Welcome to OldLinux

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Main Site:OldLinux.org

Mirrors: OldLinux.qbang.org, Oldlinux.mtc.dhs.org , www2.oldlinux.org , mirrors.kernel.org

SITE TARGETS

Collect all the materials related to the ancient Linux for historic testimony;
Rebuild the oldest Linux system that couldn't found anywhere nowaday ;
Provide an easiest way to learn the basics of Linux for newbies;
For fun :-)

An old paper written by Linus: "Linux--a free unix-386 kernel"
Ebook & published book in chinese: "A Heavily Commented Linux kernel Source Code (Kernel 0.11)"

MAIN MENU

OldLinux Forum -- Please register & login into the Forum to download the ebook. You can ask any questions about it. I will do my best to answer you question. Welcome your suggestions or comments about the book.
Linux Source Cross Reference -- This is the Source cross reference.
Linux Ancient Resources -- Early and old Linux docs, source code and bins. (Linux.old)
www.plinux.org -- My personal webpage plinux, tlinux, glinux or ulinux :)

MIRRORS

rsync://www2.oldlinux.org/

CHANGELOG

2008-10-21
After the book (based on kernel 0.12) published in Taiwan in 2005, the same simplified chinese book published in mainland finally. This new book has nearly 960 pages and thus a little expansive than the book based on kernel 0.11. But all in all, the new book should have less mistakes than the old the version.
2007-06-07
Wow, 10 months passed from the last updating. Hello! Again, we moved to the other new forum (Discuz!) programmed using PHP + MySQL. We have done corrections to the ebook a lot. So we now present the new version of the ebook here: clk011c-2.0.1.pdf (V2.0.1). We hope you like it.
2006-08-09
Moving to the new forum smoothly. Updated the Leo BBS package (LB5000XP) to the current version (LeoBBS X Build060606). There are lots of new features in this new forum version, including show more than one pic in one post. In the recent time, I plan to change the style of this main page a little :)
2006-06-20
An enhanced version of my book "A Heavily Commented Linux kernel Source Code" has been published by the China Machine Press early this year (2006.1.8). Several new chapters describing the basic information of the kernel have been added, and almost all the source code comments have been rewritten to be more readable & understandable :)
2005-07-30
From 21th to 24th July 2005, I participated the Ottawa Linux Symposium (OLS2005) held in Ottawa Canada. Actually, the conference began from 19th to 24th, but I met some problems with my vesa, this caused me 2 days late and missing the chance to meet Linus Toravalds :(
Although I have made a toturial speech (photo )at the conference, the main target for me is accturally as a newbie to learn from, to meet the top hackers in the Linux community all of the world. Through the continuing help of Trent Jarvi (photo, from Denver University), I talked to many famous hackers during the conference. These include Theodore Ts'o (photo, One of the earlest Linux hackers), Jon "maddog" Hall (photo, President of Linux International), Donald Becker (photo, Network driver programmer), David Jones (photo, Current kernel maintainer), Andrew Morton (photo, Kernel maintainer ) and many other warm guys in the Linux community. I will show all photos I took in the conference here soon. There are a lot of photos taken by others. These photos was taken by Joshua Uziel
You can download the conference proceedings from the Linux symposium website: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
2005-03-13
Here is a good paper "Memory Management under Linux 0.11" written by Yuan Yi. This paper describes all codes in Linux 0.11 relating to memory management. It describes the relationship betweens these code, including the algorithms of allocation & release of memory.
2004-12-17
Linux 0.00 - a fake version :) Since Linus dialed up his MINIX partition of his harddisk, the orignal version of Linux 0.00 lost for ever. I built it under Linux 0.11. Just for fun and for learning something. Two tasks multitasking in level 3. But they are coded as part of the 'kernel' source code, same as task0 & task1 in Linux system. It has got one 'system call' to display character on the screen. Download the linux-0.00-041217.zip running under bochs, or the source code for it.
"it switched between two processes that printed AAAA... and BBBB... respectively by using the timer-interrupt - Gods I was proud over that" --- Linus Torvalds
2004-09-29
To facilitate the understanding of the source file kernel/blk_drv/ramdisk.c of the Linux 0.11, a integrated image file bootroot-0.11 has been built, which incoorperates the kernel boot image with a small MINIX rootfs in the same one diskette image file. You can boot the Linux 0.11 system to the shell command prompt with only one diskette. You can also download the bootroot package with experiment parts files from bootroot-0.11-040928.zip in the /Linux.old/bochs/ directory.
2004-09-28
Many people want to boot the Linux 0.11 system from harddisk image file (e.x. hdc-0.11.img). A new Linux 0.11 developement system linux-0.11-devel-040923.zip, which uses the special boot software shoelace to boot from hd image file, has been built. To boot with the shoelace software, a trick should be played with in the partition table of harddisk image file. So this new Linux 0.11 system got a new hd image file with 127MB in size.
2004-09-02
To accommodate with the experiments in chapter 14 in the ebook, always use the latest image file releases for bochs. The latest Linux-0.11-devel package is linux-0.11-devel-040809.zip.
2004-05-21
Added bookmark function to the book of v1.9.5 version. corrected page number errors. The book name is still the same. The "big" difference is on the cover page: the revision number changed to V1.9.5, yesterday's is V1.95.
2004-05-20
The new version v1.9.5 of the book (A heavily commented Linux kernel source code) is released today. There are lots of modifications to this new version and a new chapter (ch14) is added too.Thank you all friends that help me to improve the correctness & quality of the book. You can now download this new release here (pdf) . You can also download it from in the BBS. BTW, with the help from many kind friends, I'll do my best to translate it into english. Thank you!
2004-05-14
The MINIX-386 system can, now, run under the Bochs emulation system. The priviously released MINIX-386 image file (2004.02.23) can only be used on a real machine. Because the MINIX 1.5 kernel uses a DOS int 0x15 function 0x89 to switch to the protected mode in its start.s program, which the Bochs does not support. So I refers to the modification of freebird (wsx00000 at sina.com.cn), add several lines of code to replace the DOS int. Now the MINIX-386 can run smoothly under Bochs. Thanks freedird!
2004-05-12
These days I start translating the book into english because some friends intended me to do so. As my english is so poor I am afraid I couldn't finish this tough work. But its a good chance for me to check all commentaries in the book although the translation speed is almost unendurable :) Yes, I did learnt a lot of basics from the book, so I want more people to enjoy it. At least know there is a such book floating around on Internet :) Recently, I have corrected lots of mistakes in the book and preparing to releasse a new revision soon. The new revision will include all the updates in BBS and some new enhanced comments that I not yet published. Thanks for your supporting!
2004-05-11
Distribute a Linux 0.12 snap-shot system built under bochs. This one contains numerous source codes in the /usr/src/ directory. The name is linux-0.12-0402XX-snap.zip andlinux-0.12-0403XX-snap.zip in Linux.old/bochs/ directory (Linux Ancient Resources). The system extracted from bochs is in the directory: Linux.old/distributions/OldLinux/. There only contain the latest one: OldLinux-0.12-20040304.tar.Z
2004-05-05
The kernel.org is start mirroring the resources of this site.You will be able to download everything from mirrors.kernel.org/oldlinux/ not long after. I have done some hardworks rearranging the resources in Linux.old. In order to seperate others from oldlinux resources I put all other stuffs in a directory 'study'. If you find any links in BBS to the 'Linux.old' was broken, then the files must be in the study directory.
2004-04-30
Added a new chapter to the ebook above. "Expriment Envirnment Setup & Usage". This chapter mainly describe the using of Linux 0.11 in the Bochs system. There are also contain messages about IO from/too the virtual system (through disk images). You can download this chapter in BBS.
2004-04-23
A couple of weeks ago, I have released the rebuilt Linux-0.11 system. Today I release the new one. The BIG enhancement is that it contains a gcc 1.40 compiling environment. You can use it to compile kernel source in the /usr/src/ directory. The name of this release is linux-0.11-devel-040329.zip. Also configured for use in bochs environment. The zipped system is in the /Linux.old/distributions/OldLinux/directory. Download it & have a try!
2004-04-22
There was a paper titled "LINUX--a free unix-386 kernel" written by Linus Torvalds in October 1991. This 8-paged file was written when linux kernel 0.03 was released. In the paper, Linus states that the LINUX "is meant for hackers/computer science students to use, learn and enjoy....The GNU kernel (Hurd) will be free, but is currently not ready, and will be too big to understand and learn." Now, then, the current Linux system is just like the Hurd at that time. It's too big for the newbies to learn & understand. So, this is why I pick up Linux kernel 0.1x again and rebuild the related running system.... Now you can download and read this paper again. JUST FOR FUN or learning something from it. Enjoy.
2004-04-19
Due to the unknown problems with the old server, this site was unstable and finally shuted. Now we are moving to another server and reconstruting the site. With the help from Trent Jarvi(www.rxtx.org), a new mirror site has also been created: oldlinux.qbang.org. Thank you Trent Jarvi!
2004-03-27
I spent a whole day modifying the syntax of kernel 0.11 source code for compiling under Redhat 9 system. Now its working with the root-0.11 Image file. The file name is linux-0.11-040327-rh9.tar.gz. The diff file is here. You can also download the compiled Image file Image-0.11-040327-rh9.
2004-03-23
Built bash 1.05 with no job control for the orignal bootimage-0.11 image file. The orignal bootimage-0.11 means it was compiled without any modification to the source code of kernel 0.11. This bootimage file rootimage-0.11.Z can be downloaded from the Learning materials directory.
2004-03-20
We found an old linux version linux-0.11-pre on tytso's archived website. Its release date was 91.12.03. I havn't test it.
2004-03-06
Added mount/umount and mtools in the linux-0.11 system. Now you can mount/umount any MINIX 1.x filesystem and change data from within DOS diskettes. Built 0.11 and 0.12 boot/root image files. Now they are in the Learning Materials directory.
2004-03-04
Created a true linux kernel 0.11 system in bochs.
2004-02-23
MINIX-386 Harddisk clone (210MB RAR to 96MB), ghost format. The environment that Linus developped linux system. The hard disk parameters are: cyls=685, hds=16, sects=38. Username/Passwd: root/root.
2004-02-07
Added three sub discussion board for Free Software Projects.
2004-01-06
Rebuilt the linux 0.1x rootimage disk: rootimage-0.12.Z(812KB). It can also be used with bootimage-0.95.
2004-01-04
Create a linux 0.1x kernel system used in bochs:linux-0.1x.zip (2MB).
2003-12-18
If you cannot login the BBS correctly, please use the linkwww.oldlinux.org.
2003-12-08
Release modified version 1.2.2
2003-10-07
Release modified version 1.1

I am very interested in collecting old linux distributions (prior to 1995). If you have any old distros around on CDROM or diskettes, I would appreciate a copy. The older the better :-) Note that we are primarily interested in whole runnable old systems, not just the kernel source code.
Email: gohigh@sh163.net, jiong.zhao@mail.tongji.edu.cn (Previously: gohigh@shtdu.edu.cn )

$ Site created 2004.01.29 by gohigh, Last updated 2006.02.10 [ Usage ] $