This is an old revision of the document!
Setting up a Slackware chroot
There are multiple reasons why you might want to set up a Slackware chroot:
- building 32-bit packages on a 64-bit multilib system
- building -stable packages on a -current system
- building (and testing) packages for SBo on a clean system
For this guide, we'll create a chroot at /chroot_folder from slackware-14.1-install-dvd.iso.
Obtaining a Slackware installation of your desired architecture
Start with a Slackware installation DVD. Download it from from http://www.slackware.com/getslack/ via torrent.
Installing the packages
Automatically
You can create your chroot and install Slackware into it using the following elegant script: http://tty1.uk/scripts/slackware/mkchroot
Manually
First, create a folder which will contain the chroot:
mkdir /chroot_folder
Mount the installation ISO:
mount -o loop slackware-14.1-install-dvd.iso /mnt/cdrom cd /mnt/cdrom
After the ISO has been mounted, the packages (found under the slackware or slackware64 folder) can be installed to the chroot folder with:
installpkg --root /chroot-folder */*.t?z
Then unmount the ISO:
umount /mnt/cdrom
Mounting the Chroot
To have the chroot mounted permanently, add the following to your fstab:
/dev chroot_folder/dev none bind,auto 0 0 /proc chroot_folder/proc none bind,auto 0 0 /sys chroot_folder/sys none bind,auto 0 0 /etc/resolv.conf chroot_folder/etc/resolv.conf none bind,auto 0 0
If you don't want to reboot at this point, then you can mount the chroot manually:
mount /chroot_folder
Also, refer to: (volume_mounting).
Chrooting into the Chroot
Now that the chroot is set up, you can chroot into it:
chroot /chroot_folder /bin/bash
Updating packages
After that, you can run slackpkg and update the packages: (configure_a_package_manager).
Exiting
When you're done, exited the chroot by pressing Ctrl+d.
One Use: Building 32-bit Packages
Mounting partitions
I use a chroot to build 32-bit packages on a 64-bit system. I needed to mount the partition which contained the SlackBuilds for which I wanted to make a package, As my Slackware host mount point is (in this example) at /slackware_host_mount_point, I used the command:
mount -B /slackware_host_mount_point /chroot_folder
(http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2013/01/mount-umount-examples/)
Then I built the package by executing the Slackbuild as follows:
ARCH=i686 ./my_package.SlackBuild
Links
Notes
Wrote a small script to automate these steps.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aadityabagga/scripts/master/chroot.sh
An alternative way to build other ARCH packages
Instead of using `ARCH=i686' before running a slackbuild, we can use a program called `setarch', which, among other things, can set the ARCH and the kernel version in the shell. It has some handy symlinks, such as linux32 or i586, which saves some typing. The `linux32' command will set the reported kernel's ARCH as `i686'.
SYNOPSIS
setarch arch [options] [program [argument...]]
When we run `linux32' it starts a new shell, so we can also use it to chroot:
chroot /path/to/chroot linux32 /bin/zsh
or it could be run after chrooting into our new root. Settings will revert to normal when we exit the new shell. One useful option is to change the kernel's reported version:
chroot /path/to/chroot linux32 --uname-2.6 /bin/zsh
That `–uname-2.6' isn't a typo, there has to be a dash between the flag and the version. The setarch(8) man page shows all the options.
– Dave
Sources
* Originally written by Aaditya