I received a week ago the install CD of Slackware 8.1 and I would like to give it a go but I'm a bit afraid of reinstalling on my mandy distro which is fine! I wanted to try it on (don't laugh!) a 486 16M 632MHD (apparently it's possible!) that is laying in the loft! But I can't figure out how to boot it up. In the instructions, they talk about 'bootdisk readme file' but I can't find them on the CD. I can see the whole A, X, K, .... series files, but ?
With a bootable CD (like my main computer!) I'm sure it would be easier, but I still would like to resolve that problem!

Well, the cd should be bootable. But if your computer can't boot to the cdrom, then your gonna have to create some bootdisks to get the installation going.

http://www.slackware.com/book/index....urce=x209.html this link will help you out if you end up needing to boot to a floppy.

You could also investigate Smart Boot Manager. It might allow you to boot the CD. Install the program to a floppy and boot the floppy disk. It will present a menu with detected boot devices.

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net

I have never tried it on a 486 though, only Pentiums. Good luck.