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1.1.2
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2.0.0
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2.0.1
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2.1
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2.3
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3.0
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README.md
README.md
 
 

README.md

Slackware

Slackware, first released in July 1993 by Patrick Volkerding, is the oldest Linux distro still maintained.

Release History

This table summarizes Slackware releases and major component versions. The data comes from the README.txt and ChangeLog.txt files for each version, taken from the source CD-ROM or official mirror. Placeholder rows with release dates from Wikipedia are included for releases that are not yet in this repo.

Release Date Kernel C library Compiler XFree86
1.01 1993-08-04 0.99pl12 4.4.1 gcc 2.4.5 1.3
1.1.1 1993-12-12 0.99pl14 4.4.4 gcc 2.4.5 2.0
1.1.2 1994-02-05 0.99.15 4.5.19 gcc 2.5.8 2.0
2.0.0 1994-07-01 1.0.9
1.1.18		 4.5.26 gcc 2.5.8 2.1.1
2.0.1 1994-09-18 1.0.9
1.1.18		 4.5.26 gcc 2.5.8 2.1.1
2.1 1994-10-31 1.1.59 4.5.26 gcc 2.5.8 3.1
2.2 1995-03-21 1.2.1 4.6.27 gcc 2.6.3 3.1.1
2.3 1995-05-10 1.2.8 4.6.27 gcc 2.6.3 3.1.1
3.0 1995-08-24 1.2.13
1.3.18		 5.0.9 gcc 2.7.0 3.1.2
3.1 1996-07-03 2.0.0 5.3.12 gcc 2.7.2 3.1.2
3.2 1997-02-17 2.0.29 5.4.23 gcc 2.7.2.1 3.2
3.3 1997-07-11 2.0.30 5.4.33 gcc 2.7.2.2 3.3
3.4 1997-10-14 2.0.30 5.4.33 gcc 2.7.2.3 3.3.1
3.5 1998-06-09 2.0.34 5.4.44 egcs 1.0.3 3.3.2-patch2
3.6 1998-10-28 2.0.35 5.4.46 egcs 1.0.3
gcc 2.7.2.3		 3.3.2 + patch 3
3.9 1999-05-10 2.0.37pre10 5.4.46 egcs 1.1.2
gcc 2.7.2.3		 3.3.3.1
4.0 1999-05-17 2.2.6 5.4.46 egcs 1.1.2
gcc 2.7.2.3		 3.3.3.1
7.0 1999-10-25 2.2.13 glibc 2.1.2 egcs 1.1.2
gcc 2.7.2.3
gcc 2.95		 3.3.5
7.1 2000-06-22 2.2.16 glibc 2.1.3 egcs 1.1.2
gcc 2.7.2.3
gcc 2.95.2		 3.3.6
8.0 2001-06-28 2.2.19 glibc 2.2.3 gcc 2.95.3
egcs 1.1.2		 4.1.0
8.1 2002-06-18 2.4.18 glibc 2.2.5 gcc 2.95.3
gcc 3.1		 4.2.0
9.0 2003-03-18 2.4.20 glibc 2.3.1 gcc 3.2.2 4.3.0
9.1 2003-09-26 — — — —
10.0 2004-06-23 — — — —
10.1 2005-02-02 — — — —
10.2 2005-09-14 — — — —
11.0 2006-10-02 — — — —
12.0 2007-07-01 — — — —
12.1 2008-05-02 — — — —
12.2 2008-12-10 — — — —
13.0 2009-08-26 — — — —
13.1 2010-05-24 — — — —
13.37 2011-04-27 — — — —
14.0 2012-09-28 — — — —
14.1 2013-11-04 — — — —
14.2 2016-06-30 — — — —
15.0 2022-02-02 — — — —

Milestones

  • Slackware 1.0 started out as a collection of patches and new packages for the Softlanding Linux System (SLS). It still used the SLS doinstall/sysinstall scripts and could install SLS packages directly.
  • Slackware 1.1 was the first release series with Slackware's own installer and package tools. The setup script replaced doinstall and pkgtool replaced sysinstall, and 1.1.2 introduced the color dialog-based installer flow that remained recognizable for decades.
  • Slackware 2.0.0 was the first release in this timeline to ship Linux 1.0.x, while also offering a 1.1.x development kernel on the same media.
  • Slackware 2.2 was the first release here to ship a Linux 1.2.x kernel, marking the next major stable kernel generation after the 1.0.x series.
  • Slackware 3.0 was the first ELF release. Its release notes explicitly brand it as "Slackware Linux 3.0.0 (ELF)", marking the transition away from the older a.out binary format while retaining compatibility for older binaries.
  • Slackware 3.1 was the first release to move to Linux 2.0.x, the long-lived kernel series that powered much of late-1990s Linux.
  • Slackware 3.5 was the first release here to adopt egcs as the primary compiler set. Its changelog also marks the practical end of bundled a.out development support, with the old a.out compiler packages removed and ELF established as the default toolchain.
  • Slackware 3.5 and 3.6 also show the first glibc support in this timeline as optional contrib packages, before glibc became the default system C library.
  • Slackware 4.0 was the first release to ship Linux 2.2.x, another major kernel transition, and it was also the last major release here still based on libc5.
  • Slackware 7.0 was the full C library transition: the first release here based on glibc instead of libc5. It also introduced gcc 2.95 alongside egcs and the older gcc 2.7.2.3, reflecting the compiler churn of the era.

Historical Background

  • Wikipedia article
  • A History of Slackware Devlopment by Eric Hamleers (aka alienbob)
  • Interviews with Patrick Volkerding:
    • 1994 by Linux Journal
    • 2012 by LinuxQuestions.org

Installation

For Slackware 1.0beta and 1.01, use the Slackware 1.01-specific instructions.

For Slackware 1.1.1 through 8.0 in this repo, the install flow is mostly the same:

  1. Boot the VM normally.
  2. If the boot process asks for the root disk, press C-a c in the terminal running qemu and to enter the QEMU monitor, then type:
change floppy0 root.img
  1. If you had to swap the root disk, press Enter at the prompt, ignore the misleading floppy I/O error if it appears, and press Enter again if necessary to reach a login prompt.
  2. Log in as root when the system presents a login prompt.
  3. Ignore the stock installer prompts and run the staged autoinstall script from the DOS partition:
mkdir /retro
mount -t msdos /dev/hdb1 /retro
/retro/autoinst

After the installer and post-install configuration finish, the VM will reboot into the installed system.

If you want the original manual install flow instead, use the boot/root environment to partition the disk, initialize swap, format the root partition, and run the stock setup program.