DISCLAIMER:
I do not consider this to be an exhaustive guide on how to install SLS.
Take every instruction I give with a grain of salt. If you do attempt to install SLS based on this post, your mileage may vary. Don't come crying to me if or when it fails.
PREFACE:
If I asked you what the first distros of all time were, you might have to do a quick Google search. Some of the folks who are more knowledgeable about the history of Linux might say Slackware and Debian were among the earliest. And while they'd be right about them being AMONG the earliest, they're not THE earliest, rather they're just the oldest actively maintained distros (Slackware 1st, Debian 2nd).
That's all well and good, but people often forget what came before those. To my knowledge, the 2 most noteworthy distros before Slackware and Debian were: MCC Interim Linux, and Softlanding Linux System. MCC Interim Linux is often considered the first ever Linux distro; however, this can be debated, as it lacks a handful of features some would consider essential for something to earn the title of a Linux distro.
While I may one day consider trying out MCC Interim Linux, we're here today to talk about Softlanding Linux System. SLS was (for its time) the most popular distro before Slackware and Debian dethroned it, only for it to be put even deeper in the grave by the rise of Red Hat Linux. SLS was marketed as "a softlanding for DOS bailouts" and had a (again, for its time) somewhat intuitive installer, among other niceties that made it a solid choice for DOS users looking to switch over to the new and exciting world of Linux (SLS even comes with a VERY experimental (i.e. buggy) DOS emulator, called dosemu).
Because I lack the appropriate hardware to natively run SLS, I will be using 86Box with the following specs (in my best attempt at mixing period-accuracy with reasonable power - this probably would have been a super expensive beast of a computer in the 90s):
- Intel 486DX2 clocked at 50MHz
- 16MB of RAM
- Trident TVGA 8900B ISA video card
- Standard PS/2 Mouse
- Sound Blaster 16 ISA16 sound card
- NE1000 compatible ethernet card
- Adaptec AHA-154xC ISA16 SCSI controller card (for CD-ROM support, as early versions of Linux had very dodgy IDE CD-ROM support)
- IDE HDD, with: 1002 cylinders, 13 heads, 63 sectors, totaling up to 400MB
- 3.5" 1.44MB internal floppy drive
- DEC RRD45 0436 8x SCSI CD-ROM drive
Truly a monster of a pre-Pentium machine.
INSTALLATION:
To actually boot up, one requires a boot disk. Luckily, the SLS mirror at ibiblio.org has raw files for the boot disk, both in 3.5" and 5 1/4" forms. I used the 3.5" version, but first had to turn it into a proper image with the following command:
dd if=a1.3 of=a1.img bs=16k
After that, the boot disk works and I get LILO on my screen.
It detects my hardware and load all the necessary drivers
Once it boots up, I log in as root (no password) after which I partition the drive using fdisk
I create a 32MB swap partition (rather excessive for the time, I know, but these days we have the benefit of literal TERABYTES of hard drive space for mere dollars. Why not take advantage?)
After that, I use the rest of the hard drive for the root partition. In the old days of Linux, it was commonplace to create multiple partitions for different directories, i.e. /home, /var, so on and so forth, as this made it easier to expand your filesystem if you decided to get another hard drive. While it's not imperative, it is recommended. The world won't end if I just use the entire drive for the root partition, so I decided to do it like that.
After partitioning the drive, I log out and log back in as install. This starts the actual install process. It prompts me to choose what I want to do.
First, I select "2" to choose my swap partition (normally I'd select "1" first, but selecting swap is MUCH faster than selecting the root partition, since there's less initialization).
Then, I select "1" to select my root partition. By default, this option defaults to the first partition on your system, which in my case is the swap partition, /dev/hda1, so be careful to select the right partition before hitting enter, in my case /dev/hda2. This process takes about 7 minutes for me, so you may wanna stretch your legs while it's going.
Once it's done, you should be good to type "7" to proceed with the install.
Thus, it prompts me to select what kind of media I'm installing from. At first, I attempted to use floppy disk images from the same ibiblio mirror listed earlier, but there seem to be missing disks, as there's roughly 20 or so disks in the "a" series, yet only 4 of those are present in the mirror. As a result, I scoured the web some more and found a CD-ROM image on GitHub. This repo requires me to install jigdo-file, an ISO creation tool, so that I can create the SLS ISO (the repo hosts the necessary ISO creation template as well as the entire contents of the CD in non-ISO form). Upon doing that, I have a working SLS CD-ROM with much more stuff.
The CD is not bootable, so you still require the boot disk to install anything.
With this ISO made, I could now choose to install from a CD-ROM.
Soon enough, everything is installed, and I am asked to put in a formatted floppy (this will become the new boot disk). If you do this for yourself, make copies of this boot disk, as it's essential to even using SLS at all.
Afterwards, it asks you a few questions:
- Do you wish to have a video mode preset at boot time? I answer no, because I'm apparently an idiot.
- Do you have a modem? I answer no.
- Do you have a mouse? I answer yes, and select a PS/2 bus mouse when prompted.
After this, it asks me if I want to install LILO to the hard drive. This would negate the need for a boot disk; however, I have found running LILO on a HDD on old versions of Linux to be a bit of a nightmare, so I select no. I'll stick to my boot disk, thank you.
Finally, the installation is complete and I can now reboot the computer. However, upon bootup, it seems networking is still not working, as it throws up some errors getting in the way of the login screen, and making me have to try again to login properly.
To abate this issue, I may just remove the network card from 86Box in the future. Networking on ancient Linux is a pain in the ass anyway, so it's best I don't dive into THAT rabbit-hole, lest I never come up.
Annoying errors aside, I can login perfectly fine. One of the niceties of SLS is an intuitive menu system for running simple commands, installing software, and reading manpages.
Finally, I leave you with this screenshot showing the kernel version and Softlanding's tagline at the time.
WHERE I'M GOING FROM HERE:
Of course, I would be remiss if I stopped here. There will certainly be more parts to this adventure; however, I will be going at my own pace, so there may be a long gap between here and the next part. This is just a fun project to give me an excuse to play around with ancient Linux. My next effort is to get X11 working, followed (maybe) by a third part in which I attempt to get networking up and running (don't hold your breath on it though, I still wanna have SOME semblance of sanity left).
I hope you took the time to read this and enjoyed it. This was pretty fun for me, and I hope to continue with this project.
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