How to boot CorePlus-4.5.5.iso frugally?

[Benny7440]

After reading many pages (some twice) about TC I still don't understand how I can boot frugally CorePlus. Almost all the references are for TC & it's not clear if all that applies to CorePlus, too.

I've d/l the CorePlus4.5.5 iso file to my VAIO's hdd (a non-mounted partition) but after some trials using a cfcard with usb adapter & grub as I do frugally for some puppies in their respective folders it has failed to boot.

For clarifying an issue: I'm using a VAIO but, after successful frugal installation plan to install in cfcard, its main use is to boot an HPCompaq nx9010 laptop which has no hdd at the moment.

Have tried PXE booting & netbootme in the HP but without any luck.

Some help is needed to do this. The cfcard is just rated 128MB & it's almost full right now with an installation of PL431, it's small but too big for the card.

PS. Does the FF browser includes the jre plugin? If the answer is no, how can I d/l & install it after booting successfully?

Thanks in advance for your kind help on this!

EDIT: My tc folder looks like this:
1) along with the other OSs folders I renamed the TC one to tc;
2) within tc there're 2 other folders: a) boot & b) tce (empty);
3) boot contains: a) an isolinux folder, core.gz & vmlinuz;
4) boot/isolinux contains: 9 files --from boot.cat to menu.c32 with no other folder there.

The relevant part of my grub menu.lst file has:

"# 6) Tiny Core bootable partition config begins
  title Core4 dir tc
  rootnoverify (hd0,1)
  kernel /core4/vmlinuz quiet showapps nozswap pause tce=/core4/tce printk.time=1 lst=core4.lst
  initrd /core4/core.gz
# Tiny Core bootable partition config ends".

[curaga]

It sounds like your bootloader points to the wrong directory. You say you have the kernel at /tc/boot/vmlinuz but your conf points to /core4/vmlinuz.

CorePlus is simply TC + a set of extensions already there, so everything should apply to it.

[Benny7440]

Thanks for replying curaga!

Today I studied the menu.lst file calmly & noticed those inconsistencies as you mention. I just copied/paste those from another forum. After reading today a new post in that forum by the same person I still noticed a 'core4' reference which I left there because I don't know its intention for the moment. The edited menu.lst file now looks like this (see text in red):

"# 6) CorePlus partition config begins
  title tinycorelinux dir tc
  root (sdb1,1)
  kernel /tc/vmlinuz quiet showapps nozswap pause
  waitusb=10:UUID tce=/tc/tce printk.time=1 lst=core4.lst
  initrd /tc/core.gz
# CorePlus bootable partition config ends"

I noticed that after copying core.gz & vmlinuz it's only about 9 MB in total (in the other forum that person stated that all the isolinux folder was unnecessary because I was going to boot from a cfcard in an usb adapter & not from a live cd. So, the boot folder in tc is empty. Do you agree?

[curaga]

So, the boot folder in tc is empty. Do you agree?

Yes, you don't need isolinux files if you use another bootloader. The location of the kernel and initrd doesn't matter.

The edited menu.lst file now looks like this (see text in red):

You should remove any bootcodes you're not sure you need. The lst option changes what list extensions are loaded from, and your tce= option is wrong.

Try with just "kernel /tc/vmlinuz quiet waitusb=10:UUID=myuuid", where myuuid is replaced by the UUID of your CF card (use blkid to find it out).

[floppy]

lst=core4.lst

The core4.lst is in fact a onboot.lst (or other files from the ISO) which was renamed to core4.lst
This is NOT a menu.lst renamed to core4.lst
This is a text file which contain all TinyCoreLinux applications which must be loaded at boot.
Read the wiki (or the other posts in www.linuxquestions.org).

Here is an example of one of my PCs:

====================== core4.lst ========================
fltk-1.10.tcz
Xlibs.tcz
appbrowser-cli.tcz
wbar.tcz
Xprogs.tcz
flwm_topside.tcz
Xorg-7.5.tcz

[tinypoodle]

Here is an example of one of my PCs:

====================== core4.lst ========================
fltk-1.10.tcz
Xlibs.tcz
appbrowser-cli.tcz
wbar.tcz
Xprogs.tcz
flwm_topside.tcz
Xorg-7.5.tcz

Note that adding dependencies of other extensions is redundant.

[Benny7440]

Thanks to all that have contributed to my flaky understanding of this issue!

I've been trying to boot both laptops with TC, the VAIO via the grub I'm already using with a folder in sda2 with the necessary folders/files included there, from the cfcard too & the HP with the card in usb adapter (always the card was used with the adpater for usb). Never have seen a window with anything on it that tells me that TC is trying to do something.

So, I'm going to concentrate in trying to boot the HP with TC in the cfcard only. All editing have to be made in the VAIO, though.

The HP gave me an error message as follows:
 "Try (hdo,0): EXT2: No grldr
  Try (hdo,1): Invalid or null
  Try (hdo,2): Invalid or null
  Try (hdo,3): Invalid or null
BIOS: Drive=0x0, H=2, S=18
There's some more info but I deem it not congruent with this issue"

Have tried some different configurations of menu.lst when tried to boot the VAIO (frugally) but always the default OS booted up, but this last piece isn't important anymore.

Does anybody here is booting TC in a laptop via usb installation? If so, can you post your settings below?

Thanks in advance!

PS. I've been given a variety of configurations for grub's menu.lst but I don't know for sure what boot loader was used for Core Plus (guess was Grub4Dos). Can't I put a "pointer' in my menu.lst file for the boot loader in the sdb1 (cfcard) for making this last one boot TC? If possible it might be even easier than frugally doing so as I do the puppies I already have!

I was reviewing that menu.lst file that I use in the VAIO for frugally booting it up & discovered what I believe is an error: when trying to boot frugally I was referring to the partition of the hdd (sda2) but the UUID of the cfcard was included there anyway. I'm trying now to reboot after inserting there the sda2 corresponding UUID to see if this helps...

I'm posting this now because have to reboot. Tell you after I'm up again with the outcome of it.

Edit: I rebooted about 5 times but my PL528.005 was always the booted OS. I'm going to make a little change in menu.lst & try again.

[Rich]

Hi Benny7440
It's difficult to follow what you are doing, jumping back and forth between two laptops and such. If I understand you
correctly, you have grub running and able to boot you choice of OSs. I'd like you to post two entries from your
menu.lst file, the TC entry which does not boot, and an entry which successfully boots from the same drive. That
should be enough for someone to fix whatever syntax problem is causing TC not to boot.

[Benny7440]

Thank you Rich for replying on this issue!

I'll post below the requested segments:

Current OS in everyday use:
"# 1) Linux bootable partition config begins
  title Puppy Linux 528-005 frugal in sda2 dir puppy528-005
  rootnoverify (hd0,1)
  kernel /puppy528-005/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy528-005
  initrd /puppy528-005/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends"

Current entry for CorePlus:
"# 6) CorePlus partition config begins
  title tinycorelinux frugal in sda2 dir tc
  rootnoverify (hd0,1)
  kernel /tc/vmlinuz quiet showapps nozswap pause
#  waitusb=10:(sda2) e7d0505e-59c4-4958-87db-cfe1c2528822
  tce=/tce printk.time=1 lst=core4.lst
  initrd /tc/core.gz
# CorePlus bootable partition config ends".

Hope this help to clarify things, thanks!

Addendum: In the cfcard I've core.gz, vmlinuz & 3 folders at root: boot (empty), isolinux (9 files here) & tce (empty). The boot folder is empty because I moved its contents to root in the hope it would be more readily available in the booting process (probably a mistake by my part).

[gerald_clark]

All boot options belong on the kernel line.
Remove the commented waitusb line, and the tce line.

[Rich]

Hi Benny7440
Try this:

Code: [Select]

# 6) CorePlus partition config begins
  title tinycorelinux frugal in sda2 dir tc
  rootnoverify (hd0,1)
  kernel /tc/boot/vmlinuz quiet showapps nozswap pause waitusb=10 tce=sda2 printk.time=1
  initrd /tc/boot/core.gz
# CorePlus bootable partition config endsMove vmlinuz and core.gz back into /tc/boot/
This should allow you to boot. When you see the desktop, open AppBrowser and make sure the field labeled
TCE:  reads  /mnt/sda2/tce/optional
You should now be able to install applications.

[Benny7440]

Thank you a lot, Rich; it booted up. My only issue is that I didn't get a desktop but only arrived at the bash console.

How can I get a common desktop, should I include a code at boot time?

PS. All this's in the sda2 partition in the hdd of the VAIO, can I pass some knowledge to the cfcard for booting up the HP?

[Rich]

Hi Benny7440
I'm not sure why the desktop would not come up. I see Juanito is on line, maybe he has some ideas.

[Juanito]

I guess it depends what is in onboot.lst?

[gerald_clark]

tce-load -iw Xvesa Xprogs Xlibs flwm_topside wbar