Slackware 3.5

A friend of mine was having a hard time trying to configure XF86 from the old Slackware 3.5 days… 1998.

Wow time sure has flown!

Anyways I kind of liked Linux back then as a lot of distros had OpenLook, which made my Linux box feel like a way cheaper SUN box.

While Slackware 3.5 installs great on Virtual PC, the networking just crashes out… So I thought I’d just fire it up on Qemu.

qemu.exe -net nic,model=ne2k_pci -net user -hda Slackware 3.5 Hard Disk.vhd” -L pc-bios -redir tcp:58080::80

And with a bit of tweaking I managed to get it running!

Although with normal VGA there is some weird issues with the cursor…

Slackware 3.5 running openlook

Slackware 3.5 running openlook

It was about as hard as I remember for the xf86config days… you kind of had to mash a few together to get it working…

And if it saves anyone the hassle, here is the XF86Config. (gzipped!)

This is basically regular VGA with a PS/2 mouse… It works on Qemu & Virtual PC, so I’m sure your favorite emulator ought to work as well.

4 thoughts on “Slackware 3.5

  1. yeah Xfree86 was such a difficult thing to configure back then…. Then again it's still a major pain in the ass.

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