Slackware 11 on a 486/66 vintage computer in 2o25

We'll be using Slackware 11 as its the last version that supports booting from 1.44mb 3.5" diskettes. You can find everything you need @https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-11.0. You'll find bare.i in /bootdisks - this is the BOOT IMAGE. You'll find install.1/install.2 in /rootdisks - these are the INSTALL IMAGES. /slackware has all the package groups, which we'll by copying to a 3rd partition on our CFCard HDD later...

1. cat bare.i > slack11-boot.img
2. cat install.1 > slack11-install.1.img
3. cat install.2 > slack11-install.2.img
4. have a blank.img for boot diskette creation during install

5. boot slack11-boot.img

6. press ENTER at 'boot:'

7. change to slack11-install.1.img when prompted
8. change to slack11-install.2.img when prompted

9. press ENTER at 'Enter 1 to select a keyboard map' for US

10. login as 'root', no password

We're going to create three partitions on a 2GB CFCard;
64MB - SWAP
1GB - / root
1GB - /slackware (packages to be installed...)

11. 'mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda3' - format /slackware partition; this may require a
reboot at this point...

Take CFCard to modern computer and copy contents of /slackware packages folders; A/ AP/ D/ etc...

12. 'cfdisk' - setup partitions

13. 'mkswap /dev/hda1'
14. 'swapon /dev/hda1'

15. 'setup' - start Slackware 11 installation

16. choose 'ADDSWAP' - select /dev/hda1
17. select 'no' at 'CHECK SWAP PARTITIONS FOR BAD BLOCKS'
18. select 'OK' at 'SWAP SPACE CONFIGURED'
19. select '/dev/hda2' at 'Select Linux installation partition'
20. select 'Format' at 'FORMAT PARTITION /dev/hda2'
21. select 'ext2' at 'SELECT FILESYSTEM FOR /dev/hda2'
22. select 'OK' for '4096' at 'SELECT INODE DENSITY FOR /dev/hda2'

Installer formats / root partition...

23. select 'OK' for 'done adding partitions' at 'Select other Linux
partitions for /etc/fstab'
24. select 'OK' at 'DONE ADDING LINUX PARTITIONS TO /etc/fstab'
25. select 'Install from a hard drive partition' at 'SOURCE MEDIA SELECTION' 26. enter '/dev/hda3' at 'INSTALLING FROM HARD DISK'
27. enter '/' at 'SELECT SOURCE DIRECTORY' (unless you copied entire
/slackware folder, then enter '/slackware/')

Choose what package series you want to install...
(Can use 'setup' after install to install more??)

28. select 'OK' after 'PACKAGE SERIES SELECTION'
29. choose 'menu' WHEN CHOOSING HOW TO INSTALL (fix this later)

Choose which software packages you want to install...

30. select 'OK' when finished with all selected package series

Slackware 11 Installer will now install selected packages...

31. select 'OK' for 'bootdisk' at 'INSTALL LINUX KERNEL'
32. select 'Skip' for 'Skip' at MAKE BOOTDISK

33. select 'OK' for '/dev/ttyS0' at 'MODEM CONFIGURATION'
34. select 'Yes' at 'ENABLE HOTPLUG/UDEV SUBSYSTEM AT BOOT?'

35. select 'OK' for 'simple' at 'INSTALL LILO'
36. select 'OK' for 'standard' at 'CONFIGURE LILO TO USE FRAME BUFFER CONSOLE?' 37. select 'OK' with NO INPUT at 'OPTIONAL LILO append...'
38. select 'OK' for 'MBR' at 'SELECT LILO DESTINATION'

39. select 'OK' for 'ms' at 'MOUSE CONFIGURATION'
40. select 'OK' for '/dev/ttyS1' at 'SELECT SERIAL PORT'
41. select 'Yes' at 'GPM CONFIGURATION'

42. select 'Yes' at 'CONFIGURE NETWORK'
43. enter 'slack' at 'ENTER HOSTNAME'
44. enter 'local' at 'ENTER DOMAINNAME FOR 'slack''
45. select 'OK' for 'DHCP' at 'SETUP IP ADDRESS FOR 'slack.local''
46. select 'OK' for NO INPUT at 'SET DHCP HOSTNAME'
47. select 'Yes' at 'CONFIRM SETUP COMPLETE'

Hostname: slack
Domain name: local
IP address: (use DHCP server)
Netmask: (use DHCP server)
Gateway: (use DHCP server)
Nameserver: (use DHCP server)

48. select 'OK' at 'CONFIRM STARTUP SERVICES TO RUN'
49. select 'No' at 'CONSOLE FONT CONFIRMATION'
50. select 'OK' for 'NO' at 'HARDWARE CLOCK SET TO UTC?'
51. select 'OK' for 'US/Pacific' at 'TIMEZONE CONFIGURATION'
52. select 'Yes' at 'WARNING: NO ROOT PASSWORD DETECTED'
53. enter [PASSWORD] at 'New pasword:' and 'Re-enter new password:'
54. press ENTER to continue
55. select 'OK' at 'SETUP COMPLETE'
56. select 'OK' for 'EXIT' at 'Slackware Linux Setup'
57. reboot

58. enter 'linux' for 'boot:' at LILO Menu

Viola.



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
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--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
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On 24 Feb 2025, paulie420 said the following...

Slackware 11 on a 486/66 vintage computer in 2o25

What a great write up - thank you for that, it's so cool you can run that on the 486. Nice work!

---
|14Best regards,
|11Ch|03rist|11ia|15n |11a|03ka |11Me|03aTLoT|11io|15N // @meatlotion:erb.pw

|07ÄÄ |08[|10eml|08] |15ml@erb.pw |07ÄÄ |08[|10web|08] |15www.erb.pw |07ÄÄÄ¿ |07ÄÄ |08[|09fsx|08] |1521:1/158 |07ÄÄ |08[|11tqw|08] |151337:1/101 |07ÂÄÄÙ |07ÄÄ |08[|12rtn|08] |1580:774/81 |07ÄÂ |08[|14fdn|08] |152:250/5 |07ÄÄÄÙ
|07ÄÄ |08[|10ark|08] |1510:104/2 |07ÄÙ

... Fer sell cheep: BBS spel chekker. Wurks grate.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
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Slackware 11 on a 486/66 vintage computer in 2o25

What a great write up - thank you for that, it's so cool you can run
that on the 486. Nice work!

Thanks - yea, its slow to boot but is *nix once you get in there... I have it working with my network card, which is cool, but most modern day software won't compile with the versions of makesuite that we have here.

However, I'm learning about slackbuilds - a way to add Slack11 i486 packages - m0re to come... :P This is the 4th *nix I've gotten on the 486 platform;

Minix 2
Minix 3
Slackware 1
SmallLinux
Slackware 11

... Just because.



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (1337:3/129)

Re: Installing Slack11 on 486 computers
By: paulie420 to All on Mon Feb 24 2025 06:31 pm

Howdy,

Slackware 11 on a 486/66 vintage computer in 2o25

I think I cut my teeth on Slackware on a 486.

Me and a mate ran an ISP service - we had 10 phone lines at his place, all running off a 486 - it was cool to see all 10 lines busy...

The good old days :)


...ëîåï
--- SBBSecho 3.23-Linux
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On 25 Feb 2025, paulie420 said the following...

Thanks - yea, its slow to boot but is *nix once you get in there... I
have it working with my network card, which is cool, but most modern day software won't compile with the versions of makesuite that we have here.

Ah yeah that's understandable.

However, I'm learning about slackbuilds - a way to add Slack11 i486 packages - m0re to come... :P This is the 4th *nix I've gotten on the
486 platform;

Minix 2
Minix 3
Slackware 1
SmallLinux
Slackware 11

... Just because.

That's beautiful! Way to go brother.

---
|14Best regards,
|11Ch|03rist|11ia|15n |11a|03ka |11Me|03aTLoT|11io|15N // @meatlotion:erb.pw

|07ÄÄ |08[|10eml|08] |15ml@erb.pw |07ÄÄ |08[|10web|08] |15www.erb.pw |07ÄÄÄ¿ |07ÄÄ |08[|09fsx|08] |1521:1/158 |07ÄÄ |08[|11tqw|08] |151337:1/101 |07ÂÄÄÙ |07ÄÄ |08[|12rtn|08] |1580:774/81 |07ÄÂ |08[|14fdn|08] |152:250/5 |07ÄÄÄÙ
|07ÄÄ |08[|10ark|08] |1510:104/2 |07ÄÙ

... How do I set my laser printer to stun?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (1337:1/101)

Slackware 11 on a 486/66 vintage computer in 2o25

I think I cut my teeth on Slackware on a 486.

Me and a mate ran an ISP service - we had 10 phone lines at his place,
all running off a 486 - it was cool to see all 10 lines busy...

Thats so cool - the 'big' BBS in my (419) switched over to a small ISP as BBSes were going out. We used to hang out with her daughter a lot and got to see the BBS and later the ISP - super cool.

She was using some sort of hardware w/ multiple modems on one board; I think 32 lines at the peak for her ISP... then the big guys came and killed that, too. :/



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (1337:3/129)