I need my files to be persistent (VirtualBox)

[Spacebit]

Hello readers,
first of all... I don't know much about Linux itself.
I just used Linux Mint for a while and know some basic commands, thats all.
So comming from a Windows environment I have much trouble with getting even the simplest things to work.
But I am here to learn and I already made some progress with this OS, like downloading and setting up the keymap for my keyboard.
For now I had much fun with this small OS, using just a terminal and without a desktop manager but now I realised that after rebooting TC, all my work is gone. My files, the keymaps, just everything.
I have taken a look at the TC book and found a very short explanation about persistant home (Chapter 1.10.2).
But to be honest, I can't do much with it.
What I tried is: reboot and press F2 and typing "mc tce=sda1" without knowing what that should do. I also typed "backup" for whatever reason.
So I am asking for a simple beginner explanation how to get persistant files (in a virtual machine if this matters).
And maybe some background knowlege why I have to do this process manually where other OS'es have this feature build-in.

Thank you in advance

[curaga]

Your VM needs to have a hard drive set up; it sounds like you booted the CD in live mode. If you do that, boot the CorePlus iso, and install to the hd, the resulting install will have the correct setup for saving things. Remember to remove the iso afterwards, so you boot from the hd.

edit: Oh, and for the background: TC runs in RAM. This is a design decision that gives both speed and cleanliness benefits, but as you noticed, RAM contents get erased when you turn the computer off.

[Spacebit]

Your VM needs to have a hard drive set up; it sounds like you booted the CD in live mode. If you do that, boot the CorePlus iso, and install to the hd, the resulting install will have the correct setup for saving things. Remember to remove the iso afterwards, so you boot from the hd.

Thanks for the quick response!
So, if I understand it correctly I have to find out where my hard drive is located and then create a persistent directory there, or so.
But here comes the first problem, I don't know where my "virtual" hdd is located since "ls /dev | less" is showing me 9 different sda's (from sda to sda9, and even sdb?)
And the second one, I don't know the commands for doing that.
If you or someone else had the time to write down the process I have to do, step by step, that would be really great

[Spacebit]

push

[Rich]

Hi Spacebit

Your VM needs to have a hard drive set up; ...

... So, if I understand it correctly I have to find out where my hard drive is located and then create a persistent directory there, or so. ...

I think you need to tell Virtualbox to create a virtual drive. I believe I remember reading selecting a SCSI interface is
the right choice for this task.

[Spacebit]

I think you need to tell Virtualbox to create a virtual drive. I believe I remember reading selecting a SCSI interface is
the right choice for this task.

Hello, VirtualBox creates a virtual drive by default, but not with SCSI Interface like you mentioned.
I know changed the Interface to SCSI and still don't know what to do.
One thing I want to mention is, I don't intend to use any GUI (or TC Plus) for now, because It's one of the reasons I choose TC as my target OS for starting with Linux. I know there are many other OS'es there and I could choose something like Arch. But I like the fact that TC is one of the smallest one and doesn't take much configuration. I will stay with it. But I first need to solve this problem.
Thanks 😊

[Juanito]

If you can create a virtual scsi drive, you can boot the CorePlus iso with the vm and use tc-install to install tinycore to the virtual drive

[Spacebit]

I think you need to tell Virtualbox to create a virtual drive. I believe I remember reading selecting a SCSI interface is
the right choice for this task.

I just found out that the SCSI Interface doesn't work with VirtualBox. I have to use IDE instead. But nevertheless this info got me into the right direction.
I now tried to follow the official installation guide but it ended with that I can't install either grub nor cfdisk because there aren't listed in tce-ab.
I also can't run tc-install after installing it.
I don't know what to do now.   
I really would like to continue with TC

[Spacebit]

Ok, I found out how to format and set a partition with fdisk. Now I can create persistent files on my virtual HD. I am just missing a correct installation guide

[curaga]

tc-install is included by default in CorePlus; it seems the old instructions were before the split to tc-install (command line) and tc-install-GUI (GUI). However both tc-install cli and the GUI work for me when installed on current 11.x x86. Grub and cfdisk are indeed missing from 11.x x86.

[Spacebit]

tc-install is included by default in CorePlus; it seems the old instructions were before the split to tc-install (command line) and tc-install-GUI (GUI). However both tc-install cli and the GUI work for me when installed on current 11.x x86. Grub and cfdisk are indeed missing from 11.x x86.

Ok thank you.
I got tc-install to work, but just one last thing with fdisk.
I mounted my virtual hd (sda) and set a partition on sda2 with the whole disk space. But now I want to remove the 2nd partition (sda2) with fdisk (via fdisk /dev/sda2) but it shows me that no partition is defined.
I have to do this to install tc.

[polikuo]

tc-install is included by default in CorePlus; it seems the old instructions were before the split to tc-install (command line) and tc-install-GUI (GUI). However both tc-install cli and the GUI work for me when installed on current 11.x x86. Grub and cfdisk are indeed missing from 11.x x86.

Ok thank you.
I got tc-install to work, but just one last thing with fdisk.
I mounted my virtual hd (sda) and set a partition on sda2 with the whole disk space. But now I want to remove the 2nd partition (sda2) with fdisk (via fdisk /dev/sda2) but it shows me that no partition is defined.
I have to do this to install tc.

If I understand you correctly
1. you create a partition with the size of the whole disk manually
2. you purposely set that partition number to 2
3. tc-install or tc-install-GUI doesn't work for you
4. you pick IDE mode in virtualbox because SCSI doesn't work for you

It would be great if you could provide the link to the tutorial you're using

[Spacebit]

If I understand you correctly
1. you create a partition with the size of the whole disk manually
2. you purposely set that partition number to 2
3. tc-install or tc-install-GUI doesn't work for you
4. you pick IDE mode in virtualbox because SCSI doesn't work for you

It would be great if you could provide the link to the tutorial you're using

1) yes
2) yes
3) It works, but I had trouble to select any partition,  but it works now after I created a new virtual HD
4)Also right

So I finally got everything to work.
TC is installed and persistent. Boot Codes are also set with the right kmap.
 I am so proud 

[jazzbiker]

Hi, Spacebit!

Congratulations! Now You as the topic starter can ask Rich, our administrator, to mark the topic as solved :-)

Have a nice Core!