Tiny Core 5.0 Alpha 3 Testing

[nick65go]

just fireup Tiny Core 5.0 Alpha 3 Testing in qemu, and it says "Booting Core 5.0.alpha2" 

[Juanito]

Thanks - it'll be fixed at some point..

[LinuxUser01]

Does anyone know the location of the 5.x repo, i would like to test this new Xorg-7.7, thanks.

[Rich]

Hi LinuxUser01
Check here:
http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/x86/tcz/

[Juanito]

If you have an internet connection on your tce-5.x test machine, it would be easier to use the apps gui or "tce-load -iw Xorg-7.7".

[LinuxUser01]

I do have internet connection, but i just can't find Xorg-7.7 in the repo. The link that was given to me by Rich just displays text and there isn't really an option to download anything, but it does show Xorg-7.7 in there. I've actually went through most of the mirror's and just can't find Xorg-7.7.

[Juanito]

If you have an Internet connection, I recommend to boot your machine in tc-5.x and use the apps gui or command line to download and load the Xorg-7.7 extension.

The Xorg-7.7 extension has many deps and it will be painful to download manually.

As I test, I booted tc-5.x from a usb stick yesterday with the "text" boot code, downloaded Xorg-7.7 using "tce-load -w Xorg-7.7" and everything worked fine first time.

[Juanito]

xorg-server extension updated to cure problem with fixed fonts

Use the apps gui "check for updates" function to download the corrected version

[nick65go]

I have run Tiny Core 5.0 Alpha 3, and in dmesg is
"Linux version 3.8.10-tinycore (tc@box) (gcc version 4.6.1 (GCC) ) #3810 SMP Tue Apr 30 15:45:26 UTC 2013"
It runs OK, but I hoped for gcc 4.7.2 as is in gcc.tcz, to rebuild the core itself with the same up to date tools as in compiletc.tcz

[Rich]

Hi nick65go
Somebody else brought that up a year or two ago. As I recall, the answer given was that the current version of Tinycore
including its toolchain is used to compile the kernel for the next version of Tinycore. There was more to that answer
about not wanting to have to recompile the kernel a second time though I don't recall the details.

[nick65go]

Hi Rich,
I understand your answer, and I realy don't have a problem with the actual development method.
I just wondered, why not use lets say gcc 4.8.1 ? For example my kernel is Linux version 3.9.7-1-ARCH (tobias@T-POWA-LX) (gcc version 4.8.1 (GCC) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jun 20 22:45:32 CEST 2013, x86_64 GNU/Linux. Is an archlinux unchanged kernel. So the gcc 4.8 is tested to work OK by a wide community.

The idea is the same like in "Aboriginal Linux" to have a self hosting linux (using just kernel, libc and busybox etc).
So, first to have the gcc [cross?]compiler, then we compile the kernel, just once.
Lets take the worst scenario, that the kernel compilation will fail, very unlikely because any vanila kernel JUST compile, otherwise the kernel developers can go make sepuke themself On my Core2Duo with 2 Mb RAM, a 5 years old notebook, the full tinycore kernel will compile in less than 20 minutes.

So do we discuss about 20 minutes eventual waste time in a full core life circle of maybe one year?
Anyway I can live with this, I just like tinycore concepts, but many times I wish to rebuild things.

Keep the good work, and sorry for my noise.

[Juanito]

Xorg-7.7 users should note that the only new video drivers are:

xf86-video-fbdev
xf86-video-intel
xf86-video-nouveau
xf86-video-vesa

The other video drivers are from the Xorg-7.6 build and may or may not work.

Updated video extensions would be welcomed or, if somebody is stuck, I can look at compiling one or two.

[tinypoodle]

I just wondered, why not use lets say gcc 4.8.1 ? For example my kernel is Linux version 3.9.7-1-ARCH (tobias@T-POWA-LX) (gcc version 4.8.1 (GCC) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jun 20 22:45:32 CEST 2013, x86_64 GNU/Linux. Is an archlinux unchanged kernel. So the gcc 4.8 is tested to work OK by a wide community.

Arch has rather a reputation of rolling release bleeding edge, and therefore not a good reference to what is well tested.

Slackware 14.0 (stable release) is currently at gcc-4.7.1, while Debian stable is at gcc-4.7.2-5.

[bmarkus]

Do not miss Redhat which is the de facto industrial standard Linux and CentOS. They are on GCC 4.4.7

[Juanito]

l3afpad built as a test for Xorg-7.7-dev and gtk3 (which needs libxcb, now a dep of libX11).

'Seems to work, so those who were waiting on Xorg-7.7-dev and/or libpng-dev to recompile tc-4.x extensions can now go ahead.