution work in this machine. One of the major things I had to do is to start using GRUB(I have been using LILO for Slackware until this time). In previous machines, I can still easily use LILO to dual boot Slackware64 and Windows 7. But now, it’s not the case with Windows 11 and Slackware64. My special thanks to the OldTechBloke (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZeJd5JPQro) for the documentation on setting up GRUB during Slackware installation. This is because there is no GUI tool during Slackware setup for setting up GRUB(one has to use the CLI). Also, one has to build a more recent kernel than the one supplied with Slackware64 15.0.

# Boot Slackware64 15 installer. Perform the following steps after logging in as root during Slackware64 15.0 setup:

cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1 # Create swap and root partitions.

setup # Start with addswap. EFI partition will be added to /etc/fstab. Proceed with setup. After intstalling the packages, skip LILO and ELILO installation. After setup, go back to shell to proceed with the steps below.

mount # This is for checking your mounts.

chroot /mnt /bin/bash

source /etc/profile

grub-install –target=x86_64-efi –efi-directory=/boot/efi –bootloader-id=grub

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

# If you are trying this documentation on Virtualbox first, here are additional steps. For Virtualbox to boot on UEFI you also need to copy grub to a new directory:

mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/boot # -p option creates any intermediate directories

cp /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

# Additional Virtualbox steps end here. Proceed with “exit” and “reboot” as shown below for both non-Virtualbox and Virtualbox setups.

exit

reboot

# Connect laptop to wired LAN for internet access. Then, as root:

wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.12.14.tar.xz

wget https://hkg.mirror.rackspace.com/slackware/slackware64-current/kernels/generic.s/config

# Disconnect LAN cable. Then proceed while still being root:

cd /usr/src

tar xJpf ~/linux-6.12.14.tar.xz

rm linux

ln -s /usr/src/linux-6.12.14 linux

cd linux

make mrproper

mv ~/config .config

make oldconfig # When asked for input, use the default or the option you think is best.

make menuconfig # You may skip this. Do this only if you need to make configuration changes.

make bzImage ; make modules ; make modules_install

cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-huge-6.12.14

cp System.map /boot/System.map-huge-6.12.14

cp .config /boot/config-huge-6.12.14

cd /boot

rm System.map

ln -s System.map-huge-6.12.14 System.map

rm config

ln -s config-huge-6.12.14 config

rm vmlinuz

ln -s vmlinuz-huge-6.12.14 vmlinuz

vi /etc/default/grub # Set: GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

reboot

# As root:

git clone https://github.com/thesofproject/sof-bin.git

cd sof-bin

cd v2.2.x

../install.sh v2.2

reboot

# Update Slackware64 15. Connect to the internet via wired LAN or WIFI. You may now create an unprivileged user here.

su - # Or login as root.

cd /etc/rc.d

wget https://blog.balcos.net/rc.firewall

chmod 755 rc.firewall

./rc.firewall

cd

wget https://blog.balcos.net/slackpkg+-1.8.0-noarch-7mt.txz

installpkg slackpkg+*.t?z

cp -p /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf.orig

vi /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf

#Have the following configured

#BEGIN

REPOPLUS=( slackpkgplus restricted alienbob slackonly )

# Slackware 15.0 - x86_64

#MIRRORPLUS[‘multilib’]=https://slackware.nl/people/alien/multilib/15.0/

MIRRORPLUS[‘alienbob’]=https://slackware.nl/people/alien/sbrepos/15.0/x86_64

MIRRORPLUS[‘restricted’]=https://slackware.nl/people/alien/restricted_sbrepos/15.0/x86_64

# use this to keep the slackpkg+ package updated to the latest stable release

MIRRORPLUS[‘slackpkgplus’]=https://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+15/

MIRRORPLUS[‘slackonly’]=http://slackonly.com/pub/packages/15.0-x86_64/

#END

cd /etc/slackpkg

cp -p mirrors mirrors.orig

vi mirrors # Enable a mirror.

slackpkg update gpg

slackpkg update

slackpkg upgrade-all

cd /boot

rm System.map

ln -s System.map-huge-6.12.14 System.map

rm config

ln -s config-huge-6.12.14 config

rm vmlinuz

ln -s vmlinuz-huge-6.12.14 vmlinuz

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

reboot

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