Hi, All.
I'm starting a new thread because I had to break off from the previous one. I finally have a breather from non-computer issues and hope to make some headway with my TCL installation, with a little help from the kind and generous people in this forum.
My current situation is this:
- I used my Puppy Linux pendrive to dd the CorePlus-5.1 iso to a FAT32-formatted 1g pendrive.
- I was told here in the forum to re-install to another pendrive using the CorePlus Installer app, so first I formatted an empty 8g pendrive with two ext2 partitions, one primary bootable 3g partition and the other a non-booting primary 5g partition.
- After booting the 1g pendrive with the CorePlus iso on it, I ran the Installer app and installed to the 3g partition on the 8g pendrive. I had some problems with this (see below).
- I am able to boot the 8g pendrive, and the wi-fi app on wbar connects okay to a nearby wi-fi (unprotected).
- Because there was no file manager in the installation (contrary to what it says in the online installation guide), I ran the Apps app and downloaded and installed fluff.tcz. I don't know if I did this correctly because I don't understand the choices in the Apps app, but fluff works and even put an icon on wbar.
- Using fluff, I spent a couple of days roaming around and now have a general idea of the TCL file system and where certain things are kept, although I must admit that I find the file system rather confusing (I'm sure it all has a purpose).
That's as far as I got. I don't want to go any further because I'm not sure I installed Core properly. So that's the first thing I need help with. I've read "Core Concepts" and the installation guides several times, and they just aren't much help. Sorry, but it's the truth. The info in them is written for someone who already knows how Core works. Anyone else can't understand it. At least I couldn't. And since it's about installation it makes even less sense, because if you haven't installed Core yet then you obviously don't know how it works. Ditto for the images and video of the Installer procedure.
I don't say these unpleasant things from any enjoyment of being downbeat, please believe me. Far from it. But maybe the truth will bring some positive change. People like me who are new to TCL need real help, not confusing info that only people who already use TCL can understand. Again, I apologize for having to say this.
On to my specific installation problems, which in great part have to do with the Installer.
After typing in the path to core.gz, the Installer gave me three options: Frugal, USB-HDD, and USB-ZIP. None of these is an obvious choice for installing to a pendrive: I don't really know what the Frugal installation of Core is like, and I'm not installing to either a usb hard drive or a usb zip drive. (If USB-ZIP means a Zip drive that connects to a usb socket, then USB-HDD means a hard drive that connects to a usb socket. If, on the other hand, USB-HDD is intended to mean a usb pendrive or a hard drive, then it should say USB,HDD or USB/HDD, not USB-HDD, which is confusing.)
However, in my case it turned out that I had no choice. I was forced to choose Frugal because the only other reasonable choice, USB-HDD, doesn't permit selecting a partition, and I was installing to a partition, not the "Whole Disk". (Can anyone tell me why the Installer won't permit installing to a partition on a pendrive or a hard drive if you choose USB-HDD?)
Onward. After ticking "Frugal" and "Existing Partition" and selecting sdc1, I went to the next page, the formatting page. I chose "No Formatting, Use Existing" since I had already formatted my pendrive partitions ext2. Was I right to do this? Maybe.
The next page of the Installer, the Boot Options page, is particularly frustrating for someone like me who has never used Core and is installing it for the first time. Options like tce=, restore=, home=, opt=, local=, mydata=, and safebackup are meaningless to such a person. And if they can all be added or removed later, as I suspect is the case, why doesn't it just say so on this page of the Installer so we can skip it and get on with the installation process, without having to double-guess a list of confusing boot options? Again, I am not making criticisms because I like to be critical but because these are real problems with using the Installer for the first time.
In any case, I slugged in a few of the boot codes (like tce=sdb1, home=sdb1, and restore=sdb1) without knowing what I was doing, just for the heck of it.
On the next page of the Installer I checked "Wireless Support" and "Firmware" because I knew I would need these. I also checked "Non-US keyboard support" because sometimes I write in Spanish or French.
Finally, I clicked to proceed and got some kind of installation.
What next? Should I do it over again, if some kind person here in the forum will explain to me what I did wrong in the Installer and how to do it right? OTOH, should I keep the installation and try to modify it and use it, as I've already started to do by installing fluff? Or should I abandon CorePlus, as some have told me to do, and try to install Core and just the wi-fi extension and its dependencies?
If you think my installation is okay, what do I need to do to get it to work right? For example, I don't understand the difference between On-demand and Optional. Or how to use the Backup choices at shutdown. Or how to use the various choices when downloading extensions (even though I already downloaded one and it seems to work). I'd also like to know the purpose of the // folder (apparently a level below /root). And if there's any reason why I can't put my own files in the /tce/ folder, which is automatically saved, rather than go through a backup procedure when I shut down or set up some other kind of persistence. I know all these questions have been answered many times, but I can't make sense of what I've found to read about them.
In order to provide more information on my installation to someone willing to help me, I've taken a look in the pendrive where I installed Core, using Puppy. The Puppy desktop shows drive partitions sdc1 and sdc2, formatted ext2, with sdc1 as the boot partition (all OK there).
The sdc1 partition has four items in it:
- lost+found folder.
- tce folder.
- 3527-byte mydatabk.tgz file.
- 3527-byte mydata.tgz file.
The tce folder contains:
- "boot" folder containing extlinux, core.gz, and vmlinuz.
- empty "ondemand" folder.
- "optional" folder containing 174 files (tcz's, dep's, and checksums).
- empty file named "firstrun".
- file named "onboot.list" containing 79 lines (tcz's and checksums).
- empty file named "xwbar.lst".
- 3075-byte mydatabk.tgz file.
- 3524-byte mydata.tgz file.
- broken symlink to /tmp/tce.
Does this all look right? (Duplication of the mydatabk.tgz and mydata.tgz files on different levels and of different sizes? All the apps in the "optional" folder and an empty "ondemand" folder? "xwbar.lst" empty? etc.)
I am hoping, of course, that this installation is okay and that I can work with it. But I will re-install if you knowledgable people here in the forum tell me to do so.
Cheers, and thanks in advance for your help.
Mike
Welcome
FAQ
Downloads
Wiki
