Random thoughts, tips & tricks about Slackware-Linux, Lego and Star Wars

Archive for the 'Slackware' Category

November 20th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , , , |

Recently I renewed my interest in the IBM mainframe computers.
From a colleague I learned about a program called Hercules that emulates a complete IBM mainframe system, from the early S/360 to the newer z/Architecture machines.
I already knew that Linux runs on these machines, so I started imagining running Slack/390 (the official S/390 port of Slackware) [...]

November 9th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , , |

Last Friday lots up upgrades were released for Slackware-current, including a new kernel, 2.6.27.5Since changing a kernel usually has some consequences, I waited until today, Sunday, to apply all upgrades.As anticipated, my VMware-server stopped working. Normally I run the /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl script to reconfigure VMware and recompile the needed modules for the new kernel.But this time [...]

October 16th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , , , ,

For some time I've been reading texts on the history of Slackware, Linux, UNIX, etc. It all started with this old Slackware version I found and my quest to get this (and several older) versions working in a Virtual Machine on my modern desktop.
I've been using virtualization and emulation for several years, both professionally and [...]

October 14th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , ,

Well, I finally managed to get a higher resolution in VMware, at least with Slackware 4.0I discovered that VMware-server 1.0.7 still includes the drivers for XFree86 3.* & 4.*
In XFree86 3.* there is a separate "server" for each type of interface: one for monochrome cards (who remembers Hercules?), one for simple VGA, one for SVGA, [...]

October 14th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , , , |

Working with fvwm2 wasn't too much fun… So I started looking for and old Slackware version that had KDE.I found out that my oldest CD with KDE was Slackware 4.0:

As it says on the cover, it comes with KDE 1.1, so this was my new project.According to the cover from the original 4-disc box, we're [...]

October 12th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , ,

After successfully installing Slackware 3.5 and discovering that Slackware 1.1.2 was still available on the internet at sunsite.unc.edu I simply had to try it…
At first I had no luck, as this version does not support the standard VMware network card (PCnet32) and also lacks support for IDE CDRom drives. The VMware emulated SCSI cards (BusLogic [...]

October 11th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , ,

Finally got X working on my Slackware 3.5 installation.Well, not perfectly, but good enough to capture a screen:

I had to configure X by editing XF86Config that's stored in /etc in this version.After some tweaking I got it to work with the basic "generic vga" driver, with a resolution of 640×480. It should work with higher [...]

October 10th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , , |

Last week I found the original Slackware 3.5 CDs that I have. I have several older versions of Slackware in my collection, most of them original CDs.I started using Slackware in 1996, when I bought a book called "Slackware Linux Unleashed" from Sams. It included Slackware 96, which is also known as Slackware 3.1
Since I [...]

October 5th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , , |

Just a quick hint for those having trouble using the 'generic' kernel (as we should always use) when installing Slackware as a guest with VMware.
VMware creates SCSI drives by default when we create a new virtual machine for Linux with a 2.6 kernel, emulating a LSI Logic SCSI controller. The 'huge' kernel that comes with [...]

September 27th, 2008 by Niels Horn in , |

Those who use Slackware will know who Patrick Volkerding is. For those who don't: he is the creator and maintainer of the Slackware Linux distribution. Also known as 'The Man'.Browsing for articles about the history of Slackware (I might write something about it in the future), I found an interview with Pat from 1994 from [...]

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