August 31, 2017 at 13:02Happy Birthday Linux! Recall the core 1.0
- Transfer
We recently shared with you material on the evolution of Linux. Today, in honor of the recent 26th birthday of the kernel of the operating system, we publish a story about how it all began.
I first installed Linux in 1993. Then I worked at MS-DOS, but I really liked the Unix systems that stood in the institute computer room, where I, a student, sat for days on end. When I heard about Linux, the free version of Unix that could run on my home 386, I immediately wanted to try it. My first Linux distribution was Softlanding Linux System (SLS) 1.03 with the Linux kernel 0.99 alpha, patch level 11. The system needed as much as 2 MB of memory, or 4 if you wanted to compile programs, or 8 to run the X window system.
I thought that Linux, compared to MS-DOS, is a huge step forward. Although Linux lacked the same variety of programs and games that MS-DOS had, I found that Linux is much more flexible. Unlike MS-DOS, now the OS could work in real multitasking mode, running several programs simultaneously. In addition, Linux had many tools, including a C compiler, which I could use to create my own programs.
A year later, I upgraded to SLS 1.05, which boasted the latest Linux 1.0 kernel. But, more importantly, Linux 1.0 introduces support for kernel modules. Thanks to the modules, it was no longer necessary to recompile the kernel to support new hardware. Instead, you could download the appropriate of the 63 available modules. In README for SLS 1.05, the following module note could be found:
On August 25th, the Linux kernel celebrates its 26th anniversary. Celebrating this event, I installed SLS 1.05 again in order to remind myself of what the Linux 1.0 kernel was like and better see the huge path Linux has traveled since the early 1990s. Join me on this journey through the waves of memory!
Softlanding Linux System was the first real “distribution” that included a program to install the system. Although this process was not as simple as it is today. Instead of booting from the CD-ROM, I needed to boot the system from the installation floppy disk, and then run the installer from the command prompt.
Starting the installation of SLS 1.05 from the command line
A nice little thing that appeared in SLS 1.05 was the support for a color text installer. When I selected the color mode, the installer screen turned light blue, the letters were displayed in black. Still, it is prettier than a primitive black screen with white text.
Color text installation screen in SLS 1.05
The SLS installer is simple, in front of us is only the text that appears at the bottom of the screen, but it does its job. After answering a few simple questions, I was able to create a partition for Linux, format it in the ext2 file system, and install the system. Installing SLS 1.05, including X and development tools, required 85 MB of disk space. By modern standards, this is very small, but when the Linux 1.0 kernel came out, 120 MB disks were still in use.
Partitioning, formatting in ext2, and installing Linux
First boot
When I first booted my newly installed Linux, some details about this earlier version of the system popped into my memory. For starters, Linux does not take up too much memory. After loading the OS and testing several utilities, Linux took up less than 4 MB. On a system with 16 MB of memory, this meant that there was still enough space to run the programs.
Checking the file system and free disk space
In Linux 1.0, the familiar file system already exists
File System / proc
Directory
Folder / etc
After the system booted up, it was time to get to work. So what can be done with this early Linux kernel OS?
Let's start with file management. Every time you log in, SLS reminds you of the Softlanding shell (MESH), a file management program that modern users may find similar to Midnight Commander . Users in the 1990s would compare MESH with Norton Commander, probably the most popular third-party file manager for MS-DOS.
MESH
In addition to MESH, not so many full-screen applications are included in SLS 1.05. However, you can find familiar tools here, such as the Elm email client, the GNU Emacs programmable editor, and the venerable Vim.
Elm Mail Client
GNU Emacs Editor
SLS 1.05 even has Tetris, you can play directly in the terminal.
Tetris
In the 1990s, the most common way to access the Internet was through a modem connection, so the SLIC 1.05 included the Minicom application for working with a modem. Minicom provided a direct connection to the modem and required the user to enter AT commands in order to, for example, dial a number or disconnect. The application, in addition, supported macros and other convenient features that made it easy to connect a local provider to the modem pool.
Minicom modem application
Let's talk about working with documents. SLS appeared long before something like LibreOffice or OpenOffice. There was nothing like that on Linux in the early 1990s. Instead, if you needed a word processor, you would most likely download MS-DOS and run something like WordPerfect or Shareware GalaxyWrite.
However, all Unix systems included a set of simple utilities for formatting text -
Simple text document in nroff
Text formatted with nroff
In order to make the system work in graphical mode using the window system X, it was necessary to make more efforts than you might have expected by reading the documentation for SLS:
I first installed Linux in 1993. Then I worked at MS-DOS, but I really liked the Unix systems that stood in the institute computer room, where I, a student, sat for days on end. When I heard about Linux, the free version of Unix that could run on my home 386, I immediately wanted to try it. My first Linux distribution was Softlanding Linux System (SLS) 1.03 with the Linux kernel 0.99 alpha, patch level 11. The system needed as much as 2 MB of memory, or 4 if you wanted to compile programs, or 8 to run the X window system.
I thought that Linux, compared to MS-DOS, is a huge step forward. Although Linux lacked the same variety of programs and games that MS-DOS had, I found that Linux is much more flexible. Unlike MS-DOS, now the OS could work in real multitasking mode, running several programs simultaneously. In addition, Linux had many tools, including a C compiler, which I could use to create my own programs.
A year later, I upgraded to SLS 1.05, which boasted the latest Linux 1.0 kernel. But, more importantly, Linux 1.0 introduces support for kernel modules. Thanks to the modules, it was no longer necessary to recompile the kernel to support new hardware. Instead, you could download the appropriate of the 63 available modules. In README for SLS 1.05, the following module note could be found:
Kernel modularization is aimed at reducing, and, ultimately, eliminating the need to recompile the kernel, which was necessary to replace or modify device drivers, or to organize dynamic access to rarely needed drivers. More importantly, it is likely that the efforts of individual working groups should no longer be directed towards developing a kernel. Everything goes to the possibility of binary kernel releases.
On August 25th, the Linux kernel celebrates its 26th anniversary. Celebrating this event, I installed SLS 1.05 again in order to remind myself of what the Linux 1.0 kernel was like and better see the huge path Linux has traveled since the early 1990s. Join me on this journey through the waves of memory!
Installation
Softlanding Linux System was the first real “distribution” that included a program to install the system. Although this process was not as simple as it is today. Instead of booting from the CD-ROM, I needed to boot the system from the installation floppy disk, and then run the installer from the command prompt.
Starting the installation of SLS 1.05 from the command line
A nice little thing that appeared in SLS 1.05 was the support for a color text installer. When I selected the color mode, the installer screen turned light blue, the letters were displayed in black. Still, it is prettier than a primitive black screen with white text.
Color text installation screen in SLS 1.05
The SLS installer is simple, in front of us is only the text that appears at the bottom of the screen, but it does its job. After answering a few simple questions, I was able to create a partition for Linux, format it in the ext2 file system, and install the system. Installing SLS 1.05, including X and development tools, required 85 MB of disk space. By modern standards, this is very small, but when the Linux 1.0 kernel came out, 120 MB disks were still in use.
Partitioning, formatting in ext2, and installing Linux
First boot
System
When I first booted my newly installed Linux, some details about this earlier version of the system popped into my memory. For starters, Linux does not take up too much memory. After loading the OS and testing several utilities, Linux took up less than 4 MB. On a system with 16 MB of memory, this meant that there was still enough space to run the programs.
Checking the file system and free disk space
In Linux 1.0, the familiar file system already exists
/proc, although it does not provide as much useful information as can be seen in modern versions of the OS. Linux 1.0 /procincludes interfaces to basic tools for obtaining system information, such as meminfoand stat. File System / proc
Directory
/etcin this system is pretty deserted. It is interesting to note that SLS 1.05 borrows scripts rcfrom BSD Unix to control system startup. Everything is started using rcscripts, with local system changes specified in the file rc.local. Later, most Linux distributions will use the more familiar scripts initfrom Unix System V , then the systemd initialization system . Folder / etc
Work
After the system booted up, it was time to get to work. So what can be done with this early Linux kernel OS?
Let's start with file management. Every time you log in, SLS reminds you of the Softlanding shell (MESH), a file management program that modern users may find similar to Midnight Commander . Users in the 1990s would compare MESH with Norton Commander, probably the most popular third-party file manager for MS-DOS.
MESH
In addition to MESH, not so many full-screen applications are included in SLS 1.05. However, you can find familiar tools here, such as the Elm email client, the GNU Emacs programmable editor, and the venerable Vim.
Elm Mail Client
GNU Emacs Editor
SLS 1.05 even has Tetris, you can play directly in the terminal.
Tetris
In the 1990s, the most common way to access the Internet was through a modem connection, so the SLIC 1.05 included the Minicom application for working with a modem. Minicom provided a direct connection to the modem and required the user to enter AT commands in order to, for example, dial a number or disconnect. The application, in addition, supported macros and other convenient features that made it easy to connect a local provider to the modem pool.
Minicom modem application
Let's talk about working with documents. SLS appeared long before something like LibreOffice or OpenOffice. There was nothing like that on Linux in the early 1990s. Instead, if you needed a word processor, you would most likely download MS-DOS and run something like WordPerfect or Shareware GalaxyWrite.
However, all Unix systems included a set of simple utilities for formatting text -
nroffand troff. On Linux, they were compiled into the GNU package groff; this package was also available in SLS 1.05. One of the tests I subjected to SLS 1.05 was to create a simple text document using nroff. Simple text document in nroff
Text formatted with nroff
Window System X
In order to make the system work in graphical mode using the window system X, it was necessary to make more efforts than you might have expected by reading the documentation for SLS:
Running the X window system on your computer can be a little complicated, mainly due to the fact that there are many types of video cards. Linux X11 only supports VGA video cards, but there are many such cards, and only some of them are fully supported. SLS comes with two servers of the X window system.
The first, full-color XFree86, supports, in whole or in part, such cards as ET3000, ET4000, PVGA1, GVGA, Trident, S3, 8514, graphics cards with graphics acceleration, ATI plus, and others.
The second server, XF86_Mono, should work with almost all VGA cards, however, only in monochrome mode. Accordingly, it uses less memory and should be faster than color. However, he certainly does not look so nice.
The basic configuration information for window system X is stored in the directory / usr / X386 / lib / X11 /. In particular, the Xconfig file sets the timings for the monitor and video card. By default, the X window system is configured to use a color server, but you can switch to the x386mono monochrome server if the color does not work normally, since in monochrome mode the system should work with any standard VGA card. In general, this means assigning / usr / X386 / bin / X as a reference to the current X server.
Simply edit the Xconfig file with the mouse type and timings, and enter the startx command.
All this does not sound very encouraging, and it should be noted that it is so. Manual tuning of the window system X, indeed, the experiment is not the easiest. Fortunately, SLS 1.05 includes a programsyssetup, which helps to set various system parameters, including screen settings for the window system X. After several answers to questions and experimenting with the settings, I was finally able to launch X!
Syssetup program
However, it is worth remembering that we have X from 1994, then there was not even a desktop concept. Among the options available to me were FVVM and TWM. TWM was easy to set up; it provided a simple but functional graphical environment.
TWMShutdown
No matter how pleasant it was for me to recall how it all began, it was time to return to my modern desktop. My first Linux was running on a 32-bit 386th computer with 8 MB of memory and a 120 MB hard drive. Today, my car is not an example more powerful. I can do much more on it than in the old days. Here I have at my disposal a 64-bit Intel Core i5, 4 GB of memory and a 128 GB SSD. The Linux kernel 4.11.11 works on all this.
After my experiments with SLS 1.05 were over, it was time to say goodbye.
Shutting down the computer
See you later, Linux 1.0 kernel. It's nice to see how far you have come over the years.
Dear readers! How did you celebrate the birthday of the Linux kernel?
