1 Oct
2005
1 Oct
'05
8:53 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
For clarity, isn't UMSDOS the code which let you run linux from a FAT
filesystem - nothing to do with doing an install to an ext2 Linux
partition and then booting from there. Install from a FAT source was
added pretty early on ISTR, with UMSDOS coming much later (I've never
tried the latter)
Partitioning used to be something on an art I recall; I don't think
there was support for swap files (as opposed to partitions) back then,
so getting all the sizes right on the disk space available (and not
trashing your DOS partitions in the process) was something of an art!
54 floppies?
Wow...you've got more patience than me.
I did it *once*... after that, I loaded the install images on a DOS
partition and did a partition-to-partition install (UMSDOS for those
that remember). Mind you, I downloaded 100% of it at 2400 baud.
Youch! Actually, not much has changed given how many CDs modern Linux
distros take up :) (still takes a couple of overnight runs to grab
everything, and of course there are ISP bandwidth caps to worry about
now too)
I wasn't able to install Linux for about
a year, until Slackware added native SCSI support (coming from an
Amiga and Mac background, I only owned SCSI disks).
Heh... Adaptec 1542 or something? My first foray into SCSI (and I've
stuck with it ever since) was in hooking up the SCSI disks from my NCR
Tower to the SCSI interface on the Linux PC's PAS soundcard and hacking
round the root password from there...
My little brother started with Slackware and runs it
to this day.
I went the Redhat route for a couple of years (I got lazy!), but
otherwise have been purely SLS followed by Slackware since '93 / '94.
Someday I'll throw a 1993-ish vintage PC together and stick SLS on it
for giggles I think... (I have *no* idea why I'd really want to do that)
Dammit, back then computing used to be fun!
cheers
Jules