Linux Floppy Install (Re: YATYRD)

[Doc Shipley]

Ken Seefried wrote:

> From: Doc Shipley <doc at mdrconsult.com>
> 
>>   IIRC, Slack v3.3 took 54 1.44MB disks.
> 
> 
> Interesting. 
> I recall installing something I think was slack with a 0.99 kernel 
> around 1993-4.  The i386 with 5M ram and a 40MB HD that ran it was a 
> sporty box back then.  I remember bitching 'cause it was something more 
> than a dozen floppies or so.  But it had a C compiler, so I could do my 
> homework (and not dial into an AT&T 3b20 or drive in to campus and use a 
> Sun 3). 
> And it was my UUCP node: ...!ucbvax!gatech!weasel!ken. 
> Good times...good times...
> 
> 54 floppies?  Wow...you've got more patience than me.

   Yep.  The .99 kernel wo9uld have been SLS or a very early slackware - 
v3.3 had a v2.0 kernel.  The base OS was only 15-20 disks, but I had no 
UNIX experience at all, and I had no clue how to make the box dial up 
amnd mount the Slackware archive as an NFS filesystem to do the rest of 
the install online.

   It took me some six weeks to learn enough bash (and learn how to read 
HOWTOs and man pages) to write a dialup script and actually connect to 
an FTP site.  My wife thought I had gone totally over the edge when I 
started whooping, then jumped up and danced her around the living room.

   It *was* good times.  And the challenges are still there, when I 
bother to look.


	Doc