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Debian 1.1.4 on 86Box with Socket 7 (Dual Voltage) [1996]

Debian 1.1.4 is the first stable version of this Linux distribution that was released on June 17th, 1996, under the codename “Buzz”. This version of Debian uses Linux version 2.0, and it provides you with a minimal X11 server (XFree86).

Our focus in this article is testing Debian 1.1.4 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Socket 7 (Dual Voltage) [1996] motherboard. You can download it from here. We have also extracted the required floppy disk files, which you can download here.

We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:

We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:

Machine type: [1996] Socket 7 (Dual Voltage)
Machine: [i430VX] Azza PT-5IV
CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
Memory: 128 MB
Video: [PCI] S3 Trio64 (Phoenix)
Keyboard: AT Keyboard
Mouse: Microsoft Serial Mouse (COM1)
Sound card: [ISA16] Gravis Ultrasound
Floppy disk controller: Internal device
Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
New hard disk: RH5.vhd
- C/H/S: 2080/16/63
- Size: 1024 MB
- Bus: IDE
- Channel: 0:0
CD-ROM drive 1: MATSHITA CD-ROM CR-583 1.07 (8x)

Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. First, insert both the boot floppy disk to the drive and the Debian 1.1.4 ISO to the CD-ROM reader, then set the BIOS to recognize the floppy disk.

After that, let it boot to the Debian 1.1 installer, inserting the root floppy disk in the process.

After that, we’re asked to create partitions for the Debian installation. We’ve selected /dev/hda as the disk drive, which is the first drive on primary IDE controller. Afterwards, we’ve created two partitions:

/dev/hda1: Linux, 980.44 MB, bootable
/dev/hda2: Linux Swap, 43.32 MB

Finally, we’ve written the partition tables so that the installer can recognize our newly created partitions, which we will format to be usable in the installation.

Now, we will initialize and activate the swap partition, which will be used by Debian 1.1.4. After the swap partition has been activated, we’re told to select a partition to initialize the EXT2 file system. We’ve chosen the Linux partition, which is the only partition that we’ve set up on this disk.

After the file system was created, we’ve mounted the root filesystem so that the installer will be able to install the minimal base system from the three base floppy disks.

Now, we’ll install the base system from the three floppy disks (base14-1.bin through base14-3.bin) inserted to the first floppy drive, /dev/fd0.

After that, we’ll install the kernel to the new system. Insert the boot floppy disk, then proceed.

Now, you’ll be asked if you need some additional modules. Since we don’t have any extra hardware that requires the use of the available modules, just press ENTER when you see the below screen.

After that, you’ll be asked to provide both the keyboard layout (which we’ve answered Yes here) and the timezone.

The hostname and the network setup comes next. We’ve selected the appropriate hostname, and this system is intentionally set up not to connect to a network, so we’ve answered No to the network connection question.

Afterwards, the bootloader installation comes next. We’ve set up the LILO bootloader so that it installs to the master boot record of /dev/sda, which is the disk that has our newly-installed system, along with making /dev/sda1 the default boot entry.

After that, we restart the machine after ejecting the boot floppy from the floppy drive, since we don’t intend to create a “boot floppy”.

The new installation booted up to the prompt where we’re asked to provide both the root password and info for a new user that will be created. The password must be at least 6 characters long for it to be accepted.

Package installation comes next, but we’ll have to set up dselect so that it reads the Debian 1.1.4 CD-ROM and the packages contained within. The kernel boot messages that we’ve seen indicates that /dev/hdb is the CD-ROM reader, which we will use.

We will go to “Access”, then provide the above path to the block device that points to the CD-ROM reader. Afterwards, we let it detect the packages for both the stable and the contrib sections from /debian/stable/binary-i386 and /debian/contrib/binary-i386, respectively. However, since this CD-ROM doesn’t contain non-free and local sections, we leave them blank.

Now, go to “Update”, and see it recognize the package list.

Now, we’ll go to “Select”, which lets us select packages that we want to install or remove. We have marked all LaTeX-related packages as removed by pressing the minus sign on our keyboard when those packages are highlighted. To find them, press the slash key, then write latex or tex, and remove all related packages. This saves the installation time and disk space.

After that, we’ll install XFree86 3.1.2 and its S3 server, FVWM2, GWM, and various X11-related packages by pressing + on the keyboard.

After that, press ENTER, and remove the remaining LaTeX packages that are dependencies. Keep pressing ENTER and marking dependent packages until pressing ENTER takes you to the main menu, with “Install” highlighted. Now, we’ll install packages.

When setting up packages, you’ll be prompted to set up a variety of packages yourself, such as the mail server. Occasionally, you may see the “file modified” prompts, which you’ll have to answer N. As for the mail server, press 5 then ENTER. Keep answering with defaults until you get to the XFree86 configuration.

Now, we are in the XFree86 configuration, with the mouse setup being the first section. Since we have selected Microsoft Mouse (2 buttons, COM1) during the virtual machine configuration, we’ve selected 1, then disabled ChordMiddle (for old Logitech mice using Microsoft Mouse protocol) and enabled Emulate3Buttons (press LEFT and RIGHT mouse buttons to emit MIDDLE click event). After that, we’ve specified /dev/cua0 as the mouse block device, which corresponds to COM1 that the mouse was connected to.

After that, we will configure the monitor sync frequencies. Since we’re on a virtual machine, selecting the monitor sync frequencies didn’t matter, as long as they grant us access to higher resolutions, like 1024×768 that we’ll set up.

After that, the video card configuration comes. We have installed the S3 Trio64 graphics card to this machine, so we will have to browse the video card database until we found the S3-Trio64 (generic) entry. After that, we’ve specified 123 as the graphics card ID, and it says that the XFree86 S3 server will be used.

Select the accelerated XFree86 S3 server by pressing 5, then specify the video RAM that is installed to the graphics card. For instance, we’ve selected 4096 KB because the card was configured to use this amount of video RAM.

The configuration program then asks you if you want to extract the probed clock information. Since this isn’t required, we just answer n to the question, which means that clock information won’t be parsed. Change all modes (256 colors, 16-bit colors, and 24-bit colors) so that 1024×768 will only be used.

Let the configuration program write the configuration file, but don’t test the X server yet. Ignore the package configuration error that appears, and answer N or O to the question that says that the Xserver file has been modified, since answering Y or I can invalidate your X server configuration. Enable xdm, but don’t start it yet.

Afterwards, go to “Config” and “Remove”, and let them perform remaining configuration and clean-up operations, then exit the dselect program.

You should see the login screen like below.

Since the serial port doesn’t seem to configure properly during system boot, we’ll have to manually run the below command, which causes the serial port to be recognized. Ensure that the serial port works by using cat /dev/cua0, then moving the mouse. If everything works, press CTRL + C, then execute reset in case garbled characters appear when you’re writing commands.

The command you’ll have to execute to configure the serial port is setserial -b /dev/cua0 auto_irq autoconfig session_lockout. If xdm works after a reboot but you can’t move the mouse, press ALT + F3, use this command, verify that the mouse works, then go back to the X server using ALT + F1.

Once the mouse works, now we can start the X server using startx. The X server works!

We can verify that xlock’s modes work, such as xlock -mode flag. It shows a waving “LINUX” word in a nice color hue gradient.

To run GWM, exit the X server by pressing CTRL + ALT + Backspace, then edit the /etc/X11/window-managers file using vi to point to the GWM binary path (/usr/X11R6/bin/gwm).

Then, start the X server again. Below shows a demo of the GWM window manager.

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