POS embedded on Tiny Core

[jdamianb]

Hello!

I finally make an ISO with everything I need

Now I want some suggestions to speed up the ISO load. Let me tell you that I'm using Tiny Core to embed a POS system which use Java and Postgres. The DB loaded on postgres is quite small so it doesn't need too much space. Now my ISO weight is 623.3 MB which is OK since my goal is to keep it lower than 1GB.

What I did to get that ISO is to download the needed extensions and create my owns for Java, postgres scripts and my POS, which btw is XENDRA. So that's it, everything is loaded by extensions, the OPT and HOME files are on the HHDD. I also embedded a PGDATA (file containing the DATA BASE) on the core.gz on the opt file to get a preloaded Data Base within the ISO. Is this a good practice? also, is it good to have everything on extensions? or should I merge everything on the core to speed up the system boot up?

Any help would be glad!   

[genec]

If you're loading all TCZs at boot, that will slow things down initially but it'll all be cached in RAM.  If you have the TCZs in the tce/ directory, it'll lessen your initial payload and reduce speed later until cached.

Loading from CD/DVD in BIOS is rather slow.  USB, HDD or HTTP-enabled PXE is more often faster.  A minimal boot loader load with loading additional payload to RAM after booting would likely be faster (there's a script you can do but can't recall the name, designed just for your own customization).

Where are your extensions, HDD, USB, CD/DVD?  Are they loaded into RAM?  If so, from the boot loader or afterwards?

[jdamianb]

If you're loading all TCZs at boot, that will slow things down initially but it'll all be cached in RAM.  If you have the TCZs in the tce/ directory, it'll lessen your initial payload and reduce speed later until cached.

Loading from CD/DVD in BIOS is rather slow.  USB, HDD or HTTP-enabled PXE is more often faster.  A minimal boot loader load with loading additional payload to RAM after booting would likely be faster (there's a script you can do but can't recall the name, designed just for your own customization).

Where are your extensions, HDD, USB, CD/DVD?  Are they loaded into RAM?  If so, from the boot loader or afterwards?

Hi!

Well, My extensions are saved on the HDD: root@box:/mnt/sda1/tce/optional. And my onboot.lst is like this:

Xlibs.tcz
Xprogs.tcz
Xvesa.tcz
fltk-1.1.10.tcz
wbar.tcz
flwm_topside.tcz
tc-install.tcz
nano.tcz
openssh.tcz
Xorg-7.6.tcz
abiword.tcz
xenjava.tcz
eglibc_apps.tcz
eglibc_i18n_locale.tcz
kmaps.tcz
postgresql.tcz
postgresql-locale.tcz
xendra.tcz

I suppose those extensions are loaded during boot since I can see a messake that says "Loading extensions"

So, if I got it right, the load will be slow If load from the CD since everything is mounted on the RAM but it will be faster if installed on a HDD, isn't it? Well, I have my TC installed on a HDD but I feel it a little slow. Any ideas on how to speed it up?  I mean, is it necessary to load extensions on every boot? Is it a good idea to merge all those extensions on the core.gz to improve booting? I think if I do that the problem I may have is for maintenance.

[Rich]

Hi jdamianb

... the OPT and HOME files are on the HHDD.

Did you remember to remove  opt  and  home  from your  /opt/filetool.lst  file?
Are you backing up any other files or directories?

[tinypoodle]

Is it a good idea to merge all those extensions on the core.gz to improve booting?

To the contrary

[jdamianb]

Hi jdamianb

... the OPT and HOME files are on the HHDD.

Did you remember to remove  opt  and  home  from your  /opt/filetool.lst  file?
Are you backing up any other files or directories?

I'm not backing up anything, I use the option norestore on the boot and the opt and home files are persistent on mi hdd, sda1. So backing up or restoring it is not causing any lag but the extensions load is. So I think now that there is not much to do. In order to get a faster boot up I have to remove some extension from the onboot.lst. I will try to select just the ones I need since meging them onto core.gz is not a good idea.

[genec]

So, if I got it right, the load will be slow If load from the CD since everything is mounted on the RAM but it will be faster if installed on a HDD, isn't it? Well, I have my TC installed on a HDD but I feel it a little slow. Any ideas on how to speed it up?  I mean, is it necessary to load extensions on every boot? Is it a good idea to merge all those extensions on the core.gz to improve booting? I think if I do that the problem I may have is for maintenance.

the load will be slow If load from the CD since everything is copied to the RAM but it will be faster if loaded later.

The fewer onboot extension, the faster the boot.