Why not just try a new kernel ? ... that's the important part of the puzzle.

Thanks!
That is what I'd like to do but I'm not sure what kernals I have.
I made a boot disk using barei and following a book step-by-step. The book doesn't address making root disks other than the barei disk.
I'm guessing that boot disks can be made with each kernal using the same sequence of steps and putting in the new kernal name each time in place of barei.
Is there a way to "look at" the available kernals on the CD using Win XP?

Well, if you look on your CD/DVD there is a directory called 'kernels', they should be in there.

Thanks!
I've located the kernals folder on the CD and found what looks like more than 60 kernals to pick from. Any recommendations?
Several of the kernal files have the form: XXXX.I and XXXX.S.
What is the difference between kernals with .I vs. kernals with .S?

Remember to read the READMEs, this one is from 'kernels/README.txt'

Um, you should be able to boot up from the slackware11 install cd...
at least, if the BIOS lets you.

Check the booting order of the devices in your machine's bios, there should be one for the CD.

Then, you'd just install directly from the cd.

Alternatively, if you *have* to go thru floppy, get zipslack. Much smaller

I read the texts. Thanks for pointing those out. I thought I found the answer in the texts. So, I tried to make a boot disk using mcdx.i on one of my Win XP machines.
It starts out OK and then I get a message that says:

Attempt to DMA Across 64K boundary

and then returns to the drive prompt c:
What does this mean, besides WIN XP isn't going to cooperate for making a boot disk?
Can I "fool" WIN XP to allow the boot disk to be made?

I think Mitsumi cdroms are *not* seen as /dev/hdX (ide) but as /dev/mcd (kernel/Documentation/devices.txt)

Try slackware 11 > kernel old_cd.i (make a boot disk with rawrite and old_cd.i kernel) read README from bootdisks

In kernel/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt I found this
mcd=
[HW,CD]
Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>

No idea what means and how resolves the problem (if any)

Slightly off-topic. What about to connect your harddisk to a "modern" machine via usb or directly (to the motherboard) and install slackware? (with kernel old_cd.i) Then you can re-connect your hard disk to your 486.

Altenatively (if you fail to install slackware in the "proper" way) you can unzip zipslack to a dos partition and you are (allmost) ready! I think this is the easiest but not ideal. Just remember to copy all the slackware packages (except KDE) to the hard disk.

Today, I accidentally discovered that the Slackware CD will boot up on a different machine automaticaly on startup.
I think this means that I should be able to make a 3 1/2" boot disk from the CD on that machine (the same one that was telling me ATTEMPT TO DMA ACROSS 64K BOUNDARY) to use to communicate with the Mitsumi CD on my 486 machine.
Is this Correct?
If so, what would be the command sequence to tell Slackware to make a bootdisk on the primary floppy disk drive (A: in WIN)?
I looked at making my CD drive on the 486 machine bootable and the book for that machine tells how to enter the BIOS. However it refers to a table of hard disk types with a little less than 100 types. No brands are listed, they are given by cylinders and heads. Will this info be listed on my external CD drive? This is why I haven't made the CD bootable, yet. I'm not sure what to do to make it bootable.
I think if I can make a bootdisk that will recognize the CD drive. I can mount the CD Drive even if it isn't bootable.
Is this correct?

Repeat:

Try slackware 11 > DOWNLOAD kernel old_cd.i (make a boot disk with rawrite and old_cd.i kernel) read README from bootdisks from your NEAREST ftp slackware mirror.

I don't have tried this. You may also need a root disk and then you can mount your cd and do whatever you want.

If I download Slack 11 to a WIN XP machine, will I get the error message about DMA across a 64K boundry when I try to make boot disks with RAWRITE?

I've tried booting with the CD on a different machine and I can get to the # prompt.

I'd like to be able to copy root files from the CD from the # prompt onto a 1.44 floppy disk.

The books I have say to use the command
mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom

Linux answers
can't find /dev/cdrom/ in etc/fstab or etc/mtab

The book says to make a root disk with
dd if=/cdrom/bootdsks.144/bare.i of=/dev/fd0
after mounting the CD

How do I tell Slack where to look for the root files on the CD w/o installing Slack to a hard drive?

If your disk drive and your diskette is ok: NO.

Hmmm, I am afraid you don't understand the basics. Please read www.slackbook.org

I *suppose* your cdrom drive (in the "other" machine) is /dev/hdc (try dmesg | grep CD to verify)

in that case you also need a DIRECTORY to mount the cd. So: mkdir /mnt/mycdrom

then mount /dev/hdc /mnt/mycdrom

The book is for the "masses" your cd / computer is kind of special (old). Replace bare.i with old_cd.i

dd if=/mnt/mycdrom/bootdsks/old_cd.i of=/dev/fd0

You can, but I don't know the way.

Prepare a second floppy disk to be a rootdisk from the slackware folder rootdisks. Please READ the README.

It is too good to be true.[0] You've gotten a lot of... well to be frank, bad advice on this one. You don't want to use Slackware-11.0 on your 486 and if you do you most definitely do not want to use huge26.s! The kernel alone would take up such a huge percentage of your system RAM that the machine would be nigh on unusable, not to mention bit-bloat.

Slackware 4.0, 7.0, and 7.1 are all good choices for a 486. I would go so far as to recommend Slackware 8.0 if you need/want glibc and/or ssh; I wouldn't recommend you go past Slackware 8.1 as the sheer memory footprint of applications begins to increase by leaps and bounds.

I'm sorry if the book isn't quite clear enough on kernels and root disks and the like for you. This has all changed somewhere along the lines since the days of the 486's dominance after all. When you boot that CD, you are presented with a "boot: " prompt (or something similar). Read the directions on the screen! Hitting F2 and F3 should give you a (mostly complete) list of the kernels that you can boot.[1] You're looking for one that was made specifically to work with a lot of old CD-ROMs that didn't conform to ATAPI standards.[2]

Which rootdisk you use shouldn't matter too much. I'd just use color.gz if I were you, unless I noticed problems with the mini-OS the installer uses. In no time you should discover what (if any) of those kernels supports your CD-ROM. If you can't get Slackware-7.0 or 7.1 to recognize your CD-ROM, a floppy install is possible, but time-consuming. 7.0 supports a straight-forward floppy-installation; instructions should be found on the CD-ROM. My memory fails me sometimes, but I believe it was possible to install some of 7.1 via floppies. I'm pretty sure the necessary package from the "a" and "n" series can be installed via floppy disk, and then the rest like "x" and "d" can be copied over via NFS or FTP for after-installation err.... installation.

[0] That's not entirely correct. You *can* use the "split" command to part up packages into small enough sizes to fit on floppy disks. Then you could copy these to the file-system during the installer and use "cat" to put them back together again. However, I only recommend this as a punishment for naughty sysadmins. The truely sadistic will require installation from 360KB soft floppy disks.
[1] For a complete list, see the kernels/ directory on the CD-ROM.
[2] Another reason for not using Slackware-11.0 is it is highly unlikely to support those ancient CD-ROMs nearly as well as the 2.2 kernel used in 7.0 and 7.1.

For a 486 you can still use Slackware 11.0, but yes you probably shouldn't use huge26.s (it's quite big and probably not much use on a computer that old). I would use one of the smaller 2.4.x kernels or compile one yourself.

Yes, we forgot to ask about memory. You need at *least* >=64Mbytes for light programs.

I tried Slack 11 in Pentium 166 (I think 380ED, maybe 32Mb of RAM). It was not bad! Of course icewm not KDE / xfce or heavy apps and with kernel 2.4.

I admit while generating some ssh keys I *was* worried :-) (time consuming)

Since Slackware 11 supports old_cd.i, he can try. Or else, back to old stuff.