Just an incentive/very quick and raw notes before creating a more verbose thread/post after I get it polished:
Debian 4 Etch - (2.6.18-6-486 kernel) working !!! Also PPP. And frigging package install/update over Internet due to Debian archive repo mirror !!! F*** yeah ! WMs experience might vary, jwm, AmiWM are ok, others might take longer time to load
Slackware 12 (2.6.21.5 kernel) - works fine, booting time and loading BlackBox WM ones (other WMs might greatly vary) are quite fast, ppp working ok, usable ssh (ssl still bit too old), but F*** YEAH !!!
Notes on Debian 4:
Get the debian-40r9-i386-CD-1.iso, the usual archiving site is a good source. Search for:
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Debian 4.0 r9 „Etch” 1CD+3DVD i386 (32-bit)
With PCem (didn't try yet 86box/qemu) create a simple Pentium machine(I used Socket7 Asus P/I-P55T2P4 with a Pentium CPU at 120MHz, 128 megs of ram, ISA Soundblaster 16 PnP, some ISA Tseng videocard)
Create a raw img (I used 2.5 GB, more than enough for now with enough space left).
Boot the machine, enter BIOS to detect HDD (usually option 1 NORMAL, matching the number of sectors when it was created) and change boot sequence to CD-ROM first
Install base Debian following the on-screen guide (optionally can install/modify the below stuff after reboot, otherwise you can do it directly on ao486)
Copy the resulted VHD to MiSTer, boot it (also mount the ISO) and:
-modify /etc/fstab on the cdrom part from /dev/hdb to /dev/hdc and uncomment if necessary
-mount /cdrom (just to check if it works correctly)
-apt-get install ppp
-editor /etc/resolv.conf and add a line with
save and close
-to start PPP:
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pppd /dev/ttyS0 115200 noauth defaultroute &
-add in /etc/apt/sources.list:
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deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ etch contrib main non-free
deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian/ etch contrib main non-free
-do "apt-get update", "apt-get upgrade" to have the "latest" packages from Debian Archive repo
Rest is yours to have fun with 
Slackware 12:
As very quick notes if anyone else wanna have fun, get bootable iso(s) whatever Slackware version from here http://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slackw ... kware-iso/ or any other mirror
Slackware 12.0 for sure works on ao486, checking for newer versions now
With PCem (didn't try yet 86box/qemu) create a simple Pentium machine(I used Socket7 Asus P/I-P55T2P4 with a Pentium CPU at 120MHz, 128 megs of ram, ISA Soundblaster 16 PnP, some ISA Tseng videocard)
Create a raw img (I use 6.5 GB, more than enough for now with enough space left).
Boot the machine, enter BIOS to detect HDD (usually option 1 NORMAL, matching the number of sectors when it was created) and change boot sequence to CD-ROM first
Boot the install CD, use huge.s kernel at boot prompt NOT the default hugesmp.s one which is for Pentium III !!!
Once booted and logged as root:
fdisk /dev/hda (or /sda), create a root partition type Linux 83 active 6GB plus a swap type Linux swap 82 for the rest 500MB (dunno if really needed, I never saw it being used on ao486 tbh)
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mkswap /dev/hda2 (or /sda2)
swapon /dev/hda2 (or /sda2)
setup
From now on it's pretty much menu driven standard Slackware install, deselect unwanted kernels/packages/libraries/whatever else which would not work on ao486 (USB, wifi, acpi, apdm, scsi, parallel port etc), select whatever X packages, which to be default window manager, swap CDs and so on. Be sure to select ppp !
Skip network setup. When asked, select modem to be the /dev/ttyS0.
Put LILO in MBR, use first option (standard smth) to boot in CLI (you can always startx later).
Reboot from HDD, check/modify /etc/fstab to reflect CD-ROM (/dev/hdc or /dev/sdc, depending the distro). Also add in /etc/resolv.conf a line with nameserver 8.8.8.8 (nano is a good text editor) and it can then be transferred to MiSTer and boot up.
PPP connection should start (takes about half a minute to establish) with
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pppd /dev/ttyS0 115200 defaultroute &
L.E. Patience is really a virtue 