Tiny Core Base > TCB Tips & Tricks

When to choose 'Mount Mode' or 'Copy Mode'? Some examples, pls

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pioj:
Hi.  I've been playing with Core for some time and now I want to push it to its limits.

I get the basics of the two modes for loading extensions, however I cannot decide whenever choose one or another for a certain task. I watched the charts and I understood extensions are unmounted in the Copy Mode, for memory purposes...

(In a example, I already removed some apps that came as extension, like web browsers, pidgin, or dropbear and have them as SCM's. This result in a much faster boot and I still can run them by bootlocal.sh if I need to)


Could you guys provide some examples of what extensions do you usually load in every case? I want to be sure it's not only for compatiblity issues...


Oh btw,  I also wanted to ask what's the point of having an app repeated both as .tcz and .scm at the repos, other than "it wasn't ported yet". 



Thx a lot,  I really enjoy this distro.

Rich:
Hi pioj
It all comes down to trade offs. Mount mode will boot faster and leave more free RAM available. Copy mode will
execute faster, but you will pay for it in boot time. Executing a mounted app will incur a slight speed penalty since
it needs to be read from disk as opposed to reading it from RAM (Copy mode). The memory management in Linux
may serve as an equalizer if you run the app multiple times, since it may be cached in RAM after the first run.

Since SCMs are self contained, they are not prone to breakage due to a dependency update. They load faster
due to fewer links being created and can be unmounted if desired. The price you pay is more RAM is required.
TCZs are essentially the opposite.

I personally use only TCZs mounted Onboot.

tinypoodle:

--- Quote from: Rich on January 31, 2013, 10:30:26 AM ---Copy mode will execute faster
--- End quote ---
Probably not so in certain cases where the increased storage requirements of copy mode would become reason for swapping.

My estimation is that with many setups Default Mode might be fastest overall, combining the speed of tmpfs with the reduced storage requirements of squashfs.

pioj:
I don't think Default(Cloud) Mode is the way to go unless you don't need any driver or library to be preloaded. And it would come with the price of having a very fast connection to the .tcz server. Maybe having them in a LAN or a second partition would help, but then there's no point in having this, being the same as using Mount Mode...

Booting time is the priority here, so I'll bet on Mount Mode anyways. I'll have plenty of RAM, as I don't need that much for a couple of drivers and few system apps like nano or svn. All depends of the appliances I'll want to have.


I'd wish to know more about linux and how to bring more SCM apps :(


At the moment, my Syslinux initialize is about 2-3 secs before it loads the kernel... Did anyone try booting with u-boot or LILO?

tinypoodle:

--- Quote from: pioj on January 31, 2013, 04:31:11 PM ---Maybe having them in a LAN or a second partition would help, but then there's no point in having this, being the same as using Mount Mode...
--- End quote ---
Not the same at all, having the speed and energy saving benefits of extensions loaded in tmpfs, but with less storage requirements compared to Copy Mode.

And just in case, lilo is in repo.

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