Tiny Core 9.0 Alpha 1 Testing

[Juanito]

Team Tiny Core is pleased to announce that Tiny Core 9.0 Alpha1 is available for public testing:

http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/9.x/x86/release_candidates/
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/9.x/x86_64/release_candidates/

This is an alpha level cut. If you decide to help test, then please test carefully. We don't want anyone to lose data.

Since this is an alpha cut, we ask that only experienced users test. This cut is not for general use. The features in any alpha are not fixed and may change before a public release candidate is available.

Most extensions have been copied over from the 8.x repo

We appreciate testing and feedback.

If you use distribution files note that you need a new vmlinuz and core.gz (or rootfs.gz + modules.gz)

Changelog for 9.0 alpha1:
* kernel updated to 4.14.10
* glibc updated to 2.26
* gcc updated to 7.2.0
* e2fsprogs base libs/apps updated to 1.43.7
* util-linux base libs/apps updated to 2.31

***
The Meltdown vulnerability affecting Intel processors affects this version. As long as you only run code you trust, there is no issue to test.
***

[gerald_clark]

Please add firmware-openfwwf.tcz

[Juanito]

The firmware extensions are being worked on - hopefully coming soon

[andyj]

Open-vm-tools will not compile, complaining about missing xdr* functions. These are supposed to be in libc, or at least they are on my Slackware system where I can dump symbols. Did they move / get broken out into a different library? Also, where can I get a copy of the kernel config file?

[Rich]

Hi andyj
glibc_base-dev.tcz  contains  xdr.h,  maybe that's what you are looking for?

[andyj]

Thanks, but no. I'm using the same build script that works fine for 8.x. It could be an issue with the Linux API headers, as I usually build against a compiled kernel tree. I need to have that for xtables_addons eventually anyway.

[Rich]

Hi andyj
I'm using the same build script that works fine for 8.x.
There is no mention of  xdr  in the TC8 headers:
http://tinycorelinux.net/8.x/x86/tcz/linux-4.8.1_api_headers.tcz.list

I need to have that for xtables_addons eventually anyway.

That sounds like  xtables-addons-4.8.17-tinycore.tcz  which does not appear in the TC9 repository.

[andyj]

Xtables_addons isn't in the TC9 repository because I haven't built it yet, because I don't have the kernel config file yet.

[Rich]

Hi andyj

I don't have the kernel config file yet.

Maybe here:
http://tinycorelinux.net/9.x/x86/release/src/kernel/

[andyj]

For some reason I didn't think to look in the released tree.    Since the 4.14 kernel is LTS, does this mean that we'll have an LTS version of TC too?

[Rich]

Hi andyj

Since the 4.14 kernel is LTS, does this mean that we'll have an LTS version of TC too?

That's a question for one of the administrators.

[curaga]

No LTS, 9.x will be a normal version.

[Juanito]

intel has released a microcode update for the spectre vunerability dated 2018/01/10 - this should eventually find its way into a bios update for reasonably current hardware.

In the meantime, after downloading from, for example, arch linux, the microcode update can be loaded like this:

Code: [Select]

$ cat grub.cfg
...
initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/rootfs64.gz /boot/modules64.gz
...note that intel-ucode.img must be the first in the list.

If successful, you should see something like this:

Code: [Select]

$ dmesg | grep -i micro
microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x21, date = 2017-11-20
microcode: sig=0x40651, pf=0x40, revision=0x21
microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

[curaga]

The microcode update is for Spectre, not Meltdown. Meltdown cannot be fixed like that.

[Juanito]

oops - corrected above