Import Debian Wheezy Armhf Packages

[roberts]

A thank-you to hlavery. He has been helping test and even pushing the import scripts to their limits.
Even importing xorg. He got X started too and shared this with me.
Since then, I now have the basic Tiny Core X environment well underway, Xprogs, and flwm, on Allwinner devices.
This proves the concept and shows the power of import. Much tweaking still to do. Thought I would share this news.

[roberts]

Import has been updated to v0.3. Now supports Debian postinst scripts. This again widens the packages that are supported for import. Currently the focus is on the Allwinner, although the potential can be much wider. This is an experimental approach and at present very timely. Much still to do.

Find it on the Allwinner page:  http://code.google.com/p/tinycore-a10/downloads/list

[hlavery]

Works perfectly and boots quickly to desktop on my Hackberry.  Pretty amazing, in all.  I'll be testing more imports, and will let you all know what happens.  Thanks!

[hlavery]

Here is what I did to get a working TinyCore desktop on Allwinner (Hackberry):

How to assemble TinyCore for Allwinner A10 from current "parts":

(1) Download all the *.bz2 files and the *.img.gz file from the code.google.com repository site.

(2) unzip the image file (gunzip *.img.gz) and dd the image file to card (dev/foo)

(3) Create a second partition, ext3 or your preference, on the rest of the card with gparted, etc.

(4) in the ext3 partition, mkdir /tce and within it mkdir /tce/optional and /tce/ondemand

(5) unzip the other repository files (tar xjvf *.bz2) into the /tce/optional directory

(6) in /tce, touch onboot.lst

****IF and only if you are NOT using a Mele, you will need to fix a few things now.
    For a Miniand Hackberry:
     (a) dd sunxi-spl.bin and u-boot.bin for your device to the "boot" section of the card AND
     (b) copy your script.bin to the first (FAT) partition to replace the one that is there.
EDIT:    "The two "boot sector" files came from jas-hacks' work at:
              https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/development--3/topics/uboot
              with links to the sources at
              https://github.com/linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi." /EDIT

Continuing:

(7) Put your sd card in the device and BOOT!! (into the bterm interface)

( 8 ) Load import.tcz (tce-load -i import)

(9) Have import get the Debian wheezy list:  (import setup)

(10) Import xorg (import xorg); standby to answer q to one download, wander off for awhile.

(11) There will now be a directory xorg/ ; cd into it and mv * /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/

(12) Similarly, import hsetroot and xterm and move the resulting files to optional.

(13) Might be a good time to create mydata.tgz;  (filetool.sh -b)

(14) Edit /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst to load on boot:
   import.tcz
   hsetroot.tcz
   xorg.tcz (note lowercase x)
   xterm.tcz
   Xprogs.tcz (note uppercase X)
   fltk-1.1.10.tcz
   flwm_topside.tcz

(15) reboot, use (right click)->SystemTools->RunProgram to launch xterm,

(16) In /home/tc, uncomment xterm in .xsession; backup (filetool.sh -b)

(17) reboot...desktop plus xterm will appear.

[roberts]

I am posting this via the Surf browser. Imported and running on my Mele Allwinner Arm Computer!

[roberts]

With the latest discussion of dwb gui web browser imported and running great on the Allwinner Arm platform, just for kicks...
Using my latest import suite of scripts, I imported dwb on Raspberry Pi. I am posting this via dwb on Raspberry PI. 
Only one small adjustment which can easily be added to startup script, and later will be automatic via importscripts on server.
That being compiling desktop schemas. It is not as fast as Allwinner, which is to be expected but useable.

[roberts]

I just uploaded import v0.4 suite of utilites.
New utilities are mkcpio, loadgz, and updstartscript

Use mkcpio to turn a package import directory into a single cpio gz.
You may then place the .gz in the root of your tce directory for much improved load times.
A good use of this new option is xorg. Using xorg.gz allows boot to X desktop in approx 15-20 seconds. I also use it for dbus. Note these load to ram so careful what you choose. Always have swap.

loadgz is similiar to load-tce. Make a gzs directory under your tce directory. Then load additional cpio gzs with loadgz. Startup scripts are honored.

Finally updtstartscript, will allow quick and easy access to create or update a tcz's startupscript. It unpacks, calls vi to edit the extension's startup script, and then repacks the extension.

[sbp]

Using my latest import suite of scripts, I imported dwb on Raspberry Pi. I am posting this via dwb on Raspberry PI. 

Hi Roberts

I now have a working version of tinycore on the raspberry (4.7.2), and would like to try to import some of the Debian packages, however, I cant find the import.tcz in the Raspberry part of Army Core.
So do I simply take it from the Allwinner repro and use it in raspberry or?

 

[roberts]

Import from Allwinner supports Raspberry Pi.

Note however that my focus is first towards Allwinner as I do little import testing on Pi.
I now use my Pi as a local server and only boot a desktop to test new Core images as I build them.

I am currently revisiting Core's base to make it more resilient with regards to the use of imported packages.

While I, as well as several others, have a complete desktop, with GUI browser, all via import. Import is still at a very early stage of development with many changes forthcoming.

After I finish hardening Core I will revisit import for better support of more packages and a smoother operation.

The goal remains the same. Import is to be an additional option across all platforms, just as community built tczs and community built scms. Import's goal is to offer a wide range of available packages while maintaining Core unique feature of pristine boot and ultra fine grain control of applications to be loaded. 

Initial milestones will continue to target Allwinner. Others to follow.

[sbp]

Thank you for the answer.
But how do i use it in raspberry, i mean i cant install the import.tcz on my raspberry, as it is not available for the raspberry?

[roberts]

http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv6/tcz/import.tcz
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv6/tcz/import.tcz.dep
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv6/tcz/import.tcz.md5.txt

You will need to get findutils.tcz and squashfs-tools-4x.tcz from repo.picorelinux.org

To use, create an import directory, e.g., in the root of your tce directory and cd into it
sudo import nano

It will create a directory named nano and will place all dynamically created tczs into the nano directory.

Upon successful completion, cd nano, tce-load -i nano.tcz

YMWV as import is early stage of development and is not actively being tested on raspberry pi

[bmarkus]

I will move it to the picorelinux.org repo next year. Now heading to the bar

Happy New Year to all!

[bmarkus]

import.tcz added to the armv6 (piCore) master repo, repo.picorelinux.org

[sbp]

Tanks, i Will give it a try.
Happy new year

[sbp]

Hi I see that the version in raspberry is version 0.2, whereas Roberts anounced version 0.4.
Is that something to wait for in raspberry?