Installing the 64MB Current Version - nooooop

[grandma]

(thank you Rich)

Tried regular "CURRENT" TCE - noooop - wouldn't fly - tried the 64MB version - noooop

Here is the blow-by-blow; perhaps you can spot the problem.

ISO has a boot and cde folder - ok

Copied the files vmlinuz and core.gz to a folder at

/tce/current

which is next to a folder

/tce/oldtc (where my 3x version lives and boots happily)

and of course for you old 3x users - you'd recognize the folder

/tce/optional

under that

Left the cde folder there, so overall, we have a USB stick with:

/mnt/sdb1/grldr
/mnt/sdb1/grldr.mbr
/mnt/sdb1/menu.lst
/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
/mnt/sdb1/boot/core.gz
/mnt/sdb1/boot/isolinux  (folder and associated files)
/mnt/tce/current/vmlinuz
/mnt/tce/current/core.gz
/mnt/tce/tinycore.usb (a simple file grub and menu.lst will find)
/mnt/tce/optional (all 3x extensions)
/mnt/cde (folder exactly matching ISO layout - no change to onboot or anything else)

Modified my grub menu.lst with these lines

title TinyCore Current USB
find --set-root /tce/tinycore.usb
kernel /tce/current/vmlinuz loglevel=3 cde waitusb=5
initrd /tce/current/core.gz

WHAT HAPPENS:

a) Boots fine

b) Immediately throws me out to terminal - no menu - no desktop - got a terminal prompt

c) Any tce-load -i I attempt states there are missing lib11x.so.6 (something like that) and no desktop error messages scroll by but extensions seem to load OK - but can't get a JWM or any other desktop

Any ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

UPDATE: managed to get wireless_tools and wireless-3(etc) loaded - used ifconfig and iwconfig to get wlan0 and wlan1 working (all in terminal - never did get a desktop...sigh) and tried a tce-load -wi firefox and wow - ?neato? (   - the 4x Firefox landed right on top of my old 3x Firefox (/mnt/sdb1/tce/optional folder) and oooooooooooops.... had a backup of that folder and put it back as it was...

It didn't do "what I expected", which was to put it in the /mnt/sdb1/cde/optional folder where all the other 4x tcz files were sitting

I had also created a /mnt/sdb1/tce/cde/optional folder - and hoped it might find those - nope

So - big question - how does someone maintain a library of the 3x tcz files that "WORK WELL" (beautifully actually) and slowly "test" this 4x TCE without blowing up the farm?

Your gracious assistance is much appreciated.

Also - did see some FIRMWARE stuff in there related to Atheros - the main reason I wanted to explore this since TCE 3x wont talk to my buddies spanking new Acer Laptop ethernet or on board wifi antennas.

SO...assuming we get him (via Windows) to gobble up 64 MB (a lot of "FLUFF" in there I would trim out - like remastering tools - 101% useless for newbies - and just make the smallest, tightest WiFi/Ethernet/Firmware/Browser/Desktop package possible - my two cents) - then HOW DO WE LOAD a Firmware Atheros "whats-it" driver so we can talk to his gear - or do we just put it in the onboot.lst and pray it doesn't encounter the same "no desktop.sh error, along with various missing libx11.so.6 etc. errors...

Bottom line - thus far - 4x has "potential" but not sure if its ready for prime time...

[Rich]

Hi grandma
The  cde  folder and boot code are for read only media only. There are other changes between 3.x and 4.x.
Either burn a CD and use the tc-install utility or use  http://sourceforge.net/projects/core2usb  if you prefer
a Windows based installer. You might also want to read some of the release notes for the 4.x versions.
 

[grandma]

Hi Rich,
Thank you for the clarification on the folder structure.

Unfortunately, would like to manually "cobble" the vmlinuz and core.gz files - along with create an optional folder - and onboot.lst.

So - will try to find someone who has posted those instructions.

Since the simple act of a tce-load -wi firefox stepped on my 3x (/tce/optional/firefox.tcz) version - am not too fond of automatic installers unless there is a pause at every step with an echo "WHAT I WILL DO NOW" along with folders etc. - and don't have a blank CD/DVD anyway - have a USB flash drive with folder structure above.

So - cobbling (an open source script would be wonderful) these 2 or 3 folders:
VMLINUX and CORE.GZ
ONBOOT.LST and associated configuration files
.TCZ extensions
and a grldr MENU.LST to glue the boot together...

...can't be THAT tough...is it?
====================================
UPDATED - scanned "Release notes" and see people using "boot codes" - apparently to "point" various parts/functions of TCE to various folders and drives.

Neat...there's hope.

With the OLD structure (3x) of /tce/optional (extensions)
and files under /tce - as in

/tce/oldtc (bzImage and tinycore.gz)
and now
/tce/current (for vmlinux and core.gz)

then perhaps a /tce/opt3x (replacing /tce/optional)
and /tce/opt4x (for 4x extensions)

...might make sense........at least for me packing all this on one USB drive

Would THAT work with the new TCE 4x release and if so, what boot codes could be added to the menu.lst lines above to get it to point and find missing libraries, desktops, desktop.sh (?never heard of that before?) etc. - and

...how does the /tce/onboot.lst file - currently loaded for tc 3x get "swapped" easily at boot to a /tce/onboot.lst file that is geared for tc 4x?

gotta feeling that's gonna be the toughest part

This is where (tah-dah!!!!!!!!!) the onload.tcz written by Lee (great Admin) may come in handy after all - since it can be loaded as the only ONBOOT.LST file and the script it calls - /tce/onboot.sh - can then be used to load any other files required, depending if it is a tce 3x or tce 4x boot.

(one way to skin this cat)

Another might be for tce 4x and higher/newer to look for onboot.xxx or some other code in the APPEND section of the boot - and ignore onboot.lst if that onboot.xxx code is found. That would solve this completely and make the boot and menu.lst very flexible.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
==========================
UPDATED:

Found a post by Curage stating "The lst option changes what list extensions are loaded from, "

So...I take that to mean that if I add the parameter

list=onboot4x.lst

to the KERNEL line in menu.lst
as in

title TinyCore Current USB
find --set-root /tce/tinycore.usb
kernel /tce/current/vmlinuz loglevel=3 cde waitusb=5 list=onboot4x.lst
initrd /tce/current/core.gz

then it will use that list
and ignore the other onboot.lst
.......is that correct?

The next problem - getting it to ignore /tce/optional (full of 3x tcz files)
and go get them from a different folder.

.......and looking for that one as well - perhaps once solved I'll get a DESKTOP !!! Whoo hooo!

===============================================
UPDATE:

It appears a method used by some folks for keeping versions separate is to store all in the /boot folder, as in

/mnt/sdb1/boot/tc3.5/tce/optional
/mnt/sdb1/boot/tc3.6/tce/optional
/mnt/sdb1/boot/tc4.6/tce/optional

whereby the bzImage and tinycore.gz - and/or - vmlinuz and core.gz - are in the

/mnt/sdb1/boot/tc4.6 folder

with an onboot.lst in the

/mnt/sdb1/boot/tc4.6/tce folder

and then extensions in the optional folders under that.


HOWEVER this make for a whole lotta duplicate tcz and scm files - so many optional folders.

Makes a little more sense (to me) to have ONE tce folder - as in

/mnt/sdb1/tce

and multiple boot file folders - as in

/mnt/sdb1/tce/tc3.5
/mnt/sdb1/tce/tc3.6
/mnt/sdb1/tce/tc4.6

and then 2 optional folders (in this case - the major versions 3 and 4) - as in

/mnt/sdb1/tce/opt3
/mnt/sdb1/tce/opt4

etc.

The trick therefore would be to get grub to find it - will play with that - and then get a program in the onboot.lst file to load everything else from the correct optX folder, since onboot.lst will be (may be) different between versions - so a single application - onload.tcz in onboot.lst - to jump start the process - then onload.tcz calls onload.sh - and that has the IQ (logic) - to go pick the right optX folders and load the right extensions for whatever version or configuration is booting.

Gonna try this method...

....your thoughts? methods? folder structures?

[Rich]

Hi grandma

and don't have a blank CD/DVD anyway

Bmarkus wrote a utility for installing to a pen drive that runs under Windows. Download it from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/core2usb
and run it, no CD required. Use it on a spare pen drive to see what changed. Both /opt and /etc/sysconfig
come to mind.

then it will use that list
and ignore the other onboot.lst
.......is that correct?

Yes.

[grandma]

Hi Rich ... some confusion - haven't really used "Windows" since August, 2011 as I got TCE stable and rarely fire up beater W2K laptop...

Most of my "loading" now involves:

a) practicing a detect/load/run script in TC

or

b) emulating a W2K/XP/VISTA/W7 box using Wine
so I can write the script
so my pals who can barely log in to email
(let alone use the AppBrowser)
can click a "PICTURE"
(most of them can do that - but not always)
and load a utility or driver - i.e.
skype
flash
firefox
and in this case (pal in Texas)
things like atheros firmware for his wifi antenna and ethernet that old tce 3x can't find

p.s. assuming lspci found this


02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

...how would I utilize the firmware.tcz extension in 4x
so wireless_tools will find his antenna;

? load firmware first ?
? then run wireless_tools ?

... also I created a folder called /mnt/sdb1/tce/opt3
and copied /mnt/sdb1/tce/optional there

... and have a folder /mnt/sdb1/tce/opt4
and rename (moved) it to /mnt/sdb1/tce/optional
WHEN using core (TC 4x)
...pain.

Is there a way to symlink to

ln /mnt/sdb1/tce/opt3 /mnt/sdb1/tce/optional
(3x)
or
ln /mnt/sdb1/tce/opt4 /mnt/sdb1/tce/optional
(4x)

...so I don't have to physically RENAME opt3 or opt4 to optional each time I change versions?

Thank you again.

a how do I load

[grandma]

First, got CorePlus 64mb to fly by trimming it down to basic onboot.lst

Xvesa.tcz
Xlibs.tcz
Xprogs.tcz
fltk-1.10.tcz
jwm.tcz

works

Then wrote a script to go through firmware-abc (various wifi drivers)
and compare it to hardware found in dmesg that had either ETH or WIRELESS
in the line, so entire list of firmware wasn't loaded - just the one that might match
what dmesg showed.

I assume firmware modules will work with either 3x or 4x TC...?

Have not tested script yet. Friends W7 laptop is smoked/fried less
than a month after purchase and in Texas (Windows always rocks,
kinda like gravel on a hard drive platter), so won't get that chance to
test script until he gets it here.

[Rich]

Hi grandma

I assume firmware modules will work with either 3x or 4x TC...?

I believe they are just binary "blobs" that program the state machine in the network card and are not sensitive
to kernel versions.