Live TC on usb stick not loading extensions on Macbook Pro (no GUI)

[Fakir]

Hi together,

I finally managed to get TC started from a usb stick on a Macbook Pro. At least nearly..

For this, I used the instruction on https://www.pyrosoft.co.uk/blog/2013/01/09/creating-a-bootable-usb-stick-from-osx/ in order to create a mbr on the stick. The further procedure described on that site concerning the usage of unetbootin didn't work. Instead I installed the bootable usb stick as I always did (via a small tool for win) for getting it worked on a PC.

But what's happening now (and without any success whatever I tried to solve this) is, that after loading TC in the boot manager, TC doesn't load any extension but only its kernel. That leads not to the GUI (startx doesn't work, too) but to the shell.

I also tried the boot option for slower machines setting the waitusb on 10 sec. The result is the same as without that option: the screen telling that tc kernel is loading appears, finishing with the line that TC extensions are being loaded with that moving cursor behind.

Interestingly the shell doesn't allow to mount the usb stick ("no such device"); sda1 - sda3 are shown in folder but neither access nor mounting from /dev to /mnt is possible.

The stick which is used has a write-protection switch which I always activate when using live systems.

It seems as the second folder ("cde") on the stick (the first is "boot" with core.gz, vmlinuz and syslinux etc.) with xvesa and co. in it is ignored. I also renamed it to "tce" without success. Also, I copied Xorg in that folder (not in its subfolder "optional" where xvesa can be found).

I've got a rather old TC version (the standard one with 12 MB) from mid 2013 that has always worked fine on my old 32 bit (single core) PC as well as on a 64 bit (multi-core) PC.

Can you imagine where that problem comes from and how I could solve it? - In case you need more information please let me know.

Julian

[Juanito]

The /cde folder is ignored because this is for cd/dvd boot only - for other boot media /tce is used. Note also that extensions are kept in the /tce/optional folder.

The first time you boot, the write-protect switch will need to be off as tinycore will write a number of files/folders in the /tce folder.

In order to get into a gui the first time you boot, you can also load extensions by specifying the full path to the /cde folder, for example:

Code: [Select]

$ tce-load -i /path-to-file/cde/optional/Xvesa.tcz [and Xprogs aterm flwm wbar]
$ startx

[curaga]

If your MBP was made after the kernel used in the old TC version, it may not have drivers for everything. Try the latest version.

[Fakir]

Thx for your answers!

@ Juanito
"The /cde folder is ignored because this is for cd/dvd boot only - for other boot media /tce is used. "
The cde folder is created by that tool I mentioned, that automatically creates/installes a bootable usb stick based live linux device. To be sure that the problem is not because of the folder's name I also tried by renaming it to tce - without success. So far, this folder's name never caused a problem.

"Note also that extensions are kept in the /tce/optional folder."
On each other computer but the macbook, the whole information necessary for running TC was copied from the stick to the virtual ram device where TC is installed temporarily. The folders on the stick could be forgotten once the system was up und running.

"The first time you boot, the write-protect switch will need to be off as tinycore will write a number of files/folders in the /tce folder."
I also tried by disactivating the write-protection - no success. The enabled write-protect never was a problem before on non-mac computers.

"In order to get into a gui the first time you boot, you can also load extensions by specifying the full path to the /cde folder"
I hoped I could do that manually in the shell but unfortunately I cannot copy any data from the stick to the ram device because shell doesn't let me mount the stick. When I change to any listed device in /mnt and type ls, no content is showed.

@curaga
"If your MBP was made after the kernel used in the old TC version, it may not have drivers for everything. Try the latest version."
Could that really be the reason? Well, this sounds possible indeed. I'll try..

[patrikg]

I don't know if this will help, but this is how i made it work.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,20135.msg125292.html

[Fakir]

It works:

Actually, the hint with using an actual version of TC (7.2) was helpful.

I set up the usb stick with a actual version of that tool (pendrivelinux.com).

Thank you!