Tiny Core Linux
General TC => Tiny Core Netbooks => Topic started by: emninger on October 25, 2015, 03:25:34 AM
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I installed on a Dell Mini 1011 (v) (1 gig ram, 16 gig internal sata flashdisk) TinyCore. So far installation went well, but i encounter several problems. Sorry,if i'm asking "stupid" questions, but i'm totally new.
1) All of a sudden the ethernet connection does not work anymore, although the physical and logical connection is set up correctly (tested on the same machine booting with other distros). I looked into mydata.tgz/opt/ and i see there are 2 eth0.sh scripts. Is that correct? Or how could i correct the net settings otherwise?
Unfortunately wlan is not working out of the box, although there is many firmware in the coreplus iso, the b43 is not working out of the box. An output of dmesg | grep b43 tells me to go to linuxwireless.org and to follow exactly their instructions which are Toggle line numbers
Toggle line numbers
1 export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
2 wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
3 tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
4 sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
1 export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
2 wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
3 tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
4 sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
But will that work? Moreover since in tiny actually i do not have web access, could i download the firmware on another computer and copy "by hand" somewhere to the tiny setup?
2) There are some secondary issues:
How and where can i set the screen resolution to a better matching value? There are ony 3 offers out of them 800 x 576 would be the best, but 1024x576 would be what i need!
There is no password to login/start ...
But i'd like to have the machine/os password protected (and better not with a pswd protection set in the bios).
Thanks in advance for your patience!
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But will that work?
Yes it will, but as an alternative you can use the wl-modules-3.16.6-tinycore extension - be sure to read the info file.
How and where can i set the screen resolution to a better matching value?
exit to the prompt and type "xsetup.sh" <enter> (without the quotes)
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But will that work?
Yes it will, but as an alternative you can use the wl-modules-3.16.6-tinycore extension - be sure to read the info file.
How and where can i set the screen resolution to a better matching value?
exit to the prompt and type "xsetup.sh" <enter> (without the quotes)
I'll look into the wl-modules extension.
I already had looked into the xsetup.sh - and that's the problem: There are only offered 640x480x16, 640x480x24, 800x576x24. How can i add the option 1024x576x24 (or x16) which would be the best and the default for this netbook?
TIA!
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You could try Xorg-7.7 or Xfbdev instead of Xvesa
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I installed on a Dell Mini 1011
TC runs very well on my HP Mini, wired and wireless, proper resolution using Xvesa.
Sorry,if i'm asking "stupid" questions, but i'm totally new.
Recommend reading the Core book (linked on home page) and review wiki. Core book link seems to be down ATM due to server issue, the wiki links still seem to work.
All of a sudden the ethernet connection does not work anymore...
This doesn't make sense to me. Wired connection should work 99% of the time, especially with common hardware. Try a full cold boot of system and preferably router, retest. Have you ruled out router issues and hardware failure? Does wired connection work with another Linux liveCD/USB? Also open TC Control Panel and select Services, is dhcp active? If you can get wired working properly, it will make it much easier to set up wireless.
Unfortunately wlan is not working out of the box, although there is many firmware in the coreplus iso, the b43 is not working out of the box.
My HP Mini wireless connection is through eth1, not wlan0. I also had to blacklist a couple items at boot. If you haven't already, use wifi.tcz to connect to a non-hidden wireless network for testing purposes. Not sure if this will help, but this was my struggle with wifi, everything now works very well: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,17950.msg108506.html#msg108506
4 sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
Not sure if it's in coreplus, there's a b43-fwcutter.tcz extension in the repository.
could i download the firmware on another computer and copy "by hand" somewhere to the tiny setup?
Yes, just download the .tcz extensions you need and copy into /optional. You'll need to doublecheck to ensure you've also installed the necessary dependencies. Manually installing in this way can be tricky and time consuming. Probably easier to get your wired connection working first.
How and where can i set the screen resolution to a better matching value?
If Xvesa does not provide the desired resolution, in my experience Xorg is best. My HP Mini runs okay with Xvesa and may even give the same resolution you desire. Can't remember though if it gave me the proper resolution as an option or if i modified /home/tc/.xsession or used xvesa bootcode. If i boot this system within the next day or so i will post back with more info.
But i'd like to have the machine/os password protected...
Chapter 10 Core book:
- bootcode 'secure' to set password at boot
- bootcode 'protect' to encrypt backup file
- can also try xvesa bootcode to set resolution directly
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Yes it will, but as an alternative you can use the wl-modules-3.16.6-tinycore extension - be sure to read the info file.
No. Definitely it did not. I followed exactly the instrcutions, but wireless is still not working. Is there any toolor "how to" for tinycore how to manage network interfaces and setup?
TIA
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@nitram
First of all thanks for the very extensive reply. I'll check all your suggestions later on.
For the moment i'll stick with two points:
- The hardwired eth0 connection is up. I can run firefox, ping several urls so, eth0 is definitely up. BUT: When i try Apps > Browse cloud or i try to get the fastest mirror i'm prompted with a network error. I do not understand why?
- Xorg-7.7 or Xbfdev are packages or settings to put into the bootloader?
TIA.
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- The hardwired eth0 connection is up. I can run firefox, ping several urls so, eth0 is definitely up. BUT: When i try Apps > Browse cloud or i try to get the fastest mirror i'm prompted with a network error. I do not understand why?
I think there is an on-going hardware issue with the main repo server.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,19021.msg116921.html#msg116921 (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,19021.msg116921.html#msg116921)
As a temporary work around, maybe try setting your mirror to the ibiblio one:
echo http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/ >/opt/tcemirror
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Lee's suggestion should get you up and running with wired connection through Apps.
My HP Mini running Xvesa. Backup ~/.xsession and try the following, it's really just the resolution you're after:
/usr/local/bin/Xvesa -br -screen 1024x576x24 -shadow -mouse /dev/psaux -nolisten tcp -I >/dev/null 2>&1 &
export XPID=$!
waitforX || ! echo failed in waitforX || exit
"$DESKTOP" 2>/tmp/wm_errors &
export WM_PID=$!
[ -x $HOME/.setbackground ] && $HOME/.setbackground
[ -x $HOME/.mouse_config ] && $HOME/.mouse_config &
[ $(which "$ICONS".sh) ] && ${ICONS}.sh &
[ -d "$HOME/.X.d" ] && find "$HOME/.X.d" -type f -print | while read F; do . "$F"; done
Note: touchpad function is poor with Xvesa. Basic functionality only, to my knowledge not tweakable. The touchpad on my Mini seems overly sensitive and there is no touchpad scroll. So you either get used to it or upgrade to Xorg, where things are more tweakable with a performance penalty.
Xorg is a .tcz extension. You should have either Xvesa or Xorg on your onboot.lst, not both. Running Xorg will require loading additional graphic drivers (see xf86-video-* extensions). If you go with Xorg you may/not require an xorg.conf file and will probably want to set up a config file for the touchpad (think in xorg.conf.d).
Regarding wireless, we may have similar components. Here's my wired and wireless hardware:
01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8132 Fast Ethernet (rev c0)
The additional bootcodes i need to get wireless running (showbootcodes):
blacklist=b43 blacklist=ssb
My onboot.lst for graphics, wireless and sound. I no longer use wifi.tcz anymore and connect directly through wpa_supplicant.
Xprogs.tcz
aterm.tcz
wifi.tcz
wl-modules-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz
jwm.tcz
alsa-config.tcz
Xvesa.tcz
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@Lee: Thanks a lot. To know it earlier i'd have saved a lot of time ;)
@nitram:
Your settings for .xsession do not work for me. Now, when i call Xvesa in a terminal i'm getting this error:
_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: ...SocketCreateListener() failed
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: server already running
Btw, i do not really know what Xvesa is? A slimmed X-server?
As for my hardware, this is what inxi says, and it seems pretty similar to yours:
Network: Card-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: b43-pci-bridge
IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Card-2: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller driver: r8169
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac:
Where (and why??) do you blacklist ssb and b43?
And two further questions: i do not really understand how to get to edit the bootloader. I tried tab and e (what i know from lilo and grub) but that does not work. F2 brings me to the bios of the netbook?
Furthermore, likely very stupid, but: i tried to set the keyboard to a german one following what is explained in the FAQ. But there, seems they point to load a finnish keyboard. Looking to the keyboard layouts i\m not sure which one is a german, and, if i'm guessing correctly which of the both is to be used.
In any case thanks a lot for your patience.
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Believe Xvesa is an older graphic standard than Xorg. Lighter to load, tends to be more suited for older hardware. Your netbook should run Xorg just fine, however, if you choose. There are lots of old Xvesa hits on this forum:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=xvesa+site:forum.tinycorelinux.net&sa=X&ved=0CC4QrQIoBDABahUKEwiq7MSggd_IAhXPlogKHbX1Bug&biw=1024&bih=444
You can try a similar site search as linked above but with your specific Dell Mini, it is likely someone has already got a similar system running with TC.
The graphic server needs to be exited before restarting. Modify the .xsession file and reboot, provided you have persistent home backup. Otherwise can also try running 'exittc', select 'exit to prompt', maybe 'killall Xvesa' (confirm via top) then 'startx'.
Blacklist is done through the bootloader, i use Grub2, what's your bootloader?
Why, because someone much smarter than me already figured this out :)
Sorry can't help with keyboard layout/language.
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Hi emninger
You can't restart X from a terminal. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace will kill the current instance of X and leave you at the
console. Then enter startx.
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No. Definitely it did not. I followed exactly the instrcutions, but wireless is still not working. Is there any toolor "how to" for tinycore how to manage network interfaces and setup?
The statement above is not really supported by the statement below ;)
Where (and why??) do you blacklist ssb and b43?
If you don't blacklist the kernel modules mentioned in the info file, re-boot and then try wl-modules-KERNEL, things will not work.
Note that once you've done things as per the info file, you can use the wifi extension to manage wireless connections.
Note also that the broadcom firmware is contained in the driver supplied by the wl-modules-KERNEL extension (so you don't need additional firmware) and your wireless connection will most likely be named "eth1".
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i do not really understand how to get to edit the bootloader. I tried tab and e (what i know from lilo and grub) but that does not work. F2 brings me to the bios of the netbook?
When you boot, the name of the bootloader - grub, lilo, syslinux, etc - should be displayed at the top of the screen.
The name and location of the bootloader configuration file will depend on which bootloader you have, for example:
/mnt/sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg
..and can be edited using, for example:
sudo vi /mnt/sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg
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When you boot, the name of the bootloader - grub, lilo, syslinux, etc - should be displayed at the top of the screen.
The name and location of the bootloader configuration file will depend on which bootloader you have, for example:
/mnt/sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg
..and can be edited using, for example:
sudo vi /mnt/sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg
May be it's too fast for my eyes (i presume it's syslinux, since i installed TC for the moment on an usb-stick) ...
So there is no /etc/grub.conf (or lilo.conf of whatelse) which then has to "bless" the the real bootloader.cfg by, eg., update-grub; and you got to edit directly (?)
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Depending on how old your syslinux is the config file will be called something like:
/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
or
/boot/syslinux/extlinux.conf
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Thanks so far. I made some progress (installed Xorg instead of Xvesa), did as you told for the broadcom and now, screen resolution and wifi are fine.
A practical problem at this point: Following the wiki re the installation of Xorg i created an xorg.con in /etc/X11/ but i do not succeed in making it permanent. In the - graphical - backup/restore tool i'm unable to add a new path. Please could someone help out.
Moreover, i'd like to better the font quality on the screen using fontconfig. Does it work in tcl like in any other linux?
Thanks a lot in advance!
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Select "Include for Backup" tab.
On lower right, select file or dir and click on Add.
Select file from browser.
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Hi emninger
... i created an xorg.con in /etc/X11/ ...
You mean xorg.conf , right?
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Moreover, i'd like to better the font quality on the screen using fontconfig. Does it work in tcl like in any other linux?
You'll probably want to install one of the font extensions - cantarell-fonts, dejavu-fonts-ttf, liberation-fonts-ttf - and play around with the settings in your browser, etc, to see what you get.
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Select "Include for Backup" tab.
On lower right, select file or dir and click on Add.
Select file from browser.
But the <OK> button remains greyed out ???
Actually i have:
opt
home
opt/eth0
which i never sett. They were there by default ... (?)
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Hi emninger
... i created an xorg.con in /etc/X11/ ...
You mean xorg.conf , right?
Sure. Sorry for the typo ...
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But the <OK> button remains greyed out ???
which i never sett. They were there by default ... (?)
TC has some preset defaults yes.
Open TC Control Panel > Backup/Restore > Included for backup > Ensure it says File > click Add >
...use file browser and select /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with mouse (single click on xorg.conf, highlights blue)
...once you select the file the OK button becomes active.
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That worked, backup is done like i want.
But the settings for keyboard and monitor are still not correctly handled. In the end of the boot process i see the msg xset: could not open display "". Where does that come from?
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Good it's now persistent.
First hunch is your xorg.conf file is not being recognized.
Google the exact error message for help or post your xorg.conf file here.
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/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbLayout" "de"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x576"
EndSubSection
EndSection
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Not intimately familiar with your specific xset error message. You're xorg.conf file is, however, incomplete as Card0 and Monitor0 have not been defined. I have no experience configuring keyboards and would probably comment out the entire InputDevice section until the screen resolution is resolved.
Use my TC6 xorg.conf file as a template, obviously change driver and monitor details as needed. Can take some tinkering and several reboots to get it set up satisfactorily. If your system has another distribution installed that uses an xorg.conf file take a look at it to cross reference. Also, not all systems require an xorg.conf file, so if you haven't already reboot without this file to test.
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
BusID "PCI:0:1:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1152x864"
EndSubSection
EndSection
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As the configuration is mostly automated in Xorg-7.7, you only need to use a configuration "snippet" to fix the part that's not working to your liking rather than using a full xorg.conf.
See /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf as an example.
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First of all, thanks to you both.
I think i understand the idea of the "snippets" but i'm far away from being able to see how a snippet for the keyboard should look like ???
As for the screen resolution, i've installed lxrandr and it shows up correctly, DVI monitor, 1024x576, Refresh Rate 60.3 as detected> May be i should delete completely the xorg.conf i built?
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/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "de"
#Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection
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/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Keyboard Defaults"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "de"
#Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection
Looks good, but unfortunately it does not have effect (??)
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Did you exit to the prompt and "startx"
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Did you exit to the prompt and "startx"
Shame on me, my only excusion is, i'm so new to tcl: i forgot to include /usr/local/share/ to the backup. Now it works! :D
BUT: I still have some questions re the boot process:
1) When the "showapps" ends, i still see the error:
xset: unable to open display: ""
2) After there is the msg re starting fluxbox i see:
Setting keymap to us. Done
Both seem to be ininfluent for the further functioning: German keyboard is there and screen resolution 1024x576 as well ... (?)
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You should not be adding the whole /usr/local/share to the backup.
Just add the files you have changed or added.
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But i'd like to have the machine/os password protected...
Chapter 10 Core book:
- bootcode 'secure' to set password at boot
- bootcode 'protect' to encrypt backup file
- can also try xvesa bootcode to set resolution directly
I did it that way, but erroneously a added another user, i'd like to delete now. But the tools i'm aware of (like usermod or userdel) seem to not exist in TCL. What would be the commandline tool to delete a user and those to change the name of a user?
Thanks a lot in advance!!!
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Hi emninger
Maybe deluser ?
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Hi emninger
Maybe deluser ?
Yep. I learn linux is not always like linux :) But what is the command to change a name of a user?
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As a kind of conclusion: With the help of all you here i got TinyCoreLinux successfully running on a Dell (Netbook) Inspiron Mini 10, 1 gig ram, 16 gig internal sata flash disk (originally it came with ubuntu pre-installed). I'm using the fluxbox flavour of tcl. Safe some still missing finetuning due to my very limited knowledge all is fine and i'm happy with.
Thanks to you all for your patience while helping me out!
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A propos, now that's almost done with this mini Dell, would you like to see my starting screen or it's unnecessary fancy for you pro's?
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Blogging is not allowed. We try to keep it question and answer.
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That's pretty much ok :)