Installing Slackware (a Linux distribution) in a VirtualBox virtual machine

After not having dealt with Slackware for several years, I needed to create a virtual machine with Slackware.  I had to solve two problems, and am writing below how they were solved for the benefit of future Slackware based virtual machine builders.

• Slackware version: 13.37 for 32-bit x86, installed from DVD
• VirtualBox version: 4.1.18 r78361, Debian Squeeze amd64

Virtual machine parameters:

• Operating system: Linux
• Version: Linux 2.6 (32-bit being implied) – the combobox list had no entry for Slackware.
• Base memory: 1.5GB
• Hard disk: 30GB
• Host I/O caching: on (to silence a warning).

Problem 1
When trying to boot from the DVD in order to install Slackware 13.37, the hugesmp.s kernel failed to boot.
I found the following bug reports:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/246067
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/kernel-panic-on-virtual-box-installation-its-driving-me-nuts-901223/
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=44598

Some of the above bug reports had the suggestion to turn on VT-x/AMD-V acceleration.  However it was already turned on in my virtual machine.  I tried several combinations of flags in Settings/System/Processor and Settings/System/Acceleration but of no avail.

The problem was solved by changing the IDE controller type from PIIX4 to PIIX3 in Settings/Storage/IDE Controller/Type.

Problem 2
The initial reboot after installation failed.  From the stack trace it seemed that the problem was due to unknown kernel options.  I found some bug reports, but they were not directly related to this.

I successfully rebooted the virtual machine when entering the following as LILO prompt:

Linux pci=routeirq acpi=off pci=noacpi

Then, the problem was solved by editing /etc/lilo.conf as follows.  The line

append=” vt.default_utf8=0″

was changed to

append=” vt.default_utf8=0 pci=routeirq acpi=off pci=noacpi”

And then /sbin/lilo was run (without arguments).

Author: Omer Zak

I am deaf since birth. I played with big computers which eat punched cards and spew out printouts since age 12. Ever since they became available, I work and play with desktop size computers which eat keyboard keypresses and spew out display pixels. Among other things, I developed software which helped the deaf in Israel use the telephone network, by means of home computers equipped with modems. Several years later, I developed Hebrew localizations for some cellular phones, which helped the deaf in Israel utilize the cellular phone networks. I am interested in entrepreneurship, Science Fiction and making the world more accessible to people with disabilities. View all posts by Omer Zak