4.4/current extlinux sigill

[avalon]

Hello,

trying to install an old pentium 100MHz machine as an LPT print server after failing to find a usb to parallel cable that actually works. Started with mini core and successfully installed some apps manually. The tc-install, app browser, ssh, etc. so I'm positive it's gonna work. Before continuing with hplip and cups setup though I'd like to ins tall on HDD. The boot from CD is very unreliable and using HDD is much faster.

The problem is that extlinux -i dies with SIGILL. Anybody seen that or knows the reason? Any way to install grub2 and use it instead of this?

btw another bug I see is with the app browser-cli. the search option does not work. Also I couldn't install strace with it. Manually downloading with wget and then tce-load -i worked without any flaws.

Thanks for your help. After failing to fit debian on the machine, TC looks very slick and there is some hope. It's just that I can't do the frugal installation.

P.S. This is the most captcha protected forum I've ever seen. I could hardly register

[gerald_clark]

http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:start#bootloaders

Luckily, it seems to be even harder for the spammers.
We no longer spend half our forum time deleting spam.

[curaga]

Search bug in appbrowser-cli fixed. Could not reproduce the strace issue.

On the illegal instruction, looks like extlinux was compiled for a higher cpu. But any other bootloader can be used.


edit: see the manual install instructions here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/install_manual.html

to avoid using the install script, which only supports extlinux/syslinux.

[avalon]

Thank you, I'll try this method if I manage to have python running because hplip requires it. And I do the whole thing for a print server. I've opened a thread in tce bugs. btw why not compile extlinux for i486?

Thanks again.

[curaga]

It should be for 486, please open a thread in tce bugs.

[Juanito]

syslinux (extlinux) was compiled for i486 - quite some time was spent editing the code specifically for tinycore cflags, but I suppose something might have been missed - without an i486 to test on it's difficult to tell.

[avalon]

syslinux (extlinux) was compiled for i486 - quite some time was spent editing the code specifically for tinycore cflags, but I suppose something might have been missed - without an i486 to test on it's difficult to tell.

I'm running on a pentium. If I can run something and send you result I can do that. It would be hard to give you access to the machine because it's too noisy to run all the time (at least for now before I find out how to spin down primary hard disk permanently after boot).

[Rich]

Hi avalon
You can use the  hdparm  utility to set the spin down time to some short interval. As long as nothing tries to access
it (like the mount applet for example) it will stay spun down.

[avalon]

thanks, hdparm does really spin it down. I am wondering though what version of TC is considered stable. I donwloaded the "current" 4.x and I see a lot of things that don't work as expected (extlinux, python, hplip, cups, appbrowser-cli). Or maybe it's because if the machine I don't know.

just tested and cups also dies with SIGILL, illegal instruction 
/usr/local/sbin/cupsd -f
Illegal instruction

I am wondering what are others using sol old machines for and they work for it because I struggle to find anything that works. What I found working is:
1. kernel
2. text console
3. ne and parport_pc modules module
4. init.d/dhcp.sh (udhcp)
4. the ab (cli application browser app)
5. python 2.6
6. sshd

I'm trying to find a way to make the the printer on the parport0 available to other machines. Any suggestions welcome.

[Juanito]

Maybe you could try a rebuilt syslinux extension from here to see if extlinux works:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/4.x/x86/tcz/src/syslinux/

[Rich]

Hi avalon

I am wondering what are others using sol old machines for and they work ....

I started a new thread for this so as not to take this one off topic:
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,13110.msg72299.html#new

[avalon]

Maybe you could try a rebuilt syslinux extension from here to see if extlinux works:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/4.x/x86/tcz/src/syslinux/

Thank you very much Juanito! This build works. What did you change? Any chances the other packages can be fixed the same way? Especially cups/libcups because it fails the same for me 

btw I had to use the mbr_f.bin instead of the default, otherwise I couldn't boot. Perhaps worth making an option in the tc-install

[Juanito]

What did you change?

It was a case of somewhat labouriously looking at the output of "make" and adding the tinycore cflags to the appropriate Makefile each time gcc was executed without cflags...

Any chances the other packages can be fixed the same way? Especially cups/libcups because it fails the same for me

I suspect that will not be nearly so easy...

Updated syslinux extension posted

[coreplayer2]

Interesting...      Don't believe this will help syslinux boot one of my systems but will give it a shot.

[Juanito]

Any chances the other packages can be fixed the same way? Especially cups/libcups because it fails the same for me

Maybe you could try the rebuilt cups/libcups extensions at: http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/4.x/x86/tcz/src/cups