Baslinux mailing list

[qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org]

Krzysztof A. Suchecki wrote:
>
> 1. slackware 3.9 instead of 3.5 - bl1 based on sl 3.9 doesn't
> fit on a standard 1.44mb floppy. i don't want to remove bl1
> functionality in change for newer slackware packages.

It might be possible to use add-on packages from Slackware 3.9
without changing BL1 very much.  You might remember (about a year 
ago) that I installed some packages from Slackware 8.1 on BL1
and they worked.  Packages from Slackware 3.9 use libc5 so they
should fit better than packages from 8.1.  It's really just a 
matter of experimenting with the most common packages from 3.9
and see how they go on the current BL1 foundation.  If there 
is some incompatibility (perhaps because of a difference in the 
newer version of libc5 in Slackware 3.9) you could fix that in 
install-to-HD by overwriting the older version.  That would mean 
a larger install-to-HD file, but that's not really a problem.

Even if you need to increase the size of baslinux.gz beyond the 
capacity of the second floppy, there is plenty of room on the 
first floppy.  The BL2 baslinux.gz is larger than 1.44mb so the
BL2 make_fd routine splits it and puts some of it on the first 
floppy (with zimage and loadlin).  You could use the same routine
for BL1 (in fact I think you can simply drop make_fd.zip from BL2 
into BL1 and it will work).

> 2. 2.0.39 kernel
> it should be provided as standard slackware kernels - 
> 30 or 40 different kernels 

A default IDE kernel (like bare.i) is sufficient.  It will suit
most people.  Anybody who needs a different kernel can get one 
from Slackware (along with any modules they need).   

> It's IMHO better for users if they take different kernels 
> from standard slackware mirrors.

Unfortunately, none of the Slackwares provide a 2.0.39 kernel
(they jumped from 2.0.37 to 2.2.6).  The maintainers of the 2.0
kernel back-ported several important features from the 2.2 kernels 
to 2.0.39.  It is significantly superior to the earlier 2.0 kernels.
 
> 3. support for non-English users.
> - loadfont is included in a standard distro so it's a step ahead.

One of the single-floppy versions of Linux (I think it might be
tomsrtbt) boots to a menu of foreign keyboards to choose from.
I imagined that you would be doing something similar with BL1.

Cheers,
Steven