Hi, I installed Slackware 8.1 thinking that it was the earliest version to support flash drives (based on some forum discussions I had read), but then discovered Wiki info on flash drives which states that the 2.6.2 kernal is the first kernal to support them. Is it possible to load 2.6.2 into Slackware 8.1 or does this following link suggest the highest kernal I can go with 8.1?
http://www.slackware.com/security/vi...ecurity.612137
Thanks for any input.

You would probably have to rebuild a whole bunch of stuff to run a 2.6 kernel on there. Can I ask why you are using such an old version? If you need a newer kernel, why not just run the newest Slack?

Slackware 11 was the first release with a 2.6 kernel. It came with a 2.4 by default, with the 2.6 (2.6.17.13?) in /extra on the CDs.

I wanted the oldest version of Slackware I could find which could yet support flash drives, because I reasoned that the older the version the more manual it would be to learn and use, and thus the more I would learn about how to use the terminal commands. I had observed that the most recent versions of Ubuntu were just about like using windows and probably don't really require one to have a command of how Linux really works.

Regarding the above statement(s), you must not make the parallel between "newness" and "new Slackware versions being like Ubuntu because they're new".

A new Slackware release is just as "manual" as you could want, and still likes to have lots of manual configuration done to it. It also lacks much of the "automated Ubuntu-esque" GUI tools that do everything for you. Granted, there *are* some GUI tools for doing some things (mainly as part of the KDE desktop), but the terminal can do everything you want to do, play with and learn.

Slack has a "keep it simple" philosophy, and likes hands-on users while Ubuntu is a different idea, and makes things as easy, automated, and accessible as possible for non-geek people who would like to use Linux, but without the shock value.

Sasha