Discussion:
Really ancient debian images? (potato or older)
(too old to reply)
Tim Woodall
2024-09-14 15:10:02 UTC
Permalink
Is there anywhere I can download really, really ancient debian images. I
need potato or older (i386). I'd like a mountable disk image.

I have no idea if debootstrap supports this, I haven't tried (yet), I
was hoping there was somewhere I could download an image.

This is to build some ancient software. I've tried Jessie, which is the
oldest release I have images for but unfortunately that has e2fslibs-dev
1.42 while the software will not build with e2fslibs >1.19.

The oldest backups I still have go back to 2006 which, sadly, is way too
modern. Checking the potato release information says security updates
were discontinued in 2003. I switched from Redhat to Debian around that
time so I'm likely not to have had any backups for potato anyway
although I did at least boot it at that time.

Tim.
Tim Woodall
2024-09-14 15:20:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tim Woodall
Is there anywhere I can download really, really ancient debian images. I
need potato or older (i386). I'd like a mountable disk image.
I have no idea if debootstrap supports this, I haven't tried (yet), I
was hoping there was somewhere I could download an image.
This is to build some ancient software. I've tried Jessie, which is the
oldest release I have images for but unfortunately that has e2fslibs-dev
1.42 while the software will not build with e2fslibs >1.19.
The oldest backups I still have go back to 2006 which, sadly, is way too
modern. Checking the potato release information says security updates
were discontinued in 2003. I switched from Redhat to Debian around that
time so I'm likely not to have had any backups for potato anyway
although I did at least boot it at that time.
And, of course, as soon as I sent that I found a potato CD on
archive.org. Downloading now - it's going to take a while - about 20x
faster than it would have been back in the day over dialup but
definitely not a high speed archive :-)
Tom Furie
2024-09-14 15:30:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tim Woodall
Post by Tim Woodall
The oldest backups I still have go back to 2006 which, sadly, is way too
modern. Checking the potato release information says security updates
were discontinued in 2003. I switched from Redhat to Debian around that
time so I'm likely not to have had any backups for potato anyway
although I did at least boot it at that time.
And, of course, as soon as I sent that I found a potato CD on
archive.org. Downloading now - it's going to take a while - about 20x
faster than it would have been back in the day over dialup but
definitely not a high speed archive :-)
https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/ has images going all the way back
to 1.3. Prior to 3.0 is in the "older-contrib" directory.

Cheers,
Tom
--
Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
-- Lily Tomlin
Tim Woodall
2024-09-14 15:40:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tom Furie
Post by Tim Woodall
Post by Tim Woodall
The oldest backups I still have go back to 2006 which, sadly, is way too
modern. Checking the potato release information says security updates
were discontinued in 2003. I switched from Redhat to Debian around that
time so I'm likely not to have had any backups for potato anyway
although I did at least boot it at that time.
And, of course, as soon as I sent that I found a potato CD on
archive.org. Downloading now - it's going to take a while - about 20x
faster than it would have been back in the day over dialup but
definitely not a high speed archive :-)
https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/ has images going all the way back
to 1.3. Prior to 3.0 is in the "older-contrib" directory.
Thanks! I didn't see that "older-contrib" directory and I assumed they'd
been deleted.

That's downloading much, much faster than archive.org.

Tim.
Michael Kjörling
2024-09-14 15:40:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tim Woodall
Post by Tim Woodall
Is there anywhere I can download really, really ancient debian images. I
need potato or older (i386). I'd like a mountable disk image.
And, of course, as soon as I sent that I found a potato CD on
archive.org. Downloading now - it's going to take a while - about 20x
faster than it would have been back in the day over dialup but
definitely not a high speed archive :-)
There's also archive.debian.org. See for example
https://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-i386/2.2.26-2001-06-14/images-1.44/
--
Michael Kjörling 🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”
Tim Woodall
2024-09-14 16:40:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Michael Kjörling
Post by Tim Woodall
Post by Tim Woodall
Is there anywhere I can download really, really ancient debian images. I
need potato or older (i386). I'd like a mountable disk image.
And, of course, as soon as I sent that I found a potato CD on
archive.org. Downloading now - it's going to take a while - about 20x
faster than it would have been back in the day over dialup but
definitely not a high speed archive :-)
There's also archive.debian.org. See for example
https://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-i386/2.2.26-2001-06-14/images-1.44/
This is fantastic, thanks all!

And for anyone who might want to do something like this in the future,
the only file I actually needed was:

https://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-i386/2.2.26-2001-06-14/base2_2.tgz

I downloaded the CD, mounted it and got it that way but it can be
downloaded directly. I assume the other old things are similar.

I've managed to build versions going all the way back to 1999.
Christian Groessler
2024-09-14 21:00:01 UTC
Permalink
Hi Tim,
Post by Tim Woodall
Post by Michael Kjörling
Post by Tim Woodall
Post by Tim Woodall
Is there anywhere I can download really, really ancient debian images. I
need potato or older (i386). I'd like a mountable disk image.
And, of course, as soon as I sent that I found a potato CD on
archive.org. Downloading now - it's going to take a while - about 20x
faster than it would have been back in the day over dialup but
definitely not a high speed archive :-)
There's also archive.debian.org. See for example
https://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-
i386/2.2.26-2001-06-14/images-1.44/
This is fantastic, thanks all!
And for anyone who might want to do something like this in the future,
https://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-
i386/2.2.26-2001-06-14/base2_2.tgz
I downloaded the CD, mounted it and got it that way but it can be
downloaded directly. I assume the other old things are similar.
I've managed to build versions going all the way back to 1999.
Now for the main question: Why do you need ancient Debian?


best regards,
chris
t***@tuxteam.de
2024-09-15 06:00:01 UTC
Permalink
On Sat, Sep 14, 2024 at 10:27:01PM +0200, Christian Groessler wrote:

[...]
Post by Christian Groessler
Now for the main question: Why do you need ancient Debian?
Was in the original post: "This is to build some ancient software."

(I've been in a similar situation myself)

Cheers
--
t
Anders Andersson
2024-09-15 10:10:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by t***@tuxteam.de
[...]
Post by Christian Groessler
Now for the main question: Why do you need ancient Debian?
Was in the original post: "This is to build some ancient software."
(I've been in a similar situation myself)
Just have to add a "me too". Often a piece of software that hasn't
been maintained for 20 years or so fails to compile, or the support
scripts are using tools no longer available etc. It's way easier to
FIRST make it work on the environment it was designed for, and then
gradually fix whatever prevents it from being built with modern tools.

I feel that this is one of the key strengths using free software.
While you can probably easily find old CDs with Windows 2000, and MAY
find old CDs with the popular development tools at the time, it may be
very difficult getting it to run legally (if you care) and just pray
that you don't need a non-existing dongle.

I'm very happy that debian offers even really ancient versions.

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