As we're speaking of ancient history.
My first version of Linux was an odd distro called Caldera OpenLinux 2.3. It was actually quite good, I thought at the time. It later morphed into the hated SCO, when IBM was sued for "borrowing" code. Heh.

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It does not seem as if that CD was bootable. Back then, even if you had a "multimedia enhanced PC" with a cdrom reader that PC was probably not capable of booting from the cdrom. In those days Slackware was installed by booting from a boot floppy with a kernel capable of detecting the cdrom and HD and then switched to a root floppy with the installation scripts. The file INSTALL.TXT included in Slackware 3.4 only mentions those floppys as a way to boot.

The first Slackware version to have an isolinux directory used to boot from a cdrom was Slackware 8, however even though that directory is missing in Slackware 7.1 the file iso/README claims that the first iso is bootable. So it is hard to say which version of Slackware were the first to ship with a bootable iso.

regards Henrik

If you decide to try it under qemu I've written some notes on a few versions here that might help you. Getting such old versions working can be a bit of an adventure, each version seems to have its own quirks and it's not always the case that a newer version is easier to get working.

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So do you have the Walnut Creek Slackware 3.4 and checked? The Slackware 3.5 iso on the mirrors is bootable. I don't have the originals to check myself. But based on the Slackware 3.5 iso, if this image is actually from the 1998 release, that is probably about the right time the support started appearing. The syslinux loader in the iso is contemporarily dated to 1998-05-07. Syslinux 1.35 dated April 1998 first mentions of booting from cd in their documents, which wasn't really a native cd boot loader, but piggybacks on some kind of floppy-emulation. I wanted to check the real Slackware 3.4 iso images which is not available online, because a floppy-emulation based method for CDs in syslinux could have been known prior to documentation and fixes being added, so it is slightly possible it is bootable as a guess. But again, anything before 1998 is probably very unlikely.

As far as the appearance of isolinux in Slackware 8.0, well isolinux was just released a few months prior to that slackware version in 2001. Also Slackware 8.0 was in the time they were breaking away from Walnut Creek, so maybe this entry in the distribution was documenting the process used now, whereas before someone else may have been pressing the cds and adding the boot loader at the same time for Walnut Creek.

I do think 3rensho's memory is correct as per his first posting. He probably did have floppies to go along with it, as it's likely Slackware 3.4 was not bootable. That version of Slackware is also notable, as that is the last version that all package series could be placed entirely on floppies. I guess there is one more thing to check, that zipslack was not included in the cd release version of Slackware 3.4 either, which means the copy on the mirrors today is kind of a "-patches" version of 3.4, when zipslack was added (or kind of a -current of Slack3.5?). I am not aware of a Slackware 3.4.x branded release officially made to include zipslack (wikipedia -- you appear to have inaccurate info!).

My 1st was Slackware 3.2 from a book on Linux install and configuration. It had 2 cds
1 in stall and 1 internet archive disk. I'm looking for disk 2.

No, and I wasn't able to find any .iso file to download and test. However, I do have access to an old Slackware 3.0 CD and I think that I also have access to and old Slackware 3.1 (Slackware 96) CD. If there is any interest in those versions I can try to see if qemu is able to boot from them.

regards Henrik

I have not tried these versions either. I tried Slackware 3.2 on the mirrors and is not bootable per what is there. I think this is expected.

It wouldn't hurt to validate what is out there as there are many copies of the 3.0 and 3.1 disks out there and would be nice to know what are pristine copies of the official distribution. That was kind of the peak of "get Linux at the bookstore era" so there are quite a few produced by people back then.

And that was my introduction to (Slackware) Linux, running kernel 1.2.13, 25 years ago, $19.95 at Barnes & Noble.

I didn't know what I was doing, but I was willing to learn. Still am.

So I believe I have confirmed the cd boot support without seeing the actual disk. I noticed in the 4.0 changelogs the mentioning of a .eltorito directory being updated. El Torito is the standard defined to support cdrom booting in 1994. So before isolinux was added, it was just in a directory name that referenced that standard. Well that dot in front hid the directory from being shown by default. So on all the http mirrors, the directory does not show up there when browsing to bootdsk.144! You need to log onto old fashioned FTP and do a ls -a ! So the directory first appears in Slackware 3.5, and does not exist in Slackware 3.4. And you can confirm this with the listing file captured of the final release usually found in the repository. The listing shows the directory in the newer 3.5, but not in the older 3.4 release. So it was always there all along -- we just can't see it normally.

Now you see it, then go up a level now you don't:
http://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/sla...144/.eltorito/


That was what I eventually did, with SuSE 7.0, I got their big thick manual to teach me about the system. Had I known about Slackware at the time, it would have been Slackware 7.1, which feels pretty much at home with me even today, despite I experienced things through SuSE. I ended up bypassing YaST and hand edited all the config even then.

Had I paid attention more to this stuff 28 years ago, I would have loved to get a book like Linux Configuration and Installation authored by Pat. But I was probably too busy catching lizards like my boy is doing today. I'm looking forward to hand one of these books to my boy and ask him to set up a linux box for me and see what will happen.

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There is a qemu image here:

https://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2014/

if anyone wants to try 1.01 - and a (very) small howto here with suggested qemu options:

https://opensource.com/article/16/12...riving-distros

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I have now been able to confirm that the Slackware 3.0 installation CD is not bootable. Somewhere I think I should have a Slackware 3.1 (Slackware 96) CD set, but I haven't been able to find it. As far as I can remember, I never had any 3.4 CD.

regards Henrik