These are root-install disks for Slackware96 (version 3.1.0) You will need one of these disks to install Linux. The disk is created by writing the image out with RAWRITE.EXE under DOS. For example, to make the color.gz rootdisk, you'd put a formatted floppy in your floppy drive, and then run this command: C:\> RAWRITE COLOR.GZ A: Normally you do not need to decompress these disks -- the kernel will do that as it loads them. These disks may be written to 1.44MB or 1.2MB floppies. Note that if you plan to mount the rootdisk instead of loading it into a ramdisk (using the method outlined in LOWMEM.TXT for machines with only 4MB) then you must decompress the image with GZIP.EXE before writing it out to a floppy. Here's a description of the choices: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- color.gz: A root-install disk using an easy-to-use new full-screen color install program. NOTE: This version of the install system is not forgiving of extra keystrokes entered between screens, so type carefully. umsdos.gz: A version of the color install disk using UMSDOS - a filesystem that allows you to install Linux into a directory on an existing MS-DOS partition. Not as fast as ext2 or xiafs, but it works, and you don't have to repartition your drive. See README.UMS for more information. text.gz: A root-install that uses text-based install scripts. This is actually preferred by some people since you can back up to look at error messages using Shift-PageUp. In addition, all of the new keymaps should be supported. tape.gz: A semi-experimental disk designed to support installation from tape. See the file README_T.APE for more information about this disk. pcmcia.gz: A version of the text install disk designed for installing via NFS to a laptop with a PCMCIA ethernet card. Also: rescue.gz: This is a rootdisk with an editor (vi), lilo, e2fsck, and other utilities. It's useful for getting into your machine if you ever get locked out due to improper lilo installation or some other misconfiguration. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------