Tiny Core v4.0 Alpha 1 Testing

[bmarkus]

I'll look at this as soon as I can

cpufrequtils, cpufreqd uploaded to 4.x repo

Thanks, it works

[bmarkus]

Fist impressions are good. It works fine till now. For testing I rebuilt few extensions. Result is OK, excepte that in all cases I get a 10-15% bigger .tcz than on 3.x Played a bit with gcc options with no result. gcc 4.6.1 expected to have better optimization but how to use?

Does optimization depends on gcc itself and how it was built too?

[maro]

Juanito: I'm very much hoping that the re-compiled 'eglibc' will also address the failure of 'Xvesa' when run in a QEMU VM with either '-enable-kqemu' or '-kernel-kqemu' (as reported as (1) in reply#1 above).

I somewhat recalled that I'd seen something similar a while ago, and indeed as this pretty old thread shows the 'glibc' was the culprit then. After a quick test where I remastered TC 4.0a1 with 'glibc' 2.11.1 (from MC 3.8.3) I'm pretty sure it is again the "guilty party". So there is some hope that this regression can be overcome again with a differently built 'glibc'.

[Juanito]

The glibc referred to in the "pretty old thread" was not built with either '-enable-kqemu' or '-kernel-kqemu'.

Let's first see if the recompiled eglibc works on i486/i586 (I have neither to test with) and qemu vm (which I don't have either).

[maro]

The glibc referred to in the "pretty old thread" was not built with either '-enable-kqemu' or '-kernel-kqemu'.

I guess you misunderstood (probably as a consequence of my convoluted description): It does not matter on which system the glibc was built, but take a TC ISO image and boot it with:
    qemu -m 64 -cdrom tc.iso -kernel-kqemu
If there is a "bad" glibc in the initrd: 'Xvesa' fails.

Let's first see if the recompiled eglibc works on i486/i586 (I have neither to test with) and qemu vm (which I don't have either).

Don't you worry. It is always my very first test with any freshly downloaded TC version, and I'm not too shy to speak up.

[bmarkus]

Is there any benefit using extension on TC 4 built on TC4 compared to TC3 build? Does it worth to recompile extensions?

[curaga]

The newer build will be able to use functions not available in the older glibc and kernel. Since not much software does this, no need for mass rebuilds, normal version upgrades will do.

[u54749]

Tried to build my heavily customized "minidistro" with the new alpha....

Here are my comments and experiences (yes I know it's the very first alpha)

-  biggest problems for the buildscripts were the changed drive names (hdax --> sdax) and the new /run root-level directory that I forgot to include in the remaster.

-  boot time is improved (8 seconds from start to logon screen is not too bad for a 9-year old desktop).  Also shutdown/reboot time is improved.

-  the Xorg-7.5-3d.tcz extension is missing, so I dropped 3d acceleration for now.

-  OSS sound does not work as the download in Appbrowser fails with an "MD5SUM Error: Error on OSS-modules-3.0.3-tinycore.tcz".  I prefer OSS as in my experience it consumes less memory, initalizes faster and is more reliable than ALSA.

-  Then tried to build OSS myself, like I did without problems in TCv3, but failed.  Reason as far I could determine: incomplete kernel headers, missing stuff that is present in the Tinycore version 3 header files (like some makefiles).

-  Then tried ALSA.  If you click the "Depends" tab in Appbrowser it still lists obsolete dependencies, like alsa-modules-2.6.33.3-tinycore.tcz.   But if you try to download ALSA it downloads the correct modules.  It seems to download even more than what is mentioned in the dependency list (like the v4l-dvb-3.0.3-tinycore.tcz extension)

-  ALSA didn't work first time.  It seems I have the same problem as what was mentioned in this post:  http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,11224.msg58729.html.   The mentioned depmod.tcz extension is missing in the v4 repository, but after copying it from TCv3 and installing it I got the sound working.

-  when I boot the original Tinycore ISO I experience a slight but annoying issue with the left mouse button: it only reacts if you hold it down a couple of tenths of seconds.  A short click does nothing so the system tends to miss clicks.

Apart from the aforementioned issues, the new alpha runs absolutely perfect: internet browsing, flash, fullscreen movies, sound etc. etc.   For a first cut it is fantastic!


Keep up the good work!

[curaga]

I haven't yet had time to check out OSS. While I plan to do Xorg 7.6 for tc4, 7.5 3d is working fine, I'll copy it over.

edit: Checking the .tree file situation.

[roberts]

.tree files cannot be copied over from 3.x and should be regenerated, especially true for extensions needing modules.

[curaga]

Generating trees for 4.x some ~150 were freshly created and a similar amount were updated. I didn't force a full rebuild.

[meo]

Hi guys!
Can't get the sound to work neither with alsa or OSS. Have tried the tricks mentioned above but with no success. Thankful for any hints that could lead me in the right direction. Apart from the sound all seems to work pretty well. Good job!!!
Have fun improving TC further,
meo

[nickjf20]

Very nice -- glad you included support in the kernel for multicast.

Miniupnpc tested and working.

[bmarkus]

In 'Wbar Conf' there are no value displayed for 'Wbar Icon Size' and 'Wbar Zoom' sliders and no 'Set default'. If you change icon size result is loss of WBAR. The only way to restore (what I found) delete ~/.wbar, exit to prompt and restart X. Not very convenient.

[Juanito]

With this wired hardware:

Code: [Select]

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
..the tc-3.x tg3 driver will not work, but with tc-4.x it does 

Edit: adding this from tc-4.x (dual) booted on a unibody mac mini