Sunday 19 May 2024 - 00:40:44 UTC 
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SARPi Project - Slacking on a Raspberry Pi
Configure your boot partition for future use
Now, here's the thing that needs to be addressed. At the moment your '/boot' partition is configured to load the initramfs (i.e. initial RAM disk) which contains the SARPi installer. The initramfs.xz RAM disk image file is still there, and this alone takes up most of the space on your /boot partition. The initramfs loaded the system that you've used to install Slackware Linux, so it's not required any more now that's been completed. Therefore, you're going to remove the initramfs.xz file with a simple 'rm' command.
First you need to mount the '/dev/mmcblk0p1' /boot partition (remember that one?) in the '/mnt/boot' directory. This of course is reliant on you using a microSD card to have installed Slackware Linux. If you used a SSD storage device connected to a USB port then the device name would be something like '/dev/sda1'. You can easily use the 'fdisk -l' command here to find out which device name your /boot partition has.
So the output of the 'fdisk -l' command tells us that our FAT32 '/boot' partition has a device name of '/dev/mmcblk0p1'.
So, now type the following command:
Now that's done, you must do some necessary housekeeping on your /boot partition before you install some new system packages. You will install some specific kernel and boot-firmware packages in the last stage and final step of this installation process.
IMPORTANT! : BE VERY CAREFUL HERE! If you make an error and delete the wrong file(s) you will find yourself in seriously deep Linux doo-doo! 'rm' is a very powerful command when used by root and can irreparably delete, in the blink of an eye, that which took a lot of time and effort to create! Your Raspberry Pi won't be affected, but your Slackware Linux system will certainly not be greeting you with a log-in prompt after (re)booting it if you have deleted the wrong file(s)!
Type exactly the command below to remove the 'initramfs.xz' RAM disk file from the boot partition:
Next, type 'df -h' on the command line and you should receive something similar to the following output:
The output tells you that your boot partition '/dev/mmcblk0p1' now has quite a lot of free space. This is exactly what you needed to achieve.
You should remove the initramfs.xz RAM disk because it's not needed any longer. Also, when you install new kernel and/or firmware packages, a certain amount of free space is required on the boot partition in order to install the new software. With the initramfs.xz RAM disk still present you risk filling up your /boot partition. In that event the install process will not complete successfully. As a result, you may be left with a system that will not boot!
Now, you need to install the new packages containing the Raspberry Pi kernel, kernel modules, kernel headers, device-tree blobs, and firmware. These will overwrite those used for initially booting and loading the system.
Type the following command to install the new packages:
You should see something similar to the screen below when installation of the new packages has finished:
If you've previously mounted a USB memory stick, containing your Slackware Linux source, you should now unmount it. You can find out what the device name of your USB memory stick is by using the 'fdisk -l' command, the same as you did previously on this page.
For example, to umount your USB storage device use the following command:
If you selected the 'Install from Slackware USB stick' option during setup you can unmount the USB stick using the following command:
It's now safe to remove the USB stick from the Raspberry Pi.
Rebooting your Slackware Linux Linux system
You are about to reboot the system. When it reboots you will be prompted for a login username and password. Until the Slackware Linux installation and update process has completed, and on any other occasion for which you need to use 'root' access, you should always login with the following credentials:
login: root
password: ** the password you specified for the root user account **
NOW YOU CAN REBOOT!
So, without further ado, type the following at the command prompt:
In the event that the 'reboot' command isn't working for you, try 'reboot -f' or 'echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger' commands instead.
The Slackware Linux installation process is complete. So far you have configured your Raspberry Pi to boot and run the Slackware Linux operating system. If you've made it successfully this far, "Well done!"
Next you should think about updating your Slackware Linux system with the latest available packages, if there are any.
So, after rebooting, continue to the next section in this guide... Keep Updated.
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